Finished out my old one, so got to start in my tiny, new Moleskine this weekend. Christened it with a view of the informal concert we watched my daughter play in downtown at Seattle's Winterfest celebration.
I also listened to this weekend's Conceptart.org's live streaming class on sketchbooks. Lots of great examples of famous artists sketching (and not the beautiful, elegantly composed and finished 'sketches' that many artists sell now as sketchbooks). Plus a number of good ideas on sketchbook exercises and subjects. A worthwhile way to spend the afternoon.
Must.Keep.Drawing....
Showing posts with label Tara Larsen Chang. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tara Larsen Chang. Show all posts
New Moleskine -
Happy Chicken -er, Turkey Day!
("Fancy Chicken" - a Yokohama Red Shoulder Cockerel to be exact. For "The Wind Dancers", published by Feiwel & Friends).Happy Thanksgiving - my artsy-drawing friends. Thanks for your talent and your input and for enriching my life the last couple of years.
Christmas Promo - Finish
While you all were off galavanting at IlluxCon, I was home. Painting. Got this finished at any rate...Life Drawing -
"Draped figure" day at life drawing this morning -
We did a series of short poses of our long-necked, leggy model. I decided to mostly ignore the faces/hands/anatomy and focus on the drapery and folds. To see how much I could get laid in in the various scant 20 minute poses. Also tried out different densities of charcoal pencils, from hard to soft - which means I can either have more control or more value...
Made good use of "The Virgin Queen" soundtrack for background accompaniment.
Christmas Promo - WIP
This is the final drawing for my Christmas promo requested by my agents. Their theme this year is 'Caroling'. It is sadly lacking in dragons, but for the children's market it should do fine. :-)
The simpler and more decorative the piece, the harder I find it to make *the right* color choices. Since I paint these in watercolor, I must know before I begin what colors are going where, with few options to change after the fact beyond a bit a glazing. I'm tending towards the lower right, but don't really like the cool background. However warm (ochre? cream?) might be too much warm?
Thoughts?
More "oatmeal" sketching -
Here is an uncharacteristic "monster" design by Alphonse Mucha - for Halloween. Need softer/darker pencils. Don't think I want to draw on white paper ever again. :-)
More sketchbook fun -
Head study after Edward Burne-Jones.[Graphite and white charcoal on toned paper]
Nifty new sketchbook!
After seeing some of the examples of drawing on toned paper by Mike and Jennifer, I acquired a Utrecht 11x14 'oatmeal' paged sketchbook.
Practiced on copying some Master drawings at the retreat last weekend. This one after Hans Holbein (who drew fascinatingly 'real' looking figures from the court of King Henry VIII. Most of them somewhat homely and decidedly *not* idealized). Great fun.
Sunday Sketching -
Only a couple more pages left in this tiny purse Moleskine....(Maybe for Halloween, I'll draw their skeletal structures instead? Just like Steve over on Drawn Today. :-)
Play!
I just returned from our annual fall illustrator's retreat weekend. Lots of art happened - including drawing in my nifty-new, large toned sketchbook (I'll post some of those soon).
One of the 'fun' projects we dabbled in was intaglio printing on plexiglass plates. Here was my initial tiny practice plate and a few of experimental prints I pulled. Incredibly fun. Want to do more!
Sketching in the Dark...
Me and my tiny purse-Moleskine go everywhere together... Last night it was to the theater. The play was cute, but not gripping so I felt free to sketch some of the fun costumes and sets and profiles. Made even more exciting by the fact that I couldn't really see what I was drawing.
You can see more location sketching in my latest blog entry.
Sunday Sketching -
Tried to push the stylizing a bit. (there were kids sitting behind me watching. They didn't think I captured the essence of the people I was drawing at all... Needs work apparently).
Life Drawing -
- has started up again for me for the season the first three Fridays each month. Results (successful, or not so much) will be posted on my blog....Book Signing -
Tonight I got to attend a book event/reading/signing for the last of the Spiderwick Chronicles, by Holly Black and illustrated by Tony DiTerlizzi (both heroes of mine)-
-sketched them in the semi-darkness of the audience... Love trying to draw moving targets...
(but if you think trying to draw in public places is tricky, try drawing live, in front of an audience full of fans like Tony did - several times over!)Sunday Sketching -
My teeny purse Moleskine (it's one of the 3.5x5.5 ones) is starting to look worn. I'm more than three-quarters of the way through it, so it ought to survive til its remaining pages are filled.
I continue to feel vaguely guilty for only doing some sort of drawing-from-life only once or twice a week, so am grateful for the impetus to do some sort of sketching more often! Thanks again Madeline.... (you can see more Sunday sketches on my blog).