Guess I'm joining the trend of using toned paper! I very much enjoyed using it... even though I was kicking myself for over-working the leg, as well as thinning down the model's loose arm so much that it looks like a macaroni noodle, but that's why we do these things right?... Live and learn. Also got some new FW inks so I was just playing around with 'em... this very sketchy unicorn is the first thing I did (other than some color squares) and the colors are from different mixes of indigo and scarlet ink. The best way apparently is not to mix them first but to use light layers to achieve the colors desired (they seem to look fairly different when wet from dry.)
Lifedrawing and new FW inks
jester hats
I've been working on a jester hat logo and here are some iterations of one version of it:
Fanart and Sketches
Finished sketch of Emmett from Twilight (non-movie version). No snickers please.
From sketchbook, scanned and toned in ps. Playing around with different proportions...slightly exaggerating head for fairy possibilities.
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. :-)
H is for Hygeia
I got some great shots of a friends little girl during a photo shoot. This one in particular I wanted to turn into something mythological based. I was thinking snakes or octopus. So I came up with a little Hygeia. She was a goddess of health and healing....hense the term hygene. She is always pictured with a snake signifying healing and medicine. Anyway, it was fun.
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. :-)
Last week's Lifedrawing, plus a Photoshop layer
I couldn't get the effect I was looking for at the studio last week, so I came home and twiddled with it in PS just by adding a layer and erasing some highlighted areas (which I'm embarrassed to admit I'd never even THOUGHT of doing until Dan DosSantos did it in his presentation at IMC. I felt like a nitwit, because it seems so obvious now, and is also something I can do with a mouse-- at least to experiment with compositions-- until I get my tablet working again.) I like it better but still, not my favorite thing ever. I had trouble getting that left leg (the one she's holding) to come forward instead of being amorphously joined to her torso. Sharper highlights on the kneecap may have helped there. Oh well, "better next time."
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!
To anyone interested in buying the much revered cachet kraft paper sketchbooks:
I just bought an 8.5" x 11" hardbound, 80 sheet one for $12.95 at WAL*MART.
It must be a new item because I have never seen it there before.
So when you pickup your motor oil, big-screen tv and a gallon of Sunny D, stop by the crafts department and take a look-see.
--Madeline
In Progress
Temple in the cliffs
This is a rough pen and ink drawing that I liked the concept of and started playing around with its colors in Photoshop.
Yes, I know the cliffs look like clouds. I don't have a tablet, just a laptop mousey-pad, so Photoshop is always an exercise in frustration for me... I think I will invest in a tablet soon as it seems very useful. :)
I was thinking of eventually painting this in some traditional medium as a portfolio piece, but I don't know if it would be too simplistic and boring just as a peaceful landscape... I mean, surely there should at least be a dragon twined about one of those roofs, right?... so I'd like to know any opinions or suggestions you all might have to either add interest or make it a stronger piece. Thanks! -Abby
Boat Art
-Sheila