The Self-Hug

This lady is all mine, my own creation and I think she turned out nice. Drawing is really helping my sculpting symmetry.

Experimenting with Color

Mostly I’m learning you don’t mix pencil with colored pencil, but I liked how the drawings themselves turned out.

Mermaid and Babe

I love this one–what a tender scene!

Re-do of the Tink-like Fae

Okay, so she didn’t turn out so great in the 15-20 minutes I spent on her–so I gave her another block of time. I think she looks much better.

And then that mooncard...

deserves a place of its own.

Colored Pencil Practice

Here’s sun card I did based on a picture I saw. It’s actually quite small–under 2 1/2 inches.

The Tink-like Fae

This drawing was a quickie–15 or 20 minutes at the most. I wondered where I was at. Definitely needs some work, but at least it’s getting closer. Again, this was without any photo reference. The legs need work on weight and positioning. But the proportion is good, and had I used a reference, and then taken time for detail, I think it would have turned out nice. I ordered some books on fairy drawing from amazon. They should be fun, too.

More Sunday Doodles

This one is a funny picture. I did the moonface a few days ago, when I got the colored pencils. I thought I’d use the extra space to draw an eye, so I did. But then I thought I might as well practice the rest of the face. It turned out nice I thought. I was doing it all freehand from my head. If I’d known I could do a decent face that way, I’d have started on a blank page. Oh well. At least now I know. The real test will be learning to do BOTH eyes. And not let that asymmetry get me again.

Sunday Doodles

I had some meetings to attend, so I brought my drawing pad along. I figure the main thing standing between the skills I have now and the artist I’d like to be is practice. So here we have some results. First, I found a neat site–fairychildren.com and it had some pictures I could download and color. First, I decided to do a freehand drawing based on a picture I found there. If you click on it, you’ll see a bigger photo.

And then here is a picture with the smaller version I took my ideas from.

Neat New Tool

I love the library. I found some great books–I’ll list my favorites later. The coolest thing I’ve found so far is this blending pencil.

The lead is clear and blends the colors together nicely. So far I’m learning colored pencil is alot about coloring evenly layer after layer. I get impatient, so the blender has been really nice. Though, I am having fun learning how to shade better, and I LOVE the color. It’s so fun.

My Foray into Colored Pencil

I was at a friend’s house a while back and noticed a drawing she’d done in colored pencil. “You can do colored pencil?” I asked in amazement–colored pencil always seemed so mysterious to me. She told me it was easy. I’ve been wanting to try it ever since. So, the other night, with my trusty 40% off coupon, I picked up a set of 48 for under $40. I LOVE THEM!!

Aren’t they just so pretty? I stayed up and watched Smallville with the husband and sharpened the whole set. My 5 year old was very impressed with that– “You sharpened ALL of them?” He’s just stared kindergarten and entered the tedious world of pencil sharpening. “Yup, all by hand, too.” He was very impressed. Now, off to the library for more books so I know what the heck to do with these pretty pencils.

Joshua

Josh just got his school pictures taken, and I was in the mood to try out the skills I’ve learned from the new book. Here he is:

Well, not bad for a first time portrait of a real person I know. I need to work on symmetry still. That seems to be the story of my life. =)

An Art Journal

In my journey of discovery of being an artist, I want to record the process as it occurs. At this point, I have now sculpted for about 3 years, and I want to improve my artisitic abilities. Drawing seems the most typical form of art, and it’s always been what I saw as a weakness–though really, it was my only previous indication of any artistic talent at all. But I’ve never liked my drawings because they never looked as I intended. Also, it’s all about illusion. I suppose that’s why I took to sculpting so readily–actual 3-D work. It was great! But now, I feel more like a real artist, and in my mind, and artist can draw. So here I go, off to learn this elusive art as well as keep you posted on what I'm up to sculpturally as well.