Growing Pains….Stalling

I have neglected to tell you where I got found this drawing inspiration.  It is found here.





I wanted to bring the bench into the drawing.  It was easy enough, since shading is shading and straight lines are straight lines.  Made me happy!





Fini!  Kinda feels like it’s missing something….yea, the horse cuz this reminds me of the headless horseman. But I was no where near drawing horses yet….so this worked!





Brought my watercolor pencil set to my art class.  To see what I can do with them in a “figure drawing” sort of way.   The look is so much different.  The instructor said she liked the color palette better with these than with what I had done in colored pencils alone.  I had to agree…but I had to stick up for those colored pencils too.  I said “but to get it more 3D, the 3D look is only accomplished with the colored pencils, the watercolors will always look more unreal.”  She, of course, begged to differ!  And informed me… that with time, I could make watercolor pencils look 3D…..now this I gotta learn!





Went shopping online the other day at Dick Blick.  I was happy they had such a good selection of the super fine nibbed (005) Microns in different colors.  Grabbed each color they offered in 005.


Do any of you work in Watercolor pencils?  Any tips?

Growing Pains….Subsiding

Well, because I don’t know any better.  I’ve gone in and applied “marker” (Ohhh….Nooo) to the pink legs to help even out my edges. 





And I even used marker for the paisley pattern in the bandana (Ohhh….Nooo). Since I’m all about product, I really don’t care if that’s allowed or not.  I just want to replicate what I see….I’m not entering any contests. Whew!





And I probably did the “unthinkable” on the girls white shirt. I used graphite pencils (Ohhh….Nooo)…!!  I even went in with my darker graphite pencil and worked some of those shadows.  I like it better this way! 
Still a few more things to do: 

• hands
• smooth out the Mary Jane shoes
• buttons
• bench in background
• miscellaneous details

This is really getting fun!

Growing Pains….in the legs

I went in and un-wonky-sized that right knee.  Then I started on the child’s tights.  I think I got a little overly ambitious on that left leg and was able to calm down my sketching on the right one.  (She’ll probably turn out as a half-decent…half-monster child when I finish….it’s taking me awhile to get used to these pencils).



Didn’t spend a whole lot of time contouring her in.  (I may regret that!)



Had to pull the image in thru my ipad to see things a little more clearly.



I just couldn’t help it!!  I had to go in and even out those colored edges around the pink tights, skirt and shoes.  I used my orange, gray, and red microns (01). I’m going to be needing all the colors made of the Sakura Micron 01’s if I’m to continue with colored pencils.  Another excuse to hit the Art Store!! Oh Yea!

Growing Pains….colored pencils

I showed up to my Art Class with my meager set of 12 colored pencils.  Then the instructor took out her classroom stock of pencils.  She really liked these Woodless Colour Pencils……so I tried them.





I was told that drawing with colored pencils is all about layering different colors. One on top of the other.  She said put down a base color softly, then go in and start adding colors.





I used pinks, purples, blues, oranges and reds.  To shade in colored pencil work we have to work according to the color wheel.  Opposites on the color wheel make gray.  I’m not supposed to go grab a gray, I’m supposed to use opposing colors…Otherwise, like with painting…I’d muddy it all up!  Joy!





I said to my teacher…. “so I just have to be real sloppy with my drawings until I start to see the different colors”…she said…”you may want to sketch a lemon”….I thought, “if you make me sketch lemons, you’ve lost me and I won’t sketch anything at all”….





It took me a little while to work thru my growing pains….I was tentative, light with my colors…..then I started to see what they were talking about with overlaying different colors on top of one another to bring in light and shape…..It was getting fun!!  Hey, when you get to work with color how can that not be fun?





That right knee is still kind of wonky….Have to play around with it in a sideways view, I think.

Vitruvian Man….Modified

I was asked “what are all those hexagon’s for?”….Well, it was play time.



Since I was just practicing contouring and make-believe shading, I might as well bring in my beloved colors and doodle a bit!



Ok, I’m not an architect…so not quite sure how my little hexagon’s got out of whack, but what can I say?  I’ve heard the Amish purposely place a mistake in their quilting because the only perfect one is God.  Works for me !!

Vitruvian Man….materializes

Yea, Yea, I know…. I said I wasn’t going to sketch this guy…but I changed my mind.  He kind of wanted to be sketched.



Had to pretty much make up the details as I went along.  Legs aren’t so hard for me, probably because these legs look so very familiar… (my dear husbands)



Yea, Yea,  I know…. I also said I wasn’t going to sketch a “Man In Tights” back while I was sketching this drawing.  But, I had to put him in tights! I couldn’t figure it out any other way.



Poor guy, I’m thinking I should not have omitted the duplicate arms and legs from the original drawing.  Cuz this guy looks like he’s being crucified!  Yikes!

Vitruvian Man…manifests

So…I got to thinking….that if I really want to continue with figure drawing, that I really should take on the opposite sex.  I remembered this da Vinci sketch, drawn almost 500 yrs ago.  And I thought….ok….why not….not much hair, a definite plus!



Drew out the contour first….like usual.  If I could I would’ve showed you my first attempt here…..he had gorilla proportions….seriously!  (I didn’t have to erase the legs but my, did I do a number on his shoulders!)



I’d prefer to go in and sketch this…but what is there to sketch?  It’s a line drawing.  Ugh!  So, I am now thinking I’ll go in and whimsey-size it.

Inspiration Outing

Went to the International Quilt Festival this past weekend with a friend.  Had a blast!  All this textile talent under one roof gets me so inspired.  The collage picture above was just a few of the pieces exhibited.  They restricted our photography in some areas.  Shoot!!

I’m from a family of quilters….well… some quilt and some just appreciate the art.  It’s been a part of my life since before I got married.  I’ve witnessed a huge growth of this textile art in the last couple of decades.  When I was in my early twenties, living on my own in Houston I went to my first Quilt Show.  None of my friends were into this sort of thing, so I went solo.  Other than the children accompanied by parents I was probably the youngest one there.  Hours later I walked out, with my head in the clouds.  That week I signed up for my first quilting class.  I made a grandmothers fan by hand.  Funny too, it was my grandmother that quilted it for me.  I really don’t like the quilting part.  I like the the designing part (The top).  I’ve made a handful of other quilts since then that I’m pretty proud of.  Mostly proud because I FINISHED THEM. 



Above are some quilts I’ve done in the last 10 years.  I started out with scrap quilts.  Made five, and gave three away plus one for my daughter that’s still in my stash.  Then a series of applique quilts (made 6 gave 4 away).  I tried some wall hanging landscape pieces (made 5 gave 4 away) done in layers.  What really honed my rotary cutting skills are the last 4 quilts done in squares (kept only one).  All of these are very simple…simple…simple.  Someday I will expand on my quilting……when I have more time! 



I made a few fabric names too!  They were fun to make and didn’t consume too much time.

I think one thing that has helped me in my drawing since I have worked with quilting.   Is color selection!  Trust me, if there were color errors to be made….I probably made them.  The errors tended to be on the “too loud” fabric side, next to another piece that was just as vibrant.  What I have since learned is that Color…. bold colors have got to be balanced with neutrals.

This quilt show was a wonderful inspiration outing!!  Or Artist’s Date!  You just never know what will inspire you and it’s always good to see different forms of art….if ya ask me.

Where do you find additional inspiration for your art? 

Stopping and Asking for Directions….

I’m so glad I’m not a man, because they will rarely stop and ask for directions!  Just kidding. 

But this is exactly what I did.  I finally signed up for a “real life” art class, with a real life teacher.  And she is amazing!  Most of the students there were into painting and they were doing some amazing work. The other two, first time students today, were poised to paint pears.  Well, I just don’t see myself as a pear-painting-patron. It was a good thing that they encouraged us to bring whatever we wanted and the instructor will help us with it.  So, I’ll give you three guesses as to what I needed help with….



Bingo! Yaht-see!  That’s right… FACES!  And what wonderful tips she gave me. She told me that children’s faces are soft and smooth, that I had made my wave-swimmer’s face too angular…too defined.  I just needed to go in and soften her face up.  Done by evening out the contrasts, the shading.



I am so excited!  I was amazed at how simple her explanation of my problem was.  I needed to hear her tell me how to fix it, cuz I couldn’t fix it on my own.  I had already applied some permanent lines (remember the out-ling pop I like)….luckily I was able to work around those marks.



Bye for now!!…she’s still not done.

Left vs. Right

I came across this amazing picture from Mercedes Benz advertising last month. 



Which inspired me to redo my right brain versus left brain post.  Which includes some really good links about this sort of thing.



I drew two ladies. 



I mirrored this picture that I spotted on pinterest, for the structure.



Tried my hand at a different style of contour drawing.



Then I wrote out a bunch of adjectives for each brain type.  I’d never get anything done if I shunned all of the above characteristics.



I’d bore myself to tears if I didn’t relate to some of these traits either.



The fun part was coloring in each hat.



It’s pretty obvious what brain is dominant on this woman.



Brain Myth #2: A person's personality displays a right-brain or left-brain dominance.
Fact: The two sides are intricately co-dependent.   (from this article)



You really can’t tell from the outside how people think. Possibly we pick up clues by their behavior and aptitudes. I always think it’s important to pay attention to what people tell you about themselves.



I took this little brain dominance (teen) quiz and I was surprised that I came out Right Brain Dominant.  Many questions I could have answered both ways.

And just think we didn’t even factor in introversion or extroversion to the equation.  So many variables, so many choices.  Is it nature?  Is it nurture?  Free-will?  You decide.

I Dance because….

This is my inspiration picture for this drawing.



Contour drew the dancer in…..and listened to how she wanted to be drawn.  I’d already decided she wasn’t going to be sketched.

 

I wanted to draw flowers like Alisa Burke, (all free-handed).  I almost did them all that way.



My idea was to make the figure BOLD (using markers) and the background soft (using watercolor pencils).



It took a lot of restraint to keep those background flowers all light in color. I would’ve rather they were more vibrant….but the point of the picture would’ve been lost.



This was fun!  Still in my whimsey- color- mode.   May just stay this way for awhile.