The Fly….Finished!!

I think I was at this point where I left off from the last Fly post.  It was now time to bring in water turbulence!!



I received some good tips about showing some water movement.  But it really didn’t come together for me until I added the water droplets.  Had to build up more skin tone.  (Both picture colors aren’t quite accurate).

What was driving me crazy was the shadow on the right arm as seen in the right photograph (I erased it twice because I preferred not to show it).  Since the cap and the face had shadows, it just made sense to continue that perspective.



The original picture taken pre-digital. 



Cropped the image in pretty tight to sketch.  I wanted the drawing to be about the person not about the water.



Started this back in December.  Finally finished.  Still lots to learn about water though.

A mind is a terrible thing to waste!

Being a child of the 70’s I remember this commercial about Education.  It was powerful and persuasive.  “A mind is a terrible thing to waste”.



After spending some time with a young teenage friend who has not been well cared for from the people who should.  I came away one day from our weekly visit with “ A heart is a terrible thing to waste” resonating in my head.  More so than a mind…if you ask me.



Came across the “ABC’s of Life” word list somewhere so added those to the background.



Had to add some color….somewhere!  Haha



Not great lighting…sorry.



Simple and to-the-point……but seriously, what does Xeriscape really have to do with living a better life?



Then I came across this page that I had done awhile back too.  Interesting fonts, I’ll give it that .  
This is about as good as my art journaling gets, granted if I had added color I’d like it more.

Crazy Eight

Well….if I had my act together I would’ve posted this on Monday and then I could’ve called it “Mushy Monday”….but I was busy.



I morphed two pictures together for this one.  This is my mom’s side of the family and well….I have a crazy Aunt. 



Maybe she’s not the the only crazy one.  I think we all get a little “touched” when we are together.



I needed to do something different than the goofy pose drawings I’ve done before.

• Wacky Wednesday
• Theatrical Thursday
• Freaky Friday

I haven’t done any stripes yet and well….I’ve always been a big fan of stripes.



My kid sister in the background got an afro because well….I had a lot of white space to fill.  I think she wears it well.  Not too sure if I like the mouths here without lips.  It looks a little Munster-like.

Many More Mandelas

Sometimes the beginnings are quite boring!



But….just keep adding color! Use the colors you like. 



I tried to keep each circle around the same size.



Circles…..so many combinations!



To spotlight the mandelas…..I removed the color from the rest of the picture.



I like the imperfections….the lines aren’t so straight.  Unevenly spaced, lopsided, original.  However, when I get the chance….I’m going to digitize one of these mandela pages (also Circle or Mania) and …..re-color & re-arrange! 



Yea….even though I adore colored pencils, my first love…is…the…marker!

The Fly….Redundant

This post is redundant…because the pictures aren’t going to be that different.  No Big Time changes going on….all little tweaks!! 



Trying to maintain water consistency as seen in the background.  Increased shading to the cap and the face.



Lane line time.  Totally ad-libed this.  Only after I started to color it in on top of the watercolor base did I notice I didn’t give the lane lines much perspective.  As in…..the alternating colors getting closer as they go into the distance.  Ugh!



Lots of shadows on the arms in the photograph. 



Toned down the right arm here….bringing in said shadows.  Not sure if I like it….I think the camera and lighting isn’t showing the drawing accurately.  Built up a lot of the water background.  Need to show some choppiness…..don’t know how yet!

The Fly….Resumes

Well….it’s about time that I resumed my work on this.  I tell ya….that Hand Jeans drawing took a lot out of me.  I was totally engrossed in it…..then after it was done I felt like a lost puppy.  Good thing my husband got me hooked on a Net Flix series, a welcome relief.



Since I was the type of kid that ate my mashed potatoes first, then my meat, then my fruit, etc  I’ve carried that over into my drawing.  It was time to compartmentalize the water reflection.



So glad I blocked that reflective area out with rubber cement.  I removed the cement and started to work the skin-tone colors in horizontally.  Line after line.  It took me awhile to see what I should do.  It wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be.  Had to shrink that white area down a lot.



My calm water is much darker than the picture, but it was the only way I knew to enhance the reflection.



The tricky part for me is…..to not just “shadow” the figures background.  You know how shadows appear behind someone when there is a wall.  Well, that won’t fly with this, I’ve got to match the left water colors with the right. 

Hand Jeans….seven

So….I brought the drawing outside thinking I could spot where I need to focus.



Then, I was told…. “just work on it upside-down”.  Amazing how this view helps.  We don’t assume so much when working this way.



Time to work on the nails.  Not as hard as I thought it was going to be…..just kept things in the same skin tone.



There are wrinkles in the wrist…which I have not duplicated well here.  The thing so challenging about hands is…not only do we have to show the veins but the tendons too.



Since I’m mostly done….I outlined with my very fine marker.



I’m so ready to get this off my plate.  Yes…it was a challenge….Yes…I enjoyed it…but after looking at this for thirty days….I stopped seeing it’s uniqueness.  I also became very aware of what I couldn’t change…couldn’t replicate well.