Walk On….ballerina style

I was wanting to color-sketch big and when I came across this ballerina “done with practice for the day”, I thought she’d be the perfect candidate. 



Did the watercolor wash first.  Then started in on the slippers…you know the easy stuff!



If you’ve been following me on instagram then this scene won’t be so new to you.



This will give you a perspective as to the size.  30 x 40 inches.  It’s the same brand of illustration board as I used for the Horse.  But I’m having much trouble with the paper.  It seems to not like the watercolor so much.  It’s bumping up on me and it’s flaking off.  I don’t remember that being an issue with the horse! Ugh! 



Stayed with watercolor and w/c pencils as long as humanly possible!  But, the board seems happier when I use colored pencils.



Onto the hands….I seem to “get” the hands when I do them in watercolor.  Watercolor is so pliable, it just adapts better to all those cracks and crevices.



This back is going to be fun!  One minute it’s watercolor time the next it’s colored pencil time.  But they seem to work well with each other….so I’m happy!




The w/c pencils used so far.  All lined up….ready to go!



I just love this ladies attitude!! She’s so confident and cute!  I hope I can do her justice

Facing Forward on a Striped Rug

Photographer: Sarowen on Flickr graciously let me post her picture.

I fell in love with this picture, which I spotted on Flickr a few days ago. Don’t you just love those colors? That cotton rope rug? Those shoes? Well, I could do without the shoes, I’m not really a “ballet slipper-shoe” type, but that’s just me.

This is more my style!!! LOL!!

Back to the drawing……This was really fun to draw, ONCE I figured out all those little vertical lines. If you look closely there is a pattern to the vertical threads, it shows up in every other row. The odd rows are blues/greens- the cooler variety, and the even rows are the red/pinks- the warmer colors. This was driving me crazy until I figured it out!

The nice thing about this drawing was that I was able to use my watercolor pencils! Those are such a blast to use. I like to mark up the page, then go back with a small wet brush and spread out all that pigment. Joy! …really! It doesn’t take much to keep me amused.

Using my C-L (Creative-License) here to make the shoes any way I want them, this by far is the BEST thing about drawing. Photoshop has it’s limits at times, well actually it would just take me a heck of a lot longer to make flowers on the tops of the shoes, but it can be done.

I may draw another pair of shoes, we’ll see….I have some other ideas for facing forward that I hope to be able to make work. I get pretty bored if I don’t change things up a bit every now and then.

Anyone else doing the Sketchbook Project? How’s it coming along?