Since I had the idea last week to do these kids lined up to see Santa instead of doing the "Dance Line", I thought I’d give it a try. After all, my Christmas shopping is all done, my packages are all mailed and I’ve learned that when INSPIRATION strikes, it’s best to grab it and go!!
It was fun giving the kids some new clothes. I’m not quite sure if the stripes are correct on the first girl and I think I’ve made a “jolly green Santa” here…..because he looks massive!! But to the kids he probably is, so it works.
Santa hats are really easy to make, the only thing I debated with myself about was, if I should have them all in red hats. Personally, I prefer the red hats to the other colors that are out now. But if I were doing a photo shoot, I’d be buying every color hat and having a ball photographing everyone! Really!
I think the mitten-ed hands worked well with the Santa theme here…..Whew!!!
Watercolor Pencils were used for the hair and everything else was done with my favorite markers.
This is my last page for the SKETCHBOOK Project! Yippee, I just need to go in and add details to the opposing pages now!! I had to re-nig on the Senior Sketch drawing that I did a few weeks ago…..I cannot part with that picture for the Sketchbook project. I’m afraid that if I do, I’ll regret it…..Usually I have no problem giving my stuff away….usually!
That plain background is bugging me…Do you guys have any suggestions for what I could put back there? If I have time, I’d really like to make that more interesting.
Background Quilt made in 2005, click here for full view.
Well, he’s not in the SKETCHBOOK yet, but he’s on his way!! He’s been a little preoccupied with helping me decorate my house, do a little lot of shopping, some organizing and various other holiday activities. This is the month where blogging will be decided for me…….Do I blog or do I help my family? Do I blog or do I shop for loved ones? Do I blog or do I visit? So, if you don’t see me around here much, it’s because of those other duties. Plus, my well is a little dry….I have no new ideas….none… zilch….zippo!! Ugh! But Hey, don’t you just love those holiday colors???? All those reds and greens….. my all-time favorite colors!!
My Santa started out like this….really quite ordinary….and yes, a little boring!
Oops! Actually, here is the bare-bones Santa…..this is how he really started. If you’d like to color him in, you can download the drawing HERE. I’d love to see your finished version, please come back and leave your link below.
It was fun to add some patterns to his clothes!! A little ‘tangle here and a little tangle there!! I miss my markers when I’m sketching, what can I say?
Sam the Singing Santa…..He plays this role every single year…..Wouldn’t miss it, even if you paid him to stay away. He is the jolliest one in his family, that’s why he gets to wear the outfit. His younger cousins absolutely couldn’t believe their sleepy little eyes when they saw him that first Christmas morning. They were completely shocked when he’d pull out the very toy they had written on their list which was mailed to the North Pole….There was just one older cousin that thought he sounded awfully familiar.
My next big challenge is to get this house decorated in time for Christmas. Click HERE to see how I did it last year. May change things up a bit, which makes it more interesting!
I have a confession: I’m finding that I don’t enjoy decorating the tree like I used to…. I’m a little bored with it….but I love pulling out and decorating with all the other Holiday knick-knacks!! Now, those are FUN!! How about you?
I ran out of Patience……why? Well, it has to do with the H.A.I.R !!
I think the next “Drawing” Book I purchase should be “Drawing Hair for Dummies” or something like that! I could not for the life of me, replicate the curly hair on the original picture!! I think too linear!!! Yep, straight lines et al!
I don’t know if others do this, but I have taken to the habit of outlining my sketches with my finest Micron Pen (.005). I like the pop it gives and I think with time, it may help keep the graphite in place…don’t know if it will actually work, though.
Because I learn by trial and error (yep, just like 99% of the rest of the human race). These are the fault points in this sketch:
- I seem to have trouble making the head tilt……I only seem to be able to draw a North-South head.
- The chin area should be a bit thicker.
- The nose is too long.
- The Hair…..well, that’s an OBVIOUS one!
- ________ fill in the blank!
Since this is for my Sketchbook Project, it’ll be gone in 6 weeks. Good thing we have digital cameras, and I can keep my own copy of the sketch for sentimental reasons. I only have room for one or two more drawings in the sketchbook. Wow!! I just may have this thing done before Christmas.
Thanks for your comments and if ANYONE has any hair drawing suggestions or references, I’d love to hear them.
I thought I’d be further along with this by now, but my “drawing time” was interrupted by some much needed psycho cleaning! After being gone for almost a week and spending time in some really clean houses, I felt a little bad for my pad. Hours later, chores done, I’m feeling much inspired. So, I thought I’d share my latest drawing with you. Plus, I’ve missed you guys!! Hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving!
The good thing about stepping back and posting these here is…I can see I don’t have the face shape correct on the interior (left) side. Will try to fix that, ASAP!
Little FYI for you: Did you know that an artist (A really good artist) cannot display their painting/drawing if it was drawn from a Studio picture because of the copyright??? I did not know this…. it’s a good thing I’m not that good!!
I sharpened my graphite pencil a few times as I attempted the teeth here…..But will need to go in and tone some of those edges down…..Geez!! A little tombstone-y here, I think!
Don’t look too closely at the hair off the forehead, because it really doesn’t match the picture, but I must say it was fun to draw!!
Oh, I’ve got to show you this book I just picked up.
Secrets to Drawing Realistic Faces by Carrie Stuart Parks
The book was written by this lady who has done Composite Drawings for the FBI since ‘81. She thought it best to teach a class on composite drawing to Police Officers so that more bad guys can be caught. The book is an extension of her class. A very well written book, with face “rules” which helped me to break down the dimensions of the photograph.
All for now!!
* Digital elements used above from Scrapgirls
Still using pictures as the basis for my drawings. I thought I’d try to draw a picture that was recently taken at work, of the more crazy, no weirder, ahhh… fun-loving people I get to work with. I don’t want to spend too much time on this. Which means……Whimsy time!! Or Color-by-numbers time! Or Doodle-the-clothing time! Anything….. so that I can get this done and move on in a timely fashion……After all, this is for the sketchbook project. It’s just for fun and it doesn’t have to be perfect, or exact, or anything because with these drawings I get to decide what challenge to take on next. (Trust me, there are lots of artsy challenges out there and it can be hard to decide! LOL!) And if you read my post about the Tutu…..it’s all about clothes!!
There’s really nothing quite like the clothes you see on people when they dress up for Halloween now, is there? So these biker-chics and that Frito-Bambito cross-dresser gal…..get to get sketched.
This will probably be a 2 or 3 part blog post. Because I’m not sure what I want to do with this yet. I’m not quite ready to outline the figures in permanent ink because there are still some details I need to apply. And other details I have to erase.
Most likely, this sketch really won’t be about the clothes at all (other than the contour drawing of them). I really just want to color them all in. Yep, just like a first grader with a brand new coloring book.
It all started with this picture that I bought for my daughters room a long time ago. I adore this picture, not only because it reminded me of what she used to do back then (at 4 yrs old), but because I love how those two little friends are comforting her. It speaks volumes!!
I was wanting to put some sketch practice in. I am much better at sketching the human form than faces at this time, so off I went to sketch a body in a similar sitting position.
This is the contour portion. If I get it wrong here, then the entire picture is off.
Lots and lots of shading and highlighting going on here. I don’t think I got the knees right. Ah well, nobody’s perfect!!
The head is a little squished….gotta fix that…..And if only….If Only…..I didn’t have to draw hands and
toes!! LOL!!
As you can see, the drawing is close….but a little skinnier than the original. But it gave me the practice that I was looking for, and heck you gotta start somewhere, right?
Pretty much just winged the hair. Blonde hair is so much easier than brunette hair and straight hair easier than curly. If you can draw a straight line, you can draw this type of hair. Absolutely not going to comment on the fingers and the toes….once again!
Not quite finished with this. Must color in the suit. Probably going to use watercolor pencils. I really like how they look.
This bugs me….I don’t know if its the paper (Fabriano 140 lb. watercolor paper) or the graphite, but I get this stippling effect which is really noticeable in the darker areas. I’m thinking it’s the paper. If anyone out there knows, please fill me in. Any suggestions to reduce this stippling effect?
When Tammy drew that adorable bicycle sketch she inspired me to draw a bicycle myself. Since she planted the seed, all I had to do was find a decent bicycle picture. When I spotted this picture on Flickr…..I thought….Hmmmm, maybe I can draw this. I like the bike, I like the girl and of course….yeah…..I like the beach! So, off I went to draw this. I made a total mess out of it! First, I drew the bike too long, had to shorten it, then I drew the girl too small, had to enlarged her. Then I decided…..it’s time to put away the graphite. I needed a bit of color & doodle relief, because my confidence level was waning.
Being one to favor the full color spectrum, I thought it would be fun to bring those rainbow colors into the wheel spokes.
It was really hard NOT TO BRING OUT the stencils for the flowers! I thought I’d wing the flower shapes, that it may add more interest.
Nothing like a little Zentangle background to make the colors more striking.
Just a little close-up of the change in the flower design on the person.
Here’s a perfect example of changing your mind after starting a drawing! It’s either work with what I’m comfortable with or just keep on erasing! Some days I’m better at pushing past my comfort level. As you can see, this wasn’t one of them.
