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.

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. 

The Fly….Fears

Time for the background build.  The white in the sketch has been protected by rubber cement so that I can keep it white.



Had to keep increasing the amount of color in the water.



Got home and rubbed that rubber cement off.  Also, since the background was darker, I had to enhance the figure.  It’s such a balance!



I really have no idea what I’m doing here.  I purchased some turquoise colored pencils because there is a lot of turquoise in that water.  This may be over my head deciding to do colored pencils on top of the watercolor.  My nature goes toward the details…(you know… like I see the trees not the forest).  But I think the only way for me to make this work is to i.m.p.l.y.  Imply the shapes and the color!  Oh Boy!  

The Fly….Takes Time

You’d think I’d know better by now….but NO!  When I do faces….I always think I have to “pencil in" the pieces and parts….you know, like outline the shape of the lips here.  Well, this child doesn’t have lipstick on so it was quite unnecessary.  Oh-evie!



Moved on to the better stuff!  The folds in the cap and the goggles.



Didn’t have the color I was looking for in my colored pencil stash for the blue in the cap…..but….I can make my own colors with watercolors!  Two points for the watercolor department. Yeah!



With shopping and decorating it didn’t allow me as much time as I’d like.  So, I'm glad I got this far.  I'll be needing major help with that water and class is tomorrow!  Yea baby!



Now, I get to enjoy my family and my tree 

The Fly….Takes Form

My absolute favorite thing to draw….is swimmers!   I almost didn’t attempt this picture…because it’s so wide…..and it’s hard to see the details in the body.  But my Art teacher really liked the composition which encouraged me.



I want to do this right….so I put the watercolor pencils away and re-acquainted myself with those beloved colored pencils.



It’s like coming home!!  Drawing on this illustration board is sweet, paper type makes a huge difference!



I plan on doing the water in watercolor.  The initial bottom layer of the figure was a watercolor wash.  Much faster working with a wash than starting off with colored pencil as the base.  Thumbs up for that trick

Danaus plexippus…aka….Butterfly

Since I’ve always been fond of butterflies and I really, really wanted to draw one and not “screw it up”. 



I pulled out my watercolor pencil set.  Ahhh, these pencils are just fun!    I didn’t think I could pull off a realistic type of fly.  So I decided to color outside of the box.



Originally I had wanted to make the latin name pop out in white.

Image from here

Aren’t these guys just the prettiest creatures?  As a kid,  I witnessed a huge monarch butterfly swarm on a Saturday morning right outside my bedroom window.  So, I did the logical thing and ran after them.  I was able to catch two.  I released them into my room and had 2 pet butterflies for a day.  I think my Dad found out and convinced me to release the butterflies before they died.  Possibly if I had butterfly food at home I could’ve kept them!  Haha



I saw a very creative journal page on flickr that inspired the background for this page.   Because plain ‘ole white just wasn’t doing it for me.



I really enjoy drawing this way….you know where you take a real image and then whimsy-size it!