Portrait Confusion

 I’ve been working on these two cuties for awhile now.  I got a little side tracked with some
relocations!  But I’m ready to tackle this portrait again!



 I started out with watercolor!  Cuz I want to get better at watercolor.



But then once we settled into our house and I pulled this out, I was missing my colored pencils.



I switched back to watercolor for the hair.



I brought in my watercolor pencils to help add texture.



I’ve only used watercolor with this sweet girl.



It’s time to go in and add more definition.   I’m so confused at this point because he’s
done in mostly colored pencils and she’s done in watercolor.  If I can pull this off and make the
whole portrait look somewhat cohesive…that will be my lesson!

The making of a Diver…..Wrap Up

The making of a DIVER….drawing style.  This only took me one year to complete!  First post here back in Feb 2014.



I started out having the diver in a blue suit.



Then in March after my daughters college Swim & Dive championship….I decided to make the suit fit her team colors.  Wasn’t sure where I was going with that choice, but it seemed the right one at the time.



After putting the drawing aside for a few months….I’d pull it out for a day or two and darken the colors.



Then I’d forget about it for awhile.



I think I figured out why I slacked off so much…..I was only working with 2 colors….Skin-tone and Green.  And boredom set in.



I even pulled out my anthropologie swim glass to keep my motivation up!  It seemed to help



Since these babies can start taking over a room fast, at 22x30 inches.  I kept the framing simple.  Purchased a premade frame during the half off sale and framed it without the mat. She’s not my proudest piece…but I’m glad that she is done.  I must say, if I drew a diver that I knew then I’d feel differently about this piece.  But I gotta practice somewhere and my photography skills are a bit weak

Ballerina Babe

I think referring to this piece as a Baby is appropriate.  She sure demanded a lot of me.  She’s over six months old now and just starting to gain some independence and show some of her own personality.  Thank Goodness! 



Roughed in the ballerina with a watercolor wash.  Things look pretty chunky here.



I stuck with watercolor and w/c pencils for the shoes.



I had to tone down the ladies orangey-ness.  (It seems she likes carrots!! Haha)



I didn’t touch this piece throughout February and most of March.  I finally realized I couldn’t avoid the hair any longer if I wanted this finished.  Studied up a bit on hair rendering.  Apparently, I need to pick at least 4 colors, one highlight, one low-light and the rest in between.  I am to make each strand go in the direction that it lays.  With the highlight areas, I just left the white alone.



Don’t judge me too hard, I still have lots to learn.  But at least it’s passable.  Meaning…..you know that it’s hair.



As is my habit, I brought in my fine-point microns to finish the job. When I go over the colored pencil, the tip of the markers take up some of that wax……time is spent squiggling that wax off as seen here.



With my skill level…this is as good as it’s going to get.  So I deemed her done.  Off to the frame shop. 


Couldn’t capture the same light cuz I wasn’t up early enough. (Pic on left from Dec, Pic on right from Today)



Lessons learned:

• Be careful with the amount of water used for the paper type.  I’ve since found some other sturdier w/c illustration board that I want to try next.
• It’s ok to pop your colors….I preferred the ballet slippers brighter, but realistically the first color was more accurate.  Yea, for creative license!!
• Bring in the colored pencils after the watercolor work is done. No one wants to go over colored pencils with watercolor…trust me!
• Don’t expect perfection.
• 
  

And the image that started this….found her on instagram.…check out user @infinitylove231

Wild Hair

Staying consistent with the Sunglass Series…..I had a wild hare to doodle up some hair.



I found the picture of this woman on pinterest and I let my freak flag fly with the hair here.



I started out using watercolors.



But I had to give them up because I couldn’t coordinate the colors as well with w/c as I can with markers.



Just pretend you can’t see the ear….totally botched it.



Besides that though……I like how she turned out.  Colorful and Crazy!! Haha

Portable Project in Paisley

I’ve been enjoying my Sunglass Series where I can color pencil the people and marker doodle on something they are wearing. When I spotted this woman wearing her hat I thought I’d draw her next.  That wonderful hat gave me a lot of space for doodling.



I wasn’t sure how I wanted to approach this.  At first I thought of doing black and white doodles in the hat with the hat-band and the suit in color.



But then I changed my mind.



I didn’t want the band to compete with the hat, so black/white stripes worked well.



Since the underside of the hat doesn’t get as much light, I applied a light brown-gray in watercolor.



This skin took more time than I thought it should, but there are a lot of little variations to the colors thru the neck and the bust that I didn’t realize until I tried to sketch it.

If I would use smooth paper then we wouldn’t see all that grain coming thru the colored pencil portions.  But I like watercolor paper cuz it’s thick and can take all kinds of abuse!

Sunglass Series Two

Since I have two big drawings pending (dancer & diver) and I seem to be stuck on the hair in both…..



I needed to complete a smaller drawing to boost my confidence.  I thought these sunglass girls might help.



This sunglass series was the first time I combined my marker-doodle-love with my color sketches.



I wasn’t sure how well they’d play together.  But they seemed to get along just fine.



I’m not one to sketch a practice piece, because I know I won’t put the focus into it like I should if it “counted”.  And I need hair help.



What I found out by my limited research on drawing hair….is to keep the line directions in the way that the hair should go.  Even though there are many shadows.  Also to use at least 4 different colors…..Highlight….a bunch of mid-tones…then bring in your darkest color to really help things take shape. 



This is drawn from a picture of my daughter taken a few years ago.  I was not pleased with my previous Warhol-style drawing of her so I’m glad I can now replace it.

Happy Easter Everyone

Sunglass Series One

I got inspired to draw girls in sunglasses last week….probably because I went south and knew I’d need mine.



Drew her in, and did a light watercolor wash.  Then proceeded to color pencil sketch the rest of the face.



Bringing my two favorite things together (markers and colored pencils) I experimented with using the markers only for the sunglasses. 



Just doodled the heck out of them.



Then the fun began with my markers.



Kind of a different look.  A Pretty wild look to pull off and not for the timid. Too bad I can’t do this to my own sunglasses, haha!