Yoga Girl….Colorized

Posted this picture back in January with my Yoga Girl One post.



Brought in color.  I thought it would be cool to have a more batik looking outfit with a lot of color movement.    Watercolors can pull this off rather easily



I thought I’d balance the red in her outfit with the opposite color….Green.  But it did not turn out well.  Much too dark.



I pulled up a lot of that green with a brush and water.  A unique element of working in this medium.



I like the mat better here, a lighter shade of green.



I stalled on this project for about a month because it was hair time.  I tend to do that a lot.  But what I really need to remember….is to keep the crown of the head’s hair darker, by putting many more lines (strands) in.



Last thing to do before completion is this hand.  It’s not watercolored yet, just showing the w/c pencil stippling now.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to blend this better for a more realistic impression.



My kitchen table!!  Soon to be cleared off…. close to completion…..   

Yoga Girl….One

After Christmas…..I was itching to draw again….to draw figures.  I’ve been doing a lot of marker work lately.



I found this yogi on instagram (KrisenPro)…..and I got started.
My goal is:

• To NOT pull out my colored pencils (until the very end)
• To ONLY use watercolors and w/c pencils.  Yikes!

I knew I needed to do a background….since that’s the next level.  I thought a mandala would work nicely. But I had one problem, my compass could only draw a 9” circle max.  Ugh!!  After a youtube search, I rigged my own compass.



I just made a bunch of concentric circles of varying widths.



After I took the compass point padding away, I lost my center for the mandala.  So, I had to re-establish it with the green dot.



This has been very fun to do….I get to combine two of my favorite drawing styles…..photo-realistic Figures and Marker Doodling



I started out coloring in the design with sharpies….but the ink in the sharpies looked dull.  I had to pull out my liquid India Ink and switch to Faber-Castell black markers since they have india ink in them.



Here is a reference for the size of the picture (22 x 30).  I’m kind of surprised I’m going big again, had initially wanted to only do half this size.



Detail work.



More detail work.



I had to complete the background first….now I can continue on with the figure.  That background has a huge influence on the colors used for the girl.

Yoga….Dhunurasana

I enjoy seeing all the inspiring poses of different yogi’s on Instagram.



Instead of drawing a yogi from real life….I just winged it one day.



Her proportions are a little quirky…but that wasn’t the point.



The point was….watercolor…..letting the paint flow and not try to make it so exact.  Of course, I’ve got a long way to go.  It’s hard to teach yourself new perspectives to see things differently! Haha.



Only doodled up the pants in a couple ways.  Enjoyed doing the grass though.




I like combining the figure with the doodling aspect as seen here in the background.  Baby steps…baby steps… to figuring out this medium.  Hope you like

Yoga….Bow Pose

My latest passion is yoga!  And I am amazed at how hard it is.



I follow a few instagram-yogi’s and this beautiful lady is one of them.



I embellished her a bit, by changing the bracelets and the top!  Pulling out my creative license card.



I wanted to make this mostly artsy….instead of my usual realistic way.  But the more I tinkered with it….the more I kept adding realistic features.



She’s done mainly in watercolors and w/c pencils with a bit of marker work as guidelines.



I’m unsure whether or not I should add a yoga mat.  But I don’t want to mess it up.



For now, I opted out of additional props.  But that could change.  I think I like how this turned out

Watercolor Works….Fig1

Took a little excursion today, to our local University’s Art Museum yard sale.  I thought I’d find a rare “artsy” relic.  No luck, I was too late for the good stuff unless I wanted file cabinets, desks or chairs.



At least my outing inspired me to finish my watercolor piece. 



I have been having lots of problems when I use blue for my neutralizing shading.  But once I grabbed a lighter blue instead of the darker one I had been using.  It wasn’t as muddy. 



I really messed up this pocket….don’t know what I was thinking…It appears I’ve made two seams on the flap.   



I was introduced to an opaque white watercolor that helped me fix that flap.  I’m so glad there is a white-out of sorts for watercolor.  Who knew?



Hands… Didn’t try to show too much detail….just hinted at the contours.  I like the fingers better in the left one…but the upper hand better in the right one. Gotta fix that wrist!



Went back to my old-habit of sharpening my edges.  Grabbed my fine nibbed micron markers.  I wanted to see the punch!



Interesting to see the two image styles side by side.  I like the jean pocket better in the left one….and I think the richness of the watercolor adds a needed dimension to everything but the lower arm (very funky).  It unflattens it more.

Which one do you like better? 

In Watercolor….Figure 1

Remember when…..I said I’d really like to learn watercolor drawing/painting?  I have a 36 watercolor pencil set that was just begging to be used.  My Art teacher thought I should give watercolor a try….see what I think….One advantage is it’s easier to cover large areas…it’s ten times faster than colored pencils.  We thought it would be an interesting study to do the same figure set in watercolor.  See the difference and if I even take to it.

Blocked all 3 figures out in class a few weeks ago. 



Then the next class time, I started in on the arms.  Didn’t dare try it on my own, had too many questions!

 

So far…I’ve approached the drawing in the same way as my color-sketches, except I stop and apply water to the pigment before I proceed to the next part. 



The watercolor pigment behaves a bit unpredictably (especially to me-the-novice)…which can make things better or worse. 



I was coaxed into abandoning my tedious ways by applying lots of water and lots of pigment….and just let the color expand. 



We use rubber cement to limit where the color can go (seen here in the lighter part of the jeans). it’s a whole new way of drawing and I can’t approach it the same way as a pure sketch.  It’s very addictive and I think I like it!