Say Buh-Bye to this Sketchbook

After five months of working on my Sketchbook for the 2011 Sketchbook Project I have grown a  bit attached to it.  After all, it was the first sketchbook I’ve ever done with a theme (Facing Forward).  But it has a home of it’s own now, and it won’t be with me….it’s like a child that you’ve watched grow up and you’ve guided them their whole life but then the time comes when they must get on with their own life and spread their wings.  So, I’m sending out Barcode #_23652_ into the world to see if she can fly.   I know I’ll miss some of the pages, but right now I’m a tad bit bored with the whole thing (oops, did I really say that outloud?).  I’ve uploaded, enhanced, blogged, drawn, glued, and enjoyed each one of these drawings, but there is nothing more that I can do to them or for them.   I took what I needed to learn from each drawing and it’s time to move on. Don’t know where….just facing forward myself!!!  LOL!!

1. Dancer
2. Teen Lingo
3. Flip Flop
4. Striped Rug
5. Incognito
6. Bench Monday
7. Thanksgiving 
8. Troll for Luck
9. Doodled Face
10. Umbrella Bird
11. Tutu
12. Mural Drawing
13. Welcome Page
14. Car Pool
15. Trick or Treat
16. Looking down

As you can see my Sketchbook added some girth to her middle since the summer.  She went from a .25 inches to a whopping 1.5 inches…..She contains 23 drawings which I’ve blogged about upon completion.  Thank you all so much for your support and kind comments throughout this whole Sketchbook project.  It really helped to keep me on track.  I can see why so many people get overwhelmed with this sort of thing.  Since I glued some pages together this made the book a little more manageable, not having to fill in every...single...page.



I didn’t spend a whole lot of time on the cover of the book as you can see, but I thought it needed something.  I sanded it down, because I heard that would help the white ink adhere better.  Wrote out the words above and painted them in.   Have you ever written a word a million times, never misspelled it once, never gave the spelling a second thought?  Me too….I got all the way thru and noticed that my doodle was lacking it’s “L”….C’mon really!!   So, I squeezed a little “L” in as best as I could.  Otherwise it would’ve read “Facing Forward in doodes and drawings”…..what exactly is a doode???? anyone?  Anyone?

The Sketchbooks tours 9 cities: Seattle, San Francisco, Austin, Atlanta, Winter Park (FL), Chicago, Washington DC, Brooklyn (NY) and Portland (ME)…..hmmmm….may just have to get to Chicago in July and check this project out for myself.  I'd love to see what everyone else has done.  An astonishing 28835 artists are participating this year, now that's a lot of sketchbooks!

Facing Forward……to meet Santa

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.

Santa Bird in a Sketchbook

                    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?

Facing Forward….Senior Sketch

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:

1. I seem to have trouble making the head tilt……I only seem to be able to draw a North-South head.
2. The chin area should be a bit thicker.
3. The nose is too long.
4. The Hair…..well, that’s an OBVIOUS one!
5. ________ 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.

Senior Pictures

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!!

Happy Thanksgiving

I don’t know what it is that I like so much about drawing these birds but they sure are fun!  I was a little unsure how I’d portray this Thanksgiving Bird.  I was given some ideas of the bird talking to the turkey and saying “Bill, is that you?”, but that’s in poor taste….Funny….but in poor taste.  Then I was told that female Indians aren’t allowed to wear Chief Headdresses….but this is a Helen Reddy bird  (you may be too young to remember the song “I am Woman”) and she pretty much wears what’s she wants, when she wants.  After all, it’s her party!



I could draw and color Headdresses all day!! Really!




I brought the kiddo-birds in because I wanted to show some excitement at finally being able to eat the turkey.  After many hours of smelling it’s sweet aroma!



Just another shot of the unfinished Bird and friends.



Helen the Thanksgiving Host…….She takes hosting the Family Thanksgiving meal to a whole new level…..Yes, she really does dress up for the occasion, and yes she even puts her kids in costume.  No one complains and her family & friends have gotten used to her little quirks.   She is the Number One BEST COOK you’d ever want to meet.  She thoroughly enjoys everything about this day.  She gets up early to dress the 3 turkeys she cooks (baked, fried and smoked), the Honey Baked Ham will be prepared a little later….but what really sets eating at Helen’s house apart is the 9 pies she makes the week of Thanksgiving!  Yep, NINE!!

You can still download the Uncolored Drawing of this Bird from HERE……(might be a good way to keep all those Pilgrims and Indians occupied while awaiting the feast).  I'm just saying.

Well guys!!  I hope you all have a Safe and Happy Thanksgiving!!!  My sympathies go out to all of you that plan to venture out on Black Friday too!

Facing Forward…...Mural Drawing

I looked and looked on Flickr for a person painting a mural.  I wanted to see the entire person, actually I wanted to find a girl painting a mural from about this distance away……No luck, none!! Ugh!!  So, off I went to draw an imaginary person and I’m not very happy with her.   She’s too simple and in my mind I had her more realistic.  But she works.  Enough.



Decided that I'd do the block background in the Rainbow colors.  You remember how I like those colors?



This is a total take on my Sketchbook Project’s Welcome Page.   I enjoyed doing that page so much, I thought I’d do a repeat.



This little Zen bird appears sad, must be the slant of the eyes……But really he’s not.



Just plain fun to fill in the Bird with all different random doodles and patterns….



I really would’ve spent more time on the girl IF I had something to mirror!  I may have to try this again, assuming I can find the right picture.   The neat thing about this mural drawing is once I get the person drawn I can put any drawing I want in the background, anything.  Ahhh, the possibilities!



I was contemplating putting some grass sprouts and weeds along the bottom of the mural….you know to look like the setting is outdoors…..But I didn’t think I could pull it off, because I drew and filled in the drawing first.  Maybe next time.

List It Tuesday….Teen-Lingo

I can’t believe I will actually be participating in List It Tuesday…. on Tuesday.  Yes, the delights of this Blog Boss!!!

Here is a quick list of the Top 10 words spoken by my Daughter to me this past weekend.  We spent 36 hours side by side as I drove her on a college visit to another state.   I think it’s funny how not only is she one to not talk a lot (at least to me), but 50% of the words she likes to communicate with are made up of 4 letters or less!  Hmmmmm……I would be floored if she becomes a public speaker at any time in her life! Floored!!

Teen-Lingo Definitions:

1. Touché-  When I’ve figured out the right answer to why she does something.
2. Whatever- When she really doesn’t want to do what I ask her to do.  Or is stalling.
3. What- If I look at her at any time.
4. Stop- If I don’t avert my eyes after she’s said “What”.
5. Fine- If I tell her not to do something she is wanting to do.
6. Random- If I communicate with her about my day, or make a statement about life in general.
7. Sure- If I ask her a Yes or No question
8. Obviously- If I agree with what she is doing
9. Congratulations- If I figure out something that I didn’t know before….usually pertaining to her school life, her social life or her sports life.
10. MOM !!- If #3 and #4 hasn’t diverted my attention and now she really means it!

So in Honor of our weekend together I thought I’d share this little drawing with you.



If I was really good at drawing I’d make it look like her feet are up on the dashboard.  Not that we drive that way or anything.



I use the big Copic-like markers for my skin tone drawings these days.  I am not happy with the flesh tones in the Faber Castell series.  The ink tends to appear too streaky.



Hard to get to know somebody who doesn’t want to be known…..probably because they have NO CLUE who they are yet…..They know what they can do, they just don’t know what to think about it.

Facing Forward…...in Incognito…Part 1

                   * 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.

Facing Forward …with a Doodled Face

One of my favorite candid pictures of my son was taken when he was 12 yrs old (he’s now 22).  It wasn’t so much his smile (probably because he isn’t smiling).  It was more his expression and the colors in the towel he had over his shoulders that placed this picture as one of my all-time-favorites!



The only original thing I did here was to use color in this picture.  This type of drawing can be best illustrated by Rebecca Anthony.  Now this lady is good.  You can see what I mean if you go over to her blog here and here.

Had a ton of fun using those watercolor pencils for the vibrant colors of the towel.  Luckily I had already purchased the right colors.  Being rather impatient……I outlined the face in with my XS Faber-Castell Pitt Artist pen because it was time to get on with it a.l.r.e.a.d.y….that’s when I saw the error of my ways.



Check out the RED * area.  This is where I tend to make mistakes a lot.  (As seen when I did my self-portrait sketch).  I can’t seem to pull off the entire left eye unless I give myself more room…..hence the broader cheekbones!!  Ugh!!

But aren’t those colors in the towel a good match with the sketch?  I just love them!



If you decide to doodle on top of your watercolored areas….don’t just wait until the area is dry to the touch (5-10 minutes).  It’s best to wait overnight, because if you don’t you’ll get this bleed effect which you can see in the swirlie’s above.  It would be a drag to do all that work, then ruin it at the end!



Just a close-up of the face.  Had to rely on my doodle directory prints for a lot of these areas.   Repetitive patterns, in different intensities work best.   A pattern that uses more ink is used in the places where there is a lot of shadows, or shading. 



The other thing I found that I liked as I drew this was…….When you’re using a pattern, if you can take that same pattern and change the tempo of it as you doodle thru the area, that helps add dimension to the subject as well.   (See the upside U portion in the middle of the neck to see what I mean)



Ta-Da!!!  I may go back in and doodle up that white background……we’ll see.