• A collage of three watercolor paintings, all three featuring a redheaded mage in a green dress, holding magical energy.
    Sketchbooks,  Traditional Painting

    Dancing Sorceress Redux

    Redraws of art are so satisfying 😭 This one is from my multimedia sketchbook, which I finished this past spring. I still feel very rusty and unsure with watercolor paint, but I so enjoy the medium. The original painting was from 2017. The second was from January 21, 2023 but done fairly quickly with no references or planning. The last was finished three days later on January 23, 2023, but with some thumbnail sketches, gathering of some references, looking at jewelry designs, etc.

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  • A drawing of a fairy curtseying, next to a scrap paper with test color swatches. A palette of iridescent watercolors is to the right. Above are markers and bottles of white ink.
    Drawing

    A Fairy of Spring

    I am channeling some cheery spring energy today! I think this is the first year where I am looking forward to daylight savings time, as it means we are a little closer to nicer weather. This little drawing started as an idea to practice using my Ohuhu markers on color card stock paper. I originally thought I’d do some ivy studies or maybe even simple boxes and cylinders, but instead this was what I went with! The sketch and inking were completed for yesterday’s blog post, so today’s focus was the color.

  • Linear ink drawing of a fairy woman in a long dress, curtsying. Pens are lined up next to the drawing.
    Drawing,  Sketchbooks

    Butterfly Wings and Curtsies

    I woke up feeling like I had no idea what I wanted to sketch today, so I decided to run with an idea from earlier this week of studying butterfly wing anatomy a little more closely. Then, because I wanted to have an ink drawing to test out my Ohuhu markers on, I sketched a fairy princess character. I’m going to behave and let the ink properly dry overnight before trying to apply any color to it this time.

  • A collage of three paintings: the first a mermaid with purple hair and a red flowing dress top, the second silhouettes of female mermaid figures, and the third a portrait of a blue-skinned mermaid with flowing pink hair
    Drawing,  Traditional Painting

    Mermaid Wanderings

    Yay, watercolor paintings! These mermaid pieces are from October of last year – again trying to catch up on my 2020 art sharing. I’m happy with how flow-y the hair turned out on all three pieces. I felt extremely rusty with using watercolors, and the background of vague seaweed shadows on the first painting was…ugh. Still, even feeling rusty, there are things I can find things I like about the first painting: the light and shadow on the tail and the jewelry pattern.

  • A photo of two sketchbooks, one with a page showing a ballpoint pen tree drawing.
    Digital Painting,  Drawing,  Life Musings,  Sketchbooks

    Catching up: Character Art & Sketchbook Musings

    I finished that mercenary digital painting back in early May. I’ve also been sketching more in my portable sketchbook and picked a few highlights to post. Since my post last spring, I’ve been waiting to post more until I’d figured out a more cohesive plan for how I want to make art, but that is just a laughable goal at this point. I’m far, far too an inuitive person to have a “cohesive” plan. A plan, sure. A plan that goes mostly out the window when the rubber hits the road. The more I wait to think up the perfect plan or perfect order in which to learn and practice…

  • A college of an older drawing of a female knight on the left and a newer version of the same character the right with the words Drawing Redux. The artwork is in pencil.
    Digital Painting,  Drawing,  Life Musings,  Sketchbooks

    Drawing redux fun

    Decided to redraw a super old sketch from high school (so…2003 o_O). I was kinda lazy about my scan quality, I won’t deny it, but I kind of like the rough smudgy texture of how it turned out. Plus I’ve inked it digitally (WIP of digital painting further below), so I didn’t need the scan to be perfect. Cleaning up scans is just…ugh, it’s annoying.

  • Self-critique banner collage with digital painting Sorceress of Eventide
    Digital Painting

    Self-critique: The Sorceress of Eventide

    I feel a little bit silly doing another critique so soon after my last one; I’d like a little time between these critiques to show studies/general practice. This time, though, the main thing I felt like I was practicing was just learning to finish a WIP file without nitpicking every detail and dragging it on for weeks. This one had started before Inktober (!) and languished far to long in my work-in-progress folder untouched, so it was high time to finish it.