• 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.