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Calming Cloud Drawings in Colored Pencil & Marker
More small studies, similar to my lace ones that I recently posted. This time the focus was clouds and thinking of them more as three dimensional forms rather than flat. These studies were fun and quick, and a nice way to start December. I’ve tried to approach these as: OK what’s the simplest, easiest and fun version of the subject I’m studying – even if it’s a doodle on scrap notebook paper – and how can I refine and push that version to something else? Hopefully this approach challenges me while still allowing me to maintain a non-judgemental view of my skill as an artist overall.
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A Lonely Mage Redux
Sharing another redraw from my collection of childhood drawings – this time a very forlorn looking mage. I’ve included the old version of the drawing from when I was a freshmen in high school! ^_^ Rather than cringe at the super rough drawing, I feel a fond sense of nostalgia. Redraws motivate me to being kind on myself: non-judgemental on how I “should” draw. I am only comparing myself to my own past, and seeing if I can do better. And pulling from the far distant past, I know my skill has grown a lot since then, so I go into the practice of drawing with confidence and joy. That…
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Sketchbook Share: Ianthenna
This is the third of my November OC sketchbook spreads, featuring Ianthenna, from my In Between series (which… I have not forgotten about, I swear). I still struggle with a consistent look for my characters, where the features are specific and stylized enough. For practicing quick portraits, though, I consider this page a success. Because this character is often wearing fancy dressing gowns and pajama type outfits (living in a type of dream plane of existence), I also wanted to practice frilly lace collars and cuffs, as that’s what I envision them wearing most of the time.
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Sketchbook Share: Ariennha
Last post, I mentioned a series of OC sketchbook pages I filled, starting with Reiellasara and now moving on to Ariennha. Ariennha is a character very close to my heart, even if I haven’t drawn her much – I’ve spent many an hour daydreaming stories and world building in my mind over the years. She’s definitely got Mary Sue energy, but I honestly do not care, I love the character. But why haven’t I made very much art of those daydreams? The trick to getting those ideas down as drawings is to just Nike-style “Do It”.
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Childhood Drawing Redux
Oooooo, the dark theme with aqua text is back; you know I’m feeling nostalgic, ha! I just can’t stick with a light background. Maybe one of these days I’ll make a site theme that has a dark/light toggle, so if it’s really annoying to others it can be toggled off. Anyway, I recently organized a 3-ring binder with my oldest artwork from middle school and high school, and decided to tackle redrawing as much of the contents as possible, starting with the oldest.
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Practicing in Between (Part 1 & 2)
Winter’s begun and the longest night is here. I’m ready for fresh starts, a new year, and lengthening daylight slowly inching back towards spring. I’ve been practicing art quite a bit, and am so close to filling two sketchbooks: a multimedia one and a smaller drawing one (hopefully a sketchbook share video is coming in the near future 🤞). Today I have 25 sketchbook pages to share in this post (!!!). And I came up with the idea for an ongoing series that I’ve just begun, with a new original character!
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Embracing Sketchbook Messiness
If I want to finish my current sketchbook before the end of spring, I calculated (a couple of days ago) that I need to finish an average of 1.5 pages a day. Is doing that calculation a sign that my need to control chaos is creeping into my art practice again?
Art with a dash of old school blog rambling
