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Cozy Morning Coffee
Long time no blog. >_>*** The push and pull of inspiration versus procrastination. Whee! I’ve been making art (I even went to a drawing workshop, yay!), but I haven’t felt particularly inspired to write about the process. It’s been such a stop/start process, that I don’t feel like I’m improving the way or speed that I want. But let’s rip the bandage off quickly and just start blogging again! That’s the only way I’ve found to heal from procrastination: self-forgiveness and getting back to work.
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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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Digital sketching progress
I think daily practice is starting to pay off a little. Two months ago, whenever I tried to sketch directly in Photoshop with my Wacom tablet, it felt so awkward; I scrapped drawings a few times in frustration. Tonight I worked while using a photo reference, but the sketching felt must easier. I was able to softly erase lines like a kneaded eraser, layering up an under sketch until I had the line I wanted. Then I would solidify those lines to be darker while erasing the rest. I worked on a single sketch layer. I also really like making the background layer something other than pure white – it…
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Marker practice and some quick digital drawing drills
Followed through and finished adding marker to yesterday’s line art. I wasn’t sure how well the Ohuhu markers would blend, but I’ve been pleasantly suprised by how nice they work. They bleed all the way through the mixed media paper, though, which is a shame. Similar to Copics, I think they’re better suited to Bristol, marker paper, or even printer paper in a pinch. Mixed media paper is usually closer to a toothy watercolor type paper and absorbs more marker than necessary. At least, that’s what I’ve observed.
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Line Art: Practicing Faces
Tonight’s drawing is a quick sketch that I inked in Copic multiliner (mostly 0.1, with 0.5 for the outer edges). I want to practice using the Ohuhu skin tone marker set. The upper half of the page was color blending practice from December, which I shared in my skin tone practice post. I want to make sure the ink is completely dry before coloring, so the markers will have to wait til tomorrow.
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Copic Marker Practice
Tonight’s practice was a pencil sketch that I inked with a new Copic drawing pen I recently bought online. I had spent the morning working on fountain pen mark making pieces (for my mark making project), including this new black pen and a brown ink Copic drawing pen I’ve had for a while. I was pleased to see these pens feel like a fountain pen, but I wanted to see if they were indeed “Copic Proof” (which I assume means waterproof/bleed proof in general). So tonight I sketched and inked a little drawing on marker paper to insert into my mixed media sketchbook. Hoping to finish the fountain pen drawings…
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Finishing WIPs!
I had two works in progress hanging out there from this week – the sunset clouds digital painting (from Thursday’s post) and then the current sketchbook page (from yesterday). Even if I’m not practicing new ideas, I’m glad I used some time today to finish both of these up. It’s satisfying to consider drawings or paintings finished before moving on to a different study. No nagging lose threads!
Art with a dash of old school blog rambling
