February "artitupwithfriends"

 I was looking for another art challenge to do in February. These challenges help me learn how to draw faster, work smaller, and come up with ideas more quickly.
I had one that I was going to do, hosted by the same person who did the September challenge and the week-long one in December. When she finally posted the prompts though, they weren't anything I wanted to draw. I wrote them all down, resolutely planning to do it anyway, but I had no ideas at all. Well, except for one day that would be several weeks into the month. (They all involved animals...I don't like drawing animals.)
In the end I decided not to do it after all (I didn't want to make myself miserable) when about six days into the month I found another challenge that was much more up my ally.
So, I missed the first several days, and there were some days that I posted older artwork that fit into the themes, but I did get to create a lot of new things that were pretty fun!
 Here they are, in no particular order. (Remember, you can click on them and see them much bigger.)

Black and white pieces always garner the most "likes" on instagram (probably because the high contrast catches viewers' eyes). My first and last creations were both black and white. This first one was for the prompt, "Edgar Allan Poe". I illustrated the poem "Annabel Lee". It was drawn on gray paper with black and white markers. (Incidentally, I just got some new white liners that are awesome, so I found any excuse to use them repeatedly.)

 

This last piece I wanted to get done before the last day of the challenge, and I finished it in about an hour and a half. It didn't look quite like I was planning, but in the end I decided it was better than my original idea. This girl was cut out from white paper, and the rest was just the white liner on black paper. Much easier than coloring it all in. This was "wish upon a star".























A few of the line drawings I started in the fall were perfect for this challenge, and I was able to save time by coloring in these pictures I'd already done..and they turned out great!

I used this October  Nausicaa piece for the prompt, "Welcome to the Jungle". I hesitated to color the black and white because I really liked it, but I'm glad I did, as I like this even better.



















The line drawing was originally just the girl; drawing the sky really transformed it. I like the clouds, but the center sky is a little messed up. I think it looks like she's on a sky island. This was for, "turbulent skies".























For another one I drew a simple picture with the plan to add to it later; then I used the same picture for a later prompt. So this first was was for "skulls". Then I completed the picture to be used for, "bus stop". I just had to change the guys elbow so it was in front of the girl instead of behind her, so the picture would make sense.
























I'm always annoyed that my camera doesn't capture the skin colors quite right. They're more rich and blend together better in real life.


















The following was the piece that took the longest, I worked on it for three or four days. The theme was, "fan art". It was hard to decide what to draw.... tv shows and movies? Books? I've already done Harry Potter. In the end I chose to draw the characters from a series of books I had recently ready, "The Mortal Instruments". It was pretty fun! This picture is big, 11x14".

Because it was February, I wanted to do a few Valentines themed pieces. so for the theme, "childhood" I drew kids leaving treats and heart attacking someone's door, combining memories of my childhood and that of my kids.

 

On the actual Valentine's Day, the theme was, "love monster". Pretty self explanatory. I wanted the tentacles to be spiderlike and snakelike...I'd already done the octopus thing.






















This one I was probably least excited about. The prompt was, "mushroom village", and I couldn't think of anything that wasn't the obvious stereotype. This actually has gel pen details; in real life it's got sparkles all over it- the blue dots, the yellow details underneath the mushrooms, the green lines, etc.- but the camera couldn't capture it except in video. I did show a video of it on my instagram.
 

This one was also kind of meh...the theme was "Stage Fright", and Scooby Doo seemed perfect for it. I later found out it was actually the name of an episode of the show.

This one probably had the least planning, with the best results. The prompt was "phobia", and I wanted it to have a spontaneous look. It is made with marker and watercolor.

 And these two are the fantasy worlds I drew. The first one in supposed to be the three trolls that were turned to stone in The Hobbit, for the prompt, "trolls". The white trees were done with the new white pen I mentioned; it's on brown paper.

This one turned out great, it was for the prompt, "three color challenge". I've seen other people use three colors and not count white and black as the colors, so I hoped it wasn't cheating!

Which do you like?

September Challenge

 So, these are the pictures I did in September for a Creative Challenge. Originally I was only going to post the ones I liked the best, but I guess I'll post all of them. These aren't in order of when I drew them. The titles are the words I had to draw.
  I worked on this even during my trip to my brother's wedding in September, so I had to find ways to work faster and simpler, which was kind of the point anyway. For some of the drawings, I used some small "artists trading cards" which are only about 2.5 by 3.5 inches large.The following drawings were all done on this size, and I love how they all turned out:

 1. cozy shed (other participants that didn't speak English interpreted the shed as a tent, and so I did too.)

 

2. Honey rain






















 5. lunar landscape
 

 4. Striped evening






















 5. ghostly bouquet (it's supposed to be flowers along a pioneer trail grave or a ghost town.) I saw these ones at Independence Rock, WY.



I also did a few watercolors, with mixed success:
6. autumn rabbit (this was the second drawing I did and it was very popular- I guess people love animals.)






















7. Gray wind.

8.pumpkin fog. I was thinking of the Great Pumpkin, but I didn't want to actually draw Charlie Brown characters; instead, I gave the mouse a blanket like Linus'. I like the trees, and the foreground, but the whole middle of this picture just needs to disappear Or I need to learn to paint fog.



I also wanted to try using some things I'd never used for drawings, since it was just a fast experiment. For this one, I used some cool scrapbook paper I'd recently bought, for the background. The rest is drawn with marker.

9. apple jam

'

 And for this one, I used some colored bic pens to draw the whole thing. It took a lot longer than expected, even though it was small.

10. cold traveler (I was thinking of the kid from A Christmas Story, who can't put down his arms.)

11. Forest plaid. I was a little disappointed with how this turned out compared to how long it took to put together. It's hand drawn plaid on paper cut in the shape of a forest, then glued together.

 I did a few with  minimal color, thinking that it would help me finish them faster. I forgot that doing things in just black pen actually takes longer because you have to do more line work details to make up for the lack of color. And pencil takes forever to build up shading!

 12.secret sweater.  This one took a few days to finish. I liked the idea of it, but not sure if it lived up to my plans.
 
 
13. morning dress. (this was the first drawing I completed..it's my three boys fighting over blankets while they watch cartoons in the morning)



14.  river city. This was after the style of another artist I admire...which is probably while it was the most liked of the whole month. The artist's name is Ian Miller; he draws really cool buildings and fantasy worlds.



 I had a lot of fun learning from that artist while creating this picture, so when another prompt made me think of a second artist I admired, I decided to have fun trying out their style a little too. Patrica Polacco is one of my favorite illustrators, she draws lots of Russian type Babushka characters, using fun patterns, markers, and pencil.

15. kind scarf

 






16.  Festive umbrella. A little fan art involving Totoro and Firefly...so it would only appeal to the small audience that was familiar with both shows.

I did a few on tan paper which works well for portraits, but not so much for these,, so they didn't turn out as bright, 

 17. fiery beetle

 18. soft cloak. This was based on a photo of Elora, though it isn't really supposed to look like her.

I wanted to try a few Halloween inspired pictures, since it was coming up soon. 

19. magic coffee and sunny fox. This was harder to draw than I thought, but I like the idea of it. This is the one drawing where I combined two prompts, because I knew I wouldn't finish in time otherwise.

20. unusual pie. I had the idea for this one planned from the beginning, and I was really excited to do a pulp-fiction inspired picture. There are a few things I'd like to fix on it, but overall, this is one of my favorites.

 21. musical cat. I really wanted to try to draw neon lights for one of the prompts, and this one was perfect for that idea.Also one of my favorites, drawn on black paper.

 22. red ornament. These crab apples were from a photo I had taken,and it was fun trying to figure out how to draw them with marker! Another favorite.

I was able to make a few faster drawings by leaving the white around it instead of coloring in all the details; something I admire with other artists' work, but have a hard time making myself do.

 23. strange house

24. terrible mushroom (probably the fastest drawing I did. Totally something Eli would draw, too.)

 25. Warm kettle. This one didn't turn out as nice as I pictured it (probably because it was too small to do much detail) but it's based on the landscape on Cedar Mountain. See the kettle?

















 And this one was a very small one. almost as small as those artist cards.

26. Yellow sunset. I didn't want to draw another sunset, so I thought this worked too, with the yellow flowers and girl, facing the sunset.

 Finally, here are the ones that really didn't turn out that well, and I wasn't happy with.

 27. Flower soup. I loved the idea of it, but didn't notice till I was taking the picture that A. the circle was off for the plate, and B. The lines on the background are incredibly off, with the size and spacing changing all over the place. I'm sad it didn't look as good as planned.

28 Fragrant druid. I spent a long time changing ideas for this one. I liked the idea of drawing an ancient Celtic warrior for the druid instead of a guy in a black cloak. The flowers are the fragrant part, it just didn't quite turn out as I wanted.

 29. Probably my least favorite; it's supposed to look like a label for a mens scent or something. Meh. I guess that's what you get when you make it all in one day.

 Next time, I'll post the pictures I did for October! Which do you like?

children's portraits, winter 2017 edition

These are the ten portraits I did for Christmas, for the same family I've drawn for several years now. They actually had some really nice photos this year, which made for some great portraits. It was fun comparing the very similar pictures of each kid and seeing which turned out better, but I liked them all.

A. This one is my favorite, probably because I loved the photo so much. It was fun trying to recreate the short depth of field where only the eye and a few strands of hair were really in focus.


















This is the second picture of the same girl, which is cute but not nearly as good. I like the reflected teal in her skin tones.



B.This drawing is my second favorite picture; I really like how the light ooked in her hair, and the skin colors turned out really well. I like her smile better in the second version, but I think the background is a little too distracting.

 
 



 C. I loved how the light on these pictures made colors in the closely cropped hair on this one. Overall I like this first one best, especially the shirt; but I like the rainbow colors in the hair on the second version. In that one I had to fabricate the background because his sister was standing behind him in the picture.

























 D. With this girl I'm not sure which I like better. I like the brighter colors and more polished look of the first version. but I like the horizontal cropped format of the second, as well as the more realistic feel to it.







E. I found it interesting how different this boy looked in his two pictures, because one is looking down at his face, while the other is angled up.