Ink Blots

I love the blog Stefan G. Bucher's Daily Monster where the talented Stefan posts his Weekly Monster clips--always entertaining!--as well as inkblots that he invites anyone to download and use to create something. These are two pieces I submitted. They're a lot of fun to do; just print the ink blots out and start playing around with them until something starts to appear...the perfect thing for when you're too busy with work to spend much time doing art-type stuff...

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Watercolor Dress

Pencil drawing, inked and then colored in Photoshop. Inspired by a photo in Mikaela Diane's gallery on deviantArt.

The pencil drawing and the plain inked version can be seen here and here.

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300

My take on King Leonidas from the fabulous movie 300, for a thread on the Drawing Board forums.

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Back from SDCC

...and days later I'm still recovering. Came home loaded down with dozens of sketchbooks, art books, original art and loads of inspiration; photos and great memories of the workshops, presentations, chats with artists... I'm already planning the trip out there in '08. :) It will take me the entire year to save up again--I just about broke the bank this time around, lol. Ah well--it was well worth it.

Nude Studies

Just some figure drawing practice in Photoshop using stock from http://adharabatul.deviantart.com/.

That's all I've had time for since I'm off to San Diego tomorrow. Bye bye all! :)

Lilies


















Just playing around with an image of a lily printed on fabric, from the gallery of gild-a-stock.

Top left is a rough pencil drawing; top right has color added in Photoshop; lower left is watercolor; lower right is vector.

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San Diego Comic-Con
In less than two weeks I'm flying off to Comic-Con International in San Diego — my first time at this enormous and intimidating convention. I've been to a number of smaller cons, like the Mid-Ohio Con and Motor City Comic Con, but this one will dwarf the rest, I'm sure. :)

I'm hoping to collect lots of artists' sketchbooks, meet several people I know through blogs and dA galleries, get inspired and in general have a great time (not to mention a great time AWAY FROM WORK.)

If you've been to SDCC and you'd like to leave a comment with any tips, warnings, great places to eat, things to avoid, whatever — please do. ;) I'd really really really appreciate it!

Pinup Pirate



















At the very last minute I decided to enter a contest on deviantArt. Nothing like some practice working as fast as possible...the contest has been running for several months but I waited until 2 hours before the deadline.

Inspired by photo stock in Ida Mary Walker's dA gallery.

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Boo Hoo


















Work is so busy I haven't posted a single thing this month...sigh. Well until now. Just a quick scribble while I waited for something to print. I have a series of figure sketches I've been working on but who knows when I'll get those done? Ah well...

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Lance


















Two versions of Lance, the creator of the blog Draw Me Draw You.

A quick pencil sketch from one of the photos he's posted of himself, which I'm happy with, and a watercolor version that was not entirely successful (those colors--what was I thinking? And why did his ear get smaller?) but I do see some good things happening in places so I'm encouraged, watercolor-wise.


















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Missed the bus













One of a series of little illustrations I just finished for a film to be shown at a graduation ceremony this week. Marker with Photoshop color.

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Olivie


















For the May Drawing Jam on the Drawing Board forums.

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Portrait


















Experimenting on watercolor paper with Dr. PH Martin's inks, using the little plastic dropper to apply the lines...forces you to stay very loose and causes unexpected drips and wiggly lines. I'd like to use this technique more--it's fun.

I did this as my entry to Damien's competition. I rather doubt that he really does look like this, but still...

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Watercolor Study


















I have so much to learn.

From photo reference provided by Zoe/mondkalbstock on deviantArt.

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Tagged...OMG

Brian, of the delightful Goo-beet-sa Blog, startled me by saying:

"I'm sorry to report:

You've been tagged (7)
You must share 7 things about yourself and then tag 7 more people

failure to break this updated chain letter clap trap- will result in swelling ankles, and Kenny G music stuck in your head every Tuesday for 3 hours"

Well that scared the hell out of me, so here are 7 things you never knew about me, plus one thing that isn't true. Guess which one that is.

* I used to play the violin (and was moderately good at it)

* I am more afraid of centipedes than anything else in the world

* My all-time favorite food is sauerkraut

* All the significant men in my life have been born in March

* I think George W. Bush is the Worst President Ever

* I was so fat as a baby I looked like a miniature sumo wrestler

* Daniel Day-Lewis could call me up and command me to do anything and I would obey

* I spent 5 years of my adult life immersed in the bloody first-person shooter game "Unreal Tournament"

Okay, now it's my turn to do some tagging. That is, if I can find anyone out there who hasn't been tagged yet.

Watercolor Class



















Week 6 of a class I'm taking in watercolor basics and I finally feel like I'm getting somewhere--yay. Many thanks to my esteemed instructor (artfish!) for figuring out a way for me to paint that I don't totally suck at.

(Please click images for larger versions that show all that watercolorish goodness, paper textures, drips and the like)

Illustration Friday: Citrus
















I didn't want to let yet another IF go by without contributing something.

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BBWW!


















Big-haired, pizza-loving Wonder Woman created for the very funny Fat Wonder Woman Blog. (This one will be added at some point!) Lots of great art there, go look.

Vector art done in Freehand and tidied up in Photoshop, as usual. (Here's a link to the original pencil scribble.)

(Please click image for larger version! She really does look better bigger!)

Eleanor


















Portrait of a '40s gal...let's call her Eleanor.

I scanned an idle scribble into Photoshop and redrew it with the brush that's supposed to simulate a pencil, then played with color, working as fast as I could so I wouldn't have time to over-analyze.

You can see the original sketchy drawing underneath--I decided I liked the way it looked with the line re-draw on the layer above.

The colors were meant to be 'grab-a-color-and-throw-it-down' since I'm still working on my tendency to think color palettes to death. I think the colors work pretty well though the green in her sweater is kind of funky. Then again, they did wear some funky colors back in the 1940s.

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Illustration Friday: Green


















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Caricature Fun


















Quick sketch done between jobs this morning. Caricatures are so much fun I don't know why I don't do more.

For a long-running thread on the Drawing Board Forums.

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Illustration Friday: Snap















Some happy little snap peas for Illustration Friday.

I had some time at the end of a long workday, so I sketched some peas and added some watercolor. Then of course I had to tweak tweak tweak and tweak some more in Photoshop, because it wasn't right. I'm taking a watercolor class, starting next week, and taught by my old friend and former boss who is an excellent painter--I'm very excited because I need some instruction in the basics; most of the time I am just slopping paint around randomly and I'd like to know what the heck I'm doing.

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Morton Salt Girl, Updated


















For the SugarFrostedGoodness Challenge last week, 'Advertising Character Update.' Done almost entirely as vector art; the 'salt' is a custom Photoshop brush. I'm working on learning how to exaggerate and animate a figure, and I'm happy with this for the most part, though it's hard for me to go past being realistic and push things around a bit, for some reason.

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Nouveau


















This was my entry for an 'Art Nouveau' contest on DeviantArt. I used Ida Mary Walker's stock photo reference for the figure. I played around so long with the background embellishments, and looked at so much art nouveau reference material that I never, ever want to do anything in this style again...


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Illustration Friday: Total


















Drawn in Freehand; color and other stuff added in Photoshop.

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Scary Mary


















I did this as part of a poster contest for the movie "Dead Silence" that I entered at the last minute...the poster turned out crappy but I still liked this ink drawing of the main character, Mary Shaw. I never draw corpse-like old women--who knew how much fun it could be?

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Stephanie in Painter


















I'd really like to learn Painter--I've had it since version 1 and still don't know much more than the basics. This was a pencil sketch that I used as an excuse to 'paint.' I need to do the tutorials or read the manual that I paid extra for so I'm not flailing around so much.

This actually looks better at this small size, so please don't click on it for a larger version. :)

Black Vinyl


















I'm continuing to experiment with watercolor, markers, ink and acetate.

As an exercise to improve my drawing skills, I start out drawing a figure in pencil, struggling to work out problems with proportion and accuracy, and ending up with a not-so-lovely pencil drawing. Then I throw that on a lightbox and, using it as a guide, loosely draw with ink and markers on acetate (I have lots of acetate left over from the old days of keyline/mechanical boards. You young kiddies won't know what the heck I'm talking about . . . heh heh.)

I do a separate watercolor, again very loosely, just playing with color and not worrying too much about anything but pleasing color and brushstrokes.

Finally, I combine the ink drawing and the watercolor in Photoshop, cleaning up a bit if necessary. Sometimes I'm pleased, sometimes it's a total throwaway but I do feel like I learn something from each one.

Inspired by a stock photo from Onnagata-stock on DeviantART.


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Monsieur Bignose



















I never draw guys with big noses. Well, until now, for some reason. I think he looks a bit French.

I have been so intimidated by everyone else's awesome art lately that I have barely been able to pick up a pencil. Stop it, all of you!

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Illustration Friday: Gravity


















...or lack thereof.

Done in Photoshop from a quick sketch, using reference from Armathor-Stock on DeviantArt.

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Orange Dress


















Fooling around with watercolor, pencil, ink, acetate, Photoshop...using a stock photo by simona on DeviantART.

I am amazed at the number of resources on DA, like stock photos and tutorials. Plenty of stuff to keep you busy if you're looking for 'models'—I feel like a kid in a candy store. ;)

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Another Nude Dancer


















Graphite and white charcoal pencil on tinted paper.

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DeviantART
I'm trying out a link-with-pic for my DeviantART page, where I'm spending more and more of my time at the moment. I don't think it looks that great...how the heck can I shift the thing over to the left a bit so it lines up, I wonder...

Anyway, check it out if you're so inclined. Nothing new there yet, just the old stuff.

EDIT: Okay, upgrading to the 'new' Blogger lost the DA link with graphic...so, eh. Back to just a text link; I don't think I cared for it much anyway.

Nude Dancer

Happy Blogiversary to Me-e-e-e...

One year ago today I started this blog with hope--that I'd actually draw more regularly and improve-- and a lot of trepidation. It's been a whole year and I think I've made some progress. :) A big part of that has been all the great comments that people have left here: thanks to all of you! And I'm especially grateful to regular visitors like Patrick, Mel, Artfish, Daryl, Chris, Dan and more--your support via those little comments has made a huge difference! Thank you!

Scribbles

































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Illustration Friday: Red


















The often scary and always fun-to-watch Hazel Bailey, played by Alison Newman, on "Footballers Wives." Just a fast one as I was running out of time...grrr. But had to give it a try!

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She's Cranky


















Did a little scribbly sketch today when I was supposed to be working. Then I had some fun vectorizing it in Freehand and adding color in Photoshop.

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Hands














Decided 2007 is the year I finally learn to draw decent hands. So that's all I've been working on the past few weeks...

Belly Dancer






















For another Drawing Board thread.

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Drawing Board Jam: Anais


















For the January Jam, at the Drawing Board forums.

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Drawing Board Jam: Charlize


















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Vector Nude Again












Husband insists this is the better version, so I'm throwing it out there. I thought the simpler treatment was the best way to go. But this one is looking better to me now. Ha—so maybe he was right.

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Illustration Friday: Phoenix






















Pat Phoenix played the unforgettable Elsie Tanner on the British series "Coronation Street."

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Purple Vector Nude











I was struggling with a pencil drawing I was doing, got disgusted with it and just re-drew it in pencil with some quick shapes. I liked the result enough to scan it and use it as a template in Freehand...this was the result. It was interesting to duplicate the rough pencil lines using the bezigon tool...a lot of interesting changes happened. I'd like to do this again sometime.

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Season's Greetings


















Ha--you find the most interesting things when you do an end-of-year cleaning of your studio... I wish I'd found this last week, but oh well. I did this many, many years ago. (Anyone recognize who she is?)

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Happy Holidays To You


















. . . and have a Photoshop cookie. :)

To art bloggers everywhere, and to all who stop by my humble blog--Happy 2007. :)

Illustration Friday: Mask

















Made from cut paper.

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SketchCrawl
Anyone from the Lansing, Michigan area interested in getting together for some sketching on Saturday, Dec. 9? I'm really intrigued with the idea of a worldwide SketchCrawl...see info here.

Drawing Jam: Leslie


















For November's Drawing Jam on the Drawing Board.

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Happy Stock Photo Girl

















For work I often have to search through stock photo sites for stuff for the jobs I do...I often come across photos, like the one I used as reference for this drawing, that I grab and set aside. I liked this pose because it was unusual, and I am trying to challenge myself more, subject- and pose-wise. Scribbled it up in non-photo blue pencil and scribbled more in black fine-point marker.

Note to self: you need to draw a LOT more hands. And next time, try not to make the head look like it was pasted onto the body, please. Thank you.

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Caricatures








Caricatures are something I never do, but I think I might do more, after having finished this attempt. I don't think it was particularly successful (but fun, nevertheless.) The middle one kinda fell flat, but I'm not altogether unhappy with the first and third one.

They were done with marker, scanned and color added in Photoshop. Part of a caricature thread that has been going on for nearly a year and many pages, over at the Drawing Board forum.

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Drawing Jam: Anahi


















For the October drawing jam at the Drawing Board. I am becoming much more interested in watercolor these days; just slopping paint around is very therapeutic when you're swamped with work!
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