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.

(Please click image for larger version.)

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?

(Please click image for larger version)

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.

(Please click image for larger version.)

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!

(Please click image for larger version.)