Enjoying My New Brushes!

I'm really enjoying these new brushes, especially the da Vinci Maestro! What a lovely feeling it has! This top one is based on one of our family favorites, a black and white photo of my dad. I guess he was about four or so. I began with a pencil sketch, adding the watercolor; but, I didn't like it for some reason, so I added the ink. I didn't spend a lot of time fussing with the sketch and probably could have focused a little more on the hands, but I like it. It would be worth revisiting for a more serious painting sometime.
This one is from imagination. I love the feel of the brushes so much that I picked one up and just started putting down some color. This is what came out. No pencil first and only added a few lines when it was done: a line separating the lips, two dashes for nostrils, and lines defining the eyes. May be a few anatomical errors, but it was actually fun to go in without the pencil. It felt more like I was sculpting her face, than drawing it. The results surprised me, and I may try doing this more often.

New Sketchbooks and some older sketches

Remember the sketchbook I made? The paper wasn't folded with the grain and as a result it was all a bit wonky. Also, I hadn't realized I knicked the spine, which began to fall apart after being carried around in my purse. It was very heavy! So, I tore it down and made these three sketchbooks. The material is just some I had laying around from an old project. The rings are 1", not the really big ones; and I used Yes! paste for the glue. The small one pictured with the cover open is identical to the largest one, and they all have an envelope glued into the back. These are incredibly easy to make--I made all three the same day! But what I really like, is that I have no fear because there is always the possibility of removing a page. Or adding. Or even selling one! I'm not embarrassed to have someone look through it and as a result, I'm taking it everywhere and actually getting it out to use!

This is a failed experiment that for some reason, I still kind of like. Paul Wang, Hong Kong correspondent for Urban Sketchers, had a few pictures of his pre-painted pages along with the finished pages. I love his color so decided to give it a go. Well, what was supposed to be a light red wash turned out much darker than intended because I was sitting in the sun on a dry day and as I touched the paper it seemed to dry on contact. A wash was next to impossible using my waterbrush. I left it with the red wash over my sketch for several weeks before deciding to add more color and see if I could make it work. Since this scan I have actually gone back and touched up the trees some. They look better, but I'm too lazy to rescan. The sketch was done while waiting in the truck at Lowe's, during all that recent construction.

Another sketch from Lowe's parking lot, done back in Sept; and a sketch of mom's car in her garage. Never went back to paint them, but I'm not interested enough to bother with that. Maybe one day I'll get the urge.

And of course, what sketchbook doesn't start with a page like this? (for me, anyway!)

These three sketches are the first three pages of the larger sketchbook pictured above. I've also added some loose drawings that I didn't want to get lost. So far, I'm really liking the freedom I feel with these sketchbooks! (The sketches in this post were all in the sketchbook before I tore it down to make the smaller ones.)

Feet and Hands

A certain theme runs through most of my sketchbooks--because wherever you are, if you don't feel inspired by your surroundings you can always fall back on these...hands and feet. They are supposed to be one of those difficult tasks when drawing people, so why not get all the practice you can; right? Let me tell you, I do get lots of practice!

This sketch appears about once a month, almost always exactly like this...sketch too close to the top of the page to get the whole thing in, holding the side of my sketchbook. You think I would be tired of doing it but somehow I find it more interesting than my surrounding! Maybe I should take this as a sign than I need to redecorate?

This would actually not be my own feet, and I really enjoyed getting a view I wouldn't otherwise be capable of getting. These are my mother's feet. She had them pulled up onto the couch as we watched "Castle". She had figured out what I was doing by the time I got to her bottom foot, was itching to move, so I rushed and couldn't seem to get the size right. It appears smaller when it should, in reality, appear slightly larger as it was closer.

This may look odd at first. I was sitting in my backyard trying to find something to sketch. So, in a very unladylike manner, I threw my leg up onto the table and sketched. Luckily no one can see into our backyard as I would never sit like this in public!! Could you imagine doing this at a restaurant? Of course, I would hope you would be inspired to draw something other than your foot!


Decided to add watercolor, even though it wasn't watercolor paper. The plants in the background are supposed to be my tomato plants and that is asparagus in the very back, next to the wall. Edited out were my rosemary, chives, and parsley. The gray of the concrete didn't scan well, so it loses a little of the depth.

So, how often do you resort to your hands and feet?

EDM #10, painted

I'm new to painting. (Don't let the watercolors on my previous post mislead you into thinking that I'm an old pro at it...I had an instructor standing over me, telling what to do!) Corel Painter is one of my favorite places to play around with it, since I don't worry about messing up a drawing, or wasting material on something ugly.

So, this is the sketch of my hand, painted with oil paints, in Corel. Very overdone, I think. (especially when I see Janey's !)

My First EDM challenge post

This is for my first post to EDM flickr group. It was a quick sketch, done to test out the new drawing desk my dad built for me. And no, I didn't mess up on the finger; it's a scar!
I don't know why, but I picked up a prismacolor col-erase pencil, in terra cotta, to do this. It took a little tweeking with the scanner to even get it to show up! Quite honestly, I hadn't expected it to turn out since it was so quick.