Wednesday, 29 July 2009

New Sharpies!!!

I ordered a few more Sharpies. The ultra fine sort in a few of the colours that I didn't already have. I love the intensity of the colours of the Sharpie ink. The fine point Sharpies are actually quite wide and I don't enjoy them for drawing. Here is my first drawing in my new Sharpies. Note that this drawing actually has a face! My first in markers. I like the lilac shading too.




I also did another drawing for Illustration Friday. I'm still not brave enough to submit it to the site but I will put it here, where it doesn't matter if it is not good enough! The title was Idle.



The new Lesson should be up today at Suzi's academy. As it seems like it might rain here again, I'll keep on with that mixed media dream...

Monday, 27 July 2009

Monday Morning Colour Inspiration

It's grey and raining outside again and I need some colour in my world :) Here's some red, purple and orange to add a warm, strong and exotic feel to your day. I'm not a pink girl. I love orange. With red and purple it's delicious! A whole world of glorious sunsets. I want my living room to feel like this!


1. Red & 3 Greens, 2. Lightning over South Africa, 3. Christmas Red & Purple Organza Felt Heart 2, 4. Shades of red, 5. Red Africa, 6. 200608 - Assateague - 209803363_7153739694_o - sunset - awesome orange-red, 7. Purple n Orange Spray, 8. Rothko 'Orange, Red and Yellow' 1961, Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 9. Purple Rain !

I'm waiting for a sofa to be delivered. I'm not even sure it's going to turn up after some problems with their payment system. I'm going to enjoy sitting in my window and shading faces. I have a whole cast of characters to create!

Sunday, 26 July 2009

A Satisfying Saturday

I've been practicing my faces. I want to have the shading really sorted before moving on to the next lesson.
Another face done ...


No paint this time, just pencils. I wanted to practise the proportions and the shading. It looks a bit scrappy. But I like it. I used more cream on this one because I did it in my white paper journal. It still needs more shading now I look at it again! I also want to add something to the hair.

I also finished a crocheted top yesterday and added little heart shaped buttons from the new shop.





It's not bad for my first piece of crocheted clothing. I'm keen to find a new project now!

Friday, 24 July 2009

Lesson 2 homework continues with paint

So I added the paint for the hair this morning. I also seem to have missed out the whole shirt thing. (I added a last minute sort of orange shirt between the hair!). The face disappears a little with the bright red paint but I guess further layers will finally do it justice. I am a little disappointed with her.



Clearly I need more practice so it's back to the drawing tonight and out with the ruler and pencils again!

In other news the wind was so strong down on the sea this evening there were numerous windsurfers and kite surfers whizzing up and down! I tried to get a picture on my phone but the battery gave up before I could snap them! I love watching the surfers in the huge dark waves, the clouds all shifting heavily overhead. We bought tea and struggled to walk an adventurous wookie while supping steaming tea!

Thursday, 23 July 2009

Lesson 2 with Suzi Blu

The feedback from Suzi was good for the last face so I have moved on to Lesson 2 with her friendly advice!

Last night, with the bf cooking dinner and the Wookie asleep at my feet I sharpened my coloured pencils to dangerous but very satisfying points and watched the new videos. I drew some more faces in my journal and started to add some colour.

Mostly graphite with some colour:



Then some graphite more colour. As usual the scanner has bleached out some colour but those pink cheeks still seem cute! I'm so impressed with what I have achieved in such a short time. Suzi's instruction has been fantastic.


The next step is to add paint but it was simply too late last night to be setting out paints. The downside of having a wookie in the house is that no art or craft supplies can be left out. Anything plastic especially would become a toy/snack. :) So tonight the paint comes out and I'm glad i invested in some Stewart Gill paints last summer. Their sparkle is going to be yummy in my new faces!

Monday, 20 July 2009

Lesson Homework continues with a face!

This has taken some time and I am not entirely happy with the nose or the shading. However I'm about to post to Suzi Blu for some help.
This is the first scan I took...



And with a bit more shading...



There is still some work to be done. The scan always look so bright and struggle to show the gradients of shading but I can see how much more it needs.
On we go...

Sunday, 19 July 2009

Homework Part 2

A sleepy Sunday afternoon spent drawing noses, eyes and mouths! I have grey fingertips and a problem with my eye shapes!

Despite that I do have a small effort towards a face that doesn't look too bad. Next stage: The Face :-/
Don't tell anyone but I ordered more Sharpies today. Ultra Fine Point. In Tangerine, Red, Yellow, Aqua and Green. They are costly. They are worth every penny! Hmmm.

Tango

What a hard subject for a beginner! I just can't draw people and dancing people even more so. So I made an effort and looked at loads of images of Tangoing couples. My attempt is by my own admission, poor. However when I put up this blog, it was to record all my art regardless of how good or bad I thought it was. So uncensored it will remain and here is the disastrous and embarrassing sketch I did for "Tango" for Illustration Friday.




Friday, 17 July 2009

Cross hatching Exercises!

So I have watched the first of FOUR videos for the first week! I spent the afternoon on the sofa armed with tea, chocolate and a 2H pencil. I practised the greyscale charts with different pencils and then turned the page. I made a greyscale with a 2H and then did some more crosshatching and then to the sphere! It took 2 episodes of The Guardian and half a packet of smarties to finish this! Unfortunately the scan just doesn't show the darks very well so it's lost some of it's depth I think. Pity. It took a long time but I don't think it's too bad. Maybe I spent TOO long on it? Uh oh self doubt creeping in. (Shut up!)



Anyway, it's on to the next video.
The next Illustration Friday is up too.

Wednesday, 15 July 2009

Welcome to the Suzi dome!

Well the first videos are up! I'm so excited. I've only watched the first of the FOUR videos and have plenty to be going on with! First we are learning crosshatching and greyscales. This is all new to me so I'm excited but trying not to overwhelmed with all that I must learn before I can even think about faces. I now have no second thoughts about signing up. It's going to be worth every penny.
No art to post today though. I will put up my practice crosshatching but not tonight. It's already getting late and I have an early start tomorrow. It's pyjamas and a few pages of PopCo before sleep. Goodnight!

Tuesday, 14 July 2009

Hollow Girl

My first Illustration Friday picture. Drawn with Sharpies and Markers. Started off as a doodle and warped into something bigger. Drawings with Markers are a bit of an obsession lately.



The lack of a face is so telling! Suzi Blu I need your help! I'm so excited about the workshop. Only 1 day to go.

Monday, 13 July 2009

An Arty Start

This blog is really about me learning to share some of my art and creations. Last night I completed the lask week of "The Artist's Way". This is amazing as I have tried twice before and failed to get past week 8. This achievement has given me motivation to continue and I have joined "The Goddess and the Poet" Workshop with Suzi Blu which starts on Wednesday! I'm also an avid follower of Illustration Friday however tonight was the first time I actually created a piece of work for the website. I'm too chicken to enter it there though!

Instead I have created this blog, a corner of Planet Kore, where the grass is green under bare feet, the water runs clear in narrow streams and tiny birds sing noisily in the trees. If you stay 'til dusk there may be hedgehogs. At night there is always sleepwalking.