Watercolor Paintings, Illustration, Inspiration and Creativity: drawing

Showing posts with label drawing. Show all posts

Sunday, May 01, 2016

Every Day in May: 1

And so it begins! This year's theme will be portraits of strong female literary characters. Some of them are more recent finds for me, and some of them have been kindred spirits for years. I'm really looking forward to this list.

I'll be painting each day and then uploading the previous day's painting the next morning. What that really means is that all you get for today is sketches and notes while I complete the first painting. A new painting will be posted tomorrow. Any guesses on who it will be?

As always, I encourage anyone who wants to participate to join in - it can be 31 paintings of your choice, or songs, or interpretive dances, or writing for 31 days, or anything that keeps you creative. Just make sure you try to do it every day in May.

Friday, April 29, 2016

Walt Whitman sent me here

Snippets from something new I made this past week. If you are interested, go to this link and explore. (And if you are already a member, let me know!)

Monday, August 24, 2015

Sketching, again

I know these latest posts aren't paintings, but they're a great way to sketch out ideas till I get a chance to break out the watercolors. Especially if I get inspired and there's no place to physically paint - I can still capture the idea.

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Getting sketchy

Testing out a new stylus for drawing on the iPad. Worked much better than just using my finger on the screen! These doodles were fun - I wouldn't mind trying them out in watercolor one day as mini- portraits.

Tuesday, June 02, 2015

Every day in May: 25

I hear you cry, it's June, silly! But on Memorial Day I stupidly and spectacularly strained my back lifting something I had no business lifting, and wound up unable to do many things I really wanted to do, for about a week. Including painting (which no lie, had me crying).

I'm getting back into it and won't stop until I've done all 31 days of paintings.

Maybe I won't stop then either.

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Happy sloth-y birthday to Sophie

The t-shirt we made her for today, which matches the cardboard doodles we still have hanging in the kitchen. The Sophster is a sloth fan from waaaay back (remember the sloth Christmas painting?) so we knew she'd love it. Happy birthday, you awesome kid.

Thursday, January 08, 2015

Illustrative portraits: Jude

My awesome nephew Jude is a huge fan of baseball. The request was to incorporate blue and white, and the number 85 if possible. My son got his bat and posed for me to help out - my kids are used to me grabbing them and posing them.

Original pic:

Tuesday, January 06, 2015

Illustrative portraits: Mandy

Joe's little sister is my niece Amanda, who loooooves herself some glitter! I used some of my favorite glitter watercolors on her portrait. And pink. Lots and lots of pink.

Original snapshot:

And now with a little glam:

Monday, January 05, 2015

Illustrative portraits: Joe

I tried something a little different for the holiday paintings this year. I asked everyone if they'd like a portrait (yes) and how they'd like to customize it. They were such great fun to do! Here's my favorite oldest nephew, Joe.

Thursday, October 09, 2014

21 days: jury duty selection sketches

This day's assignment was to draw what you see, for two hours. I didn't quite make it to two hours, but what better place to people watch/stealth draw than jury duty selection?

I was passed over for one trial and the other two settled. Other than having my crochet kit confiscated because blunt kindergarten scissors are a clearly danger to the justice system, it was pretty uneventful.

The girl on the right twisted into so many contortions that I could have filled a whole page if I thought she wouldn't catch on, but I chickened out.

Quite a few people were asleep. Asleep works quite well for sketching if you like your subjects not to move so much.

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

21 days: faces

I know it said #draw21days, but nobody said they had to be 21 consecutive days, did they? I had a lot of fun with this one, as faces are one of my all-time favorite things to draw.

Getting back into the swing of things. At last.

Tuesday, September 09, 2014

21 days: Cardboard doodles

My family and I have found an incredibly fun hobby thanks to this day's assignment: cardboard doodles! The process goes something like this: get thin cardboard (we used cereal boxes). Draw on it in pencil. Cut it out. Get the markers and pens out and go crazy.

My original sloths...and then they take to the trees. Because of course they do!

This dude takes requests.

My girls are so into this - so far we've had the cast of several Disney movies, flowers, and a certain girl has been making tons of germs to decorate a reminder for Paul's students to wash their hands before their lessons. And her sister's created an adorable sink for them to go with!

Thursday, September 04, 2014

21 days: the eyes have it

This drawing challenge is called "the windows of the soul". If you will recall, that's why Yoko Ono wore dark wraparound specs, so that nobody could see into her windows. But I digress.

The assignment was to draw one eye as realistically as possible, and to draw the other as design. I decided to grab a mirror and put them both in the same face.

Wednesday, September 03, 2014

21 days: owlish by design

This assignment was to use reference material to draw just the most basic elements of an owl and create a design or almost a logo from them. So in my world, Pigwidgeon, Errol, and Hedwig all get designer makeovers.

Of course this is not my first foray into owlishness. Remember this one?

21 days: the dinosaurs take their show on the road

This day's assignment was to draw dinosaurs. So I did! My kind of dinosaurs.

Tutu wearing dinosaurs...

Dinosaurs that get festive with balloons....

Tap-dancing dinosaurs...

Blue-suede-shoe wearing dinosaurs.

Those kinds of dinosaurs.

Tuesday, September 02, 2014

21 days: Reality is boring

This day's assignment started with this example at right of a very proper businessman in the rain. I've decided he's British. (Not that you can tell from the pic, just trust me, he is.) In any case, notice was made that all of his limbs were very close to his body, and if he'd been a silhouette, he'd make kind of a staid one.

The challenge was titled "Reality is Boring" and encouraged you to rearrange Mister Businessman so that he made a more interesting shape. Artistic license was encouraged. Poor Mister Businessman... I see a bit of a trip in your future.

Now that this assignment is done, I want to draw it all over looking more like this:

Monday, September 01, 2014

21 days: Tell a visual story

Day 13's assignment is to create a visual narrative within one rectangle - no words, no speech bubbles. It should come as no surprise that this was drawn during a nice round of family D&D, but I've always had a soft spot in my heart for dragons ever since I read my first Anne McCaffrey book.