Horse Racing….Place

Started in on the pant folds….I always forget how to draw them until I stumble around a bit.



I’ll need to go in and darken the pants/folds on the bottom part of the leg to make it more realistic.



I had to bring in shadows/ contour so I blended a little red and blue into my light brown paint.  The cool thing about painting is blending!!  I didn’t need to buy a new tube of darker brown….I could just blend and make do.



The nice thing about watercolor is that some of the pigment can be removed.  The helmet was too soft looking and when the pigment was evened out it looked much better.

Pixie Princess……collaboration with Janet

My bloggie-bud Janet (at JKBees) draws the prettiest girls.



She knows how much I wanted to color them in… so….she emailed me three pixie girls to colorize!! 



I printed them out on watercolor paper.  I’ve never done this before and wasn’t sure how my printer would apply the ink.  But as you can see there were no worries in the printing department.



Since I’m working on such a big piece (Horse Racing drawing at 30’ x 40’), it’s so refreshing to work on a portable project.



Ran into a small problem though…..I water-colored the face, but apparently my ink jet printer isn’t using waterproof ink…..joy!!

Caricature Drawings….New Etsy Shop Listing

I love to take group photos!! But what I like even more is to change them up a bit….colorize and whimsize them!  It’s just fun!



I’ve included a new listing in my Etsy Shop:

I can personalize them in just about any way you want….colors, gestures, hats, glasses, pattern…..done in markers, watercolors, black & white or any combination there of.



All I need is the jpeg file and I can draw a 8 x 11 Caricature piece on good watercolor paper.  I will include a digital jpeg along with the original drawing upon completion.



For my Bloggie-friends (that’s you), I am offering a discount….use DRAW5 at checkout to get $5 off the personalized piece.  Regular cost $27 (plus s/h)….your price $22.



Remember how you dress for Halloween!



I’ve got 6 varieties posted in the shop: 

1. Crazy
2. Wacky
3. Freaky
4. Sunglass
5. Incognito
6. Theatrical

Wouldn't this be a fun way to celebrate Family or an Event?
Just don’t forgot to enter DRAW5 coupon code at checkout.

Horse Race….Show2

It’s always best for me to draw whatever is in the same color family together.  After I finished the green Horse Saddle liner, I moved up to the green arm band.  All in colored pencil.



Not quite done with the arm band…but was ready to tackle that top.  I just wasn’t feelin’ it for colored pencils for the top….but what I was feelin’ was watercolor pencils.  I love the vibrancy of my pink watercolor out of the tube.  Got a little carried away with applying it to the arm folds. Then backed off for the shoulder and back sketching.



I’m going to have to go in and extract a lot of that color on the right side of the goggle straps because I’ve made it appear that the helmet is soft, which it isn’t.



I picked up a new trick in class…..it’s to apply that watercolor vibrant pink in little dabs.  I like it that way.  Next I’ll be dabbing in vibrant blue.



I cannot wait to get started on the jockey’s white pants…..For some reason, drawing white clothes is fun….who knew? 

Horse Race….Show

Being inundated with Horse Racing activities these past couple of weeks it seemed perfectly natural to sketch a horse next.



Got my outline down…..then grabbed my watercolor paint mess to put a light color base down.



…..Yea, Yea….I know I said I don’t draw animals…but since their hair is so short, it’s almost like sketching skin.  Plus….I get to draw one of those colorful jockeys too



I learned something new this year.  Every horse in a given position always wears the same color…..red #1…..green #5…..orange#7…..etc.  As you can tell, I am out of my element.



Just playing with those folds…..



The neat thing about sketching from a picture….is the ability change colors.  I’ll be making this horse a light brown instead of dark brown…Go Baby Go!

Thank You

I just wanted to Thank everyone that took the time to Vote for my drawing in the recent Dessiner Drawing Facebook contest!

*Check out that profile pic!! Haha

WaterCircles

It was medium-moleskine time.  I haven’t worked in this puppy since the end of February.  It’s a most convenient size…..at 8 x 12 it’s not too big to carry around and it’s a good size for a decent sized drawing.



Played with my watercolors….trying to apply different colors to the background.  As you can see, I tried to work with patterns…then gave up.



I like the vibrancy of watercolor….which expends very little energy.



After doing the alternating black/white borders to the circles, I wasn’t too impressed.



But the almighty-marker got me out of my visual pickle.



I really need to remember that watercolors can get muddy fast!



What I took away from this whimsical piece is the fun it is to bring out the shapes of the watercolor by outling the shapes with my finest nib micron.  Possibly I can carry this into something else????   Who knows

Manicure….4

So…it all started with this picture. (It seems I can’t find the link to this source picture., sorry).  I think I have a thing for hands!  Heck, who wouldn’t, cuz ya know….”the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world”.

But seriously….this was not the best picture to work from in printed form.  Had to do much improvisation, oh boy!



Art class pic from last week.  Didn’t work on it much last week.



Very disappointed in my nail art selection…I thought I could make those American flag nails pop….but with the stripes et al, it just wasn’t going to happen with my skill level and with this color background.



I’ve outlined with my fine tipped marker…which means “in my head”…I’m done and ready to move on….even though I can see the apparent flaws. With my critical nature I must take into consideration how much I enjoyed this and how much I learned.  If I were my teacher I’d give it an 85.  Not bad, not bad. (but I may just have to go in and fix that third fingers knuckle placement.)

P.S.  You may be interested to know that my art studio is now offering live figure nude drawing classes….Yikes!  Haha….not to worry won’t post any of those pictures here

Manicure….3

This angle really intensifies the largeness of the sketch.  Kinda funky!



Put down about 85% of the color build for the skin tone.



Then I had to make a decision!  Had a bunch of ideas….I debated between:

• Silver metallic polish
• Pink series of color (where the pinky is the lightest pink then the following nails are just a bit darker with the thumb being the darkest).  
• Doodles, Designs, flowers, or various colors on a single nail

Since I really wanted to try some “nail art”, the Patriotic nails won.



I liked doing the navy nail, because I was able to show reflection more. The flag nails are harder to show the shininess. 



This is the picture I need to study.  The colors in the inspiration picture are very dull, flat and monochromatic.  I need to step away from the sketching then come back  only in a visual way, I’m hoping I can “spot” where to shadow or highlight next.

Manicure….2

What this type of drawing requires is for me to keep my lines moving in the direction of the grain…..meaning, across the finger.  Much easier to just go length-wise but can’t do much sculpting and contouring that way.



Gave some color and shadows to the four fingers.



Then I went to art class!  After taking the month of March off, I forgot how much I learn here.  It was hinted that I should use some orange!  Before, every time I went  to use orange, I didn’t know if it’s a highlight or a lowlight. 



This picture doesn’t show it much….but Orange works!  It’s making things much more fun and way more interesting!  Who’d have thought?