Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day everyone! It's been a long while since I updated my blog. Well, things have been busy and they're going to get busier still with me moving. I have been making some pictures (one is a self portrait I'm still working on) so keep an eye out for that. Also I've been planning to make a facebook page! So I'm exciting about that.

    A week ago my friends and I went to Blick Art Materials. With a coupon I decided I wanted to try out the Derwent Colorsoft colored pencils. They are a wax based colored pencil that are suppose to be really soft. I have to say, they are as soft as they say they are. What's nice is that I haven't noticed any wax bloom (milky-white haze/shine when color is pressed down or layered over a lot) that wax based pencils are prone to getting. Whatever wax bloom there is, is very minimal. They also blend effortlessly as well. I'm the kind of person who loves blending, and the colorsofts don't make you struggle with that. No complaints here. :)

About this piece. I wanted to create a little something with the colorsofts and I thought of a little dragon among some clovers to get into the Saint Patrick's day spirit. Because of the nice blending, the 12 set does offer a lot of nice color combos. I actually used a little less than the 12 colors offered.

Most people think of a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, whereas I was thinking of a little gold-like dragon loves to look at clovers.









The End of the Rainbow
Derwent Colorsofts on Stonehenge
5"x7"

What would like to find at the end of the rainbow?

Red Riding Hood

I've had this piece done since early September, but I wanted to hold on uploading it until now. This piece was submitted for the Blick Art Show. The theme was "Good Enough to Eat". So I'm thinking to myself 'what's a good way to create a piece for this theme without drawing various food?' Little Red Riding Hood came into mind and I'm thinking why not make this a 'double whammy' piece. As you can see Red is too occupied on a delicious strawberry to notice the hungry wold right behind her.

Unfortunately I didn't place, but still I am proud of this piece. It is nice illustrating something from a classic story. Plus, I'm a total sucker for cloaks.

I have managed to take a couple in progress shots to show how it evolved.

 I first started working on Little Red. I wanted her cloak to be a nice rich color.

I laid down a soft yellow-red base color for the wolf. Though this color won't exactly show through, I just needed a color to work off of to help add more variety.

Started on the background. I purposely left the trees and cottage inkless to give them the illusion of being in the distance. 

Picture is primarily done at this point. The tape is to keep the borders clean and crisp.

 

Close ups:

There you have it! I personally had a lot of fun with this one.

Good Enough to Eat
Copic Markers on Smooth Bristol
9 in x 12in

What childhood stories do you like?

Ovarian Cancer Awareness

September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness month. Though if you ask me, every month should be awareness month. Ovarian cancer is known as the 'Silent Killer'. Unfortunately early detection is extremely difficult. It is the persistent, smallest symptoms that women of all ages should look out for.

 

Potential symptoms include:

 

-Bloating

-Pelvic or abdominal pain

-Trouble eating or feeling full quickly

-Feeling the need to urinate urgently or often 

Other symptoms that can occur:

 

-Fatigue

-Upset stomach or heartburn

-Back pain

-Pain during sex

-Constipation or menstrual changes

Please be aware that all females (yes, even children) can get this. So please, spread the word. Share this post. Tell your wife, mother, daughter, niece, friend (heck, even grandma!) about this cancer. Early detection is the key! Education will help save lives. Let this awareness become as popular as the awareness for breast cancer.

 

About this piece:

 

I've wanted to do a little something for the awareness this month. After much thought, I give you the little umbrella girl. With her head held high and looking only forward, this brave girl walks on teal grass barefoot that supports her while her umbrella symbolizes the support and protection from getting beaten upon by the cancer. The sunrise that fills her represents hope.

 

Title: There is Always Hope

Medium: Derwent Inktense colored pencils

Paper: 9x12 Canson Cold Press watercolor

 

Websites about Ovarian Cancer:

http://ovarian.org/

Ovarian Cancer Symptom Awareness

So please, spread the word.

(This is dedicated to you, Melanie Chasen) <3

Unique Sunrise

I was at my grandma's house the other week and was struck with a simple creative idea. After messing around a bit, this came into being. It's nothing fancy at all, but the sun is full of hot fire, plasma, and other goodies that I just thought it'd be cool representing that to an abstract degree.

Besides, perhaps if we were to look past the pure brightness of the sun, it'd be cool if we could witness something like this.

Title: Sunrise
Medium: FC Polychromos
Paper: 6x9 on Strathmore black Artagain

Of Unicorns and Lilies

 Today's post is dedicated to all things pure and hopeful. I've been imagining a unicorn walking through a forest full of Canada lilies, so I thought I should put that to paper. And also that I've been meaning to put a nice header on my blog and thought this piece would be great for it.

This artwork is also my first time using odorless mineral spirits (OMS) with colored pencils. 

 My goal was to keep the background blurry, but still give the feeling that the unicorn was walking through a forest.

 Here, you'll notice that the right side is a bit more darker than the left. That is the OMS at work. I used a paint brush to paint over the work I've done. It does a pretty good job removing the 'scratchy' look of colored pencils. It makes a pretty good blender.

Background is done and I've started working on the shadows and cast shadows of the unicorn.

I added a very light green (Earh Green) on the unicorn in random patterns to represent the shadows of the leaves of trees high above.

Here is the finished piece!

A close up.

Title: Keeper of the Forest

Medium: Faber-Castell Polychromos colored pencils

Size: on 9x12 Strathmore Drawing paper

Horse Reference

The Mighty Sphinx

The Sphinx was powerful and wise creature of mythology. Unlike it's Greek cousin, which would eat travelers who would incorrectly answer its riddle, the Egyptian Sphinx was often portrayed as a guardian of the tomb of the pharaohs. It was less malevolent, though equally as dangerous. 

The Great Sphinx of Giza often comes to mind when people hear the word 'sphinx'. 

This is just a simple picture I made. I wanted to make a stylized version of an Egyptian Sphinx. The wings are not really common with the ones in Egypt, they're rather Greek, but it felt a little naked in the back area. Perhaps this one got tired of riddles?

Title: Egyptian Sphinx

Paper: 5"x7" Stonehenge

Medium: Faber Castell Polychromos

Mermaid Lake

Salutations. I've been working on this piece for a bit. To be honest, I had the line art for this in my sketchbook for a little over a year, and I decided I should do something with it. Better late than never, right? I've decided I wanted to try a new approach with markers. If you noticed, there are no inked lines in this drawing. My goal was to try to achieve a painterly-like affect with this piece (or at least get defining edges on certain parts of it without the use of line art). I think I did a pretty good job, for the most part. 

I'm still camera-less, but I did make sure to take a few pictures along the way on my phone. I've always like seeing progress shots of other peoples artworks. It's so interesting to see how things started out before it reached the finished look. I hope you guys have enjoyed seeing those of mine too throughout this blog.

This is the prep stage. The drafting tape is used to keep the border clean and crisp. I've traced the line work very lightly on nicer paper.

Once the tree is all colored in I started work on the grass. My goal throughout this piece is to try to give it and autumn(y) look. That's why you see a light orange color under the green(the color is YR01 Peach Puff to be precise). I've used that as a base color a lot through this piece, to try to keep colors uniform. 

 

 Grass is done. The grass by itself took a little over an hour to complete. Since this is the foreground, I wanted it to have more details.

The trees in the background are complete. I am kinda fond of that evergreen there. I started blocking in the shadow parts of the mermaid.

I started work on the mermaid. I didn't want her tail to be the same green as the rest of picture (it would have blended in too much), so I made it a soft teal. Once again I put a base coat of the YR01 under the teal, so that way she is not standing out obnoxiously. 

The water was the last thing to add. I was procrastinating with the water. I wanted to see how everything looked with the background before creating the lake. I haven't done a lot of water pictures so I was a bit worried how it might turn out. Overall, I'm pretty happy.

I added the finishing details with colored pencils. Now the mermaid has eyes and doesn't look creepy! Yay!

Overall,  am extremely happy how this turned out. I just wished the picture and scan came out better. It's more rich then what it shows on the screen.

Well, the next thing on my schedule (Schedule? What schedule?) should be a simple sphinx that I'm working on. It should be up within a few days. Till then, keep an eye out. 

Title: Mermaid Lake

Paper: 9x12 Strathmore Smooth Bristol

Medium(s): Copic marker, Faber Castell Polychromos colored pencils