Carousel Horse

I've always had a soft spot and a love for carousels. I love how whimsical and elegant the horses look in all their different poses and designs. Unfortunately, it's hard finding a carousel with really gorgeous horses. Most of the time in carnivals, the horses are cookie cutters and twins.

This is just a little tribute for carousels. I wanted to make a white horse with a caramel colored mane. For the design, I took some inspiration with the tack and gear people would have for their horses during the Middle Age(and most likely Renaissance too). Though the design may be simple, I tried to make it elegant.

Here are some progress shots I took. I wanted to take a couple more throughout the process, but the camera was crapping out on me. One day I'll save enough money to buy a better and lighter weight digital camera for myself.

Medium: Colored Pencils

Paper: Strathmore Artagain Black 6x9

Rapunzel

So this weekend I was working on my Rapunzel picture. I must say I am really proud of this one. The layout may be simple, but I love the way I colored her. I really am improving my marker skills. Originally I was planning on printing out the picture of the sun and trace it, but I decided against it for I felt it wouldn't look as natural. I never drew the Tangled sun symbol before, and I think it turned out nice. She is also inked in purple pen.

Just like my Elsa picture, I'll give a list of colors I used.

Skin: E51, E00, E21, BV31

Bodice: V01, BV00, BV11

Skirt: V05, V15, V17

Ties and lace: RV11, RV93, RV95, RV42

Sleeves: R00, RV11, RV34

Hair: Y15, Y19, YR23

Eyes: G43, YG63, C9

Pascal: YG45

Background: Y08, V09, V17, RV91

Title: Rapunzel

Paper: 9x12 Strathmore Smooth Bristol

Medium: Copic markers

And just to compare, here are a couple pictures I did of Rapunzel a couple years ago.

Queen Elsa

Hello everyone. I hope your 2014 has started off good. Since I created my one picture of Elsa, I wanted to make another picture of Elsa in her coronation dress (which is my favorite dress that she's in). I just love the color the dress has, and I especially love the cape in which the warm colors really enhance the cooler ones on her dress. 

The only part that was a bit challenging was her hair. Elsa is a platinum blonde, and wanted to make sure her hair wasn't very yellow. So I added some bits of gray in there to help tone it down.

List of Colors:

-Hair: Y000, Y11, Y32, W2 Prismacolor French gray

-Dress: T4, T5, T8- BG72, BG75, BG78-YR23, YR15, Y19, Y28

-Cape: RV19, V06, RV66- V95

-Skin: E50, E000, E51

-Glove: BG13, BG15

Title: Queen Elsa

Paper: 9x12 Strathmore Smooth Bristol

Medium: Copic markers with a little colored pencil for minor details, and white gel pen

Up Next: Rapunzel!

Let it Go

Hello everyone! I hope you guys had a great December and enjoyed the holidays. Earlier in December my friend and I went to see 'Frozen'. I am not going to spoil anything, but for those who haven't seen it yet, you must! It's an enjoyable movie and it's great to see Disney go back to their more traditional 'musical movies'.

My friend requested that I should make a drawing of Elsa. Normally I would have had this finished earlier this month, but things where really hectic, and not by just the holiday shopping and whatnot. My grandma was in the hospital earlier this month, and a day before the 24th my mother got really sick. As of this week I've been the errand girl and doing the shopping, which I don't mind. Grandma is on her way to a long recovery, and Mom is slowly improving.

Here are some progress shots of this painting.

                                     Here is the initial sketch. I had this done for awhile.  

I transferred the sketch on watercolor paper and I then taped it down on foam board. Since I'm using watercolor, I don't water the paper to buckle up more than I know it's going to. Plus, taping it creates nice clean borders. :)

Since Elsa is on the small side and I'm going to do a full wash for the background, I don't want paint to get on her. I used liquid frisket to masked her. Liquid frisket is another name for masking fluid, and this one has an orange tint to it, so it's easy to spot when it comes time to take it off.

The background is done. When the background was still wet, I sprinkled some sea salt to create the snow and flurries Elsa is unleashing.

 

I carefully peeled off the mask and started to work on Elsa.

Elsa is mostly finished.

I took out some of my watercolored pencils to fix up and add to a couple things. The sea salt decided to mutiny and refused to work. I then took out my white gel pen and create the snow and flurries myself.

And there you have it!

I hope you guys have a great new year. I will see you next year!

Title: Let it Go

Medium: Watercolors

Paper: 9x12 on Canson Coldpressed XL series

Medusa

I finally managed to get Medusa done.

The story of Medusa is really sad. One of the main stories with her was that Medusa use to be a beautiful priestess for the Temple of Athena. Many men sought after her, but she choose to serve Athena. The god Poseidon found her beautiful as well, and one day entered the temple and raped Medusa. Instead of being angry with Poseidon, Athena set her fury on Medusa for disgracing her temple (it was expected of Poseidon to go after females, so that was why he was excused). In anger, Athena turned Medusa in the hideous monster that she is now. Since then, Medusa lived a solitary life away from people, because gazing upon her turns them into stone.

I did some research to find out what venomous snakes were native to the Greece area, and found about the Vipera Ammodytes (Horned Viper). I decided to reference them for Medusa's "hair".

Paper: Strathmore Toned Gray (9x12)

Medium: Colored Pencils (Faber Castell Polychromos)

  

More Progress on Medusa

 The body of the snakes are mostly finished, so I started working on the skin. My goal is to give the skin a rough look. I plan on having this finished before November ends.

Snakes for Hair

I've started on the snakes. So far it's not as bad as I thought it would be, working on them. Right now, I'm just getting the basic color scheme in before I refine the details more.

Faber-Castell Polychromos are now being use.