Here are a few value studies for pieces in progress! Working towards a painting style that I’m really proud of is very rewarding, and I’m looking forward to sharing more pieces with you!
“wrong room”
“swamp gown” look, no one said I was good at titles.
“dressing the princess”
As you know (I can’t shut up about it) I completed 365 drawings in 2022 (technically, there was more, but I stopped counting at 365).
Anyways, it’s high time to show off my top 10 pieces, talk about how my art changed throughout the year, and drag some of the worse one’s kicking and screaming into the light.
Number 10 - Day 266. I’m pretty pleased with this one! It might even be a sticker in the future. I was doodling women in long dresses - as is custom - and wanted to fit a bunch of figures together - again, as is custom - and when adding details, decided to make them goddesses of animals, the heavens, and weather respectively. I was playing with the shale brush on procreate, and it felt good to play with softer lines!
Number 9 - Day 206. This was with the brush nikko rull, of a nice sunset picture of a canal near me. There’s definitely no fish in it, the characters are my artistic license.
Number 8 - Day 85. This was a quick illustration that popped into my head and flowed pretty easy. She rides around in meadows followed by a trail of fire, making flower crowns, putting them on her head, then replacing the ashes with another one.
Number 7 - Day 150 - This was a day of MerMay, one that I was really looking forward to drawing! Deep sea, ice water, glaciers, all of these inspire fear in me, so walking across creaking ice and seeing movement below is my worst nightmare, so I drew it.
Number 6 - Day 20 - This one was pretty early on, and came together because I was on a medieval kick and wanted to draw an arc of blood. I still really like this one!
Number 5 - Day 180 - This is my OC Ally, walking through an old mysterious mansion. I was on aa dark academia kick, and wanted to draw a creepy mansion :)
Number 4 - Day 168 This one was a crazy; it was a five minute scribble and I LOVE how it turned out! something about the strange color of the sky paired with the darkness of the superhero, the simple brush strokes - chef’s kiss (This brush was nikko rull)
Number 3 - Day 285 - This is fan art of the Locked tomb, and it was the first artwork of mine to go viral on tumblr (for me :P) This piece also re-kickstarted my love of this geometric style.
Number 2 - Day 64 oh man I was so excited for this one! I got really into the whole dot-printing thing in comics - I’d like to play with it more! Anyway, I don’t really care about Batman specifically, but the idea of his silhouette rising above Gotham, but he’s comprised of comic printing-dots.
Number 1 - Day 250. Of all the pieces I did in 2022, I think this one marries the most focus, clarity of purpose, and the skill level I was striving to achieve that year. It started out as a scribble of words “indian thumbalina, lotus flower??” and everything fell into place once I actually sat down to work on it. What I’m most proud of is the sense of hot sunlight and capturing that sense of wonder and joy as a mother discovers her tiny daughter in the lotus. This piece is up on my Etsy store for sale, that’s how proud I am of it:)
My conclusion after drawing a piece every day in 2022, was that drawing every image that popped into my brain instantly is a really good thing to do - it both puts the idea onto paper so you don’t forget it, and it clears space in your brain to generate new ideas. A majority of the ones above, the one’s that I love and think turned out well, started out with aa very clear image in my brain - So I guess my conclusion is doodle all the stuff out of your brain, and the best pieces (of mine) were the ones where I had a clear idea or image in my mind that I wanted to create.
Aaaaaand the bottom three, the one’s that I either rushed through, least fit my art style, or in the case of the very sad Murk (raccoon’s name) on the right, how my brain and my hand were just not talking that day. Just so you can see the stinkers as well as the pieces I am proud of :P
Have a wonderful day!
It happened, and it kicked my tail. No pun intended ;)
But the important thing is, I FINISHED. On the last day of May! No catching up for me:)
So, I was inspired by gbsketch on tumblr. They’ve been posting every day for over TEN YEARS. Not quite my goal, but shoot for the stars amirite. Anyways, here’s the art I did for January! Notice how it gets more complex and time consuming as time goes on. You would think it would be the other way, but nooo I can’t do anything simple.
(I’m working ahead because I know myself. She she’s a huge procrastinator and sucker for instant gratification and not to be trusted.)
Who else LOVED Barbie movies as a kid? (and now!)
Instead of drawing Disney princesses this year, I draw the main characters of the Barbie movies in the early 2000’s. Island Princess was slightly past my time, but I wanted a nice round 9 illustrations:)
The sketch
The final
Which movie was your favorite? It’s so hard to pick, but mine has to be Rapunzel:)
Everything turns to vampires in my hands, I can’t help it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Monocolor
Full color
October has been a WILD month! Can I say that I TOTALLY crushed it? I haven’t had to play catch up AT ALL! Did I improve in 31 days?
Inspired by the beautiful Spanish traditional dresses! I’ve found since that my art style works best with limited color palettes (what this one has)
A little Regency-era river date! Ft. a little frog:)
Star crossed lovers! She’s the lady in waiting of the Lady of the Sun, and he’s the King of Night. In other words, color and value contrasts <3
This is my least favorite of the drawtobers I think. My art style is not very well suited to lineless art, but the color palette here is lovely!
The story in my head is that the pirate girl was diving into the sea, looking for stuff on the ocean floor, when she dives in, turns around, and sees a shark mermaid! But they’re friends:) Thus begins a long and lucrative friendship! The shark mermaid finds treasure in the deep, and the pirate girl brings her treasure from land.
THE EYES THE EYES THE EYES THE EYES THE EYES THE EYES THE EYES THE EYES THE EYES THE EYES THE EYES THE EYES THE EYES THE EYES THE EYES THE EYES THE EYES THE EYES THE EYES THE EYES THE EYES THE EYES THE EYES THE EYES THE EYES THE EYES THE EYES THE EYES THE EYES THE EYES THE EYES THE EYES THE EYES THE EYES THE EYES THE EYES THE EYES THE EYES THE EYES THE EYES THE EYES THE EYES
Ursa Major and MInor:) Constellations are really cool in concept, and I’d love to draw more!
An exercise in typography and an instance where the sketch was cooler than the finished piece. However, I’d like to keep at it and maybe do more fairytales!
No, I don’t know where all those wonderful toys and/or snacks went. Don’t worry about it.
What’s through the door? (The fae. Go in :) )
I’d like to have this many dogs and cats
The Queen’s Thief fanart! Attolia and Gen have the best dynamic! Please go read this series by Megan Whalen Turner!
This might be my favorite composition! Circles make the coolest compositions:)
Stair hair! This was my first real foray into layer effects and actually trying to make stuff glow. I really like the result!
Don’t they make the coolest couple? Rococo clothes are soooo extra
The next set will be out whenever October is done! I really like doing these month long series. Do you have any ideas for other month themes?
First, i start with the sketch, be it on my ipad or in a real, live sketchbook.
A church doodle. I really wanted to frame the town and the setting sun, as though the viewer was with the boy and the cat.
Then, I printed out the clean lineart from my ipad and transferred it using tracing paper.
I set up camp at my desk with all my tools and stuff.
Black Magic India Ink, a cup of water, a cleaning kleenex, two crow quill pen nibs (102), and a pen holder. I switches nibs whenever one started to act up (probably every 30 mins or so)
This is my “scratch board.” after dipping the nib in the ink, a draw a couple of lines to make sure it’s all flowing okay. Make sure to clean off your nib every couple of dips! ink clogs up the channel and cakes on, making the nice lines not as clean, and can cause splatters and such.
A quick, important note: when you are inking, have the channel of ink FACING the direction you’re drawing. if you were to look straight down the barrel of the nib, it would make a C. Drag the C in a line, with the concave part facing the direction of the line, if that makes sense.
The beginning is always the worst o_O
I realized after I removed the blue tape that the lines were JAGGED. The tape prevented a smooth line down the edge, unlike paint. I’m still working on figuring this part out.
working on the columns and clouds. Shadows are where I struggle the most in rendering. Also, do not draw clouds without a reference, they’ll look like trees…
Taking a break from dumb clouds to work on a wall! much more fun:) I liked making each brink textured and interesting.
Here I forgot to take pictures, because I had to wait on new nibs and got REALLY excited when they came it.
The city and tower are done. I am trying to figure out the sky and sea.
The boy is now done. Tyying to get really fine strokes for the sky.
Done! I peel up the tape and grab my eraser.
I like how it turned out, though it wasn’t quite what I had pictured. In some ways, I like the sketch a lot more, but I believe that this is compositionally better.
back and forth with the sun and the boy. Compositionally it’s chef’s kiss :)
The Aesthetique :)
I will be doing more of these in the future! If I remember to take pictures… If you have any comments or questions, let me know! More pen and ink artists are what this world needs >:)
Stay safe, and have a wonderful day!