The Elusive Miss Dashwood

This Spring I did an ACEO pen and ink drawing of Marianne Dashwood, a character from Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (see it on this blog here).
I liked how it came out and I even printed it on the back of my newest business card.

That being done, I wanted to do an illustration of Marianne's older sister in the story, Elinor.  What I did not anticipate was that capturing Elinor Dashwood in a small portrait-type illustration would be a tricky thing for me to do!

Here's my first attempt, which was designed to be a "sister" piece to Marianne.  Play on words intended.

I like her as a piece of art, but there was more I wanted to say about Elinor than this illustration was saying.  What's going on in her life during the story isn't easy, but at the same time she's resigned to be content with her situation and make the best of it.  She's responsible and understands where she fits into society.  When it comes to emotions, Elinor doesn't show hers easily.  Elinor #1 looks too open somehow and doesn't have the hint of hidden emotions that I think a picture of Elinor Dashwood should have.  

Here's my second try.

It was fun to use so much color!  I like Elinor #2.  She looks like something silly is going on nearby and she can't get herself to join in. However, I think she looks a little younger than I intended even though her age at the beginning of Sense and Sensibility was supposed to be only 19 (source).  The elusive Miss Dashwood was proving to be a hard character to draw!  

I think I'm happiest with my third version, which at the time of this post is still in my sketchbook.

As a matter of fact, I might leave this version as a pencil sketch complete with messy lines and eraser marks.  Somehow the work-in-progress suits Elinor!

Illustration Friday: "Travel"

Drawn with brown ink on Arches cold-pressed watercolor paper.

More Fan Art

I admit I'm having way to much fun with this.  Sketching faces is so relaxing to me, I love historical stories, and "The Borgias" (Showtime) has given me never-ending reference!  This is Cesare Borgia, from my own screenshot from the pilot episode.  Graphite.

Illustration Friday: "Surveillance"

I'm a huge fan of the (sadly cancelled) Showtime original series "The Borgias".  It's like a really great historical fiction book come to life and is, well, eye candy in every way.  It makes me want to draw every character and facial expression, not to mention the beautiful lighting, scenes and costumes.

Since I've been dying to do that, I chose a scene that would fit this week's IF theme, took a screenshot on my desktop, and sketched from it!  This is Lucrezia Borgia as she stands on a curtained balcony above the hall where her suitors are being presented, observing them.  Holliday Grainger is the actress who brilliantly plays Lucrezia, and this scene can be found in Season 2, Episode 6.

I have not decided if I will push this further, or if I will go on to sketch more faces instead!

House Red With Mermaid

While I was waking up one day last week I imagined an image of a tiny mermaid, bored in a glass of wine.  It seemed like it could be kind of fun to draw, so instead of forgetting about it as I usually do with that kind of thing, I made this illustration.  I like it!  It's a little weird, but so what.  It could happen, right?

It's a crow quill pen and ink drawing on Strathmore Mixed Media paper/board.  I find that board takes ink very nicely.  Colored pencil looks good on it too, as does watercolor.  I wouldn't use it to do a watercolor painting or anything where the watercolor should be the focus.  But it works great for coloring an ink drawing with watercolor, where I want the ink drawing to be the focus!  It even allows me to rework a watercolor area a little bit without it looking "scrubby".  One bad thing about it is that it's too thick for me to trace a sketch onto it using a light table.  I have to trace with a transfer paper.  All in all it's a really nice, useful, great-looking paper.  Give it a try sometime!

"House Red With Mermaid" is available in my Society6 shop.

Illustration Friday: "Ocean"

This week gave me a chance to draw from Greek mythology, which I love to do!  Here's Poseidon, Greek god of the sea, riding on a charging hippocamp.  The original drawing was pen and ink on smooth paper.  I was experimenting with different line weights to create different tones without using crosshatching.  Then I colorized it and added the background in Photoshop.

"Poseidon" is available as an art print and more in my shop here.

"Sometimes" is today!

The title of this illustration is "Sometimes", but this morning was so frustrating that I should rename it "Today"!  I was online trying to set up a new place to show my work.  Needless to say, it wasn't working.  So I scrapped the whole idea.  AARGH!

"Sometimes" is available as a print, pillow, t-shirt and more here.

Illustration Friday: "Whiskers"

I've been working on this just for fun over the last few days and was excited to see it would work for Illustration Friday's prompt this week!  It's dedicated to all those, including me, who are trying to get a little exercise over the holiday season.  Good luck to us all!! 

Available as an art print, cards, t-shirts and more here.

Illustration Friday: "Book"

Bunny's back, and this time all he wanted to do was relax with a good book.  Poor Bunny!

Illustration Friday: "Crooked"

Just in time with a last-minute post.  I drew this with graphite, scanned it, and then had fun with  textures and Photoshop filters.  The graphite I like best these days is cheap #2 pencils!  They're great and come with their own erasers!

This illustration is available as a print, an iPhone case and notecards here.