Illustration Friday: "Beard"

"Our Tree"

Two Fairies

Here are two recent ink and watercolor pieces I did in my little watercolor paper sketchbook.  I'm working toward a style that marries my ink drawings with color that enhances them but doesn't overwhelm them.  I admit that I'm enjoying the process!  These pieces are both small at about 3"x 4".

Photo detail

Scanned detail

Illustration Friday: "Twisted"

I'm posting a photo of my illustration and not a scan this week.  My scanner is bad I think, but whatever the reason, my scans just don't capture the colors of watercolor properly.  Photos seem to do much better, even when they are taken with a phone as this one was!

This piece is very small at 2.5"x3.5" ACEO (Art Cards Editions and Originals) size.

Illustration Friday: "Search"

I took some pictures as I worked so I could post a few progress shots:

More Ballpoint Sketches

Here's an idea (or two) I was working on yesterday in my sketchbook. The sun was there first but got overrun by the bigger drawing!  These are drawn with black ballpoint pen and I think if I do a finished version I'll stick to ballpoint.  I love it.

Illustration Friday: "Whisper" (With Process)

Mother Nature whispered, "It will be all right, little one."

I really wanted to do an optimistic sort of illustration this week.  This is a crow quill drawing on Canson bristol board.  The piece went through several sketches and line work practice studies, so I saved my scans and stages as I went along for a long-overdue process post.

Thumbnail sketch, approx. 2"x3"

Traced and revised from enlargement of thumbnail

Revisions in Photoshop

Digital line study over final sketch

Further work on the digital line study

Trying out a border

Final illustration

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.

Heart to Heart

I used to draw angels all the time when I was young because drawing the wings was so much fun.  I don't know why I stopped....I guess perhaps I've been drawing wings on birds instead.  But I also love drawing

fairies!  So these little angelfairies are a bit of both.  Plus they have great hair!  I call this illustration "Heart to Heart".  It's ink and watercolor.

"Heart to Heart" is available as a print and more in my shop here.

Illustration Friday: "Space"

Illustration Friday: "Heights"

"Rapunzel, let down your golden hair!"

My idea for this week's prompt was to illustrate Rapunzel looking down at the prince from the heights of her tower.  Unfortunately I didn't get time to go any farther than this sketch!  I'll finish it though, and add it to the blog when it's done.  The weird circle at the top of the drawing was on the sketchbook page in ink so I couldn't get rid of it.  I figured nobody would ever see this sketch so it wouldn't matter! Anyway, please imagine that circle isn't there and I hope you like the drawing so far.  

First sketch of the prince

Illustration Friday: "Return"

The Return of Persephone

In Greek mythology, Demeter was the goddess of earth and agriculture as well as sister to the gods Zeus, Poseidon and Hades.  She had a beloved and beautiful daughter, Persephone.  Unbeknownst to Demeter, Zeus, king of the gods and Persephone's father, had agreed to let his brother Hades take Persephone as his bride.

One day, as Persephone was gathering flowers, the ground opened up and she was abducted by Hades, who was god of the underworld.  Demeter searched for her daughter and in her anger and grief refused to let anything grow upon the earth.  Zeus realized that the earth would soon perish and decided to arrange for Persephone's return.

As the story goes, if one ate anything while visiting the underworld they had to remain there forever.  When Hades learned that Persephone was to leave him, he offered her the seeds of a pomegranate to eat, and she ate a few.  Some versions of the myth suggest that Persephone had fallen in love with her husband and wanted to make sure she could go back to the underworld to be with him.

Zeus sent the messenger god Hermes to bring Persephone out of the underworld and return her to Demeter.  It was a joyous reunion!  Spring returned to the earth and once again there were lush plants, crops and grain.  But since Persephone had eaten the seeds, Demeter agreed that her daughter would spend three months a year with her husband in the underworld.

Winter comes every year during the time that Persephone is with Hades in the underworld, and when she returns to her mother Spring arrives again.

Illustration Friday: "Swamp"

I looked up swamp trees this week and thought they look just like they are wearing gowns that reflect in the water like they're on a marble ballroom floor!  This is a crow quill pen drawing on bristol board.

Illustration Friday: "Scary"

The Escape of the Fire Sprites

Well, it finally happened:  I actually had a piece of art already done that could be used for Illustration Friday!  I did this for fun as a Halloween illustration and got lucky with this week's topic.  It was drawn with crow quill pen and ink.  Happy Halloween!

Illustration Friday: "Ferocious"

In an American tall tale, Pecos Bill roped a ferocious tornado with his rattlesnake lasso and rode it all the way to California.  There, as it rained itself out, Bill fell off.  When he fell, he created a low spot in the ground that became Death Valley.  Come to think of it, Bill was pretty ferocious himself!

Illustration Friday: "Mesmerizing"

The Sirens

Illustration Friday: "Perennial"

Sketchpage 1

I need to sketch more, draw more, experiment more.  That's the only way I'm going to find out what really floats my boat.  I know I've said that before!  Procrastination, fear, life get in the way.  This needs to become a priority.  These are from this morning, sketched while I watched the Tour de France.

Some are "random shape" creations and some are general doodles.  A few are pencil but most are done with ballpoint pen.

Illustration Friday: "Asleep"

Quiet Time Doodles

This is my latest sketchbook page, done quickly in a bit of quiet time.  I was so disappointed that I didn't have my trusty ballpoint pen with me but I had a felt-tip.  There are things about the felt-tip pen that make it trickier than a ballpoint though.  You can't make really light lines to lay out your idea;  every line is dark.  And felt-tip blobs a little bit and you tend to get little ink spots on your hand if you rest it on the drawing before the ink is dry.  You can't really get a feel of shading as well with a felt-tip either.  All that being said,   it was still fun to sketch with and perfection isn't an option because, like the ballpoint, there's no erasing!