A Few Doodles

Hi everyone!  I've been busy with life things and haven't been working on anything I thought was worth posting, but I have been doing little drawings in my sketchbook.  I wanted to check in here and say "hello", so I'll go ahead and post a few sketches.  These are all drawn quickly in ballpoint. I'm liking ballpoint more and more!  No smudging, no sharpening, no stopping to dip a pen!

Illustration Friday: "Eye Glasses"

It seemed to me to be time to draw a duck!  To fit this week's theme, I had to give him some glasses.  But I think I forgot to tell him what to do with them!  This guy is a "tiny", what I affectionately call my 2.5" x 3.5" art cards, in ink and colored pencil.

Illustration Friday: "Yesterday"

This week's prompt gave me a perfect reason to complete my "1920s girl" project!  The sketch, which was posted on this blog a while back, seems like it's been sitting around forever.  I wanted the image to be soft but still have lines and edges, and black and white but still with color.  So I decided to use colored pencils, which worked perfectly I think.  

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: "Talent"

Betsy Ross, 2.5"x3.5", ink with watercolor

Betsy Ross was a talented artisan and businesswoman.  A trained upholsterer, she maintained a successful upholstery business throughout her life.  One interesting place to learn about Betsy online is at the Betsy Ross House website here.

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

T-Shirt Report

My "Sometimes" shirt (or as my husband and I call it, "Angry Guy") t-shirt arrived from Society6!!  I can now personally report on the shirt quality.  I love it!!  I think the design looks great on it and the shirt is made of very nice, soft fabric and not too thin.  The art is printed right into the fabric instead of being a rubbery layer on top.  I didn't describe that right, but I hope you all know what I mean!

One thing I discovered the hard way is that the ladies' fitted shirts at Society6 seem to run a little on the small side.  I'd suggest any ladies who order t-shirts from there order a size up unless you like a tighter fit.

You can find the shirt at my Society6 shop here.