Invite by Lucy Knisley
Head on over to She Has No Head! for the scoop on the great time I had at the second annual Drink & Draw Like A Lady Event last Friday.
You are currently browsing the archive for the art category.
New post up on She Has No Head!, CSBG.
Look at these! I LOVE THEM.
They were brought to my attention by my pal Anis and are offered on Etsy by lucyravenscar.
Of course there are some problems. 1. I don’t have any money to buy them. 2. Even if I did have money to buy them I have nowhere to put them. and 3. “They” are not even for sale, but rather the pattern to make them is for sale. And I am A) too lazy to make them myself and B) not at all gifted when it comes to “crafts”.
So I will just have to dream of them…and write blog posts about them.
Tags: things made of awesome, toys!
My good friend, and super talented (not to mention all around great guy) Ross Campbell is auctioning off a few original pieces of artwork on Ebay. Check it out soon, and get in on the bidding. Good luck – both to Ross and any bidders!
Learn more about the rules of and inspiration for Sketch-A-Day here.
What is it: Keeping in the Psylocke theme. It’s Psylocke.
How long it took: 24 minutes start to finish
How many sketches I did today: 2
Total time spent sketching: 49 minutes
Materials used: My Wacom Bamboo tablet and Photoshop.
Other notes/details: I did two of these drawings, and this “final” one I used the other as a base for…so it was a little like inking over a sketch, but the sketch was done in Photoshop on the Wacom. The goal today was simply to do a drawing of an entire character, rather than just the parts I like, like hips and waists, or heads and shoulders.
What I like about it: It’s okay. I like the face okay. It’s funny there are things that are better about this one than the base sketch, and there are things about the base sketch that are better. If I could combine the two I’d be a lot happier.
What I dislike about it: The posing is a little silly. I’m still skipping out on details like hands and feet. And it would be easier to tell what was going on in the complicated posing if it was colored. The legs are not in proportion to one another (and are very long…even for comic superheroines).
Learn more about the rules of and inspiration for Sketch-A-Day here.
What is it: Just a head and shoulders. Maybe X-man Psylocke’s head and shoulders.
How long it took: 12 minutes start to finish
How many sketches I did today: 3
Total time spent sketching: 33 minutes
Materials used: My Wacom Bamboo tablet and Photoshop.
Other notes/details: I left the sketchy lines, but it was done freehand, no base drawing.
What I like about it: I actually really like this one except for the fact that the hair should be coming over more…right now it looks like she has no second eye and eyebrow. FAIL.
What I dislike about it: Other than what I said above, I mostly like this one, but it’s of note that this was once a full body sketch, and I hated the rest of it and cut it off. So you could say I hated everything except the head. 
Learn more about the rules of and inspiration for Sketch-A-Day here.
What is it: A sexy superhero with her costume zipped all the way up. Imagine that!
How long it took: 21 minutes start to finish
How many sketches I did today: 2
Total time spent sketching: 46 minutes
Materials used: My Wacom Bamboo tablet and Photoshop.
Other notes/details: I left the sketchy lines, but it was done freehand, no base drawing.
What I like about it: I really like the looseness of it and the sketch-y exaggerated proportions. I like the overall feel of it quite a bit. The face is nice (ish), and I like the color on the suit.
What I dislike about it: My lack of skills with the Wacom tablet are still obvious though using photoshop instead of illustrator improved my control. Illustrator has a smooting effect that for someone with more skill (like Adam) is probably awesome, but for someone like me just means that the line looks even further from my intention.
Learn more about the rules of and inspiration for Sketch-A-Day here.
What is it: Woman in a red bathing suit.
How long it took: 8 minutes start to finish
How many sketches I did today: 4
Total time spent sketching: 41 minutes
Materials used: My Wacom Bamboo tablet, Illustrator, and Photoshop (for clean up).
Other notes/details: The sketch was done freehand with no base drawing to “ink” from (obviously, because it sucks!)
What I like about it: I like the abstractness of it…not much else.
What I dislike about it: Pretty much everything else. I need to have Adam give me another Wacom tutorial. I’m no great artist, but had I been sketching this by hand it would have looked about a thousand times better. I got almost nothing on this drawing the way I envisioned it. So while the Wonder Woman drawing of yesterday had some redeeming fun loose qualities that I could enjoy even though it didn’t turn out how I had planned…this one really doesn’t. Too bad. Wish I had time to go back and do another, but rules are rules (and I didn’t like anything I did today, so perhaps it’s futile anyway).
Welcome to the first Sketch-A-Day post. Learn more about the rules of and inspiration for Sketch-A-Day here.
What is it: Wonder Woman! I’ve been in a Wonder Woman mood lately so she seemed the obvious choice.
How long it took: 9 minutes start to finish
How many sketches I did today: 3
Total time spent sketching: 36 minutes
Materials used: My Wacom Bamboo tablet, Illustrator, and Photoshop (for clean up).
Other notes/details: The sketch was done freehand with no base drawing to “ink” from.
What I like about it: I really like the looseness of it and the sketch-y exaggerated proportions. I like the overall feel of it quite a bit. It feels fun.
What I dislike about it: My lack of skills with the Wacom tablet are obvious – there is little ability yet to do anything but something loose and sketchy – i.e. the hands look like little claw bits. Also, the face looks pretty dead and non-specific (that isn’t the expression I had in mind – I wanted something a little more playful) and doesn’t benefit from the fun looseness of the rest of it.
So Adam has been drawing a lot lately, especially on his tablet, and I’ve been envious. It’s no secret that drawing has taken a back (WAY back) seat for me over the last year as my novel has become my primary focus and writing in general (for CSBG, this blog, and a handful of other things) has become my secondary focus…but I miss drawing. And I’ve been trying to figure out a way to get it back into my life in a practical and productive way that won’t eat up all my time.
Adam’s recent AWESOME drawing of us has inspired me to get serious about it. Oh, um…NSFW? Too late?
Anyone who knows us knows that Adam has been (wisely) very kind to me and as usual very unkind to himself in this depiction – but I love it anyway. I wish I was that cute…in cartoon form…or any form!
Anyway, the awesomeness of Adam’s drawing has inspired me to try a new blog project that will both get me drawing again and also help me to work on my new tablet skills. So the new Sketch-A-Day feature will be just that, a sketch every day (Monday through Friday) posted on the blog and created either on the tablet or by hand in a minimum of 10 minutes and a maximum 60 minutes (I’ll be focusing on the tablet to see if I can hone my skills on it, but there will be some traditional non-tablet work done as well). I’ll try my best not to draw only sexy curvy girls, as that is pretty much my default setting when I sketch…but no promises.*
So we’ll see how it goes. The Sketch-A-Day posts will start on Monday, February 1st. See you then!
* It’s important to note up front that NOTHING I do will look as good as what Adam has done here. For two simple reasons…1) Adam has always been and will always be a far better and more naturally talented cartoonist that I am and 2) Adam took WAY more than an hour to do this. So lower your expectations already!