It’s very liberating to paint just for practice with no ambitious masterpiece in mind.  Here’s a little head study I did a couple nights ago.  It was extremely satisfying just painting for painting’s sake, I need to work on little pictures like this more often!

Family members are my favorite subjects, I’m considering branching out to extended family soon (and don’t say I didn’t warn you since I expect you all to be following this blog much more religiously than I update it 😛 )  Here are 5 Daniels I’ve done recently.

First: Daniel and the Styracosaurus it started out as a study of James Gurney’s picture on page 68 of Dinotopia: The World Beneath, but I took it a little farther than I intended.  The likeness is vague at best and looks different from every angle, but I learned my lesson and won’t be attempting a half inch tall face on a ridiculously bumpy re-used canvas again.  Oh well, he loves it and that’s what matters 🙂

And some sketches, steampunk, stylized, “paleontologist,” and Robin Hood.

Daniel asked me to draw a monster for him so I sketched this quick Trolloc boy…I sketched a bit more…Daniel went to bed, I sketched a little more and my once lonely little Trolloc found himself in a pet store full of odd creatures and the gloop that would soon become his closest friend.

It’s been far too long since I’ve touched this blog.  So just to prove I have been doing artwork I thought I’d post a few sketches from the last few months. I’ve also started a couple of paintings, but I’ve found it difficult to finish anything between moving to a new house that needs a lot of work, pregnancy, and having a two year old who’s decided he no longer needs a nap time…

These guys are characters from stories I like to pretend I’ll write some day…

The rhino is for a children’s alphabet app Eric and I are thinking of creating for Windows 8.

And this is a stump.  I like it.

Every summer my mom produces and directs a Shakespearean play performed by community high-schoolers.  She puts so much work into these productions, making the sets, the costumes (ALL the costumes, which is a BIG deal, and they are fantastic!), casting, directing…she does pretty much everything except the posters…because that’s my job of course! 

Here is the poster I created for this year’s performance of Romeo and Juliet:

I was a little rushed on the color work, but I think it turned out pretty well considering.  What I’m most happy with is my initial line drawing:

To me it seems to have a life, elegance, and confidence that didn’t quite make it into the color version.

Sometimes I like to sketch people from Facebook, anyone is fair game (watch out, you could be next!).  Last week I did this sketch of one of Sala’s friends:

I liked how it turned out, so like any good sister would  do, I turned Sala’s friend into a Slytherin from Hogwarts casting an illegal spell.

The one on top is more saturated and higher contrast, the one below is duller.  I’m not sure which version I like better so I included them both.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, the core of his wand is the heartstring of a teenage girl 😛

This troublesome little monster was inspired my ferocious and furry fiendish feline friend…my cat Fiero.

For fun, I thought I’d spend a little time and color my drawing in Photoshop. 

This is really easy to do.  Simply scan in your drawing, open it in Photoshop and set your drawing layer to “multiply.”  Then create a new layer beneath your drawing layer and start painting!  If you want paint on top of the pencil lines for a smoother, more realistic look you can create another layer on top of your drawing layer I did this over the eyes since my drawing was pretty scribbly in that area.

This is much more satisfying than a traditional coloring book and gives you a good base if you ever want to take your drawing further by getting rid of the pencil lines and make it look realistic.  I might finish this picture off sometime but for now I hope you enjoyed this little monster from my Photoshop coloring book

I have a great and top secret idea for a witchy illustration which I will hopefully paint some time… In the mean time here are a few witchy sketches you might enjoy. 

Also, my mom decided to make a website to showcase and sell her costumes (thecostumewitch.com coming soon).  It seemed apparent that she would need a witch illustration to act as her website persona.  Here’s the character we came up with, she likes to sew…

Dorbran Fa is the leader (Father or “Fa”) of a wandering band of gypsies.  I created this character one night for my sister but quit working on him when a couple of people pointed out that he bore an unintended resemblance to the 16th president of the United States.  A better title for this sketch might be “Abraham Lincoln as a Roving Gypsy…”

gob·lin (gbln) n.

1. a mischievous elfin creature with several teeth and a tendency to bite knees toes and the occasional nose

gob·let (gblt) n.

1. a baby goblin

A few weeks ago I discovered a goblet in my house in the form of little Daniel.  While teething, he decided that biting his parents was a funny game.  He would bite our ankles and toes if we ignored him; and while we played with him he would go after our fingers and noses with a laugh and a playful growl.  Eric and I both thought this was hilariously adorable and began calling Daniel “our little goblet.”  Unfortunately, our new apartment complex doesn’t allow baby goblins so we had to put a stop to the biting, but I drew these pictures to remember him by.

First sketch of a sweet young goblet.  I liked the idea so much I decided to do a portrait of Daniel as a baby goblet.

First drawings of Daniel’s portrait. I thought the drinking goblet made my little goblin look tipsy so I replaced it with a pet mouse.

The mice were fun, but they just didn’t seem like quite the right thing for my goblet.  I drew a different pet for him an Orcan pig-dog named Muhgg but I kept him on a separate piece of paper because I had another idea for Daniel’s portrait.

In the actual picture I wanted Daniel to be playing with a chewed up book.  What better object for an illiterate, book-despising goblin parent to give their child as a chew toy?  And so without further ado, the final product!