Misionary Montage

I drew this for Dena, whose son is leaving to serve a mission in Mexico.  It's  a composite of three pictures that I found online, all done in mechanical pencil. 

Two Pencil Portraits

I just finished these up for my friend Dawn. She wanted them done for her parents' wedding anniversary (which is, coincidentally, also my parents' anniversary--we figured out that they were married on the same day and probably very near the same hour.)




I've been busy with all the bathroom stuff, and then had to shift gears and focus on drawing for a while. It was a bit hectic but a good break. (What's that saying? A change is as good as a rest?) I did these on Canson art board, which I'd never used before but probably will again. 



In progress! This kind of hair is complicated and fiddly--it does take a while, but it's kind of fun to do.

I need a better pencil sharpener!

Swamp Dragon

I was playing Drawing Dragons with Kate again, and out came this little guy.

Uncle Brian on Grimm (and my fan art!)

Doug's brother Brian, who lives in Portland, got to be an extra on Grimm about two months ago. The episode ("Cat and Mouse") aired this last week.  Doug has been watching with me--it's like our Friday-night date after Kate goes to bed. 



We knew which scene he was in but couldn't pick him out at all. Fortunately Brian was able to identify himself. You can see his teeny-tiny head in the background for about half a second.



He said he could tell that the white sign would block him, so he scooted back a couple of feet. But then he's blocked by David Giuntoli's leg for most of the shot anyway. Still, it's kind of fun to be able to say, "Hey, that blurry little head there is Brian! Cool!"

 The scene was shot at Union Station at 1:00 AM (probably not many trains coming through at that time of night).  Brian had to get up at 6:00 the next morning, so the timing was not great for him, but he said it was fun getting paid to sit around waiting and eating snacks.



After seeing some other people's creations I tried my own hand at some Grimm fan art a few weeks ago--Silas Weir Mitchell as Monroe (everyone's favorite Big Bad Wolf) in charcoal.  I don't think I've done anything with charcoal since high school art classes, but this seemed like a good one to try it out with.  The actual drawing itself went a lot faster than my pencil drawings do, but then I spent another two days futzing around with it.  I will have to try some more charcoal later, once I decide how durable it is.  (I haven't tried spraying it with fixative yet... I'm just nervous about that!  I need to do a small test drawing or something.)
 

I had the drawing taped to my board and propped up on a kitchen chair for a while, so I could see it every time I walked by.  I decided this one actually looks better from an angle. I don't think I've ever had that happen before.

(Used a screen shot from "Game Ogre."  I also found this animated gif from the same scene.)

I am really enjoying this show. On one level it's about a police detective who can see creatures that no one else sees. On another level it's about a guy who finds himself revealed as the ancestral boogeyman of a certain portion of the population, and how he deals with it and how they deal with it. I just get a kick out of the twist on the whole monster-hunter thing and how they handle the concept of other, from both sides. And I adore the characters and their interaction.

(I can tell that my imagination loves this show, since the way my brain has been playing with it is completely different from what it usually does with shows that I like. Which makes Grimm unique in my experience.)

Drawing Craig

We're coming up on the second anniversary of Craig's passing. I had the idea, a while back, that I'd like to draw a picture of him for his wife Shellee, but it took me a long time to get it done.  (A lot of my ideas are like this.  I'm full of ideas--less full of actually doing.  I admire people who are good at Getting Things Done!)

I started the drawing almost a year ago. Back in May of last year, I was asked to give the Young Women (at church) a drawing lesson for their weekly activity. I thought this would be a great time to start on my drawing of Craig. I could show them how to do a graphite transfer tracing, and how to draw eyes.



Step one: print out two copies of the photo. Scribble all over the back of one copy with a dark pencil, making sure to cover the whole area that you'll be tracing.



Step two: tape printout, pencil side down, onto your drawing paper. I do have some drafting tape but it's hard to find these days. You can also take some regular masking tape and stick it to your clothes a few times to get it fuzzy. The idea is to have tape that will come off without tearing the paper. (I suppose you could use temporary Hermafix or something like that, too.)

Step three: trace over all the outlines on the photo, making sure not to shift the paper. I generally use a mechanical pencil for this part. If you can, try not to press too hard because you'll make grooves in your paper that can affect the drawing.



Step four: remove printout. You now have all the outlines of the photo transferred to your drawing paper, and all you have to do is fill in the shading.

(That's the tricky part, of course!)

I got the drawing partly done, and then didn't touch it for months. Then I saw that there was going to be an art show at the church. (Motivation!) The submission deadline was two weeks before the show, so I finished it up enough to look presentable, took a picture to submit (and got accepted), and then I had two more weeks to really finish.



When I draw, Doug is my consultant. He's got a good eye for this sort of thing. After I've been staring at something for hours (or days), sometimes he can see something that I haven't noticed. So I'm used to giving him a how-does-this-look a few times, when I'm finishing up a drawing. This one was a little unusual, being his brother. Not just "Does this shading look right to you?" but "Is this Craig? Did I get him?" Kind of a different experience.

We got the drawing packed up and mailed last week. In the end, I think two years was just right for something like this. A friend on Two Peas said, "The first year as a widow is such a fog, the second year is when you begin to feel all the real anniversaries and the third year is usually is when you can begin to breathe again." I know Craig's family still misses him terribly.

Doodly-doos

Yesterday I was working in Corel Painter (or trying to) and Kate crawled up into my chair with me and wanted to play. The graphics tablet attracts her like magic. ("Color?") So I let her scribble on the screen a bit, and then she had me drawing animals for her. "Green mouse! Red rooster! Orange lion!" Animals are always her big thing. The other day Doug made her a paper dragon, which she received with great interest, then pointed at him and said, "Horse? Horse paper?" Now we have little paper animals all over the house. Poor kid--it's going to be quite a blow someday when she realizes there are things her parents can't do.

Here, kitty kitty kitty!

The latest project!

Brother, can you spare a bird?

I have a new project which involves drawing animals (and other things). I did this little guy yesterday. I've been teaching Kate to say "chickadee-dee-dee!" She's got the "dee-dee-dee" part down pretty well. And when we were outside the other day we saw a real chickadee, so she got to make the connection.

I had this idea just a little while ago and immediately started searching for photos on pbase and contacting people to ask if I could use their pictures. It's been a real pleasure to converse with these talented, generous people who share a love of nature and the visual image, and I've been thrilled by responses from people like Tom Robbins and Greg Lavaty, who said I could use any of their photos that I want (as long as I credit them and let them know which ones I use). They have so many wonderful, gorgeous pictures. It's seriously like being a kid in a candy store. (Check them out! The chickadee is Tom's.)

I posted this on Two Peas not long ago:

Five reasons why digital designing is better than drawing pencil portraits

• I don't have to make sure my hands are completely clean and dry before I start working.
• I can eat (and drink) while I'm doing it.
• It's not such a big deal if my daughter jostles my elbow in the middle of something.
• I don't have to worry about the post office losing or damaging my designs.
• Two words: undo button!

So now I'm designing and drawing. This should be a bit less stressful than doing portraits, though. At least that's the plan. The chickadee only took me a couple of hours, which is promising. (And we got our scanner hooked back up, finally! Yay! It's been in a box since the move.)

Things have been going well at ndisb--over 200 people have downloaded my firefly sample tag, and about 30 have actually bought the kit. Off to a good start!

Drawing

This is the reason everything was so hectic right before we left. My brother's wife's uncle asked me several months ago if I could get this drawing done in time for him to give it to his wife for Christmas. I said sure, thinking I had plenty of time. (Of course, back then I never expected to still be working on the Hogwarts mural by the time Christmas rolled around.) Well, this is what the drawing looked like Friday morning. I was planning to have it done and get it in the mail on Saturday. Didn't happen.



Doug was finishing up a bunch of grading, and Kate suddenly became very cranky and needy. This is the first drawing that I've done since Kate was born, and it was much more difficult than I'd anticipated. It's not really the sort of thing I can go back and forth on and work on in small snatches--for one thing, my hands need to be clean and dry first--so finding any time to draw at all is a challenge. But it worked out okay, barely. I got it all finished and packed up and off to to the post office at 5:00 Monday evening. Whew!

Note to self--don't use those pencils again. They're yucky.