Picture Book - Starting Back Up (pages 8-10)

So! Here we are with more picture book. This week I finally finished coloring frame 8 and started the pen work for 9-10. I'm actually really happy with how #8 came out, which is somewhat surprising. I had a lot of trouble deciding how to set up the picture when I was first sketching it, and then all the variations of black were troublesome, but when it's all said and done, I think it's one of my favorite frames so far.

Here's page 9. I really like how the pen work came out, and the proportions are just what I wanted, giving a sense of scale to both the kitten and tuba. I can't wait to color it!

Finally, below is page 10, the kitten's dream. It's still half pencil, and trying to work with all those lines (straight or otherwise) has been a little frustrating.  Nevertheless, I still have high hopes for this frame, so I guess we'll have to wait and see how this one comes out.

Playing in Snow - Igloo

We've had quite a bit of snow recently, so I decided to make an igloo. :)

My method of igloo making includes shoveling the driveway into a pile for several days in a row, packing the snow down a bit, then digging an entrance. I'm always worried that the thing will collapse if I'm not careful, but I've discovered that if you leave your igloo out overnight the surface of the snow will often freeze into a shell - this is particularly useful on the inside, where it gives the ceiling a bit of extra strength. 

Conveniently, it snowed the day of this picture, so the surface of the igloo is wonderfully smooth. In addition to this, the extra snow gets packed down in the entrance. This means that the doorway is slightly smaller, but once you get in, the floor's a few inches lower, making it feel bigger inside.

The igloo's actually pretty roomy. For this picture I actually crawled in there, turned myself around, and popped my head back out, if that gives you an idea of how big it is in there. If the snow continues, I'm hoping to expand to where two people can comfortably fit inside.

Family Home Evening - Armor of God Paper Doll

Title: Armor of God Self Portrait

Size: 11 by 9 inches

For our Family Home Evening this week we had a lesson on putting on the armor of God (from Ephesians 6:13-18) and made paper dolls of ourselves. We held a discussion on how we can put one the armor of God while we designed our dolls and armor. Overall, it was a wonderful evening.

This piece is in colored pencil and pen on card stock. It feels like forever since I've drawn myself, so this was a lot of fun. Trying to get all the armor to match up with the doll was a bit crazy, but the challenge is what makes it fun, right? Another thing I really enjoyed about drawing this was trying to reverse engineer my design process for the armor. 

I realized almost immediately as I started that I was drawing heavily from some Elantris sketches I'd done a while back, trying to design Hrathen's armor. My first sketches looked very much like Hrathen's armor. So I tried to mix it up a bit - by pulling inspiration from the Stormlight Archive's shardbearers. There was definitely a moment of "why is all my inspiration from Brandon Sanderson books?!". It didn't help terribly when I realized my that my sword looked a lot like Nightblood, from Warbreaker.

So, needless to say, it was interesting to try and track down where my ideas were coming from. This post is getting a bit wordy, so I think I'll go ahead and close with my doll's base. :)

    

Commissioned Mixed Media - Press Forward Poster

Title: Press Forward
Size: 14 by 11 inches
This poster was done for my young women's group. It's watercolor with pen outline and a bit of colored pencil and Photoshop on top. It combines ideas from our 2016 theme scripture (2 Nephi 31:20), the young women's values, and Lehi's dream. Each of the colored rods represents one of the young women values, and I consider it one of my greatest accomplishments that orange, yellow, and gold are distinct colors.

This commission was unique in that it was almost entirely designed when I was asked to put it together. It was interesting to come into a piece with so much direction, as I normally have minimal planning. Perhaps I should try it again sometime, as I rather like how it came out.  :P

Merry (Belated) Christmas - Snow Minion

Title: Snow Minion
Size: 2 and 1/2 by 3 inches
Here's my late Christmas gift for Mr. W, the most wonderful art teacher of all time. It's a mixed media piece, watercolor on pen with a touch of colored pencil. It was fun to try and make a snowman/minion mixture. Also, I think was the first time I've ever used my Acid Yellow pencil.

Thanks for all your hard work, Mr. W! You rock. :)

Mini Pencil Portraits - Sherlock Cast

Title: Sherlock Portraits
Size: 12 by 9 inches
So... this happened. Pencil drawings of some characters from Sherlock. Yup. I had a lot of fun doing these, although, as ever, each picture I drew was smaller than the one before - and knowing that, deducing the order I drew them in should be elementary. ;)

For whatever reason, everyone in this show wears collared shirts. I'd never realized that until I started drawing them, but now I'm a little more practiced with collars. Also, Mycroft is a giraffe.

Messing Around and Adding Color - Elantris Chibis and pages 7-8

Greetings, loyal fans! Welcome back from Christmas break. Today I bring you tiny, cartoon depictions of Brandon Sanderson Characters and pages 7-8 of my infamous picture book. (Which will hopefully be finished in time for 2017...)

Title: Elantris Chibis

Size: 12 by 11 inches
Just some pen/colored pencil doodles from Brandon Sanderson's Elantris. Why, you ask? I have no idea. It's fun. I used a list of character descriptions I collected ages ago, which was kind of fun. Left to right we have Raoden, Sarene, and Hrathen.

The challenge of this piece was the typography. I don't normally care for any project that requires Excessive Ruler Use, but I like how it came out. :)

Here's the weekly frames for Kitten in the Orchestra Pit. The timpani scene's not quite finished with painting, so the final layer of pen isn't up yet, so it looks a bit blurry. The photo quality is another factor. Hopefully I'll be back soon with a (finished) better quality picture. I do like how the other frame came out, though.

More to come, so tune in next week!