Mini Pencil Portraits - Star Wars: The Force Awakens cast

Title: Star Wars Portraits

Size: 5 by 9 inches

Here we are in April, and I'm still working on that picture book. So, as a brief break, I've done some more little pencil portraits, this time with characters from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Going left to right and top to bottom, we have Rey, Finn, Poe Dameron, Captain Phasma, Kylo Ren, and General Hux. As it ended up, we have characters from the Resistance in the top row and people from the First Order on the bottom. Serendipitously, the lighting worked out so that the photo was lighter on the top ad darker on the bottom, mirroring the light side and the dark side of the Force.

These were kind of fun to do as more practice with realism. My favorite to draw would have to be Captain Phasma, as her metallic stormtrooper helmet made for some really interesting shading. The most difficult was probably either Hux or Poe, though for different reasons.

Weekly Drawing - Nightlight Naps

Title: Nightlight Naps
Size: 6 by 12 inches
So this isn't technically a weekly drawing, as I haven't been doing them each week, but it is a short piece I did this week - and it essentially has the same purpose as my weekly drawings did. That being said, here's a short piece I did of Nightlight (from William Joyce's Guardians of Childhood series) catching a quick nap. It's done in pen and watercolor. 

Nightlight is one of favorite characters to draw, thanks to his fun hair and otherworldly armor, but I hadn't drawn him recently. Coloring the armor was an interesting challenge, as it needed to be black, but you needed to be able to make out the tangle of limbs. I like how it came out.

Picture book - Coloring pages 11-12

Well! Here we are at the last two pages of the Kitten in the Orchestra Pit picture book. Maas and Amalie finally found each other. These pages are still unfinished, and though I like how they're coming out, I'm still not quite satisfied with either frame, so I haven't moved on to colored pencil or the second layer of pen.

At this time, I turn to you, any readers out there, for advice on what to touch up on these final frames before I put on the final layer of pen and colored pencil. Thoughts? Ideas? Impressions? Feel free to leave a comment.

To check out the rest of the progress on the picture book, look at my Picture Book label (at the very bottom of the post).

Watercolor Studies - Miraculous Ladybug Color Practice

After briefly starting pages 11 and 12 of the picture book, which include a person, I remembered that watercoloring people is considerably harder than watercoloring cats. And so I decided to practice on some doodles of characters from the show Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir.

Title: Miraculous Watercolors

Size: Each character is about 3 by 2 inches

This was a fun, if quick, project. I think my favorite to paint was Alya (the girl in glasses).

Alya was fun to paint for so many reasons. Her hair, for one, has an interesting fading pink. Her eyes are a light hazel sort of grey/brown. And her shirt! I've never painted something plaid before, but it was a blast. I had to break it down into layers of stripes, then paint accordingly. It was actually easier than the few times I've done plaid in colored pencil, which was a pleasant surprise. Usually I have more trouble with paint than pencil.

Adventures in Cooking - "Sconuts"

This week, as a break from picture books and 2D media in general, I made several batches of scones. Typically, I just made them round, but in this case, I tried shaping them like donuts (hence the name "sconuts"). Once I tried shaping the scones into hearts, stars and various other shapes, but it was too time consuming to make it worth doing every time.

Cooking and baking are a rather different than drawing and paint, but I really enjoyed myself (and the scones). It's an interesting to create something for this class that's gone so quickly. Most things I make (paintings, sketches) last for quite a while, and I can go back and look at them any time, but with scones, all that lasts is the memory of the process and taste. It's a fascinating parallel to my typical 2D pieces.

Picture book - Coloring pages 9-10

Well, here we are again with more illustrations of Maas in the orchestra pit. This week I was able to finish frame 9 - and I love how it turned out! The layering of color on the tuba took longer than expected, but the overall effect of the tuba and napping kitten complement each other so well I can't complain. 

Frame 10 is coming along nicely, though I'm not sure if it's finished or not. This page is going to be the scene where Maas is dreaming. I like how the color scheme turned out, but I think I'd like to add more of a 'dreamlike' quality to the page before moving on. I'm considering doing this with more shadowy purple lines, but I worry it will be too busy.

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.