Cretacolor Pencil

 

 

I tried out my new Cretacolor Monolith graphite stick in 9B. It's so smooth! Like drawing with butter! I like how it's so easy to get thick and thin lines without having to press so hard. I was able to hide the light preliminary lines by pressing harder to get the darker lines without switching tools. So, preliminary and final lines could be done with the same pencil. Some pencils don't get dark no matter how hard you press.

 

I'm not exactly happy with the drawing, but I do like the tool. I've used an HB graphite stick before and didn't like it.  :o(  Blechh. Too light.  B pencils used to smear a lot, but I guess I've gotten better at keeping my hand away from the paper. Maybe I've picked up some skills in the last few years. haha

Glow-In-The-Dark Ghost Pencil Holder & Sharpener

 

I found this at Art Supply Warehouse in Westminster, CA. I'm an artist and love the paranormal, so I thought this was befitting. It's also a pencil sharpener. lol So, when I'm drawing late at night and see dark shadows moving in the doorway, I'll have my glow-in-the-dark ghost buddy to scare them away. haha!

 

Art Supply Warehouse is such an awesome art store. They even have pads of comic strip paper! I've never seen that before. There are so many cool art supplies out there now. I wish those were available when I was an art student.

 

I bought some vellum, marker paper, spray fixative, and conte pencils. So, I'm on my way to drawing like Enki Bilal! ;o) We'll see how that goes...

David Shannon (author of No, David!)

I just finished watching a set of short interviews with David Shannon. He's a writer and illustrator of children's picture books that I admire. You might know his book called No David! They are popular among young children.

As an artist, I found the interviews informative and inspiring. I am currently working on my own children's picture book, so hearing about his process helped me think about what I need to do and reinforced my thoughts that I'll be doing a lot of drawings before I get to the ones I'll stick with.

At first you might think that his style is somewhat naive, but if you look at it closely, he's actually a skilled draftsman and painter. He thinks about dynamic angles, composition, and colors that bring about a certain mood.

If you are interested in children's book illustration, you might find his interviews on the Scholastic site inspiring.

http://www.scholastic.com/browse/video.jsp?pID=1640183585&bcpid=1640183585&bclid=1917532414&bctid=1917520976

Sketchbook From Walser's

 

I bought this sketchbook about 10 years ago from Walser's in Torrance, CA. I have never seen this sketchbook anywhere but that store. There was a girl who gave a talk at one of my illustration classes and her artwork was awesome. She said she liked this type of sketchbook because it took to paint pretty well when she added it to her drawings.

 

The paper is thicker than the black bound sketcbooks, but not as thick and yellow as the Moleskine sketchbooks. The Moleskine sketchbooks have a sheen to the surface that doesn't take to watercolor very well.

 

I haven't done too many drawings in this sketchbook because I've been afraid to mess it up, but I decided to finally use it on a more regular basis. I did add some watercolor to one of my drawings and it turned out pretty nice. The paper didn't buckle and didn't get blotchy from water absorption. I didn't use that much paint, so the surface of the paper stayed flat and the colors remained rich.

 

Walser's is not a cheap art supply store, but I think this sketchbook is worth the price. I believe the store is still in Torrance. It was on Hawthorne, but they may have moved. They also have an online store, I think. I don't know if they still sell this sketchbook. It would be a shame if they didn't.

Illustration Friday - Wheel

I decided to do the shaky, scratchy line style this week. It never turns out the way I planned. I was going for more of a woodblock print style, but oh well. lol I guess it turned out cute enough.

Pinterest

I just joined Pinterest and it is awesome!! All my favorite artists are on my "board" and I've even discovered others artists whose work I admire. I can spend hours on there looking up and pinning artwork and photos to my board.

Not many people know of Anne Bachelier, but her work in on Pinterest! I was amazed! My own work is even up there. That was a surprise!

There are the most beautiful photographs of people, nature, animals, celebrities, models, etc. on there and even comic strip art. Basically, whatever image you can find on the internet can be added to Pinterest.

You can even add a button on your toolbar so you can add images from the internet onto Pinterest.

I added the app to my phone so I can browse through my favorite images and add new ones while I'm away from home. It's crazy.

Black Prismacolor on Crumpled Brown Kraft Paper

I am trying out this new style to add to my sketchbook that I plan to sell on Amazon sometime this year. The book will consist mainly of pen & ink drawings of European architecture and face drawings in various media. It will be in black & white with minimal splashes of color.

I also plan on releasing a book in color that will feature my paintings.

Illustration Friday - Wings

This is the first time in a long time that I've drawn something for IF. I hope you like it.

Adora

I was planning on doing a lot of scribbles and splashes of paint on this, but it turned out looking more like my regular conservative stuff. I'm going to add some black Prismacolor and maybe some white highlights to this once the paint is dry.

Preliminary Drawing of Adora

I took this picture in case I really messed the painting up.

My Dried Up Pens

I haven't used these in so long, my ink cartridges dried up. Time to put new ones in & start drawing again! I probably messed up my pens by letting the ink dry, but we'll see how it goes. *sigh*

I really am going to start drawing again even if it's 10 min. a day. I went through my art supplies & found some cool stuff I had forgotten about. My next inspiration is to crumple up brown paper, draw on it with black Prismacolor, then go over it with white pencil. I hope it turns out well enough to put in my art book.

Close-up of Memories Lost book by Hoang Nguyen

This is one of the art books I found today while I was inspired to look for my sketchbook. Such beautiful work!

Close-up of a Gris Grimly drawing

I found this autographed drawing that came with Grimly's Sleepy Hollow book. I bought the book at Comic Con a few years ago.

Inspired by Kek

Today, I came across a blog by a French artist named Kek who just posts his funny comic strips. The drawings look simple, but the strip is so funny! His blog is one of the top blogs in France. http://blog.zanorg.com/

I thought, oh, I want to do the same thing! I want to draw really quickly and post funny stuff like he does. It will be so cool!

It got me excited about drawing again, so I went looking for my sketchbook and pens. I attempted to draw a simple figure with a circle for a head and two dots for eyes. Not bad, but not good either. I didn't know what to do with his hands and ended up royally messing up the drawing. To make things worse, I couldn't think of anything funny. It was very depressing. I totally suck at simple drawings.

In my search for my sketchbooks (I have many that I started, but never finished), I found a few cool art books that were sitting on my bookshelf. I will post a couple pics of some of that artwork I admire later.

I found a book called An Illustrated Life. It's a collection of illustrators' sketchbook pages. The artwork isn't really stuff to rave about because they are just sketchbook stuff, but I find that scratchy, written on, stained pages of drawings very charming and inspiring. I think I should really find time, maybe 15 min. per day, to draw like that in a sketchbook. I really like that shaky ink line look with haphazardly splattered-on watercolor. It's a style I'm not good at, but I've attempted it a few times and the outcome wasn't that bad.

I did a few drawings of my characters for the children's picture book I'm working on. My husband helped me get the drawings to be very simple, so I was practicing. I still need work, but if I do it in acrylic paint or gouache, I might get some interesting textures like in the Oh David books. I still like David Shannon's art style even though my husband says I draw way better. We'll see how my attempts go.

Apple TV, Flickr, and Publishing a Sketchbook

Wendy, my sister-in-law, gave us an Apple TV for Christmas. I love it!! Great sister-in-law, right? I totally love these techy gadgets that are out these days.

We watch Netflix and YouTube stuff on it and I can also view my Flickr drawings on there. Apple TV uses my Flickr drawings as a screensaver. How cool is that?! For me it's really cool to see my drawings blown up on the TV. They actually look better up there. You can choose different modes to view the images. I chose the one that moves the images around the screen and highlights one image at a time by enlarging it or scrolling down the taller images. It's artistically composed with smaller images on the sides.

My husband couldn't believe how many drawings I have. He suggested that I gather my drawings together to create a sketchbook to sell. He says I have enough drawings to do it. It's a good idea, so I really want to do that this year. Maybe that will be my New Year's resolution even though I believe people should have resolutions year round and not just at the beginning of the year.

The only problem I have with putting my drawings together in a book is that most of them are already online for public view. I'll have to take like a week or two to sit down and really create a lot of new drawings for the sketchbook. It sounds like a lot of fun, but I'm just afraid it will take too much time away from my writing.

I've always wanted to do a gallery show, but never have. The artwork I have created over the years has partially been done with that in mind. No matter how many drawings or paintings I do, I always feel like it's still not enough to have a gallery show. A cohesive one, anyway. Maybe one day it will happen, but I have too many things want to accomplish before I get around to focusing on that. Publishing a sketchbook will satisfy me enough for now.

Little Twinstars pencil

I found my old Little Twinstars pencil that I had when I was a kid! I used it to finish this drawing because even as a kid I knew this was a good pencil. It's discolored, but still works great. I noticed that it has a B lead. No wonder I liked it. I prefer B to HB because the lead is softer, darker, and you can get a good thick & thin line with it.

The pencil is probably worth money now that it's "vintage" like the Hello Kitty stuff from back in the day. Hahaha! It's very light in weight and easy to handle. Not that I'm an aficionado or anything.

Book Cover in Progress

I'm working on the cover art for the novel I just wrote called Lilah in Love. I'm hoping to finish the drawing tonight. It's almost there...I think.

Loin de Toi (Far From You)

It took me over a year to get back to this and complete it. I was trying something more creative than just doing portraits.

I checked out a children's book about Romeo and Juliet illustrated by Christa Unzner. I like the pencil on watercolor style with just one or two figures colored in and overhang on the edges. One of these days I would like to try this method.
http://www.christa-unzner.de/illustration/illu26e.htm

La Claire Fontaine short story

I have written and posted a short story based in France called La Claire Fontaine. It is inspired by the French children's song A La Claire Fontaine. It is a YA Paranormal Romance, so there is a paranormal twist to it. It's only 4 pages, so please read it when you have a spare moment. Read the story for free here:

http://www.wattpad.com/story/3091468-la-claire-fontaine

I am working on the final edits to my first teen romance novel available in the coming months. I plan on using a drawing for the cover which I have not yet completed. The drawing pertains to the story because there is a scene where the boy draws a portrait of the lead female character.

For those of you interested in writing and the paranormal, I write about those topics on my writing blog:

http://www.planetkimberly.blogspot.com

I will continue to post my artwork on this site. With all the writing I've been doing, I'm finding little time to draw. It's a shame, I know, but although drawing seems like a chore of late, I really do want to draw again.

I really like the drawings of Brock Cole which I have recently seen in a children's book called The Money We'll Save.

Also, a really good children's book I read is Gershom's Monsters. The illustrations and story are both great.

Danish Kid Drawings

I did these in my moleskine sketchbook a couple of weeks ago. I've been learning Danish, so I decided to draw some kids in Danish clothing in this style. I totally didn't clean it up in PhotoShop, so they are a little dark. I re-drew the girl with the umbrella and partially painted it in watercolor, but didn't like the cold press texture of the paper, so I didn't bother to finish it. Maybe I'll finish it and make it look better if I have time later. It would probably be better if I re-did it on hot press watercolor paper.

Stephen King Quote

I was going to post this on my writing blog, but for some reason it's not letting me log in, so I'm writing it here.  It pertains to all forms of art, anyway.

It's a quote from Stephen King in his book called On Writing:

"If you write (or paint or dance or sculpt or sing, I suppose), someone will try to make you feel lousy about it, that's all."

This is so true!!!

Loin de Toi (work in progress)

This is a work in progress.  I actually started this over a year ago, but never finished it. I had the pencil sketch and painting down before.  I just added the permanent ink today with my trusty Micron .25mm pen.  I'll have to complete the painting and maybe add some more drawing to it later.

I was looking for some art supplies and I came across this piece of unfinished work as well as another piece which I will also work on later and post.

Portable Palette and Brush Pens

This is my favorite portable palette.  It's Winsor & Newton.  The colors work well on a Moleskine sketch book, better than Sakura Koi Watercolors. You can basically take this palette, a sketch book, pencil and this water brush pen out sketching and you're pretty much set.  Or draw in waterproof ink and paint over it with these paints.  Oh, and this palette comes with its own paintbrush if you need it.  Just use a paper cup for water and throw it away when you're done.  Less hassle.

I have larger palettes, but I like these colors better than the palettes that have more of a variety.  These colors seem to be richer and you get what you see moreso than other paints where you think you're getting a bright pink, but it's a light rose, or you think you're getting alizarin crimson, but it's a watered down version or you think you're getting a dark blue, but surprise!  It's purple.  What the...

Also shown here is a Pentel brush ink pen and the Japanese one I posted in my last entry.

Things in my art bag

These are a few things I like to use: Naruto and Totoro pencil cases, Pentel ink brush pen, black Prismacolor pencil, black Micron .25 point pen, Naruto :o) pencil, blue col-erase pencil and Pentel brush thingy that holds water. 

I use that water brush thingy pretty often with watercolor paints.  It beats having to dip a brush in water all the time when I'm out and don't have water available.  I also use it to smear ink after I've drawn with the ink brush pen or other non-waterproof pen.  It cleans up easily, too.

Those water brush pens used to be hard to find, but I saw one in an art kit a couple of years ago.  The problem is, you have to buy the whole kit to get it.  I found this one at Kinokuniya bookstore in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles.  They carry them in different sizes and were fairly cheap.

Male pen drawing

I did this today at lunch. It didn't quite turn out the way I wanted, but that's how it usually goes anyway.  I used a Zebra F-301 ball point pen (probably the finest point it can go) in my Moleskine sketch book.  I like to use the finest points possible because if I make a mistake it's easier to cover up since the strokes are so thin they can be hidden by multiple darker strokes.

The sketch book is too small so there is no room to rest my hand. It's a good size to put in a purse or pocket, but not really ideal for comfortable drawing.

The proportions got away from me because I didn't use any construction lines.  I got caught up in the details too soon which I knew not to do, but I did it anyway.  Bad habits are hard to break.

I am going to try to draw more guys because I hardly ever draw them and I need to get better at it.  I tend to make them look feminine and I need to learn to emasculate them.  Practice, practice, practice!

Links for Artists William Basso & Anne Bachelier

Appropriate for Halloween, this is an artist whose work I like:

http://www.basso-art.com/ 

His name is William Basso and his artwork can be found and purchased at Halloweentown in Burbank, CA.  It’s a cool shop open year round and is now split into 2 shops a few yards from each other: Halloweentown for Costumes and Halloweentown for Props, Books, Accessories and everything else spooky.

Another artist I like is Anne Bachelier. Her work can be found here:

http://www.cfmgallery.com/alice.html and this is her blog which is in French, but you don’t have to know French to appreciate the artwork: http://annebachelier.blogspot.com/

I’m so jealous!

I went to see the Tim Burton exhibit at LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) and was inspired. I haven't drawn in so long even though I've wanted to. I've seen other artists' work that has inspired me and seen faces I've wanted to draw, but didn't grab a pen to draw anything. The creativity in Tim Burton's work somehow got me to pick up that pen again to draw.

Yesterday I forgot to bring a pen with me to lunch because I was so out of routine from drawing like I used to.  The only decent pen I could find around me was someone's chewed up green one. The pen was kinda running out of ink, but what distracted me most was the thought of my hand getting dirty with someone else's spit as I drew. To make it worse, I used Sakura Koi Watercolor Paints on Moleskine sketch paper and discovered that the paints just soaked into the paper like a sponge. It turned out looking like a bad rug-burn. Don't ever make that mistake.  I learned something new that day. It was a bad drawing day.

The drawings I have posted here are also on Moleskine, but I used Windsor & Newton watercolor paints (always good) and a set of Russian watercolors whose name escapes me. I really had no idea what I was going to draw. I was going to let my creativity flow, but when I looked at that blank piece of paper, I couldn't think of what to do. I was thinking of all those wonderful monsters Tim Burton drew and tried to do something weird like that, but what I drew was lame.

I really don't know what is going on with the boy at the top. It's my attempt at being weird and creative. lol
Then I reverted to a style I'm more comfortable with with the girl in the red polka dotted dress. Some things never change.

Woman in Blue Cowl

It has been a year and a half since my dad died and I haven't drawn or painted much since. I think this was the last thing I was playing around with before he died. I've gone back to it and doodled here and there on it since then. 

Instead of drawing and painting, I have been watching a lot of TV shows and movies, working out (I love the UFC Gym!), reading and just trying to enjoy life and my family. I closed my online shops and relaxed a bit. The business of selling artwork (the invoices, PayPal, setting up & maintaining the shops, taxes, keeping records), marketing it, drawing, painting, working full time and taking care of kids was just too tiring and stressful. 

I'm planning on drawing more and posting them on this blog and on my Flickr site again, but this time I would like to write more as well. I think that would make this blog more interesting. I'm kind of a private/cautious-borderline-paranoid person, so that might be a bit of a challenge for me.

More from my Faces Moleskine

Faces on Moleskine

These are pages from a moleskine that I started to contain only faces. I also started another one intended as a sketch journal.

Sasha and my foot

Some Cat Drawings

Some Zoo Drawings

I quite like my little warthog here. I drew it with a cheap pen I got from Staples that has been discontinued. Quel dommage! :o(

Life Drawings

Some life drawings from my student days...

Girl Touching Hair - work in progress

This is an oil painting on canvas board that I've been working on. It's a work in progress. I was going in one direction, then decided to go in another direction. I decided to go for a blue look. I'm not sure what else I'll do with it.

Palette

I had a bunch of tubes of watercolor paint that I've bought here and there at different art stores/expos, but I wasn't using them because I like to use portable palettes. So, I found this palette where I could squeeze whatever paints I wanted in the wells, close it up and go. Some of the paints in other palettes had colors I would never use. I wish it had a few more wells because I didn't have space for Burnt Sienna and Burnt Umber, but I have a small Winsor & Newton palette that has those, so if I plan on using them I'll just carry that palette with me. Otherwise, I just use the Van Dyk Brown that I have on this one.

Illustration Friday - Skinny

Illustration Friday - Frozen

Korean Chefs

I didn't quite finish this one. I'm hoping to have time to work on it later.

Korean Chef

Illustration Friday - Magnify

Glasses that magnify the world.

owls

Another version of my owls. I like the idea of different colored eyes.

girl in big shirt and skirt

Testing out the Japanese brush pen again. I love the texture of the Canson watercolor paper. I found it sold in a big bulk of looseleaf sheets in a craft shop with an art section. I've never even seen this in the regular art stores I go to. They usually just have the watercolor blocks, not loose sheets. I'm less afraid to make mistakes on it since I have so much of it.

Girls in Blankets

I was thinking of the artist, De Grazia, when I was creating these and how he sort of treated the body and clothing as one big mass. I used my Japanese brush pen again. I still can't get the ink to flow. I have to keep dipping it in water which dilutes the ink and I get a gray color instead of black.

Illustration Friday - Caution

When you walk under birds, you have to proceed with caution.

brush pen and watercolor

Testing out my Japanese brush pen with some added watercolors. I like the texture of the Canson watercolor paper. I did these while watching Project Runway which is quite entertaining. I don't know if something is wrong with my pen or if the ink is old, but the ink never seems to flow well. I just changed the cartridge, but I've had the cartridges for a few years now. The brush tip is a brand new sable one, so I don't know what the problem is.

IF - Wrapped