Night Owl

I had one last piece of black paper and decided that an owl would be a suiting subject for it. The result is better than I expected.

I am still not in love with drawing on black paper with white gel pen, but at least now I see that I could get some results if I put thought and effort into it. Right now it's not something I am keen to do. Perhaps in the future.

Experimental Cat

While I was drawing cats I decided to try to do one on black card stock. It was an experiment to see what would come out if I tried to make a zantangle inspired drawing with white gel pen on the black surface.

The result:

I like the drawing, but I am not a fan of doing the white patterns on black surface. It's too limiting when it comes to shading and it's too dark. I definitely prefer black pen on white paper.

I don't think I'll be buying any more black paper, but I still had some left over, so I played with it and made this.

Somewhat fun to do, but it will still be the end of my white pen on black paper adventures, at least for a while.

Drawing Lab - Exercise 1

A few weeks ago I bought several drawing related books. One of them is Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists by Carla Sonheim. I didn't know anything about this book or it's author before I bought it. I just liked the art on the cover. At that time I didn't even register the additional text on the cover. It says: 52 Creative Exercises to Make Drawing Fun. Wouldn't you know it, that's just what I needed. I often struggle with that. I love to draw, but it often feels tough and a not fun. so, the promise to make drawing fun is very appealing to me.

The first exercise is to draw cats and so I drew cats. Lots and lots and lots of cats. I must have drawn at least 100 of them. The exercise definitely loosened my hand and gave me confidence, at least when it comes to drawing cats. The final result of the exercise is this 4x6 watercolor pencil drawing:

 I really enjoyed the first exercise and I am looking forward to exploring the book and the remaining 51 exercises.

Tangled Heart

Exploring new patterns got me to draw this:

I really like how a bit of simple shading adds depth.

Still Life With Pears

Did this one with the wax aquarelle pencils, both by watering down one layer and going dry over it. I used a page from the old poetry book again as drawing base once again. I did not pay attention and drew on the wrong side, so now the text is upside down. It took almost finishing it before I even noticed. I don't think it matters.

I am happy with it.

Variation #3

Another take on the theme I've been following in the last few days.

Zentangle Inspired

Since I enjoyed making the zentangle inspired creation yesterday so much I made another one today. I used the same tangles with a few omitted. This time I made the pattern elements and surfaces be larger. 

I really like how it turned out. I think I'll make another one tomorrow.

Exploring Totally Tangled

As I mentioned several times before I have recently bought Totally Tangled by Sandi Steen Bartholomew. Pages 6 and 7 offer an example and invite the reader to make a creation in a similar fashion. I did just that. I used all the tangles from the example in the book, plus the cool boss tangle (the pattern that resembles a bunch of sunflower seeds) I learned recently.

This is the result before shading:

and after shading:

Even though  think I overdid the shades, especially on pearls, I am happy with the final result. Having the book to guide me makes a huge difference. Even though I am not new to drawing and painting I am learning a  great deal of new things from Totally Tangled.

The Naked Gardener

Splotch monster #3 has arrived. It's a gardener and he's naked, but hey he is wearing a cool hat. 

Frolicking

A splotch monster #2. This one is actually loaded with different splotch monsters. This is not only fun but also a great exercise in releasing our creative side.

Did I scan the initial splotch. Nope, again. I was so eager to start, I forgot. I'll be making more of these, so lets hope I remember the next time.

Diva's Challenge #64 - Fortuneteller

This week Diva's Challenge is to work with a given string which is basically the work surface divided into 8 equal triangles all touching in the center. It's easy to get this, just draw horizontal line through the center, vertical line through the center and both diagonals and there you go.

I had a long day so I didn't have the energy to think of and do anything fancy, so I grabbed my copy of Totally Tangled and decided to just practice a few different tangles from the book. I made a few mistakes, but I just went on. As always, point is not to do perfectly, but to enjoy the process of creating something. It turned out like this:

Looking at this I had an idea for a similar but simpler and possibly more effective take on the challenge. So I made this:

The tangle in the background is called buttercup. I really like it. It's from the book. Oh and did I mention that the book is awesome. It really is.

Thanks, Diva, for another wonderful challenge.

The Fields

In honor of the spring here are two more floral postcards.

Swamp - Part 2

After making the watercolor pencil drawing of an egret for the Illustration Friday I had an idea to do a similar, almost the same image but using a pen and patterns. Since the original image was quite simple the conversion turned out to be quite easy. 

It's a swamp all right, a swamp of patterns. Adding the shades really helped add order to this image. Before the shades it was hard to distinguish where one surface ended and another started. Shading made the surfaces pop out.

I can't decide which version I like better, the watercolor pencil or this one. Here they are side by side.

Which one do you like better?

Illustration Friday - Swamp

The topic of this weeks's Illustration Friday is Swap. I went with an obvious association - a swamp animal, Egret bird to be exact. It's a watercolor pencil on a 6x4 piece of watercolor paper.

Floral

Florals are not my strong point. I usually get frustrated with them, add to much details and it goes downhill easily and fast. Doesn't stop me from going back to them often. What can I say, I am stubborn. 

This is my latest shot at it:

To paint this I used wax aquarelle pencils and a pen on watercolor paper. The dimensions are 4x6 inches. 

The wax watercolors are totally new to me. I bought them without knowing anything about them. I searched the net and couldn't find much info. When used dry on dry surface they work pretty much like regular wax crayons. Once the water is used over them, they melt and the look turns into something much like watercolor paints. They are very easy to use and great for backgrounds. It was very interesting playing with them and I have no doubt that I will be using them again and exploring their possibilities.

Have you used wax watercolors? Do you have any tips and tricks on how to get the best out of them? If you do, share please. I am all ears.

Shades Of Grey

Illustration Friday topic this week is "shades." For my entry I played with shades of grey using just a black watercolor pencil and drew a nude. This one:

The right edge didn't scan well, so it looks edge-less and lighter than it really is. I can't be bothered to scan it again, sorry. The main part of the image is still there and true to the original.

Kitten

Today I took a break from tangling and did this cat drawing:

It's a mix of watercolor pencils and gouache on a 6x4 paper. Not my best work, but much better than I expected it would be considering it's been years since I last did this sort of drawing.

Yield

Theme for this week's Illustration Friday is yield. I mixed the idea of creating something for this challenge with my desire to continue learning to make new patterns and here's the result:

I think it fits the challenge theme well with all the products of nature that I fit into the picture. I tried a lot of new patterns with this one. Some I really liked, some not so much. Overall I am happy with the result, although I do think the butterfly is too busy. What do you think?

Diva's Weekly Challenge

This morning while exploring the world of tangles I ran into I Am the Diva blog and it's Weekly Challenge. The idea behind the challenge is to create something using a given tangle. This was perfect for me as I've been doing exactly what the challenge is made for - exploring and learning to draw various tangles.

The inspiration tangle this time is golven. I incorporated it into a postcard sized abstract. There is no special theme to it. The whole point was for me to try out different patterns and learn. Here it is:

See where it is? Up, the first horizontal thread. I like golven. It's easy to do and relaxing. I'll definitely use it again.

Overall I am happy with this card. I messed up some of the patterns, but managed to transform most of the mistakes into different patterns. The Celtic knot went wrong towards the right side. I didn't find a way to fix it, but I don't mind, it's not that noticeable, and even if it is, meh, I wasn't going for perfect anyway.

Learning To Tangle

Last week I was looking through crafts books in an online bookstore hoping to find something interesting to order. One of the covers that grabbed my attention was Zentangle Basics. I've seen that sort of drawings before, but I had no idea there was a whole concept behind it. I did a search for other books on the subject and finally decided to order Totally Tangled. I couldn't wait to receive the book before I started, so I searched the net for some info. I didn't go far before I just had to try it out. I grabbed my old little journal and a red pen and made this:

I did some more reading and looking around before I went back to the journal. When I did it turned out like this:

I like the first one better because the second one is just too busy. I didn't have much idea what I was doing, I just went for it. 

The next day when I passed by an art supply store I decided to go in and bought a bunch of goodies including a few sheets of card stock in different colors. I cut one of those into postcard sized bits and started drawing on one by making a letter B shape. I kept adding shapes and patterns and here's the result:

While I was not too happy with the image overall I really liked that mushroom like structure on the right, so I took that as an inspiration for the next postcard I made. This one:

This is so much fun. I can't wait to get the book and learn the techniques and tricks. In the meantime I am exploring Tangle Patterns and trying out new stuff, but more about that in my next post.