Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which Today Was HOT.

I am a delicate alpine bloom at the best of times, despising any temperature above 75℉(23,9℃) and melting in high humidity like so much cotton candy.

Today was absolutely not the best of times.

Today never actually got above 80℉(26,7℃), but between the sun and the mugginess, it felt like around 92℉(33,3℃).

Needless to say today sucked.

But I wasn't about to melt into the living room rug and let the vortex of the ceiling fan whisk away my consciousness like a massive hypnotic aide, no.

I decided, soon after waking up to an oven of a bedroom, that it was time to collect the air conditioning unit from the basement and put it in the kitchen so it wouldn't be disgusting anymore.

Now, I'm not an overly burly individual. I used to be able to do a lot more than I can now, but now I'm woefully weakened.

This is not a small AC unit. This is not a gainly AC unit.

It's not a window AC unit.

No, folks, we have one of those cabinet ones that you stick the hose out the window. The ones that are almost counter-height and weigh as much as an obstinate middle schooler and have handles that are only an inch deep and are about 3/4 as wide as the stairs while being a good 4" deeper than the treads.

So it's not an easy task.

At all.

We're talking a decent logistical undertaking for someone who has been awake for 20 minutes and has only just remembered how coffee works.

Needless to say, it must've been hilarious to watch me heave that stupid thing up the stairs. I had to go up backwards, butt first. I was literally sitting 3-4 stairs above the AC, desperately trying to hold it in place while the wheels debated sliding it away from me, struggling to get my feet halfway between the AC and my butt, and once I reached the top of the stairs, I had to practically lay on my back and scoot it into the kitchen. It nearly crushed me at least once. I nearly dropped it several times.

But I succeeded in putting it where it belonged.

I hooked it up and re-duct-taped the hose (the clips broke because of course everything is plastic and everything plastic breaks in this house), and cranked it to 75℉(23,9℃) before finally collapsing in an exhausted heap in the living room.

So of course, I scrapped the random sketches I did yesterday and instead scribbled out an homage to the effort of moving the stupid AC lol:

"The Struggle Is Real"; watercolore pencil & ink on watercolor paper; 2023
[DEDBERT]

I was tiredly chuckling the entire time I drew that lol.

I hope you guys are all holding up well during this trying time.

For now, I'm gonna go listen to some music and rest. I advise all of y'all to do the same!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which I Have Done Some Art!

This week I received a Ko-Fi Request for a picture of Dedbert!

"Dedbert Afternoon"; watercolor brush pen and watercolor pencil on sketch; 2023
[DEDBERT, FOOD]

The weather turning warmer means that not only do I crave things like boba (yes that's the wrong straw, but you try getting a wide straw into your beak and see how that works lol), but the camper is now being opened up to be checked for leaks and prepped for the camping season.

For those not in the know, my dad has a cute lil pop-up camper that he restored during COVID. He basically had to rebuild the thing from chassis to roof, even getting new canvases so that it wouldn't smell musty and leak like a sieve. It is now a great place to retreat to, when it's set up in the yard. He uses it as an office when he's fixing things and knows he'll need a rest after. I use it as a studio when the tv downstairs is too loud.

So the other day, the camper was open, and I was looking for a place to get out of the sun and the breeze without sacrificing all of the natural light. I succeeded in banging out a very small piece while munching on a Sweet Chili Dorito flavored meat stick and sipping at a Cherry Coke I'd picked up on my earlier walk.

"Floral" watercolor on paper; 2023
[VEGETABLE, ANIMAL]

"Floral", here, is a watercolor sketch. I put down no lines, I did not linger over any single facet of the piece. The whole thing took about 15 minutes total. Much of my art is made in a similar way. I don't tend to give myself a lot of time to paint because my brain still thinks that art is not something I should be doing, there are... stupid reasons for that. I struggle to value my creative endeavors because people don't tend to be happy with me when I tell them "yes, that can be yours, but I'd like some money first", and I... really want people to like me.

Yeah. It's taken a lot for me to get to the "oh, I can offer my art as a service!" stage.

Anywho, let's talk more about "Floral"!

Do I know the names of all the flowers I painted? Nope. I know that three of them are real, but the blue and yellow one is wholly invented, based off of the pansies my mom picked up. The light purple fluff flower is supposed to be a thistle, the yellow fluff is supposed to be a dandelion. I know the red one is a real plant I just can't remember the name.

If you want to have a say in what I draw or paint next week, please feel free to make a Request via Ko-Fi or hire me for a Commission. All info is in the link sidebar, and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have for me!

For now, I'm going to go eat dinner, play some Tears of the Kingdom (I've just finished hunting down the Fierce Deity set, built a house to accommodate the Sword of the Fierce Deity, and I'm tracking down the Tingle Set now lol), and maybe make some decaf while settling in for a YouTube binge with Z!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which I Did All The Art This Week!!!

I'm shocked at how much art I was able to crank out this week! I promised myself I'd try to at least sketch every single day, and I did! I have 5 pictures from the 1st to today, and I'm incredibly proud of myself! I'm posting these below with a format of Date (month/day/year); "Title"; medium [tag]. The tag is what category I would consider the artwork in.

1/1/2023; "Possum"; pencil sketch [ANIMAL]

On the first, I sketched this awkward little possum hanging from a branch. It was a quick sketch that used one of my mechanical pencils and a few reference photos, though I invented the pose.

1/2/2023; "Silence"; pencil sketch; [ANIMAL]

Along with my daily drawings, I'm also trying to write at least 100 words in one of the stories I'm writing. The story I'm working on now involves snow, a very unhappy person, and themes of brokenness and repair.

1/3/2023; "Abstract Nude 01"; pen and pencil drawing [GEOMETRIC]

I don't do a lot of nudes, but I liked the idea of trying to use positive and negative space, texture, and shape to suggest an image. I like how the neck turned out, but after that, I kind of forgot to add the negative space and things got hectic. I still like the image, though.

1/4/2023; "Banana"; digital painting [VEGETABLE]

In my ongoing quest to master Krita, I painted this scribbly banana. I'm actually super pleased with how vague and slightly unsettling the soft background is compared to the jagged scribbliness of the banana itself. Also, I know a banana isn't a vegetable, I just use the VEGETABLE tag to denote any plant or fungus or lichen. Bananas are berries. Look it up if you don't believe me lol.

And for today's art, I present to you...

1/5/2023; "Abstract Nude 02"; digital painting [ANIMAL/GEOMETRIC]

This painting was a lot of fun, if a bit difficult, and I think I'm going to be exploring more of this style in various colors. In fact, I think I'll get a bit of help from that Coolors website that generates palettes. I consider it both GEOMETRIC and ANIMAL, since it's a human (animal) and also abstract (which counts as geometric for tagging purposes).

Since I don't have a lot of experience with bodies, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to convey a Large Person, but I think I did pretty well, even if I had to adjust the left breast a few times to make it stand out less. I'm really loving experimenting with Krita, too! I'll be continuing the art next week, gathering all the art until Thursday and then posting it all at once. Sometimes, I'm sure, I'll either miss a day or draw something incredibly dumb or oversimplified. I'll almost certainly have some really ugly art, too, but I think it's important to accept that not every piece is going to succeed. It's good to know when to stop and try something new.

If you'd like to have a say in the stuff I draw during the week, feel free to head on over to my Ko-Fi and send me a coffee with a message telling me what category (ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MINERAL, DEDBERT, LOCATION, GEOMETRIC, WORD) to work from, and I'll put it up with a little thank you. If you prefer anonymity, let me know that, and I will simply call you a Kind Patron.

That'll do it for me this week, guys!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which A Beautiful Day Was Also Busy!

Full disclosure, I finished today's painting yesterday and the sketch on Monday. I didn't work on anything else because I knew I'd be busy today! It was a crummy day yesterday, gray and cool and not at all inviting to head out, but today has been gorgeous. I spent most of the afternoon enjoying the sunshine and 65℉/18,3℃ breezes.

First I took a leisurely stroll down to the shops where I buy snacks and bought my guy some cheddar popcorn (if you're paying more than a dollar, you're paying too much, the weird religious Brim's popcorn is just as good as Smartfood) and candy and some Cokes. How is Coke still in business? They'll lose the public because it's about a dollar more expensive in a six-pack than Pepsi! Then I popped next door to buy myself a lime Jarritos and some Lindor truffles - two milk chocolate, two dark chocolate. You can tell that the Food Service here in town serves the Asian restaurants (two Thai places, a sushi joint, two Chinese restaurants! In a town with less than 10k people!) because they sell black vinegar, sambal, Chinese cooking wine, rose water, and more, wholesale!

After my snack run, I toddled back to my place, waving to the nice City Workers who were clearing up the brush piles by the side of the road, and got the cat ready for her walk. It took very little effort to slip her into her harness and get her out into the sun. It took more effort for her to leave the neighbor whose dog looks just like my childhood dog, Sam, alone. What a silly cat!

It's a good thing we headed back inside an hour later, because the hawk, who has had extremely poor timing lately, finally caught something! It was a starling, I'm pretty sure, but it was... brutal. The cat was enthralled.

So were the crows, so the hawk vamoosed with its prize.

After that I made myself a bowl of chicken broth with a bunch of dumplings (beef & chicken bulgogi, in fact!) and settled in to correct the edges on the painting so I could present it to you!

"Cactus Practus"; pencil & pen on sketch paper; 2022

"Dream Prickles" watercolor on watercolor paper; 2022

I'm still not 100% satisfied with the overall violet effect in the background, but I learned a lot about how to blend out colors while working on the cactus itself! I'm so happy with those transitions, too. I'm learning a lot, recently!

I think my next painting will be another abstract. We'll see!

As for me, it has gotten late. The day fled before me like scream-laughing toddlers before a mock-roaring uncle at a family reunion, and now I am sleepy and cozy and quite satisfied with my work, both predrawing and painting!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

I Sketched A Bit Today!

I would like to apologize for how late this is. Nothing I tried to do to actually put this set of images on the internet worked. I'm still trying to calm down from how absolutely awfully the upload process went (hope I didn't break my hand earlier when I hit the table because I literally could not light the image without my shadow popping through after the scanner failed for the fifteenth time)...

"The Great Indoors" sketch; 2022

These are the animatronics from the idea I had for Cooper! Each animatronic has a specific job they do, and yes, one is flipping another off. He is not around kids much, so he never had the "be nice" protocols installed lol.

"Posie"

Posie is a cottagecore opossum who is in charge of younger kids. She has first aid programming, and her pouch (she has a pouch!) is designed to hold a child up to about 100lbs in case of emergency. She wears two-piece outfits because of the pouch, but they're all incredibly frilly and quaint, and yes, she always has a flower crown. Her prehensile tail can lift anything up to 1000lbs, provided her tail can wrap around it. She's around 9'8" tall (that's around 295cm) and her favorite color is lavender!

"Teacup"

Oh Teacup. He's a short lil flying squirrel with an aviator cap and goggles and a very big attitude. Sure, he's only 3'0" (around 91cm), but he is the security system for The Great Indoors (just like he was at The Fun Zone 3000). He can move as fast as a real flying squirrel, and he is connected wirelessly to all of the video cameras. He's a lot stronger than you'd think, too, having enough strength to drag two grown adults if he had to. Teacup was only the second animatronic built, and he was never really meant to interact with the children, so he can be... rude. As rude as Teacup can be, he is excellent at his job and would defend his fellow animatronics and the guests at The Great Indoors to the death if he had to. He also likes to sneak into the daycare to nap in Posie's pouch.

"Andy"

Andy the Raccoon is quite the outdoorsman! As a 9'0" (174cm) animatronic racoon, you wouldn't really expect him to be the designated guide for Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, but that's one of his duties! He has been programmed to identify pretty much anything in nature, has a built-in GPS, and he's completely weatherproofed. He loves his job, but boy, is it exhausting, and once the kids are gone for the day, he's about as cranky as can be. He just wants to unwind and rest once his work is done. Unfortunately for Andy, his coworkers are much more social and all want to hang out with him, so he's usually grumpily going along with whatever their plans are. He and Teacup have almost a Big Brother/Bratty Little Brother relationship going on, which is funny, since Teacup is older than Andy, but despite their antagonistic behavior, Andy loves him. He just wants a nap, is all.

"Howler"

Howler is technically the newest animatronic. He's also technically the oldest animatronic. As the "switchboard operator" who monitors the wi-fi, walkie-talkies, and employee phones, he's been given a reputation as a snitch and someone you can't trust with secrets, but that isn't the case at all. This 7'6" (229cm) coyote will take your secrets to the scrapyard... so long as they don't impact the quality of life for everyone living and working at The Great Indoors. Howler has no color added to his fur, and he usually wears gray clothing, but he does have one colorful accessory - an earring with a copper feather dangling from it. The feather is from his first incarnation as a Microraptor named Buddy. Buddy had been the first, but the owner of The Fun Zone 3000 literally tore him to pieces. When Buddy's AI chip was recovered, the other animatronics secretly uploaded it to the Maintenance Mainframe in the hopes that their friend could be automatically rebuilt with the 3d printers and other manufacturing machines, but... out came Howler, who was very much Not Buddy. Where Buddy had an almost childlike approach to the world (which made sense for a greeter & receptionist!), Howler is a mature yet coy being who is always just a little ahead of the game.

I can't wait to get to write more about these guys!

How about you all? How are your creative projects coming?

That'll do it for me - the struggle to upload those images was enough to make me bonkers, so I'll just settle in for the night.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which Art Is Hard.

I've been working on a bunch of art ideas, none of which are coming to fruition, sadly, but hey, that's life. Sometimes your art goes smoothly & well, and sometimes you're hurling sketched-upon notecards around your room like shuriken in frustration.

Today has been a shuriken day.

It's not due to any sort of horrible nightmarish scenario that I'm struggling to make art. I'm just having an off month. Happens.

That being said, today was another nice warm day (I think it reached 50℉/10℃!) and we had a thick fog roll in, so the cat got to go out again. Yesterday, she came face to face with poor Skye-Kitty from next door, who she loves to flirt with and then attempt to batter (poor dude). He wisely didn't come back today when she went out, but she did settle on the grass and look out into the fog, wistfully, as though she wished he was there (presumably to punch in the face like she always tries...).

So I made a little homage to that!

"Trouble"; colored pencil sketch on notecard; 2021

The cat in the foreground is, of course, the disastrous Ms. Evie, and the indistinct blob in the background is Mr. Skye-Kitty.

I hope I can make a larger version of this some time, maybe in watercolors, using their actual colors, because I didn't have my hot pink colored pencil with me when I was drawing this, and that's what color Evie's harness is lol.

Sadly, that's the only art that's come out even close to acceptable lately. And I'm not talking just "oh, I don't like it because I'm the artist and we're not allowed to like our own art", I'm talking "is that an elbow or a chair?" bad.

Then again, I do still have a *lot* of Christmas presents to finish, so I think that's what I'll focus on!

I hope you're all doing alright!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which I Show You My Sketches!

I have been busy this week (cats, trying to get the returnables returned, shopping, etc) so I haven't had a chance to properly paint or color or ink anything, but I still managed to do some sketches! These are going to eventually become finished works (well, two of them are), but before that happens, I'll have to take them from these initial sketches to proper compositions and then from there I'll make the finished art (which could also require multiple steps, depending on what I do for the medium for each).

So for now, here's what I sketched out, today:

The whole page of sketches

"Stop, Thief!"; sketch; 2021

"Thanks?giving"; sketch; 2021

"Dessert, Anyone?"; sketch; 2021

I'm not 100% sure how any of these will turn out, nor do I know if I'll be changing them up later, but I love how each one came out, even if the beaver on the right and coendou on the left of "Dessert, Anyone?" might be a bit nightmarish in sketch-form lol!

But this is why I do messy sketches like this - it allows me to assign postures, placements, and ideas to individual elements without spending too much effort and then hating it later. If I want to redraw any of these, it's not going to take the same effort as, say, reworking my logos would (though that's a potential January project...)

I haven't done an ensemble/character piece in a while! The last time I had multiple creatures was... huh... whenever the Pokemon/Dedbert crossover was! Quite a while ago! I hadn't even rediscovered watercolor yet!

I'm looking forward to all of this!

However, I'm also in that weird space where you're exhausted but you do not feel sleepy at all. Every pore of my body wants to sleep because I have a cold and I want to feel better, but... I'm also not in the mood to sleep. Maybe I'll binge some stuff lol.

Maybe I'll just relax and let my body tell my brain what to do for once?

Regardless, I hope you guys enjoyed my sketchy little sketches as much as I enjoyed sketching them!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

I Have A Sketch!

Today has been a major art block day. I have a pile of crappy papers next to the bed covered in junk scribbles, but I finally have something to show for it.

"Creature 01"; mechanical pencil on legal pad; 2021

That lil critter up there is a fusion of a South Indian Marble Tree and a lion. Why? I... couldn't think of anything to draw, tbh. I'd love to pop that lil sucker into my digital art program and color it! The branches should be a deep reddish pink darkening to red at the tops of the bell-shaped flowers, the fluffy bits inside the flowers should be white, the body of the lion should, of course, be a golden brown, and the mane should be dark green with rosy veins! I really hope I can do this boy some justice, tbh.

Now... why the South Indian Marble Tree?

Because I wanted to do something based off of a living thing, and that was the first living thing with a photograph that popped up when I hit "Random Article" on Wikispecies lol.

And why the lion?

Because that was the first non-human, non-building being that showed up on Google when I typed in "South Indian".

Inspiration isn't always pretty, but it is useful!

Anyway, I think I'll try a few of these kind of picture, and I hope I can actually figure out how to color them up all pretty-like lol!

Anyone have any video tutorial suggestions for Paint.net or Krita? I still can't get Krita to do anything that makes sense, tbh...

Whatever is going on, I hope you

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk - Capra aegagrus

 

In Which I May Learn Ya Somethin

It occurs to me that I missed Tuesday's Talk About Tuesday blog. Sorry about that. I was swept up in a whirlwind of working on crochet and just being sleepy :)

We've hit a brief warm patch here in the Blanket Fort - outside temps today were around 44℉ (6.7℃)! It was cloudy and sprinkling during my walk, so the heavy fleece and beanie that I wore were helpful at offsetting the damp chill (and keeping my unruly mane out of my face - gotta keep my hands off my face!). I went to the shop and picked up some snacks and sodas, and I just enjoyed my exercise.

But enough about that, I promised you art, and educational art at that!

First, though, I have to tell you where the idea for this short three-panel comic comes from:

Ghost Town Living on Youtube.

You may have heard of this guy before - he's a dude who bought a ghost town named Cerro Gordo and is now fixing it up. He lives up there all by his lonesome except for the wild bobcats. And the kittens he took in from a farmer who didn't want them. And some goats.

It's the goats I'm talking about today - specifically the #1 goat, Tofu.

Tofu is adorable. He's this lil brown-and-white turbo-charged latte of a goat who is absolutely adorable and precious and I love him.

He lives in an area where bobcats are not only plentiful, but they're gutsy, too. So I worried at first about the lil dude's chances.

And now I know I won't have to.

Why? Well... he's a Boer goat. Lemme show ya:

Bobcat crouching in the grass "Goat burgers coming up..." as a goat grazes in front of him.

[DID YOU KNOW:] caption. The bobcat notices and is distracted. "Eh?". The goat is nonplussed.

The goat is heckin buff. Caption reads [Adult Boer Goats can weigh around 300lbs (That's ~136kg!)]
The bobcat is in awe. "Heck"
Small caption with an arrow pointing to bobcat: [Bobcat = ~40lbs (~18kg)]

So there ya go. We need not fear for Tofu's wellbeing - he's gonna outweigh literally every animal in Cerro Gordo in the future. So are his bros, Elon and Baretta (at least I think that's the other goat's name?).

Hope this gave you a chuckle! Hope you learned something new!

Hope you Go Enjoy Something!

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which I Made A Sketch

Thursday again, and all I wanted to do today was sleep. I think I've had enough coffee to kill a small yak, but I'm very sleepy. I've been in relatively good spirits, however, so I managed to will myself to make a fun little sketch of the Four Pillars of Casual:

"Four Pillars of Casual"

The Four Pillars are, of course:

• Coffee
• Tea
• Snacks
• Books

That's supposed to be a book the coffee (left), tea (right), and English Muffin (center) are on top of lol.

I'm planning on expanding this idea in other mediums (markers, crayons, pencils, maybe even paint, digital) but for now it's just a little scribble. I even had the date wrong at first lol!

Despite my lack of motivation, I've gotten a little writing done today, too! Not... not much, but about a paragraph isn't too bad for someone who wants to sleep and eat popcorn.

I'm going to go back to my manuscript in a moment, but just wanted to update you on the bonkbubble piece I'm doing digitally!

I'm up to 22 colors now from my original 16, and my secondary palette may be limited, but it's still kind of pleasant to look at... except the first color which is a combination of Arylide Yellow and Purple Navy...

Secondaries:

• A7A25E (167, 162, 94)
• E48888 (228, 136, 136)
• DB984A (219, 152, 74)
• ED5A6C (237, 90, 108)
• 34333E (52, 51, 62)
• 777C47 (119, 124, 71)

I'm gonna go back to writing now, folks.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which I Swatch & Thumbnail!

I'm not very good about the leadup to a piece (as is evidenced by every work of art I've made...) so today is all leadup! I was given a Christmas gift by my grandmother - a pack of 70 colored pencils by a company I've never heard of (Nicole) - and decided I should do my due diligence and test out how they work!

The Pencils in Question

The first thing I did was take every single pencil and swatch them out. For those who do not use, follow, or know art terms, that just means that I tested them! I started from the back of the box to the front, left to right, row by row. I ended up with a messy grid that let me know what to expect on my toothy, soft sketchbook paper from these pencils, and I also ended up with that weird feeling I always get after inhaling the waxy smell from crayons for too long, so bonus? All's I know is this: I don't mind the smell, but it makes my eyelids feel heavy and gummy, so maybe that's an allergy?

Regardless, I swatched out all seventy pencils and discovered there were probably a lot of doubled colors. I don't mind this - I'll probably use up the doubled colors pretty fast (peach, brown, gray, black, etc). I also noticed that the neon colors are... very neon! It's hard to look directly at the neon yellow lol. I kinda hope I find some black paper to test them on...

And then I sketched out a little picture of Dedbert riding a slug up to some snowdrops. Why? Why not?!

The Swatch & The Thumbnail/Sketch!

I really like the way these colors work, and I hope that in the future I can use them for a better thought out project, like a faux stained glass effect or some kind of dreamy scene. For today, I just wanted to test the supplies out. I'll probably test them with the gel pens, my sharpies, and also maybe the pack of highlighters I have. I think that'd be fun to see how they all interact!

The Swatches

The grid I have is kind of misleading because Column A is actually the last row of the box and Column G is the front with Row 1 being the left hand side and Row 10 being on the right. Still, I know what I'm looking at and I suppose that's what matters? It's a very pretty set of colors. They should blend into each other nicely once I find an inexpensive blender or make one from rolled paper. It's been forever since I had one.

"Snowdrops"; colored pencil & ballpoint pen; 2021

As for Dedbert and his slug? I want to try using this scene with a few different mediums, so look forward to seeing this in gel pen, just ballpoint pen, crayon, Sharpie, and possibly more! I will be getting back to my fruit dragons at some point, too, and I hope to start reintroducing the watermelon dragon into my work!

That'll about do it for me today. I'm exhausted and I kinda just want to curl up with some more lemon tea and check out the new safety eyes that came in today for future amigurumi projects.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk: Year End Birb

 

In Which I Got Art Supplies And Made An Art!

At long last, it's the final day of the Year of the Dumpster Fire. I'm not going to get all hopeful and say that 2021 is gonna be any better, but I'm glad that this year is finally closing out. So today I made some art to celebrate the final day. Dang, if I was a more thinky person I'd have made a Majora's Mask-based image. Instead, I just bring you something I made with my brand new art supplies!

The Supplies in question!

Both metallic and glittery gel pens!

I haven't used gel pens since probably 2008? So after 12 years of not fiddling around with them, I'm pretty thrilled with what I came up with!

"Farewell to 2020"; gel pen on sketch pad; 2020

I'm pretty pleased with how that worked out! And I can't even see the worst mistake - a blob of black ink got stuck to my hand and smeared on the bottom of the banner where the first 2 of the 2021 is. That's why I included 2021 lol.

I'm really pleased with how the plaid came out, and I think I should thank DrawingWiffWaffles on YouTube for that, since she draws a lot of plaid on her awesome illustrations, and that's what gave me the courage to try it! I think it came out pretty cute, especially considering that I initially just scribbled it in with the metallic red and layered the glitter red and glitter black on top lol.

I hope to use these pens more often in the future and try out some of the cool challenges I see on the internet (though don't expect greatness from challenges, I'm still learning how to control my flabby fingers lol).

I hope that the year did not crush your spirit, that your creativity is intact no matter what your medium may be, and that over the next twelve months, you're able to create and share and sell your art. I want to read your books. I want to see your art. I want to hear your music and poetry. I want to walk into the buildings you design or decorate. I want to try your patterns and recipes. And I want you to know that whatever you created this year? It was worth the effort you put in! Even if it was just the outline of your novel or the barest sketch, I'm proud of you. Even if you were only able to think about your art for five minutes a day, I'm proud of you, because it was hard this year, and everything you tried artistically was important!

I love you all!

Happy New Year!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk - Ah HA!

 

In Which I ACTUALLY MADE A DEADLINE lol

You may have noticed I've been struggling to get blogs up lately. I'm not sure if it's hormones, the weather, the unceasing grind of American life, or what, but I've just been exhausted. Not just tired - tired I can deal with - but bone-achingly exhausted. And before you aske, no I don't believe I have the 'Rona. I am 99% sure I don't.

Mostly, I'm just fat and stressed. Which makes me fatter. Which stresses me out.

But I digress, and you're not here for me whining about my balooning waistline.

It's October 1st.

That means you're probably here for Inktober....

But I'm not doing Inktober this year.

I know, I got alllll excited, but then the controversy of the guy who made Inktober possibly maybe almost surely plagiarizing his book on inking and... I just don't wanna get into it. I really don't. I don't want to get involved.

And I don't like this year's prompt list anyway, so it wasn't much of a choice.

Since I'm already working on a set of artworks (the Fruit Dragons!), I figured I'd just do that, but...

Then I discovered Witchtober.

Specifically the prompt list I found here.

So get ready for 31 images of witches, starting today with "Goth Witch"

"Gothic Witchling"; Ballpoint pen & graphite sketch; 2020

Slightly better lighting

You may notice that I still cannot draw feet. This is okay, though, because I gave my goth witch a pair of cute hoof shoes (or are they?!). I don't have a name for her, but she looks cool, and I wish I was her. I have ideas for what her hair looks like though - black near the roots, but turning more flame-colored towards the tips. That skirt is also made of fringe, so that's why it looks... hairy. And she has a raven for a familiar because I couldn't figure out what to do with that arm and I wanted floppy sleeves. Couldn't do a snake wrapped around her arm with floppy sleeves!

But I mentioned fruit dragons earlier!

Well... I'm sketching a scene with my Watermelon Dragon and a very unhappy knight.

"Mistakes Were Made" unfinished pencil sketch on printer paper; 2020

Yes, that dragon is currently spraying down that knight with watermelon juice while his horse ignores the attack and grazes nearby. The knight is fine, just confused and very sticky. I plan on redoing the lineart with either colored pencil or digging out some Sakura Pigma Fineliners if I can find any and trying those. The dragon itself is very smooth, though he'll have some stripes (green on green!), and his lil horns, wings, claws, and tailclub are all watermelon pink (with seed-shaped dark brown flecks on them!). I love him.

I think that'll about do it for me, today, folks. My shoulders ache from sitting over the ol tv tray and pencils. If you're wondering about what I use, it's simple: a mechanical pencil and a random BIC pen my old man picked up from some tech conference or another. It has a stylus on the clicker end!

I hope y'all get out there and draw, whether or not you use the Inktober challenge or something else. (You could draw 31 pictures of candy corn and I'd still be proud of you. I'd just be craving candy corn because I'm a freak!)

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk - Fruit Dragons!

In Which I Drew A Bunch of Thumbnails

I recently started following YouTuber DrawingWiffWaffles, and while I don't know that I'll ever be as good at drawing as her (I do not have boundless quantities of patience and discipline for my art, you may have noticed), I am hoping to apply a lot of her techniques to my own art. Hopefully, that'll help me improve so I don't just... stop after sketching a little.

One of the techniques I'm taking right now is thumbnailing - essentially messy sketches that you use to refine final drawings. I'm very bad at letting messy things stay messy, but hopefully, you can see the sketchy thumnailiness of the following images.

I'm also stealing a prompt list that DrawingWiffWaffles used. The list is by @SeaLemon on Instagram, and it's 30 days of Fruits. I did the first 5 below, but instead of just drawing fruits (which, in hindsight, maybe I should've started with...), I decided to make Fruit Dragons!

1) Watermelon

I really like the idea of a Watermelon Dragon for some reason. The smooth, green-striped outside of a melon is fairly herpetological to me, and I like the bright pinks and dark reds of the flesh, the white pith before the verdant rind, the glossy, dark brown or black seeds... the fruit looks wonderful, and designing things to look kind of like it is fun!

This is also where I settled on how I'd draw my dragons - the shape of the fruit determines the shape of the dragon! I used all ovals to lay out how this dragon looks, giving him half-oval watermelon slice wings and watermelon slice horns, half-watermelon feet, and oval floppy ears! I like his sweet yet derpy expression, too. I'm super proud of him.

2) Blueberry

This gal is a bit odd, you must admit. Circles are not very dragony, but I liked the idea of making an almost medieval-style two-legged dragon, but I might take her wings (which are supposed to look like the flower-end of a blueberry but instead look like weird grass...). I tried to make her more birdlike - pigeon-toed, kinda goofy, bipedal, and round-headed... but I don't like the profile view of her face. It looks terrrrrrrrrible. I honestly don't know what to do for a face on a round dragon, though. Do I give her an extra bubble-muzzle? That might work! I like the almost scorpion-like segmented neck and tail.

3) Pineapple

As far as positions go, I'm pretty pleased with the smaller version of Pineapple, but I like the way the wings are folded down on the laying-down version up top. I want the wings, horns, ears, tail, and toes to remind people of the green top to a pineapple, but I'm struggling with how to get across that classic pineapple shape on the body without making him... spiky. I'll figure it out. Kinda happy with how I got the rounded cylinders of the pineapple to go together to make the body.

4) Lemon

Lemon was maybe the easiest to draw - mostly because I didn't give it a tail and I've got it sleeping in a nest! I really like the "lemon at rest" idea, and I'll probably keep it, though I'm not 100% sure how I'm going to really make it obvious that this baby is a Lemon Dragon (besides body shape - look at that lil tail nub!). I'm thinking I'll make the wings lemon wedges and give him little lemon pip horn nubs. Besides that, though, I think that might be my design, right there - right down to the lil floppy lemon-shaped ears! I like this one.

5) Banana

Ugggggh. I Hate how I drew poor Banana Dragon. I wanted to have a more Asiatic Dragon in appearance but I ended up with a messed up Muppet reject. I'll have to thumbnail this a bunch more to get it to work, but I still like the idea. Maybe I'll just draw a bunch of bananas in different positions, then put them together in Paint.Net or something to make the outline? And from there, I'll make the actual dragon? But yeah, not happy with Banana Boy here At ALL.

Still, this was just the thumnailing stage. I still have the actual sketching, lineart, coloring, etc to do.

My plan is to compose the image so the fruit itself is visible somewhere, either as a background in and of itself or as a background element. Maybe Lemon Dragon has a few lemons laying around? Banana Trees for Banana Dragon to hide in so I don't draw so much of it? I love the idea of Blueberry Dragon maybe trying to peck at some blueberries that have been scattered on the ground like some sort of derpy chicken!

All in all, this is a fairly successful experiment, and if I don't make all 30 dragons, it'll be because I get distracted... probably by Inktober, let's be honest lol.

I hope today's blog gave you a break from the State of Things as the are today. It's been a rough 2020, and I'm ready for something better, even if better can be hard to hope for. All I can say is this: Keep making things that make you happy, and share them.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC