IF -'twirl'

For IF's prompt this week, 'twirl'. A rough pencil sketch cleaned up in PS moderately. I say that becuz I find I lose the spontaneity of my hand-drawn organic lines when I go digital - how about you?

Anyhow, this illo was inspired by all things GRIMM. Remember when I mentioned about some books I received for Christmas? This one was a wishlist topper - in a word: LOVE!! I've always been enchanted with the Brothers' classic fairytales like Rapunzel, Cinderella, Hansel & Grethel....and more as you know if you're a fan too!



I hope you're up to something enchanting this weekend <3

EDM #125 - Bird

mixed media, 9x12 sketchbook journal

My response to the bird challenge took me quite by surprise and was very serendipitous. I wasn't sure at first if I wanted to post this for the challenge because it's mixed media, but I decided that embracing the everyday is exactly what Everyday Matters is all about, so here you have it :) Actually, I'd been thinking about which bird I wanted to draw since the challenge was posted because I have a few favorites - but as it turns out a bird was selected for me! However, I do love birds and will most definitely do some full sketches in the future and will share those with everyone too, maybe even a step-by-step version as I've been wanting to do that for awhilenow.

Anyway, how this came about: we've been 'beaching' it here the last few days with temps hovering in the upper 90's and as we were packing up to leave today, I spotted this treasure. There it was, poking out of the sand along the shoreline, barely noticeable really with all the other bits of driftwood and such. Incredible was all I could think when I dug it out and rinsed it off! All it needed was a bit of carving at the neck & beak area and some defining for the tail feathers, but that's it. I wanted to 'stay in the moment' with this, so I quickly sketched out the background and perched it on the 'inky' branch. Because this won't fit in my journal, I'm going to collage this with other bird-related ephemera and put it in a shadow box.

Before I got Danny's books and joined the EDM group earlier this year, I never sketched daily or looked at things the way I do today. I probably would have brought something like this home and plopped it into a glass jar with other finds, never 'seeing' what it could be. Thanks again Danny for reminding us to take the time to stop and really look at everything around us. Thanks also to all the EDMers who share their wonderful responses to these challenges - you are all an inspiration.

Photoshop: Painting / Artwords #62 "Curl"

July 28, 2007 EDIT: My experimenting with Photoshop painting continues - more practice with skin tones and shading. Even though I haven't used my airbrush in awhile I'm finding it similar to that as far as building up layers goes, also I'm finally getting some real use out of my wacom tablet pen :) I want to work on the eyes more and start in on the hair next so will see if I can find any tutorials out there on that. Stay tuned....

mixed media 9x12, pen, photoshop

A quick line sketch in pen, then scanned into photoshop to add some color, everything but the dress and curls. I'm such an amateur and so very new to PS as far as creating art with it so recently starting scanning in sketches and experimenting. I also have Illustrator too but there's so much to learn, I'm thinking about taking some classes to really get into it but not sure I want my art to go that route just yet :)

However, I do know that I really like how easy it is to just UNDO something and change brushes and paints so easily. Plus I love how digital art has no mess to clean up and that I can just save what's up on the screen when 'life' calls!! :)