Symphony of Grays

For quite some time I have just "doodled" little pictures here and there, it has been quite a while since I have actually sat and put a large amount of time into a picture. Every now and then I will get this urge to really use my artistic efforts and draw something that takes me a while to complete.

One of my graduation presents from a good friend was a sketch pad. Yes! I was thrilled to get a new one... an artist can never have to many sketch pads ;) But I didn't want to just draw or doodle a quick unimportant sketch in it's new fresh crisp pages...what sort of way is that to start a new sketch pad?!?! No, no it had to be something special, something interesting that when people look at it they would say "Wow! that is so cool!" That is what my intent was with this new pencil drawing of mine.

Symphony of Grays

I got the idea for this picture from another picture I saw. Although you can't tell what it is, it is pretty fun to look at :)

Here are some close up views

Close up view

Close up view

This picture was really fun to draw, it took me three days to complete. Now I have a decent picture to start up my new sketch pad ;)

Sweeter than Pie!

Through my many years of drawing (that is quite a few!) I have always loved to draw people. Now, that doesn't mean that I am any good at drawing them ;) I have always had the hardest time getting a person that I was drawing to actually look like themselves! It just never worked out for me....something was just always off. It could have very well been that I never carefully sat down and drew out a grid so that every feature was just perfectly in place, or that I just always got far to frustrated to ever finish one...whatever the reason is, I have never been that great at portraits. So I have always just stuck with cartoons, animals and flowers. If you mess those up a little, it's o.k. Not like anyone is going to look at the pencil sketch of my flower and say, "Man....that petal is just a little twisted compared to the real thing" so I have always found drawing still lives and such a safe subject ;) I had decided to accept the reality that I was no good at portraits until my little adorable nephew came along...he just changed everything. 

My beautifus nephew!

The time came for my nephews baptism. I wanted to give his parents (and him) a gift for this special occasion, but what could I give them? I wanted it to be something special that they could all look back on and remember, something that you can't buy at a Hallmark store or buy off of Ebay. I went on thinking of what I could do for them...instantly I thought, "well why not just draw them something?!" A talent I had been given, why not share it with them? This got me very excited, I had decided to draw my sweet little nephew and give his parents his portrait. Instantly I started to get all of my drawing tools out, I had my board, pencils, paper, tortillians and the picture I had chosen of my nephew that I was going to draw. I was all set, and then I remembered that I was no good at drawing real people!!! AH! That didn't stop me though, I was determined, I was going to draw this cute little munchkin no matter what...and he was gonna look real too. To make sure my finished product looked like the babe, I went ahead and actually measured the picture out and made a grid! This is big...I never do that. This picture of my nephew took me two days to complete, he had to look like himself ...it had to look good, so I really took my time with him and was careful that every square had what the real picture had. Finally! I was done. I stepped back and looked at him. I was so pleased! He looked like himself. So after all, all that grid work and careful calculating paid off. I then signed it and placed it in an envelope. The parents loved it, and now have it framed  and hanging in their house. :) I am so glad I was able to do something like that for them! I loved drawing my nephew..best subject ever!

Bored and Inspired

This should be a rather short posting, I only have two pictures this time. And the theme is.....crazy, random abstract ink art! Now one of my favorite things to draw.

Just a few weeks ago I had to do childcare all week long. I soon found myself, most of those days, just sitting at the table watching the one child I was caring for sleep! After about five minutes of just staring at the kid nap, I decided I was bored and went to find some drawing materials. I set off to look for some tools...this proved to be harder than I thought it would be. Who thought that looking for a plain sheet of paper and a pencil would be so difficult? Well, after a bit of searching I stumbled across some paper and found a thin Sharpie ink pen...that would just have to do. So I sat..started at what I had, and was inspired! I decided to go ahead and create a totally random abstract ink picture. I had seen some ink artwork before and loved them. The detail and uniqueness of them has just always caught my attention, so that is what I set off to do. 

Abstract ink art creation # 1

After four hours of just doodling, this is what I finished with. The quality really isn't all that good just cause I only had a Sharpie (which frequently decided to run out of ink!) but I like the outcome of it. 

Abstract ink art creation # 2

This here is another ink art drawing I drew up on another one of my boring childcare days. Once again, four hours work. It kept me entertained! Just hand me a paper and pen, and I will come up with something!

Memories...

Well, since I have slacked so very badly on my blog, I am having to cram another post in the same night! This one is far from mermaids though. At the college I attend, one of the first classes I took was an art class. Drawing I. I loved that class! It was wonderful. I was so bummed when the semester was over, but looked forward to the time where I would be able to take Drawing II.

 The semester came and I enrolled in Drawing II! I can't tell you how excited I was. To get back in the Arts department was a great feeling. It was a bit challenging, but it was completely worth it. The class really helped me grow as an artist, I learned so much in just those few weeks. The picture below was my first Conte Crayon-pastel picture of Drawing II. It was a small class, and the teacher was busy with her other class, so she had us drawing II students (4 of us) put together our own still life. And this is what we decided to draw.

Drawing # 1

The glass bottle and goblet as well as the racquet were my favorite to draw.

Our second assignment was an abstract one, which I was very excited about. I have always loved abstract art, yet I had never really "drawn" one, so this was a fun picture. We had to pick our colors, so I went with some vibrant and lively colors, colors that represent my character! 

Drawing # 2

Our third assignment was by far, one of my favorites. We had to draw a self portrait...yet a different self portrait. I had to compose a picture that would be able to tell any random person who I was. From this picture, someone was supposed to be able to read into who I was, yet I wasn't able to draw my face. How was I supposed to draw a self portrait without drawing my face? This whole self portrait yet no self portrait thing was a little too abstract for me!! This one had me stumped for a while. I was stuck in the mind set that a self portrait was a picture of my face...that was getting me nowhere. After searching and searching: looking through magazines and surfing the web and getting some great advice from my school mates I finally figured out what I was going  to do! 

Drawing # 3

Tada!! I decided to incorporate my life into this picture. Most of who I am is depicted right there. My nationality, music (cause I love music) art..of course ;) These are my hands in the painting. I drew my hands drawing the picture. One hand is holding a Conte Crayon and the other is holding another drawing tool. I was very pleased with the overall outcome of the portrait.

Drawing # 4

Drawing numero cuatro! (I know..there are quite a few!) This picture was a very fun one to draw. It was an interesting assignment, nothing I had expected at all. My teacher came in with a 8x11 piece of paper, and on that sheet of paper was a little sketch. On the left side (edge of the paper) was a straight line that made a column. Then around the middle of the paper was a line that came out from the column, dipped down in a elongated "U" shape then back up and finished the line. It was the outline of a sink. What we had to do was create a picture from that little sketch. This one didn't take me long to come up with, I was very excited about it. I envisioned an outdoor garden, just blooming with lush flowers and plants. This is what the outcome looks like. 

Drawing # 5

Ok, we are almost done, just one left!! This one here was probably one of my favorites! It just exudes who I am as a person. Bright, loud, and funky ;) Like I had mentioned before, I had never really drawn abstract, so this other assignment was extremely fun for me, even more so than the first because we had to cut out our pieces and paste them on to another surface. I first got a large and rather hard sheet of paper then divided it into four parts. Then I painted those four parts with black and white acrylic paint in a bubbled checkered pattern. Bubbled to create an illusion of depth. Just painting the sheet alone took me about a week. Once that was done, I started drawing my individual pieces of paper to then later on cut and paste them to the large checkered sheet. I had so many different perspectives I could have taken with this, but I decided to stick with my first creation. And WALA! A masterpiece was born....ok maybe not, but I like to thing so ;)

And that is it! Those are all of my Drawing II creations and their stories (the shoes up top are also mine). I will forever remember that class, I learned so much and had a wonderful time!

Under The Sea

This is one lucky sailor!

Ever since I was little, I had taken a great interest in mermaids (every girls' dream is to be a mermaid...right?) For as long as I can remember, I have loved the underwater world and all things in it. Now that I am older, I have found that what I enjoy to draw or paint most are those underwater things that I haven't even seen before(such as mermaids)!

This love of mermaids drew me to another artist's blog. Just like myself, Brittney Lee has a love of these fantastical creatures as well, and is wonderful at drawing them! These watercolor sketches of mine are copies from some of her work. 

Her love will revive him

This Mermaid is watercolor as well as paper cut

More Mermaid kisses!

No one messes with her little friends 

These mermaids give a little insight as to what I have dreamed about since I was a little girl. My love for them has only grown as I have gotten older. They are such fun!