Hey guys, I have been pretty absent lately. I know because Facebook told me I haven’t posted in a while. The only reason for my absence is that I didn’t have much to say. I still don’t, but I have plenty of pictures from playing around with my new pencils.
Phew. That’s a lot. At least I’m getting used to them. I have a load of ideas to use my pencils on in the future, so I’ll try to remember to post more often.
Until then, keep calm and colour in.
I have some great news! This week, I sold my first ever piece of art! It was a commission for a friend, and she was more than generous in her offer for my skills. I can’t show you the piece I sold, but I will show you what I bought.
My partner and I always agreed that any money I earn doing art should be invested into art supplies, and I certainly lived up to that. In hopes of future commissions, I bought a large pack of artist quality pencils, which will assist in furthering my art skills.
I put off buying expensive supplies, as I wanted to be sufficient enough to feel I’ve earned them. Selling the piece of art was my first set of proof to myself that I earned a level up in my supplies. I am still getting used to the high pigment and easy blending of the pencils, but it is certainly a nice change.
Along with the pencils, I recieved a free mandala colouring book. I usually wouldn’t use high quality pencils for colouring, but this book has thick, textured drawing paper, which was ideal to try my new pencils on while I was thinking of things to draw.
I also picked up some Canson drawing paper, for special pieces of art I want to do, a colourless blending stick, to go with the pencils, a potluck paper pack, two needle felting kits, and a grass growing kit for my cats.
This journey towards being an artist that sells art been exciting, scary, happy and exhausting, but I am eager to keep going, even if I take it slowly. Art is my passion, I’m going to do it regardless of whether it takes me places.
I art, therefore, I am.
Some of my skills include copying images or techniques, quickly learning, and forgetting to blog on a regular basis.
It’s Pokémon fanart time!
Today I drew all my favourite Pokémon onto a card the same size as my phone, so I could use it in the case, like my last image I posted about. I mainly wanted to practice my colouring, and thought I’d be practical at the same time, as I was struggling to think of other images to put into my phone case.
The technique I used for this drawing was lightly sketching with a mechanical pencil, blocking in colour with my alcohol markers, then shading and adding detail with coloured pencils. I used both Copics and Touchfive brand markers, as I haven’t bought a complete set of either, so I needed colours from both. As for the pencils, I was trying to practice using Prismacolors, but I only have a small amount, and used them in conjunction with some nice Crayola pencils. These brands are very different to each other, and I’m used to working with harder pencils like regular Crayola and Faber Castell sets, but I’m looking into buying a nice set of Prismacolors, so I can move towards making some higher grade pieces in the future.
I’m also trying out some new techniques in the digital arts, and hopefully will get some pieces done to show you and perhaps go on some shirts.
Gotta learn them all!
Gojira!
I was cleaning today (a bit,) and I found a scrap of paper on the floor. I actually found quite a few, but this one gave me some inspiration. It had been punched with a maple leaf punch, and torn in just the right way that made me think of Godzilla rising out of the ocean. I used the piece of paper as a template, and filled in details, before colouring in the scene with pencils.
This wasn’t the first time in this cleaning season I’d found inspiration. I also made a box thing using catalogue paper and plastic shopping bags…
Cat for size reference. Though the cat is large.
Charmander! Such a fiery personality.
This is my partners favourite of the original starter Pokemon, so it was my obvious next choice on my drawing list.
I love how vibrant this turned out, and how the warm colours contrast against the grey and seem to leap out the page at you. Completely opposing my Bulbasaur image, which was calm and serene, blending into the cool colour of the page.
I tried to record myself drawing this, but the setup was so bad, you couldn’t see what I was drawing at all. I’m really going to have to figure out something. I’m not too excited about streaming at the moment, least of all on Twitch, which has a good setup, but not the demographic of people wanting to watch and learn and ask questions that I’d like. Perhaps this means changing the site I stream on, or exclusively making YouTube videos. I’ll figure it out when I have some time to work on my setup.
I think it’d be a good exercise to draw a bunch of Pokemon to cover a page. I could pick all my favourites and draw them together, or maybe group different types together on a page each.
Today came with the energy levels of a potato, so between naps and binge watching some shows, all I could manage was a bit of colouring in, and microwaving some food.
I managed to finish these three squares over the day, and I think they look rather nice. The light one at the top was watercoloured using mainly inktense pencils, and the other two had a simple Copic marker base colour with coloured pencils over the top. I quite like this look, as the white of the page does show through the pencil, and you don’t need a lot of Copic colours to make the shading on the shapes. The colour is also nice and intense.
The images didn’t stamp very well, likely due to human error, so I tried to fix it with some fine liners. It worked alright, but only with the thinner liner, which was running out of ink. I don’t mind the effect the thicker pen gave on the roses, as I just outlined the edges. If I had gone over everything, it would have been too much.
These panels look nice against black card, so I’ll likely but them onto foam squares, lifting them from a black piece of card as a border, and using them on cards.
I’m planning to have a bunch of coloured pieces that I can grab out a box when cards need to be made, like I’ve seen other card makers do. Plus, it makes me feel like I’m doing something productive on a potato day like today, without too much effort.
I hope I feel better tomorrow, I have so much to clean this week. 
More Overwatch fanart. I had my sketchbook out and ready, and a pencil in my hand, and didn’t know what to draw, so I asked my partner what to draw. He immediately came out with “D.VA from Overwatch!” So, I drew her that night, and spent the next day lazily colouring it in. Her suit is normally purple, but my partner always tries to get the green coloured skins for all the characters, so I drew her in a green suit.
As I was drawing, I was at a family gathering, and someone was watching me draw. “Wow, you’re really good at drawing, you could be an artist!” They said. “I am,” I replied, to which they said “so you have exhibitions and sell your art?”
This rather annoyed me, as there is so many different types of artists, and it isn’t something that is defined so easily. I’m not sure I could outline what makes people artists, as it’s often a title chosen by the person when they decide they deserve it. I contribute a lot to my art, and practice everyday, I come on here, and try to teach art and craft online. I occasionally make webcomics and fanart. In my eyes this makes me an artist. Just because I haven’t sold any pieces, or paint canvases for galleries doesn’t take that away.
I know the person didn’t mean to annoy me, and I shouldn’t let it get to me, as I am firm in my belief that I’m an artist. But I just wanted to share it with you, incase you get a similar comment.
Go forth and Art!
I often end up drawing at family get togethers lately, so last night, I decided to go fully prepared. I set up in a corner of the table with a bottle of drink, conveniently located myself near the honey soy chips, and got my sketchbook, pens, pencils and colouring in pencils, and got to drawing. As the night went on, I got very cold, and drew myself in a bundle of blankets. Then I got far too cold and couldn’t even draw anymore. Some people at the party said I should animate it into an Adventure time parody.
I usually draw at parties as a distraction, but it is often a good conversation point.
While setting my diary up for the year, the first prompt in the book is goals for the year. I did the typical lose weight and save money, but my number one goal is to draw more. I could have put get better at drawing, but I won’t get there without practice. I hope to create at least one proper picture per week. Depending on the week will be whether the picture is big, small, digital, traditional, simplistic or complex. Practice is one step closer to getting better, no matter how small.
This picture, of Rin from Blue Exorcist, was inspired by a technique that I saw on YouTube, where the artist used watercolour as a base, then coloured pencil to define shadows and bring more colours into the picture. By using a light orange, purple and white, there is much more life in the skin than plain peaches and browns give. I ended up making the black areas really colourful to try another technique I saw, but it didn’t match, despite looking quite good.
I’d like to do some more portraits this year. I know that if you look back a year in my posts, I’ll have said the same thing last year. I have gotten a lot better this year, and will continue to get better. My art is like a journey, with no end, I’m here to learn, and sightsee. Even if I’m the greatest artist of all time, there’ll still be things to learn about.
It just takes a long time, because I’m trying to learn so many things at once, with all my crafting and living.
I hope some creativity makes it into all of your New Year’s resolutions this year.
Raspberry Sheep 