Tag Archives: art blogs

Ink with Attitude. Serious. Attitude.

Blake, and an Evil Mime Queen
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

Blake arrived closely on the heals of his cousin Maureen (seen below). This family much prefers their right profiles. You’d be surprised how plain the other side looks!

The evil mime queen was made for someone who like evil queens. And mimes. And pink with turquoise. And creepy cute stuff. She is maiden #126!(Any future mimes should have instead of this streaky white gel pen, a smooth application of white ink with a brush. Live and learn, and all that!)

Another Maureen
2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

One side blog note. I believe I’ve got categories covered. Tags, not so much. For one thing, almost all of my (208!) posts have many of the same tags (Copic markers, pen and ink, illustration). (Which are separate, I think!, from keywords for my SEO widget.) Geez! If you are a person with insight into this tags business, do share.

Thank you for stopping in! Progress pics with attitude, below.

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An Alien ATC and Some Keen Resources!

Melba T
2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, Microns, white gel pen

A persistent rumor in scientific circles is that a small creature with one large eye appeared on the Saturn space station one day. If it had a small craft of its own, they never found it. It didn’t speak, but displayed an uncanny affection for Melba Toast, an old earth delicacy which the lead climate engineer had been hoarding. They named the creature Melba T and studied it for three days. When the Melba Toast ran out, the creature disappeared as mysteriously as it had arrived, with no witness.

Melba T was created for a “People of Planet X” swap, as mentioned in the last post. I think the curve of the white highlights is one of the keys to an effective eye. I use a Signo Uniball white gel pen. The tip clogs frequently but it is the best opaque white I’ve found for this purpose (some might prefer white paint with a brush).

And one more thing. I am going to try to add a new art resource to all of my blog posts, something I’ve actually used and found helpful. After I’ve done a few I’ll create a page and put them all in one place.

Helpful Art Resource 01

While reading up on noses recently I came across a very charming and effective online art instructor called Stan Prokopenko and his channel, ProkoTV. These two videos helped me with noses more than any other video or written instruction:

Proko: How to Draw a Nose: Anatomy and Structure

ProkoTV: How to Draw a Nose: Step by Step

(Let me know if you watch them!)

Thanks so much for visiting! A few Melba T progress pics below.

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Two Horses, One Hound, Copic Markers

Horse 'n Hound Table Tennis Association

I stuck to a color family! I am very pleased with that aspect because I often try and rarely make it to the end. I mean even here, wouldn’t a pair of blue eyes or a purple background be neat? That’s the trouble with having collected half a metric ton of Copic Markers (ok hold on, I’ll check) (ok, about 115, various sizes, collected over 10 months or so).

I am once again feeling the necessity to branch out into more than headshots. However, Illustration Friday has been providing for that nicely. Oh! So my last post is heading toward 70 comments (about 8 are mine). Can I just say thank you so much to every single one and also holy cow! If I didn’t reciprocate, it is only because you did not leave your web address!

On a related note, because I was curious, I decided to count how many comments I had left so far this week for Illustration Friday. One hundred fifty-one.  Haha, is that insane or what? I doubt I will be able to keep it up, but I have been finding so MANY great art blogs. And I don’t have kids. For all you folks with a regular job AND kid(s) AND doing Illustration Friday, my hat is off to you. Seriously!

What I do is visit the IF site every day, several times a day. I know that other people don’t have the time to do this. On the other hand, I feel like I am building this wonderful, mutually supportive community. I have been able to identify a whole bunch of folks who visit regularly,and who I visit in turn. (If you are looking for folks who are more likely than the average to comment back when you’ve commented at their site, I suggest visiting the commenters from my “Capable-IF” entry just before this one – just click on their name. You will find so many great things!)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, here is how the Horses ‘n Hound thing happened:

Horse n Hound Ink

Horse n Hound Color 1

Horse n Hound Color 2

Horse n Hound Color 3

I’m thinking of starting to put together a book with some of my goofy beasts, each with a silly/weird/non sequitur type caption. (In case you wondered about the table tennis thing.) Thank you so much for coming by. You’re the greatest!

Oh! I almost forgot! I just wrote a how-to for Illustration Friday thumbnails (in my sidebar, here). If you’re someone whose thumbnail never works, give it a try.

Art Blog Interview and Colorful Copic Cats

I would like to take a moment to thank a lovely person named Alex Colombo at Tales for Creative Minds, who posted an interview feature about me and my herd of beasts. It is quite an honor and I can’t thank her enough. As I’m sure you know, every little bit of encouragement helps! And the presentation of the interview is really wonderful so hopefully some of you kind people will go take a peek.

You may have seen my herd of ACEO dogs on these pages recently. I decided to take a break from the dogs and have at some cats. The first is sort of accidentally a raccoon cat (yeah, didn’t quite mean to lay on the eyeliner so thickly), and the second is a kind of circus fox cat, as follows:

Raccoon Cat 2.5" x 3.5" in Copics

Wallace the Circus Cat, in Copics

I attempted some whiskers (and eye reflection) with a white gel pen, but it seems to clog to easily and not provide a consistent line. I might have to look into a paint pen, because often the ability to make a small correction or add a white detail is very handy. If you have any tips for using a gel pen, do tell! (Oh yes, and I do have some liquid frisket but haven’t braved it yet!)

Raccoon Cat is very mysterious and refuses to 1. provide an actual name, or 2. engage in any kind of pleasant conversation whatsoever. Fortunately her brother (yes I know, they don’t look the least bit related!), is much more genial and talkative. His name is Wallace, he loves Muenster cheese wedges (both for eating and juggling) and he is not allowed to tell me his sister’s name.  Just one of those things, I suppose. He is not actually in the circus but please contact him if you happen to know of an outfit that could use a juggling cat.

The progress of Wallace, the Circus Fox Cat:

Circus Cat Sketch

Circus Cat Ink

Circus Cat Color 1

Circus Cat Color 2

 

 

 

Phil the Cat

You may remember Phil, my previous ACEO cat. He still lives with Chaz (a llama) and Dean (a goat), and he asked to be introduced to the newcomers so I thought I would let him wander into this post as well.  Thank you for visiting!

Some Neat Folks and Their Art Blogs, Part One

I have been meaning do a few posts on some of the art blogs I found last year, so here’s one of the posts!

Leslie White teaches watercolor and drawing. Her blog is filled with neat techniques using rice paper, masa paper, liquid frisket, and other things I knew nothing about before I read about them at her place! She is really great about explaining her processes and often posts progress pics.  I picked two of my favorites below. (Click on the painting for a link to that item’s blog post)

Elephant by Leslie White

Moose and Calf by Leslie White

José Luís Ocaña is an established freelance illustrator from Madrid who I found through Illustration Friday.  He frequently does more than one piece per week on a given topic, usually with great colors and great characters. And though I sadly do not speak Spanish and probably miss some things as a result, he often answers comments in English. Some of his excellent characters:

Aurora by José Luís Ocaña

Cuento con Violin by José Luís Ocaña

These are just two of the great blogs I found last year, and I hope to post about others in the coming months.  I didn’t want to put too many in one post!

You, too, can find many wonderful blogs in the following places, should you feel so inclined:

  • Etsy. If I find an artist whose work I admire, I will usually check their profile for a blog address.
  • Artists in Blogland and Web of Whimsy were two of the first  places in which I found lots of blogs listed in one place (and could add my own, hooray!)
  • Illustration Friday. I don’t work for them, I swear! but I have been singing the praises of Illustration Friday since I started participating at the end of last year. Why it’s so cool:
  1.  Many different styles, mediums and skill levels.
  2. All art blogs all the time! While I do love some crafty blogs, knitting blogs, art doll blogs, etc, usually I am looking for 2D-art style blogs for inspiration, tips and techniques
  3. So many cool and friendly people, many of whom will visit you back if you drop by their blog and leave a comment (many won’t, but don’t let that discourage you!). In fact, there’s about a 71% chance that if you are reading this, you found me there (or I found you!)

Speaking of IF, we’ll have a new topic in a few hours and it’s snowing in the Chicago area. Between you and me, I’ll probably call in to work tomorrow (treacherous roads plus a much reduced workload in winter) and I look forward to my second IF entry in 2012.  Thank you so much for visiting!