Sun is shining, but it’s freezing cold out there. Perfect drawing weather. Another page filled with random animals. What other weird and wonderful animals are out there?
Tag: sketching
Day 2 – 100 Animals
So far so good. I made a Pinterest board where I keep adding pictures to.
Did a couple of quick sketches in coloured pencil. After about 15 of them I felt like going in with ink to give it some quick contours and shading…
Also dusted off those caran d’Ache coloured pencils just for the fun of it. It really has been a while…
INKtober warm-up
Summer came and went. I am trying once again to get out of hibernation with a step by step plan. I tidied up my desk and drawers. I realised that the most valuable possessions I have are a dozen ink bottles and the piles of watercolour paper that I accumulated over the years and never used. Let’s not mention the box of Caran d’Ache coloured pencils that I bought one by one…Just like books, buying art supplies is just too tempting wherever I am. Time to use them all!
So follow along for my September plan. Join in if you want!
- draw 100 animals
- dust off my pencils
- take out my ink again
- have fun with my sketch book
- draw daily for at least 20 min
This will be my INKtober warm up. Last year was the first year after 7 continuous years of participating in Inktober that I skipped it. Will try to make up for it this year.
Are you planning to do Inktober?
Wanna hang with me?
Here is the almost finished opossum. I haven´t been hanging upside down for almost a month now due to an elbow injury , but I might attempt going back to aerial hoop this week to start with some easy training again.
Anyone else here who likes to hang upside down?
What animal would you like to see next?
Getting side tracked once again
Opossum you said…?
Consider it a warm up drawing for getting back into my book project…
Honey Badger Coming Your Way II
After doing the sketches the other day, I felt like drawing some of those badgers in big. Still work in progress.
I also updated the honey badger posters in my Etsy shop if you would like a badger on your wall 🙂
Honey Badger Coming Your Way
After a months break I finally opened my sketchbook again. The result, … a bunch of honey badgers. If you have been following me for a while you might remember my previous honey badger phase. I think it is time to activate it again!
Something different
Suddenly felt the urge to draw lamas. Inspired by my daughters sweater. I thought their funny faces might make for a fun poster design.
Which one is your favourite?
Book Project – Work in Progress VI
After a short East break I am back on the drawing table. After a break it always takes me a bit to warm up again. So I spent about 2 hours sketching and inking people. I am still on my way to 100. Currently at 76…
Not sure if these two below count. Maybe they should! They are part of a page from my book project . Keep walking and talking…
Book Project – Work in Progress V
Hoot hoot! 🙂 Quite happy how this owl turned out.
For this page I thought I will try to put the whole image together digitally after drawing all the individual parts. I couldn’t make the page work with the first rendering, plus I had spilled some ink, so I decided to try it this way instead of starting with the full page all over again. One of the biggest challenges when drawing traditionally it the lack of the CTRL + Z shortcut….
Do I have fun drawing traditionally? Definitely. Would it be easier to do it all digitally? Most likely.
Do you prefer digital or traditional drawing?
Let’s see what will happen.
Book Project – Work in Progress IV
Here is a close up, sneak peak, of another page I just finished. The original sketch for this page was completely different, I had the book dummy and layout, did the drawing and rendering and half way through I gave up, twice actually, as I simply couldn’t make the drawing work. So I then completely change the whole page around from a close up to a high angle perspective… Not 100% sure yet whether I like it or not… I might redo it again.
I guess these are the micro despairs along the way, crawling slowly uphill from the pit of despair (see picture below.)
A little bit of everything…
This week I feel like I have been all over the place. New uploads to my Etsy shop, book illustrations, people drawing…. And nothing really got finished… Oh well..
At least I haven’t spilled any ink today…
What’s next?
OneWeek100People 2024 – Getting to 37
More people… I guess I spend about 2-5 minutes per person.
OneWeek100People 2024 – Getting to 100
I totally forgot about One Week 100 People this year! I had so much fun doing this challenge last year and I actually was looking forward to it again but completely forgot to check the dates. So it apparently started Monday the 11th and runs until Friday. I started to play catch up last night and just went to my Pinterest board from the previous year as there are about 300 people pins that I never got to.
Drawing feels much easier than in the previous year, although I think I haven´t sketched any people since then. Anyhow, great practice and warm up for other drawings. I will try to make it to 100 until the end of the week. Currently I am at #37.
Are you taking part?
Practice makes perfect
More doggies. I had so many ups and downs this past week. One day was great and I was all happy about my book progress and the next I felt like I cannot draw a single line and I should give up then and there. Quite a rollercoaster. And the progress is slow. I am seriously considering to start going digital after this. It will certainly be quicker. On the other hand, having ink stains on my hands is also fun….
But I ran out of paper and now I cannot find the same paper in the art supply shop anymore… bummer. Will do another shopping spree tomorrow to see what I can find. Until then, happy weekend!
Another round of dog sketches…
More doggy sketches on this sunny day. Currently my illustration process alternates each day from “I love it” to “I hate it all and I cannot draw shit..!” I suppose that is normal? Either way, I decided to push trough and get all the pages done by the end of this month. So watch this space.
More dog sketches
As you might guess from the sketches, Mouse´s favourite past time beside eating and running around is napping. I mean, dogs sleep 12-14 hours per day. I am pretty much envious at this point as I have been sleep deprived for a month.
And more dog sketches…
I have been pretty much drawing dog after dog, exploring different poses and especially sleeping positions. Dogs can look too funny while sleeping.
I was stuck with my book dummy and some of the spot illustrations I wanted to add. So now I have a huge number of sketches from which I will pick my favourite ones.
Sketching Dogs!
Actually it’s supposed to be character sketches for the same dog 🙂 I mentioned previously a book I am working on. So this is it. The original idea started 2 years ago with the first sketches, and it has been brewing ever since. As I am not a writer it took me a bit to put the story together and to have it professionally edited.
Since getting into illustration, I realized that for many illustrators it’s a race to the bottom with some authors not willing to pay more than dumping prices. So I decided I would rather do my own stories and illustrate them. I know that marketing will be the hardest part, but I will deal with that later.
Anyhow, since I started working on this book I have been coming up with multiple other story ideas, so there will be no shortage of ideas to explore once I am done with it.
Inspiration for the story is Mausi (Mouse, yep, what started as a nick name when she was little became her actual name.), my sister’s adorable Labrador. She is gentle, loveable, cheeky and a bit gaga at times, especially when it comes to water and sticks.
Capycapybara…
Coming your way…
Melanie Franz 