The Day of Valentine (D)

This afternoon in honor of the day that this is, and as a surprise to my own sweetheart, I painted this Valentine's Day sketch I did several years ago back when we were still (long-distance, ugh) dating.  I had a bouquet of roses and daisies delivered to her apartment, and as she didn't have a vase, the next best thing was the hot pink pitcher, which worked just fine.  I had a little trouble getting the watercolor-flower pattern on the dress just right without making it look too muddy, but working with a few brush settings I think I managed to get the idea across.

Happy Valentine's Day, J!  You are the loveliest valentine I ever had.

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P.S.  Thanks to everyone for helping us reach 10,000+ visitors!  I kind of think we had a glitch in our counter, and we might have reached that a little while ago, but now the widget reflects it regardless.  I wondered if we should do a separate post as a milestone marker, but I think this will suffice, for now at least.  Thanks to everyone to watching, following, commenting and sharing!

Sunday Sketches: Food for the Drawing (J)

Today I drew a girl with her hair in two buns, except the buns were apples.  I don't know why this happened, but it was funny and reminded us both of an artist on deviant art who sometimes draws human incarnations of food (such as this).  So then, inspired by a few Asian meals we had this week, I started on a theme of Asian food personified.  Sometimes things just happen!

Tonight I gave them a fast coloring (whilst waiting for brownies to bake...browniesssssss) and here they are!  You can try to guess what they are and then find out the answers below.

Some of them were harder than others, but overall they were fun to think about.  And now for a brownie...

(From l-r: stir fry, sushi, egg roll, potsticker (complete with soy sauce) and sticky rice.  Sticky riiiiiiiiiiice!)

Sunday Sketches -- Terminus To Thomas (D)

And so, 12 months and 14 excellent books later, the epic Year of Hardy is over.  This batch of Sunday Sketches includes drawings from January and February, featuring character sketches from Thomas Hardy's final two novels, as well as one of the author himself, just to make it another full trio and to pay some kind of tribute to him, which seems fitting after being inside of his head so much over the last year.  It's bittersweet to come to an end, but that's fitting considering the books that finished his novel-writing career.

Jude the Obscure (1895)

Those Poor Little Fawleys, or, Psst! Arabella's Hair Is Fake

The Well-Beloved (1897)

All the Men Are Jocelyn and All the Ladies Are Avice, or, Three Generations of Drama

And here he is:

The Man Himself, or, Ever So Much Angst

Whatever shall I read now?? Oh, I'm sure I'll think of something.  I may also smash all of these character sketches into one big splat one of these days, but we'll see.

A Trio of...Princesses!

Now and then I feel like drawing a Disney princess.  Sometimes I feel like drawing three of them and making a trio of it.  The Ariel and Jasmine sketches are actually from about a year ago, then Belle came along about six months later.  Usually I only like my sketches for a few months, but I guess I still liked these--or I was too lazy to redraw them.  Either one is possible.

True story: After seeing The Little Mermaid as a wee lass, I spent several years drawing nothing but mermaids.  The best part is that it was always a back view of these mermaids, since I didn't know how to draw faces. 

Anyway, I decided for these I'd experiment with going lineless again.  I really wanted to feel more comfortable with it by the end of 2012 so I gave it another shot in the final hours.  Overall, I think Ariel turned out all right--part of this (like her hand) I really like and others (like her face) I don't so much. 

True story: Beauty and the Beast is my favorite animated Disney movie.  I tried to think of the reasons why, and then I decided there were no reasons why not.  But no, it did not start me drawing behind-views of French peasants. 

I like how Belle turned out overall.  Her face is nice, though I wish the colors had a little more oomph.  I have always had issues with being too light, no matter the medium.  It takes a lot of conscious effort on my part to push the contrast.  

True story: Aladdin is the first movie I remember seeing in the theater after we moved to Missouri.  My sister had a newspaper clipping that listed all the pop culture figures the Genie turned into, but I don't know how useful that was in a dark theater. 

I have never felt very strongly about Jasmine so I guess it's fitting I don't feel too strongly about how this turned out.  My favorite part is probably her right sleeve ("sleeve") and that bird.  Hee hee, that bird. 

True story: between finishing Ariel and doing the other two, Santa brought me a fancy pants new tablet (thanks, Santa!).  Aside from all the other fun bells and whistles, it was a jump from 512 to 2048 levels of pen pressure sensitivity.  I like to think I can tell a difference between Ariel and the others, and while I don't think any tablet gives you magical skills, I think the new tablet allows for more precision and control overall.  Anyway, it is a fun thing to work with and I've only accidentally stepped on it once.  

(The brushes for the backgrounds are located here: dandelions, birds)

Me Tarzan, You Jane (D)

I did these two sketches years apart, but when I was looking for arts to practice painting, I picked Jane, and then I realized I just had to paint her counterpart too, and then I smooshed them together as one.  I love this movie a lot.

The funny thing about this is that just a few days earlier I had been telling J about how the skin and hair are so much more challenging to paint than clothes, and then what do I do?  Paint a character who's almost completely skin and hair.  I do like how they both turned out though.  Thank you, Photoshop, for allowing me to adjust some issues with the original sketches!  (The proportions are still a little off here and there, but better than before, ha ha.)

For fun, here are the original sketches:

And now I have realized it's been a few posts since J has posted something.  I must stop steamrolling and give her a chance!  Hey, Wife!  Here's your chance!  Take a turn!