Sunday Sketches -- A Smattering of Christmas

It's 2012!  We have big plans and high hopes to post a little more regularly this year.  I'll start by posting something that I meant to post, erm, almost two weeks ago...  Here are some Sunday Sketches!

I love Christmas!  It's already over, alas, but I have a way to make it linger just a little big longer.  Christmastime meant that it was time to do some Christmas drawings!  Christmas even fell right on a Sunday this year.  This belated edition of Sunday Sketches features a mixture of sources of inspiration.  Here you'll see the results of recently seeing a production of The Nutcracker (including some anatomy/ballet studies), a Christmas toy or two, and, unsurprisingly, a little bit of Nativity.

(It should probably be noted that I'm by no means an expert on ballet, so some of the positioning might not be entirely accurate.  I didn't do any extra research, I mostly just tried to make them look pretty, ha ha.)

We hope everyone had a merry Christmas and a happy New Year, and that you'll keep visiting as the 2012 rolls along to see what Pen and Pencil Arts may appear next.

All the Hogwarts Ladies

A while ago, for whatever reason, I decided to draw a bunch of the girls from Harry Potter. When I'm reading the books I always picture them in uniforms like the movies, but I get a little bored drawing that same uniform on everyone. So I like to shake things up a bit, just for the sake of my own interest.

I posted them all individually on deviantart (Lavender, Hermione, Cho, Pansy, Ginny, Luna but here is the complete set. Lavender was a last minute addition, and she wound up being one of my favorites of the bunch.

(click to enlarge)

Sunday Sketches -- Disneyland On the Brain

It has been over two months since our last post.  This is inexcusable!  So I won't make excuses, I'll just post some new Sunday Sketches.

We recently returned from our latest trip to Disneyland, and it was wonderful.  Seeing all those characters (and all that character-heavy merchandise) really inspired me to do a bunch of quick, small sketches of some of those "new classic" Disney girls.  I have drawn these characters SO many times, but it has really been quite a while, so it was good to go back to some of my old favorites.  (Showing here with a drawing I did of us a couple weeks ago to express the we felt anticipation for our upcoming vacation.)

Sunday Sketches -- A Series of Unfortunate Drawings*

At last, here is the culmination of several weeks' worth of Sunday Sketches!  As you  may recall, J and I recently finished re-reading Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events in its entirety (including The Unauthorized Autobiography and The Beatrice Letters), so every Sunday for the past couple of months I did a drawing for each of the books I had finished that week.  Now I have finally compiled them into one massive collage, showing here (I would click on it to view it bigger for the full effect, there's kind of a lot to look at):

 

So they aren't all the major scenes or illustrations of the turning points in each book, but they were the scenes that stood out to me for whatever reason when I sat down to draw.  Fans will hopefully recognize which ones go with which books!  (Hint:  They go more or less in order clockwise.)  It was fun to see where I could fit in a few other characters here and there, besides just those dear Baudelaires.

I actually did a few for Book the Thirteenth, and I couldn't decide which to put in the collage, so, since I like this one too, I'll add it as a P.S.

* Or, Drawings of Unfortunate Events.

You know his name...it's Legolas

You know, in case you forgot about this guy. Since we got our new scanner I figured I should finally do a real scan instead of photos. I haven't added anything to him since I posted last. I've had some ideas but nothing really came of them, but I think I'm going mess around with a few ideas in Photoshop. Maybe at last something will come to me!

Anyway, here he is.
Today I discovered the exclusion filter and messed around with it on Legolas. I know it's just a filter but...I kind of can't stop looking at the result. I am, how do you say, fascinated.
So. That's Legolas today. One of my top goals for the year was to finish him and by golly, I'm going to! In some fashion or another! Mlarf.

Sunday Sketches -- Baudelaires and Friends

It's been a while, but it's time again for more Sunday Sketches! My contribution this time around is based on a favorite book series that The Wife and I just finished re-reading together, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events.  I just love these Baudelaires so much!  They are such charming and resourceful and reasonably attractive children, each one unique and full of personality, and they really care about each other.  Confidentially, this is also a tease for a possible future post featuring a lot more artistic documentation of the Baudelaire variety...

And The Wife had another foray into the world of Pen and did another batch of delightful pen people.  Some of them were inspired by recent movies and/or TV shows we've been watching (can you spot them?), and others are original characters.  I love her pages of little peeps!  They're so tiny but they have a lot of personality.

Wee Little Pen People

This weekend we got a new scanner to replace the technological headache that is our old scanner. I tell you, Internet, that Epson does some beautiful scanning. Plus it scans wirelessly which means I can sit in the living room and direct my indentured servant/husband which pages to put in the scanner for me. In conclusion: Epson, you are mighty indeed and I will never betray you again in the name of getting a bargain.

ANYway, would you believe I haven't posted on here since June? What a sad sorry state of affairs. Luckily Mr. Gra-ham has been keeping up with things better than I have on here. Anyhoodle, one of my goals for this year was to a) draw people with bodies and b) draw people with bodies that move. If you haven't noticed, I tend to do a lot of heads and perhaps a little bit o' shoulder. One evening as I began drawing random heads and shoulders, I did some mental manhandling and switched gears. I did a few that night and some more in the weeks that followed. This is what I have to show for myself:
They are all pretty small, only like an inch or two tall (I made the one large in recognition of her being first), which is nice because they are quick and I don't get caught up giving them detailed faces. ALSO, I drew them all in pen. Not using an eraser is a big deal for me. I love erasers. Anyway.

Unfortunately when it comes to poses, my creative juices have run dry of late but STILL. Progress. Right? Right, Internet??