I’m excited to have finished up the class I told you about earlier this week, Color and Line – because…..I GOT TO OPEN MY NEW PEN! Ok sorry about yelling, I’m just excited to have a new pen! And I wouldn’t let myself open the box til the work was done. 🙂 It’s a Peter Pen – made in partnership with Goldspot & Narwhal Pens and Peter Draws from YT…..I’ve wanted to support him by getting a pen. And finally did!
Tutorial: How to Mindlessly Doodle (Copics a new Peter Pen, and an iguana)
YouTube made “suggestions” to me about the kind of content to consider posting; they said according to data, one of the top searches by people who watch my videos is “How to Doodle.” So….I figured I’d try their advice and see if it’s worth anything! ha!
Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!
First: my Peter Pen!
My assessment of the Peter Pen is so far so good – the paper is apparently at fault for what I discussed in the video…I tried it on the good paper and all is well. It’s a little pricier than my usual recommendation though, so an Eco by TWSBI is still my recommendation for a starter pen. *see supply list at the end of this post
How to mindlessly doodle
My mindless doodle has a fall feel to it….I picked Copic colors that I don’t reink often. Why let all that ink sit in bottles? Let’s use it! Splooge ink onto the paper (or use any other medium you can draw on top of), then “trace” the shapes seen in the pigment. Wherever there’s a hue or value change, make lines around that and add textures to sections!
Doodled Gecko
I doodled this fellow after drawing him in Copics – see the Mission Impossible reel to see it done!
Doodled Iguana
Or a Jagras? Hard to say when I know little about the Monster Hunter game! But I figure if a few IG users called it that, it must have looked like a Jagras! This one in color may or may not, who knows…..
Here he is just with the Copic color:
And then with the pen and ink…a rather majestic fellow, no?
Tiny Tutorial with before and afters
Click o the image to go see the series….
Color & Line Class is open!
The Color & Line class is out of preregistrations – I worked my little fanny off (yes my fanny is tired of sitting at the desk doing computer work!) and it’s all ready for you! I emailed preregistrants, so hopefully everyone got the word that they can go start drawing!
Are you a doodler?
You don’t need to be a fancy doodler or do it in color – but doodling is such a great hand exercise that will help you in all your art. Just making marks on paper starts to develop your style, and can help keep you in practice between projects.
It’s the last day of the Labor Day sale at art-classes.com! I was trying to rush to get this class done in time, but….I kept adding more and more content. I couldn’t help myself! I have a ton of editing to do this week, but decided to open this class for preregistration so you can get the sale price. You’re welcome!
When I first started sketching out ideas for this class, I debated if it should be an alcohol marker or water-based marker class. How to decide, how to decide….then,……don’t decide, do both! ha! That meant I needed an easy transition from one to another as I worked through the lessons.
After much research I found this sketchbook that got good reviews both for alcohol markers and water based — and it’s not that slick marker paper that I don’t like working on. Due to the world we live in now, it took a while for my sketchbook to arrive, but I jammed on it right away when I got it. Class didn’t get finished but…..I’m well on the way!
Video: Color testing and comparison, new sketchbook
In this side by side test I show you how I made simple turtles in alcohol marker, water based marker, and watercolor – then added pen and ink on top. No colored pencil; the wax and oil in those tends to make ink bead up, so unless I work something out there won’t be wash & ink style pencil classes.
Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!
Color & Line Class
I wanted to find a way to connect this to the Wash & Ink class, and the Travel Sketches class which is technically wash and ink too….washes of color in a medium, with ink added! The drawing portions of this class are what makes it level 4; you don’t need to be an expert draftsman, there’s no perspective etc, but some of it could be challenging.
Sign up today, Labor Day, using code LABOR, and you’ll get 10% off. This is a pricey class due to the double instruction in multiple mediums, so the % makes it a nice chunk of savings for you! All adult classes are also in this sale – you can find them HERE in order of most recent class first.
Keepin’ it short and sweet
I’m gonna end this post here – because I have both a Zoom this morning with artists who’ve joined Artventure (click here to go sign up this morning and jump on the call with us!)…..and tons of editing to get underway. Enjoy the last bit of this holiday weekend!
We finally got our version of the heat wave where I live! I know a lot of you have had it worse than we do for longer….but I’ve got no air conditioning so do I get to gripe a little about 89 degrees inside the studio? LOL! Anyhow…this week’s theme is one that will hopefully keep us all cool – WATERMELON! And we’ll start with a doodle since the drawing and doodling classes are on sale all month long. Yay!
Tutorial: How to doodle a Copic watermelon
I bet you never really thought to bring your Copics to the doodling game, did you? It’s really easy to doodle on TOP of Copic with any kind of pen – dip pens, microns, gel pens, all that works just great on the same kinds of papers you would use for Copics! This one is on Neenah – a 12″ x 18″ sheet…I found a ream of it for sale locally and broke the bank so I could have some large cardstock to work with!
Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!
This is not a mandala.
I know some folks will worry that there’s a spiritual significance here, but honestly – it’s a doodle. It’s also not going to be ‘perfect’ which, I hope by now you realize is my jam. I do me, and I don’t worry about trying to get every line the same and every leaf shape to be identical. On a drawing like this, close enough is great for me and I celebrate it!
Do a doodle!
Whatever shape you decide to doodle on, color it first…and it doesn’t even matter if you color it nicely since detailed pen work goes on top! Then relax and add your doodles. They can radiate around a central point like this one, or just be random and fun!
If you want more step by step lessons, and to bring in all kinds of fun patterns into your world – the Whimsical Patterns class is all about white and metallic gel pens on back paper! Some of the patterns are gridlike, some circular like this watermelon, and some just freeform landscapes! Very relaxing and a lot of fun. All the Drawing and Doodling classes are on sale all month if you want to get your jam on in all kinds of media!
More watermelon please!
I’ve got tons of watermelon ideas in my head after doing this drawing – how about stamped critters ON a watermelon, or a watermelon planet in a galaxy, or a watermelon dress on a figure, or a watermelon popsicle, or…..well, you get the idea. Pop over to my instagram this week for fresh new ideas all week long! Post your own ideas and I’ll share some of the craziest ones to my Stories!
Hey there – Mother Nature heard me whining that my morning walks were still requiring jackets at 53F…..guess what? 90s this past weekend! GAH!!! I knew it was coming so did some prep last week….I bought a new fan, stocked up on beverages and popsicles and…ICE CREAM! Before the heat hit I decided this week’s theme would be ice cream, and created a ginormous set of printables for you and called it “Peace Love and Ice Cream!”
These are the colors that were out on my desk after finishing all this coloring…..and look at that sweatshirt sleeve! Yes I filmed before the heat got bad in the studio….I sat out under a tree instead all weekend!
In the zip file you’d download if you purchased this set, you’ll get nice flat versions of the colorings from today that you can keep along with the folder of images so it’s handy dandy.
The more complicated ice cream – with three flavors. You might want the version without the stippled details for things like lemon ice cream – light colors might seem a bit odd with all the black detail. But the limited detail is also a great way to learn your shading by putting it in yourself!
These, I’ll just tell ya, are too tiny! ha. I really wanted to get in more detail and couldn’t. But a tip on the soft serve with sprinkles: add them in with a gel pen or with stickles or other colored substances; coloring around tiny ones like this is too hard!
Supplies
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It’s Friday the 13th but I’m not playing the unlucky game. Instead, I’ve got another of my crazy epic works today – this one is about 12″ x19″! It was quite an epic thing, and I honestly had little faith it would work. I planned for just watercolor, and did the first wash…but once I got partway through the second pass I made some GAH errors – bleed bleed bleed! But after ALL that drawing and painting I wasn’t about to let this one get away. TWSBI pen to the rescue!!!!
Video
A bit of backstory: I was working on a project for my church that initially took me down a rabbit hole to some groovy 60’s themed graphics. We quickly departed the silliness….but then I had to get it out of my system!
I used a picture of a swanky model for the start of this, then instead of her wearing the slinky outfit she had on, I gave her a tshirt and denim shirt (because I am always seemingly cold! It’s still in the 50F range daily here! She also had to have an easel, lots of art supplies everywhere….and little tidbits hidden in the pen and ink work.
Sign up for the Peace Love & Art challenge!
I’m hosting an art challenge! I hope to inspire you & me, and to have lots of fun giveaways and projects to get the summer creativity rolling. First email will go out on Weds 5/18! Know that there’s no crazy to-do list – you don’t have to do all the activities or anything. Just do what you can, that’s what this is all about.
Download the Artventure app for ios or android; register an account, and take a free class or sign up for the Tiny Tutorials class where free content will be added. If your phone can’t deal with opening one more app, once you create your account there and sign up for the class through the app store, you can log in online to see content on your computer here.
Download the printable image of this artist character right here! Color her up and post her on social media to let your friends know you’re participating in Peace Love & Art! Use #peaceloveandart for the hashtag.
ICYMI
In case you missed any of the doodling this week – here ya go!
Some product may be provided by manufacturers for review and use. Compensated affiliate links are here at no cost to you. If you choose to shop using my EH (Ellen Hutson) links, please accept cookies on that site in order to retain the link to my blog, or that compensation does not happen for me. I appreciate your support of my work with your purchases! Full affiliate and product disclosure | My trusted partners in art
It’s Earth Day week…so I’ll be playing with things that grow all week long here and on social media! Be sure to follow along for some crazy ideas.
Before we start….there’s a new class and digi stamps!
It’s spring….let’s do some coloring of flowers! I just launched a brand new Realistic Flowers Class — in colored pencil this time (last month was the Copic class with different flowers). If you only need the images and not the class, check out the Flower printables to color! (Should you accidentally buy the images then decide to take the class, just email and I’ll refund the digistamps fee.)
The simplest – two color tulips, two color greens!
The colors:
Wreath #2
I used Polychromos pencils for this one….
Colors used:
Wreath #3
A little more expressive and loose! Colors are listed in the supply list below.
Inspiration collections of flowers
These pages each have dozens of ideas for florals – if you’re in need of inspiration, have at it!
Supplies
Some product may be provided by manufacturers for review and use. Compensated affiliate links are here at no cost to you. If you choose to shop using my EH (Ellen Hutson) links, please accept cookies on that site in order to retain the link to my blog, or that compensation does not happen for me. I appreciate your support of my work with your purchases! Full affiliate and product disclosure | My trusted partners in art
