It’s nearing the end of my crazy fashion week – which isn’t all really about fashion, it’s more about playtime! In today’s project I took the same croquis I’ve been using all week (see previous blog post if you missed the background) and applied lines with a pen the way I normally do!
Tutorial: Drawing fabric pleats in pen and ink
You may recognize some familiar line work in today’s drawing! I decided to try to make this look like “me” rather than “me” trying to look like a fashion illustrator. Sometimes being authentically yourself is the best, eh?
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 week’s Tiny Tutorial is all about pleats. Tap here to see it.
More experiments
From Monday’s project I had a sunflower theme …here are two of the four outfits, click here to see the rest.
The photo below is from a fashion show and EEEEEEP!
Okay no more fright shows…
Here are some other fashion art I created this week…first, a galactic theme in which I asked on Instagram for what this model’s “title” is, wrong answers only. Top three:
huskerbeck1 She’s the Paris Hilton of Venus, and this is the new accessory rage – the latest Fitbit!! Tracks your light-years and quantum leaps
bubblyduckdoes_ She’s taking part in the universe ten pin bowling championships. In a ball gown, and bowling shoes
merlinealicia I think she gave birth to that planet. She’s just carrying her baby.
Next up is a foursome in a group color combo but all kinds of outfits. I asked for votes and #2 seemed wearable, but #4 made everyone think they’d fall over. Ha!
This one surprised me! I spent 2 hours on the linear gal on the left, and 14 on the dotted version on the right. But what surprised me? The reaction on Instagram! I’m never sure what the algorithm is going to show people and this seemed to be the only thing it liked this week.
This was almost today’s video, but the footage came out all fuzzy. Boo hiss, camera! But that pleated dress is so fun isn’t it?
Last but not least, I made some girls that look more like the rest of us! No overly tall legs, no stick waists or arms. Much more like reality!
Did you get a giggle out of this?
Sometimes I feel like I spend a week just trying to make myself laugh. Last week was such a tough one I needed something light and silly, and that’s where this week went…next week, who knows!
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!
Today I’m joining my friend Taniesa over at Trinity Stamps to celebrate her company’s 4th anniversary! She’s one of my patrons, but honestly I’d have celebrated her milestone anyway because WHO DOESN’T LOVE GNOMES? Heehee!!
I’m additionally sharing a little more info at the end of today’s video about the class I spoke of in yesterday’s comparison of crafty vs artist grade watercolor markers…..and since that class is all about national parks, I gave this cute viking gnome a park to go for a walk in. With any luck he won’t chop down any ancient redwood trees with that axe!?!?
The markers are Sketchmarker Aqua pens, and they’re my new favorite crafty watercolor marker. They have really nice nibs that feel Copic-like. They have some of the same challenges as other crafty brands (like a few have color shifts when they hit water), but if you learn to use their properties rather than fight them, the shifts can be super cool.
When coloring “around” a stamped image, if the colors of the background are lighter than foreground, you could just splishsplash all the lighter background then cover it with the foreground colors. But with this gnome I wanted some light horns and metal, so I had to deal with coloring around him. I never worry about it being perfect – and I hope that frees you to do the same. Art is expression, and totally loses expressiveness when we try to make everything exactly perfect!
Yesterday’s comparison of crafty vs artist grade watercolor markers is here. And on Friday I’ll be using the other set for a travel sketch – I’m thinking Yellowstone maybe, since I used to live near there on the Montana side of the park – and you’ll see a real-life comparison of these two sets. If you prefer blog notifications rather than YT ones, you can subscribe to my blog here.
New water-based marker class
Here’s the fun Travel Sketches class with 5 national parks! I’m just sayin’….you’ll have a blast. And after the folks taking the Wash and Ink class and rocking it (with students saying “I can’t believe it looks like a mountain!” and surprising themselves that they CAN do it!), I’m really looking forward to seeing the student work in this class too!
Bonus!
I was also sent the cute Whale Done set – and of course had to add it to my post! And since I’m busy on National Parks this week, I did find ONE park that’s 95% underwater: Biscayne National Park in Florida! I do realize this whale wouldn’t fit in it since it’s 12 feet of water, but ya know, an artist’s gotta do what an artist’s gotta do! PS I’ve created a short video for this that’s an Artventure App exclusive – once the app stores update (today? tomorrow? who knows….) then it’ll be in the watercolor lesson of the $3 Tiny Tutorials class.
Bloghop
Hop along with Trinity by starting on their blog here!
Supplies
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TGIF! What a brutal couple of weeks it’s been eh? I had to find something to help get me through it and often just doodling does me a lot of good; not a ton of thinking to do, and I can still come out with something beautiful as I process thoughts about all the violence happening nowadays.
I stuck with analagous colors so I wouldn’t be fighting neutral mixes. Blending was almost entirely pencil until I got to the end – a few spots needed more contrast, since pencil on Yupo doesn’t get very dark, and a couple marker strokes helped. It was super hard to blend into mediums to get transitions though, so I wouldn’t use much Copic for something like this; I had to fight to fix some chunky marker lines.
This is the before and after…
ICYMI
In case you missed the socials this week, here you go!
Hello and happy Monday! I have a little liquid sunshine to share with you today – in the form of yellow watercolor flowers and some pen and ink work. The lesson is one that almost ended up in my new Wash & Ink class, but since the mini classes have five lessons something had to get cut….so this one’s goin’ public!
I do hope it helps you to be encouraged that even if you “don’t draw,” you CAN do this. Honestly – it’s tracing! Except you’re just tracing watercolor instead of a picture or a sketch. It’s SO fun and relaxing, too, and who doesn’t need some relaxation right now?
Video
The full mini course is here if you’d like to see more about it and check out the minimal supply list. (It looks big but that’s only because I gave alternate supplies.)
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
