I’ve gotten pretty good over the years at trusting my gut. Especially in business and art. My spidey sense usually works pretty well! This time…not so much.
I got an email from a company offering a fountain pen for review. What harm could there be, right? I ignore and delete these offer emails 99% of the time, they’re usually companies promoting terrible knockoffs – but I ignored that.
However I did get a project ready and didn’t let the product stop me in my tracks.
Tutorial: Trusting your art intuition
In the video you’ll see an unboxing of a Dryden Designs pen but don’t buy one! It had a myriad of issues, and when I emailed the company (givig them the chance to send a new working pen) they’ve never replied. So there’s that. I switched to my Peter Pen instead.
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!
Before and after
Below are the color panels before and after inking:
Giveaway and new class at Teachable
Over on YouTube you can leave a comment as per instructions to enter for the free seat in the class! I’ll announce the winner in the Friday video.
*****UPDATE: The Gratitude Junk Journal class will be available for pre-reg on October 1; please do use my link; my compensation depends on use of my affiliate link.
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!
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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