Planes of Fame

I never knew I liked planes so much...or drawing them! I had a great time at the Planes of Fame museum, although I did not like that it was an hour-twenty drive to get there. Not to mention driving back. I never did get to see the Japanese Zero, which I was really interested in. Some of my favorite planes I saw that day were the aircraft ones, with hinged wings that fold for storage. I'll have to draw them one day.

I am really slow at drawing the planes, but that's ok, because I'm learning object construction in perspective. Each of these drawings was 1-1.5 hours long. I need a better highlighting pen..the strong white highlights were done by the teacher; I did the wimpy ones. He also said that I need tobreak out my 80% gray marker and hit the darks in key locations to really make the drawing pop. He did the darkest grays in the second drawing. I only need to draw 98 more planes until I start to get really good at drawing planes.

I want to go back at some point, but I think next time, carpooling!

Nethercutt Museum

Haven't posted in a while, but I've been drawing. I've been exhausted. It's rush season. Besides for work and regular weekly classes, I haven't been doing much but catching up on Psych. I love that show. Even more now that I've regularly been to Santa Barbara and really like that town...

But enough digressing. Our drawing for composition class went to the Nethercutt car museum on Saturday. These were the two good drawings of the day. The rest were side and front studies to get an understanding of basic proportions, as well as trying to figure out this whole drawing in perspective thing. I was starting to get comfortable with it by the end of the day, but the class was over way too soon for me. In fact, I added tone to the second sketch on the way to dinner that night with friends. I still need to post some older sketches from this class, as well as some other random drawings I've been doing.

In other art-related news, I finally designed my website! It only took 4 years to come up with something I was happy with that was a balance of illustration and design. Now the hubby and I need to work on building the site. I will keep you updated on the progress, but nothing will probably happen for the next two weeks, since it's crunch time at work and I'm brain dead by the time I get home.

More ripples!

#465

#466 (SOLD)

I had so much fun with the ripplesketches that I did two more. I did have a bit of computer trouble, so I got delayed in both scanning and posting them. In fact, I got them on the ripplesketches site before my own blog, so I already have one of them sold, #466, my farewell shrimp. Thanks Ursula!

I am amazed at the turnout in participation over at the ripplesketch blog, both from artists contributing time, creativity, and art, and from the people donating to the foundations. Over 500 pieces of artwork and over $3,000 raised so far! Our online community rocks!

My sketch sold!

Woohoo! My Illustration Friday sketch for ripple sketches was number 202 and it sold! Thanks Laya!

So far the Illustration Friday community has helped raise over $1500, which is a fantastic ripple. Another great big thank you to Kelly Light, who organized this fantastic project and probably didn't anticipate the extent of the response from the community.

Illustration Friday: Ripple

"Let Go!"

This week's Illustration Friday is a special one.

The topic "Ripple" was suggested by Kelly Light:

"This week's Illustration Friday topic is "Ripple" and I ask you to consider creating your work this week as a small 2.5" x 3.5" sketchcard. The subject should pertain somehow to the Gulf - the oil spill - the oceans and the creatures that live in it and around it."

Essentially, artists donate a small doodle/illustration, interested parties donate to one of the two organizations that Kelly has chosen, and the people who donate the money get one of the doodles. Pretty cool, huh?

I had a couple of concepts, but this is the only one I've completed so far. If I get around to another one, i'm going to try to work more scribble-y then this one. I tried working in a new way: I made my white board into a toned surface then used ink, warm gray markers, and colored pencils to create the illustration, combining my traditional style with the pen-and-marker drawings I've been doing the past two months. Oh, and of course the pretty white gel pen for popping the highlights.

"If we all do small acts together- we can cause a ripple- and it can grow. We can DO SOMETHING."

Below is my sketch page trying to figure out the concept of the fish out of water. The hardest part was trying to figure out how to render the oil puddle and strand. Hurray for gray markers!

Illustration Friday: Early

He thought maybe he was early, but then he realized the bus was late.

I saw this guy a couple of weeks ago, as I drove to work and he stuck around in my head. I also drew this guy last week, so theoretically, I was early for Illustration Friday as well.

More bugs

More bug drawing practice! Tomorrow, cactus and succulents.