Snowflake Girl and Worried Boy - Person Every So Often

I've recently become enamored with "Chibis" which are a simplified way of drawing.  Some say 'Chibi' is an abbreviation of 'child body' and I've also heard it means 'Super Deformed' in Japanese.  Either way, it's an easy way to draw people and as  you draw them, it gets easier to draw normal size, only slightly deformed characters.  I was really pleased with Snowflake girl at the top, especially her hands and the perspective came out great (for me anyway.)  My daughter, K, said she looked 'too adult-y' though.  Worried Boy's hair and hands came out well.  More people to come later this week!

How to Draw Fancy Borders

 

Start drawing a line of uniform shapes and then add more to those,
then keep on adding until it's fancy!

Save Your Doodles!

One question that artists hear often is "Where do you get your ideas?"  A lot of the time I get them from my subconscious.

Doodles!  They can be a veritable gold mine of ideas and inspiration!  Even those little scrappy ones that you do  in the margins of your notebook or on a Post-it while in class or a dull meeting -- they're ALL things you can use to create something spectacular!  Also, it's a good idea to keep a copy of your inspirational material should you ever be accused of infringing.  This actually happened to me once, I dragged out my notebook and showed the accuser the evolution from doodle, to sketch, to design to repeated design all of which were date stamped.  Here are some doodles that went to design:

And from design into Fabric!

Wordless Wednesday

These People are Boring

So, my Person-A-Day project has dwindled down to a...um... Person-every-so-often. It comes back to my usual problem. I can never think of anything for my subjects to be doing. So they just stand there. Staring. I have more like them to post and I'll scan them but...urgh!

Person A Day 1-31-12

These are not in order, I've been somewhat lax about dating my daily people. Need to start doing that. Also, the gap between 1-16 and 1-20, I did some digital drawings but they aren't done yet. Stay tuned :D

Doodling Helps Me Think!

Last night I went to a meeting. While other people furiously scribbled notes I drew this. Some people feel that doodling while other people are talking is rude. I got a couple of *looks* for the above. But actually it helps me think and process information. It seems that science (and a woman named Sunni Brown) backs me up!

Yay!

Wednesday Doodles in Color

Crayons.

Sharpies

Blue Pen

Doodle Tuesday

Always have paisley on the brain...and a strawberry which was added by K.

Letter Doodles

There's an 'N' in the works too...

For those of you who might want an entire set of paisley letters.

Figure Practice

I've been doing some people practice lately.  I've found several tutorials that I think are extremely helpful Especially this one by Neon Dragon.  Setting up a body with 3 dimensions really makes a difference.

One exercise that was fun, in this tutorial by Jeinu, was to make a weird squiggly shape, and then make a face from it.  The guy in the upper right corner is one of those and I think he came out pretty interesting.  The cute lil' girl in between the spiral rings of the notebook was drawn by my daughter doing the same exercise.  The thing on her head is a hat that might have shrunk in the wash.  I also tried doing some old people and some homlier faces since these are harder to draw. 

Graffiti

I've had to travel through NYC lately and I can't help but be impressed with the graffiti I've seen despite the fact that it's defacement and illegal.  It's got such good flow and rythm to it.  Want to see how your name might look in groovy swirling letters but don't want to risk being arrested for destruction of public property?  Check out the virtual Graffiti Generator it's

!

Sunday Squiggle

With Love

A free coloring page for you (or your sweetie) for Valentine's Day.  Click to enlarge and then copy and print.  Mass production is not allowed but you can print several if it's for a school class or similar.  Also, you may want to print a copy of this cute card if you're feeling extra crafty.

Let it Snow!

For everybody Christmas is a crazy busy time.  Shopping, decorating, cards, crafting special gifts and the list goes on.  I'd say I'm about half done which is good for me.  But the one thing that's been cramping my style is the COLD.  Today it was 13 degrees BRRRRR!  I say there ought to be a law that if it's going to be that cold it ought to snow.  Here's some sketchbook snow for you to look at.  Happy Holidays!

The Fattybat

Halloween is going to be here soon!

A Day Late

for a wordless Wednesday and oops I'm writing something anyway.  Happy Thursday :D

Pete -n- Repeat

Another easy way to do a repeat with a hand drawn picture is the mirror repeat.  All you need to do is copy and paste your picture, flip it vertical and join it up to the first part.  Then copy and paste the joined two and flip them horizontally.  Spoonflower already has this option in their software.  Sometimes it ends up looking odd.  This has been my experience when I've mirror-repeated designs with characters in them.  But sometimes,as is the case with ol' Minty Leafy again, it comes out fractally divine. :)

Here is another sketchbook peek.  I still miss my old sketchbook, which reached its last page about 2 months ago.  I really need to find another one like it.

Doodly Do--

My new scanner doesn't open up as wide as my husband's.  As a result, some of this drawing was chopped off.  I'm sort of reluctant to tear the page out though since it's a new sketchbook.

UPDATE:  Finally colored this in you can see it on Deviantart.

Sketchy

OK.  Maybe sock darning isn't the sexiest of topics.  Still, Sophie Kinsella says it's worth knowing and she's pretty cool.

Here's a peek inside my old sketchbook which I miss very much.  I filled it up about a month ago.  I have a new one but it's not the same.  The little one-eyed guy was drawn by my daughter.  I have no idea what his shirt says.  I asked K, but she forgets.