Happy Easter!

More Birds

Time management is really hurting my drawing growth. I gotta learn to utilize my time better! Whelp, there's always tomorrow. I'm really liking going over my drawings with a 9H pencil they seem to stand out better. It still takes me a while and I don't feel I'm as confident with my "relining" as I'd like to be, but hopefully that will come with practice and consistency. As an aside Elements sucks vs CS4, either that or I'm just not used to it.

A little birdie told me

Spent most of today thinking about drawing. I know, "Shock!," (is that the correct way to punctuate that?!) but even more than usual. I'm messing around with different types of pencils and leads, and working on making sure my lines really pop. I'm also learning how important a good tip is. I hate it when my lead breaks!

Today's quote of the day comes by way of The Animation Podcast and Andreas Deja which if I recall correctly he attributed to Ollie. "You shouldn't animate drawings, animate feelings." Trying to keep that in the forefront of my mind while I'm drawing.

Lion and Tiger and Wolves! Oh My!

Had fun drawing today! Got a lot done in both my personal sketchbook and my Preston Blair study. Rhys convinced me to put up one of my other sketchbook drawings today. So, hopefully who ever reads this, likes it. Inspiration for today brought to you by Tara McPherson her stuff is just incredible. I really love her style. I saw her drawings a long time ago, but I never knew anything about her. I heard about IllustrationMundo today on the Escape from Illustration Island podcast, and found out about her through that site. If you haven't seen IllustrationMundo check it out. It indexes a lot of illustrators and it's always fun finding new ones and seeing their takes on drawing.

Saxofox!

I have to learn to color! I've been listening a lot to color theory and man there really is so much to it. Gradients, subtleties, lighting and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Oh well, still have to focus on learning to really nail down my drawing to a T. On an inspiration note, I found Bill Pressing's blog Daily Peril last night and I just fell in love with his style, and my fiance, Rhys,bought me Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind Vol 1! Yay! New goals and influences to work with and from.

Speed

Didn't have much time to draw at all today, but I still got a page done! Working heavier and darker is showing up a lot better in the scanner. I still am not really used to it, and some of my lines are more feathered than I'd like, but practice makes perfect. Also working on my timing and focus. Picked up a little bit of speed!

New Techniques

I heard and read some new ideas to integrate into my drawings today. Numero uno: Draw with the arm, then the wrist, then the fingers, supposedly it helps free up your drawings and keep you from getting hand cramps. Numero dos: draw further away from the paper, so that you can see the whole image at once to make sure the proportions and perspectives are correct not only to what you are currently working on, but to the image as a whole. Lastly I think I need to draw a bit darker at least for the scanner to pick up my images better.