Scary!

EDM Challenge #70  Draw what you're afraid of.  This is a brown recluse spider. Spiders are useful creatures, I know this. They keep other insect populations in check, they tend to keep to themselves, they spin incredible, beautiful webs--all good things. But still, they give me the heebie-jeebies. As I wrote on the drawing, we recently moved from Chicago to Florida, where spiders, snakes, and other creepy crawlies live year round. Now I imagine them popping out from every crevice! When I have recurring scary dreams, they tend to involve spiders or driving. Honestly, I'm much more afraid of scarier, more sobering things, but I draw for fun, mostly - so here's a spider!

This is the second drawing I've done since we've moved. I went to do a watercolor yesterday and couldn't find my brushes, so I grabbed the pens instead. It's been fun! Yesterday I did a portrait for the Julia Kay Portrait Party - someone's childhood photo. I've posted that here, too.

I do need to find those brushes, though....

Seashells

EDM #61  Draw a grouping of two or more similar objects

This one was my mom's idea--seashells!  I chose three that she had sitting in a tray around a candle and drew them.  Shells are always on my mind when we're in Florida.  It's hard to avoid them, really, and why would you want to?  When I was little, I used to walk along the beach and collect shells.  I knew the names of all of them, and I found some very beautiful ones.  I'll need to re-learn all about these shells so I can share this pastime with Simon when he gets older.

I only brought charcoal and pencils with me to Florida, but I didn't want to draw black and white shells, so I brought out the trusty old Bamboo graphics tablet and Corel Painter Essentials.  I'd missed drawing with this program!  It's very different from doing art in the "real" (not digital) world, but I don't think it's less authentic (or...not much, anyway.  I'm still a traditionalist at heart, I suppose.).  It's true that I can do things on the program that I wouldn't be able to do in non-digital art, but if I think of this program as a separate medium, and not as a cheat, I'll be happier.  I did a couple of portraits on it yesterday, too, and found that quite satisfying.  I'll put one of them below the seashells picture.

Here's a portrait I did yesterday with the tablet.  I've been doing lots of portrait drawing, and I need to start posting more of them here.  I'm quite proud of some of them!

More Portraits

Okay, I'm having a really good time doing portraits.  It's amazing -- in the few I've done so far, I've gotten quicker and more confident.  It's true that there's nothing like drawing every day to make you want to draw every day.

The first portrait is charcoal, but the second is charcoal pencil!  See?  I can branch out.  The second portrait was also done very quickly, which was quite fun, actually.

Portrait Party

It looks like I'm allowed to post the portraits I'm doing for the Julia Kay Portrait Party (JKPP) group on Flickr.  It's been great fun so far!  Here are the three portraits I've done.