A Work In Progress

I did a little drawing:

Which I really enjoyed.

And then I colored it in:

And now that I'm looking at her, I think my sister was right and I am not done with her...

So, for today, a work in progress...

Willy...or Wilma?

Today I've got a wonky woman Wonka for ya!

She is, of course, based off of classic Gene Wilder Wonka, and not the monstrosity that was the Johnny Depp version. 

I actually like Johnny Depp most of the time, but his version of Wonka was like a personal affront to society...I demand a written apology.  Shame on you, Johnny...shame...

My favorite part of my drawing is the hair...curly hair is...evasive(?) for me, and I think this drawing gives the essence of curly...and that's really all I can hope for at this point.  So...yay!

I liked the process of using an already known character and making it my own way...I know a lot of people are doing this with various cartoons (notably the 10 million different versions of Disney princesses), and I think its a fun exercise.

I use reference photos a lot when I draw, but usually not "known" people or characters.  I think using something someone else has done and saying "how would I have done this thing?" is an interesting way to stretch your creative muscles without the pressure of having to come up with the entire concept on your own...and I think its ok as long as you acknowledge that you didn't create the concept, only the interpretation...

Who knows, maybe I'll try my hand at some more character 'stealing' in the future...and if you try your hand, I'd love to see it, so leave me a comment and tell me where to go!  (To see your art, not the other option!)

Tacky Wallpaper?

Yay!

So after the pale polka dot baby steps of last week, I was thinking about drawing backgrounds and realized I shared this on Facebook but not on the blog.

I have a large canvas (that I've had for a LONG time) that I wanted to work in acrylic on and was trying to do a mock up and I ended up with this gal.

I like the gal, she's fine, but what I really love is the background!  I actually liked it so much that I started drawing the leaves onto my canvas...this was several weeks ago and I still haven't gotten any further, but let us applaud the fact that I got as far as I did.  (haha)

Eventually, I will get to my canvas...probably sooner rather than later, because I am really excited about those leaves.  I have been doing mostly couch art and acrylics are not such a hot idea for the only room in the house that still has carpet...not for a clumsy paint slinger like me anyway.

I've got the couch art area set up for arting all the time, but my other art area has been sorely neglected for a good while and would require so much cleaning and lord knows I'll do everything in my power to avoid that...the point to this story is: this is how I'm going to get acrylic paint on the living room carpet...it's a forgone conclusion frankly...but look at those leaves, clearly worth it...

The Palest Girl I Know

The palest girl I know...besides myself...

I was so inspired by my copycat girl from last time that I decided to try a girl of my style in Danielle Donaldson's color palette...wait...that sounds all la-di-da and I don't mean it that way...I should say I was still so inspired by Danielle Donaldson that I decided to do a normal me kind of girl in her palette...yeah...that sounds much less jerky...

This girl kind of reminds me of the first layer of a painting...one where you're supposed to add more on top...she's so pale.  But not everything has to be saturated with color!

Even though this is way outside of my usual color usage, I LOVE this pale gal so much!  And I like her pale polka dot background.  I tend to not do anything in the background...unless I do collage work or something...and then there's a whole lot of stuff going on...  But I never draw anything in the background, so this is a teeny tiny baby step and I like how it turned out.

I really enjoy experimenting with different things...although it's easy to do routine things and forget to experiment.  So when I do remember to experiment, I get super excited and, here I am, super excited by those pale dots!  Hooray!