Current Art Stuff (A Sort Of WIP Wednesday)

I debated not even having a WIP Wednesday, but then I decided even though I don’t have a ton of actual art to share, there are a few things I’d like to talk about! So really, a few of these things are even in pre-WIP stage, where I’m still just working on concepts for projects.

One of my biggest goals this year is to find a direction for my art. I feel like while I love creating, I don’t really have a sense of DOING anything with my art. I like to draw portraits. I like to make paintings. But I feel like I’ve just been bouncing around from individual project to individual project with no real goals for my art. And I’d like to change that! I will still absolutely be making portraits, paintings, and probably lots in between. But I want to give myself a bit more focus for the year, with an actual intention for my art as opposed to my “let’s just draw something” mentality I’ve been rolling with up until now.

FOCUS #1:

Sketch more!! Seriously, I am awful at sketching. I bought a new sketchbook in mid-2014, and there are maybe ten pages filled in. Three of which are from this year. Oy. I really need to work on just sitting down to sketch, without a massive project in mind.

Two sketches from this year – fellow blogger Margot Meanie, and a quick cartoon-ish sketch of Mary Doodles while catching up on her YouTube vids!

FOCUS #2:

Drawing without a reference! This heavily ties in to my above focus of sketching more. Every time I sit down to sketch, self doubt always kicks in and screams I can’t possibly draw anything without a reference photo! I NEED to work on getting over that hump. Especially as I know, YES, I CAN draw without a direct reference. I actually have a super top secret idea I’m working on right now for a personal comic, and I can’t wait to get it going. You guys here will definitely be privy to the process – it’s really only super top secret from my family. And since they don’t read my blog, I can share it all here, muahahahaha! Anywho, you’ll be hearing lots more about it.

Other projects? I need to finish my Neil Gaiman portrait, as well as the painting for my hubs and I’ve got some plans to do a Victorian steampunk piece, just for funsies. I think I’d like it to eventually be a painting, but I’ll probably start out with a graphite drawing to get it all down first.

Hoping to get this finished tomorrow!

I’ve been ignoring this piece, as the entire bottom half of her body needs to be redone when I paint….not looking forward to that. But I need to suck it up, and get some more work done on it!

That’s what I’ve got on my art plate for now – what are you working on lately?

A Very Small WIP Wednesday

I am in massive super crunch time mode for art lately. There are EIGHT DAYS LEFT UNTIL CHRISTMAS. I have no idea how that happened. I started making presents in September. How is it that I’m still behind?!?!? In spite of that, I am actually feeling relatively okay about being able to complete the last two gifts I have left. Anywho, let’s dive in to the WIPs.

Finished the kitty plush! I used a Pusheen pic as a ref for the pattern I made, and finally got her all finished up yesterday. Keep an eye out – I’ll be posting a tutorial on how I make plushies this Friday, and this little kitty is my example!

The next time I decide to do an oil painting on a deadline, please kick me in the face. I am the slooooowest painter, and this is taking me so much more time than I planned for. But I am ALMOST. DONE. At this point, all I have left is adding in the bowstring, and then detailing out her midsection and bow. Then it’s just a couple detail revisions and a bit of reworking on the background and DONE. I’m hoping two more sessions will complete it. Which sounds great, except oils take a long time to to dry. I have serious doubts that this will be dry by Christmas so I think I’ll just be placing it ever so carefully in a box, giving to my brother and saying, “Hope you love it, but don’t touch it!” 😀

Below is a quick comparison of what it looked like last WIP Wednesday.

I fixed the proportions (aka no more giraffe neck and looking like she just got her wisdom teeth out) and also added more detail to things – gloves, dress, and so on. Definitely SO much happier with it now.

And that’s all I’ve got for this week! My next WIP Wednesday won’t be until 2015!! But hopefully by then I’ll have some new stuff to show you. I’ve got lots of art plans for the coming year!

WIP Wednesday

I’m still rolling steadily along with Christmas presents. Down to my final six! Which sounds kinda scary when I think about the fact that Christmas is in less than four weeks. I got this?! I mean, YEAH, I got this!

Most recently finished is this little puppy plush! Made for a very special little boy I know. I realized afterward that I totally forgot to include a tail when making the pattern! Whoops…thinking I’ll cut out a dark blue piece and give him a 2D tail hot glued on the back.

This pile of pieces is on it’s way to becoming a cute little kitty plush! I based my pattern off a Pusheen image I found online, and customized the colors to suit the little girl it’s going to.

Oh, the Zelda painting. I am still loving it, but hating what an incredibly SLOW painter I am. It’s not so much a complaint as a realization of reality. Luckily I’m almost done.

And now, a little art babble with this close up. First off, let me tell you that painting a face in oil paint when her whole head is legit the size of my thumb is HARD. Also, I’m very quickly discovering I have some seriously wacky proportions going on in the head/neck area. That will all be taken care of with the next session. I need to bulk up the left shoulder, move up the cape clasp section – basically just a lot of adjusting the whole area. Then it’s just adding in a some eye detail cleanup, finishing the dress and bow and DONE! Oh, and Gannondorf’s top hand if you look in the big view; apparently I completely forgot to detail the shadow there!

I sketched this portrait out on Monday, and now I just need to shade it. Followed up by one of her little brother.

Other than these projects I still have my little’s treasure chest to detail, and my hubs oil painting to finish. Go go go!!

What are you working on lately? Making any presents for the holidays?

 

WIP…Thursday?

Yeah, I totally forgot to get my WIP Wednesday post ready yesterday. I generally don’t write WW posts ahead of time as I am usually working on said projects and I like to have the most recent pics. So usually I’ll snap pics in the morning and then write/publish the post during naptime. Well….that just didn’t happen yesterday! I remembered while cooking dinner and said, well, I guess it’ll be tomorrow’s post! On to the art and projects!

The Princess Celestia plush is finished!! This was a serious labor of love. But I did learn a lot along the way, and my stitching is getting so much more even, and faster too! In terms of stuffing, nothing got too warped which I was a bit worried about. There’s a slightly awkward part up by her wing, but that’s about it. The only thing I did learn is stuff the legs before you sew them completely shut! Normally to stuff a felt plushie I’ll sew all around the edges leaving myself a hole at the top to jam in some stuffing using a combo of my fingers and a wooden dowel. However, the tiny pony legs just weren’t having it, even trying to smash it in with a dowel. So for Princess Luna, I’ll add stuffing to the legs as I go, and then sew them shut.

Just a quick side view to see how thick the plushie is. It’s about 1.5″-2″ total.

Princess Luna is coming right along! I’m really excited about her – but that’s also because I love Luna! Anywho, as you can see by the pins I’m in the process of sewing the body and tail to the main hair piece. Then I have to put the back hair pieces to the back body piece, and finally sew and stuff the whole thing together.

This is my first 2D felt project!  A (not so) little Flareon ornament for my best friend! She’s about 5″ from ear to tail, which is a little big for an ornament, but too bad. Pokemon has always held a special place in m heart – I met my best friend of sixteen years because of Pokemon! I had just gotten into it (both the video game and card game) and she was the go-to girl for Pokemon card trades. We met about a trade, and have been BFF’s ever since.

Another gift for my BFF – a Superfruit pillow! Superfruit is the YouTube channel of Scott and Mitch from Pentatonix. Every Tuesday they release a vid, which is generally hilarious. We love them, and since my best bud just moved into her first apartment in September, I felt a Superfruit throw pillow was a necessity. 😀 I sewed the pillowcase (I already had the small pillow kicking around) and as you can see, I haven’t finished the top of it yet. Originally I was going to sew on the 2D guys, but I think I’m just going to stick with hot glue. I used hot glue a lot for these guys as it suited the original illustration more than stitching, and I think it will work great to attach it to a pillow. Also a quick rant about Scott (blondie on the left)’s eyes: in the original image they are all blue, which I did and it looked creepy. So I made them black and now they look creepier! So I’ll be painting them back to blue. Le sigh.

Lastly, I have finally started this oil painting for my hubs! It’s of Aurelia, a Magic the Gathering character. All I’ve done so far is lay in the background colors, but I feel better knowing it’s started at least. Being a pretty darn slow painter I am quite nervous about the fact that I have TWO oil paintings to finish in time for Christmas (plus they need about 9 days drying time, if not more). It’s going to be a scramble, but I actually work really well under pressure so I can do it!

WIP Wednesday

GAH, I am so behind on blog stuffs! I can never manage to keep up with life when I am sick! But luckily, I feel pretty much tip top again, so it’s time to get back on track with posts, starting with WIP Wednesdays again. Nothing new this week, just more progress on things I’ve already shared. Now that I am in epic Christmas present scramble mode, I won’t have a ton of new stuff to share in the next two months, but I’ll post all I can!

I’ve had this portrait of Mr. Cumberbatch finished for a couple weeks, and I’m quite happy with it! However I absolutely need to work on rendering certain clothing texture.

A penguin daddy and baby! This is a Christmas present for a friend of mine, who adores/collects penguins.

I’ve made a rather abysmal amount of progress on my Neil Gaiman portrait. I haven’t even finished laying the darks in the hair yet! But, this project does wind up at the bottom of the priority list since it’s just for fun, not a Christmas present. I work on it when I can, or when I just HAVE to use my pencils after spending days leaving them untouched while I work on my two big sewing projects (see below).

Princess Luna is coming along nicely. All her pieces have been cut out and I’m in the process of stitching each side together.

But this is where the majority of my effort has been going. Princess Celestia. This plush has taken SO MUCH work. I entirely hand stitch these plushes, and since I’m kinda slow at it, these are a huge time sync. But I’m loving how she’s turning out!! This is the front side, obviously, and it’s 100% finished.

The back side has MUCH less detail than the front and will therefore take much less time to put together. Then, I can sew the whole thing together and stuff it. I’m a little worried about the stuffing part, as I’m hoping nothing will look warped or misshapen, but I’ll just have to cross that bridge when I come to it.

That’s all I’ve got for you this week! I feel like I’ve been working a TON, but it’s only because sewing takes me ages haha. I’ve got a couple more plush patterns to draw, then cut out and stitch, and TWO oil paintings to do, one of which I haven’t even started. It’s gonna be a busy two months of art. Just the way I like it!

WIP Wednesday

Lately art has been a balance between finishing the just-for-fun projects I’ve started, working on Christmas presents, and still wanting to start more just-for-fun projects! I’ve made the decision to focus on Christmas though. I know it’s still two months away, but I also know me and if I don’t bust out at least half my list, I’ll never get them done in time. I’m making so much this year! Which is awesome, but also stressful. I’ve actually closed commissions for the season just so I can focus on it, and it’s been a great choice. One less things to stress about!

Last week, I was lamenting about my little raccoon and his poor nose. I made the decision to seam rip the nose off, then cut and hot glue a new one one and I am SO HAPPY I did! I just love him now! So I will definitely have to remember that when making a new one…I’ve got some raccoon plans up my sleeve.

Finished my Bravely Default piece! Tiz’s (far left) eyes are a bit dark, and Ringabel (pirate) looks a bit evil haha, but overally I like it a lot! I also learned I’m not a huge fan of using watercolors in this manner. I like them for more tightly controlled things, and this was very loose. I think a piece in this style is one I’d like to try once I get a set of Copics and see what I think!

I got the Neil Gaiman piece all sketched out and have just barely started laying in the darks in the hair. However, after staring at it while working I think I’m going to erase the left eye (our left, that is) and redraw it in. It’s too low, and it’s driving me banana sandwich.

This piece however, I am 100% happy with! It was just one of those times where everything is working out exactly the way I want it to! I’d say I have about an hour left to finish up that side of his coat, and then it’s all done! At this point, I feel like I’m subconsciously putting off finishing it up because it’s been so much fun to draw.

The last thing I wanted to share today is a bit of my pattern/plush making process. I started a new plush for my daughter for Christmas, and figured I’d give you a taste of how I do it!

I start with a sketch. I find a reference pic that I like, then sketch it out to the size I want the plush to be. In this case, it’s about 8″ x 8″ including the hair and wingtips. I know how messy it looks, but I have to sketch in all the sides of everything (hair, wings, etc) for the next step: tracing.

Using a light box, I take my sketch and trace out each individual piece I will need. Then I cut them out, pin them to felt, and cut the felt out.

And voila! Princess Celestia is coming right along. I need to snag a couple other felt colors to cut out the rest of the hair, and then I’ll be ready to start sewing it together (which is a whole other ball game). This is definitely the most complicated plush I’ve tried. I want it to be ‘viewable’ from both sides, not just the front, which added the extra step of making sure it all works from the back too. So far so good though! We’ll see how it all comes together once I start layering everything to sew.

I have some plans for upcoming Christmas posts and I was thinking about making a full step by step tutorial for (how I do) pattern & plush making. What do you guys think? Something you’d like to see?

WIP Wednesday

Art lately has had it’s ups and down. I’ve started some portraits that I love, and had some other projects not go so well. Also, I felt way less productive than normal art-wise lately. I’ll have to kick it up a notch for October!

I started a watercolor piece of my party in Bravely Default (which has since changed but that’s besides the point). It was all going swimmingly until my three year old ran in to my room after a nap and grabbed my arm causing my to drop my paintbrush full of BLACK PAINT on top of Agnes’ face (far right – that awkward looking area). After some deep breaths and a saying through gritted teeth, “PLEASE DON’T GRAB MUMMY’S ARM IF SHE’S PAINTING….” I started damage control. Luckily these are watercolors, so I dabbed as much off as I could and waited for it to dry. I’ve been lightly layering up white gesso on top and now it’s at a usable point. This is Mixed Media paper, but if you overwork the area, it really starts to disintegrate which makes blending watercolors pretty much impossible. Hopefully I can finish it up in the next two days or so.

I finished my hedgehog!!! And I think he’s just the cutest thing. I’m really excited about him, as he is my own pattern with no reference for it other than an actual hedgehog. He isn’t that dynamic of a stuffie, but he sure is adorable. Plus, I love the subtle geek tribute of Sonic and Tails when he’s with my little fox!

Unfortunately I’m not too happy with my second plush pattern. Sigh. I really want to like this guy, but his face drives me nuts. When I designed the pattern I forgot to allow for a ‘neck’ area when I stitched it together, so now the nose looks way too far down on the face and it’s all I can focus on. I may just rip the stitching on the nose out, cut a new one, and hot glue it on farther up. He is supposed to be part of the other woodland plushies above for a friends baby shower, but I may just give him to my little depending on how the fix goes.

I started this portrait of the excellent Benedict Cumberbatch. I love how it’s turning out! This piece has more to it now, but being honest I was totally too lazy to take another picture. Photographing graphite portraits drives me bonkers since I have A: No lighting equipment and B: no tripod but I do what I can! A lot of the subtler midtone shading can get lost, but it’s usually fixable with editing.

And then last night I started a portrait of Neil Gaiman just because I felt like it! I’m reading one of his books, and was flipping through Sandman again looking at the art so I guess he was just on my brain. I felt like starting a new portrait, and that’s who I picked!

Made anything lately? Let me know below!

WIP Wednesday

Although I love sharing for WIP Wednesday I am heading into the season where a lot of my art is being made for Christmas presents, which means a lot of it has to be kept under wraps (WOO bad puns!). But, I’ll of course share what I can!

I finished my fox plush! I made him from my own pattern, using both a ready-made plush on Etsy and Tails from Sonic the Hedgehog for a reference. I definitely learned a lot (via trial and error) about pattern making, and for my next couple designs I’m going a bit bigger. This guy was a tad small, and some of the pieces were hard to cut. My stitching also ran into a couple problems, but I still like him! Eventually I’ll do a post dedicated just to pattern making, and probably share my patterns if they come out nicely!

This is the next pattern I’ve made – a raccoon! He actually had a lot more pieces than I was originally thinking, but he should be so cute once he’s all done!

This little guy is the one I’m most excited about – a hedgehog!! Who will of course be blue to accompany the fox (Sonic and Tails!!), and then I’ll have added in some subtle geek to this particular batch of presents.

This was a speedpaint I did last week to celebrate Winter Solider coming out on Blu-Ray. (YEEHOO!! I love this movie). Anywho, start to finish was about 25 minutes I think? I posted it on my Instagram but wanted to share here too. I’m trying to work on speedpaints to help me improve my watercolor blending skills without taking a ridiculous amount of hours to get a painting done! As you can see, it’s pretty rough, but that’s why we practice, right?!

I threw some rough color into this sketch, and now I definitely have an idea where I want to go with it. It is definitely going to get fully inked, and (hopefully) have a comic panel type to it.

And lastly, from my sketchbook, I’ve been working on some pose stuff for two reasons. 1. It’s good practice, especially when I rarely do full body stuff. 2. I have some fun illustrations planned that will need a full body pose and I’m trying to find ones I like!

I do have a couple portraits finished and started, but can’t share them. . .I’m not sure if the people they are for read my blog but I’m not risking it! Hope you enjoyed this week’s WIPs!

WIP Wednesday

I’m about 90% done this bookmark, which will be a Christmas gift for a friend. It’s been so much fun to paint, and I’m loving learning more about using watercolors. I haven’t decided if I’m going to paint a background color or not. The Magic card has an ochre yellow background, but I don’t really like it. So, to leave it white, or pick another color? Thoughts?

I sketched out two more bookmarks to paint just for fun! Sorry they’re so hard to see; I tend to sketch REALLY lightly when I’m going to be painting, so I had to fiddle with the levels in Lightroom just to see this much! On the left, a happy little dancing Groot, because who doesn’t love dancing Groot, and on the right a Moriarty bookmark. He is my absolute favorite part of Sherlock, so he definitely needed a bookmark.

This is the very very beginning stages of a commission I just received over the weekend! So this is a little peek into my process – my first step is to do a really rough outline sketch to place everything in for proportion and size. Next up I’ll start revising and adding in detail, then move on to shading.

I’ve had Doctor Who, especially Ten, on my mind lately, so I sketched this up to paint last night just for fun. Very small, the whole paper is 6″ x 8″, but I like painting small.

I sketched this up last night too, after my daughter woke up in the night (definitely based on her). I’m quite pleased with it as it’s 100% out of my head with no reference. I still get nervous drawing stuff that way! But I like how this turned out. It’s very rough, and I can’t decide if I want to revise it to paint, or just leave as a sketch for now. I really need to save my pennies to get a set of Copic markers as I think they would be perfect for it!

This project has taken up most of my crafting time this week. I’ve been working on stitching some plushes as Christmas gifts, and these Doctors are my first attempt! Ten was the the first one I ever made, and though he has some flaws I love him. My stitching is already neater for Eleven – he just needs to be stuffed, sewn shut, and have his details added! These were purchased patterns, but I’m working on making my own patterns for other characters, and animal plushes too.

I actually have a few more drawings and things started, but they are gifts for people so I’m keeping them under wraps. After Christmas they’ll be a giant art/craft dump post with them.

What are you making lately?

WIP Wednesday

Before I get into the art stuffs, I’m going to apologize upfront for the horrendous photos. I had a total brain fart last night, and realized not only had I not prepped this post yet, I hadn’t even photographed my WIPs. And I’m gone from the house all day today, meaning no time to do it this morning. Which therefore meant taking art photos in my horrible bedroom light (aka fluorescent, hospital room style lights. Blech) last night. Some editing helped, but not that much. Pardon!

My little asked me last week for some new art in her room. Yesterday, I finally remembered this conversation, and asked her what she wanted. Unsurprisingly, she asked for some My Little Pony stuff, specifically Princess Luna and Princess Celestia (her two faves). I whipped these up during nap time for her. Happy three year old.

Sharing some stuff from my small sketchbook (5×7″) today. A quick life sketch while my daughter was painting from a couple weeks ago. She’s such a serious painter, which is handy for me – she sits so still I can get a quick sketch in.

This was a five minute sketch I did yesterday while listening to Jane Lui. I love the music she makes – so unique. Anywho, since I had her on the brain, I decided to do a quick sketch. The likeness is only meh, but for five minutes I’ll take it.

Started another MTG bookmark! Though this one isn’t for my hubs; it’s actually a Christmas present for a friend. I’m feeling 50% super accomplished for starting Christmas presents in August, and 50% yucky with myself. However, if I don’t start now, I’ll never have time to get everything done! Doing so much art as gifts this year.

And lastly, still making bits of progress on this piece. I feel like this is my backup piece, so when I can’t figure out what I want to work on, I’ll add more to this. It still has so much work that it needs, but it’s slowly coming along.

What projects are you working on lately?