With Easter just around the corner, I bet we’re all anticipating a visit from the Easter Bunny. Some will see him, some will not. I remain hopeful.
Keep your eyes and ears open. Have a carrot stick in your back pocket. Have a camera ready. It’s proof. When or if you do see him, ask him where he put the golden egg, then tell me.
I hope you and your family have a wonderful Easter!
In honor of Inktober, it’s time to take out those Copic markers and begin putting them to use before they all dry up. I’m still quite new at marker drawing, so I thought I’d sit through another one of Lindsay Weirich’s drawing tutorials. Last time around, I sat in for her Blue Jay in Marker Sketching Tutorial and it turned out pretty good. I like her style!
Most artists shade from light to dark to create a smooth gradient effect, however, she just dives right in going from dark to light and scratching in all those deep shades of greens, oranges and browns. I admire her for her ‘down and dirty’ tutorials which are pretty easy to follow and you end up with something pretty decent. It looks like a pumpkin, right?!
Happy Inktober, All!
Day in and day out, I get to witness bulldozers, excavators and sledgehammers tear through Christie Ave Park. While it’s been over six months of tumultuous construction — at all hours of the day — it’s starting to come together. They are rebuilding the park to include a children’s playground, grassy fields with picnic tables and a fenced dog park. I’m excited to see how it turns out; however, all this raucous is driving me up the wall. I think I can even chuck my alarm clock. It now seems like 6:00am is the new 8:00am.
Instead of lying in bed, I decided to get up, pull out my pen and paper, and sketch the serenity surrounded by all this madness. Waking up each morning to the Berkeley Hills and EmeryBay has been my serenity and my appreciation for this little city of Emeryville, soon to be bustling with more restaurants, more apartments and more recreation amidst the ongoing development. Transforming this quiet area and inviting the public to come together will be a good thing for Emeryville. I look forward to what’s coming. But for now, here’s a snapshot of EmeryBay on a typical Sunday morning — at peace and undisturbed by construction workers.
Well if this sword lily doesn’t scream that I’m “Gladiolus” to meet you then I don’t know what does! Inspired by a watercolor painter and floral artist, I decided to do a marker sketch of this gladiolus and doing some shading with Thorton’s dual brush pens and Prisma colored pencils. While I’m still getting acquainted with both mediums, I find it more difficult to shade with markers and get that smooth gradient effect. It’s not as easy to layer or blend when compared to pastels and/or acrylic paint which give you more flexibility to mix and build before it sets on canvas. I guess it’s just going to take some practice getting used to how to work with these mediums and luck for me, I have YouTube to refer to hundreds of drawing tutorials. I’m looking forward to exploring marker drawing some more and find it especially convenient to pack these in my bag and go.
What can I say?! I’m on a roll with these new hobbies. And to that I say, keep them coming!
I’ve had a handful of these Copic markers in the storage bin along with some dual tip markers that I recently bought, but never got around to using… until about now. I never really knew what to do with them and more or less, I didn’t have a need. But I got inspired to dig out these supplies along with a sketchbook that sat on the shelf collecting dust. I’ve been curious about marker drawing for sometime, especially when I learned about my cousin’s passion for industrial design and his years at Art Center. That was decades ago, but it was always in the back of my mind hoping that some day I’d taking a drawing class and learn how to use them. That time didn’t come soon enough and I never got around to signing up for a class.
Lucky for me, there’s YouTube and you can watch a video and learn anytime, anywhere. With my first search for “Marker Drawing Tutorial,” I came across Lindsay Weirich’s (aka The Frugal Crafter) Blue Jay in Markers Sketching Tutorial. She seemed friendly, inviting and her tutorial seemed doable. It was only ten minutes and I could very well end up with something that looked like a blue jay. I followed the tutorial step by step, scratching my marker across my sketchbook. Blues, grays, browns and some blending with that magic marker. A squiggle over here and a scratch over there. It actually started looking like a blue jay. I was impressed and thanks to a successful first run with these markers, I foresee many more of these marker drawing sessions in the near future.
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