Sketch Diary: Orange hair portrait in color

Ugh I gotta figure out how to properly scan/ get marker drawings digital without mucking up my hard work with all the blending! And the colors get all weird. Anyway, she was fun to color! Had to split it into 2 sessions though cuz it took so long - one for skin and one for the rest of her. I immediately regretted using such a dark red at the top of her hair at the time but now I've made my peace with it. She can stay.

with love - M

Sketch Diary: Relaxed mohawk portrait - in color

This was my first adventure back into Copic markers in a good long while so there was alot of just playing around going on. Mainly, I just wanted to focus on skin blending and shading. I just wish I had put more color variations into the highlights and shadows of the hair. Had to do the skin in one session and the hair in another cuz it was taking so long. I forgot how long it can take to lay down color and blend everything over and over again. I definitely overworked some areas of the page. Just don't look too closely lol. Also, why can't I get my scanner to not be weird about scanning marker?? You can see in the second photo how much smoother and richer the colors are but the scanner... I guess I need to mess with the settings more. Or else marker pieces will just have to be photographed only, no scanning.

Watch me draw this here:

6x speed

1x speed

with love - M

Sketch Diary: Cutie patootie girl - ink

I don't always draw cute little anime-esque girls/women... but when I do, they're disproportionate and adorable. Enjoy.

Watch me ink this cutie here:
6x speed

1x speed

With love - M

Sketch Diary: Cutie character design - Ink

I should've waited to ink this for Inktober... what was I thinking lol. Oh well - I was on a roll and just wanted to play with my new lightbox as much as possible. Such a 'worth-it' purchase.

Watch me draw this cutie below-------
6x speed

1x speed

with love - M

Sketch Diary: Pretty boy portrait - Ink

Here is my handsome boy. You're welcome.

Watch me draw this here--------------
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1x speed

with love - M

Sketch Diary: Lilac haired digital portrait

I'm late to the Clip Studio party... but man is it sweet. The drawing above was a quick sketch that turned into playing with a bunch of settings and such. It's far from perfect hah but it was really fast and fun. I'm excited to spend less time rendering and more time just drawing and painting digitally. But if you want to see something wild... See the image below! A similar colored drawing that I scanned and then colored probably using the original Photoshop back in 2002. 

with love - M

Sketch Diary: Brush pen inking of a poofy haired portrait (plus video)

Mmm brushpens! My favorite kind of pen to struggle with when I'm tired. So I do most of my drawing late at night, that's just when I'm able to make time right now. And the later it gets, the shakier my hands (and resolve) tend to get. But I was determined! By thunder, I was gonna brush ink the hell out of this drawing. I think it's... ok. Maybe I'll like it more after I color it.

Wanna watch me battle with sleep before your very eyes?! Help yourself:

5x speed

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with love - M

Sketch Diary: Curly haired climber girl

Just an ink practice of a sketch in my mini sketchbook. I don't know what I was thinking with the hair. It looks like... idk but it's weird and I'm not a fan. But that's what sketchbooks are for - messing around, making mistakes. This is why I've been working with more references lately. I'm just tired of getting things wrong lol.

But if you're into it, you can watch me draw this---
5x speed

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with love - M

New drawing video up! Floofy hair portrait

--Click here to check out what I've been up to on youtube--

Don't ask me how but I managed to make time to sit down and do another one of these. I must really like doing it. The act of recording makes me get out of my head a bit more and look at my drawing with a bigger lens instead of getting stuck on little details and neglecting the rest of the page. The video editing part is fun, too, because I'm learning new things and playing with a new medium.

The one tough part is lighting and getting the webcam setup properly. But I think I have a system in place now that works for me. It takes less time to set up each time I do it. Trying to get good lighting for a pencil sketch is tough though. I tried setting my light to full brightness and I end up getting blinded by the white of the page and my eyes ache afterwards.

4x speed

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with love - M

Sketch Diary: Inktober Day 23 - Pink cloudy hair

Another quick ink drawing, freehand (no sketching in pencil). And the pink is ink as well, not watercolor. I like how it turned out. Twas fun.

with love - M

Sketch Diary: Inktober Day 22 - Whispy hair and purple lips

So I've been watching a lot of Artwork by Christopher Cayco videos lately so I've been all about the freehand brush pen drawings. Be sure to check out his live drawings at least. It's like watching a wizard do magic on paper, to me anyway hah.

How it works is you need some kind of ink and brush - brush pens are definitely easier than using raw ink and brushes. Or at least cleaner and takes up less space. Cuz for raw ink you need the ink well, some kind of palette, some kind of towel, glass of water, brushes, and heavy duty paper. Anyway, you have your brush and ink and then you just draw! No pre-sketching in pencil. Just brush to paper and go. I haven't drawn in straight ink like that in ages and it was so freeing and fun and I felt like my wrist was opening up more. Super nice. Highly recommended.

with love - M

Sketch Diary: Sitting on a ledge in color

Played with colors here. I like the skin. Fabric looks ok from a distance but I didn't get the smoothness like I wanted. Hair just fell flat. I don't have many purples. This was on thin paper so I couldn't rework the colors or overlay much at all without ruining the paper. Ah well. Still fun.

with love - M

Sketch Diary: Mirror Mirror on the wall color version

Mirror mirror on the wall... who's got the cutest butt of them all! Oh do I love that fire-y hair. This was a fun sketch to warm up my marker skills on. I'm excited to work on more marker stuff now. This was on printer paper... not good paper for markers hah but I made it work. But don't worry, I did pick up a real sketch pad that's supposed to be good for markers so I'll break that in soon.

with love - M

Sketch Diary: Big hair, don't care girls

Always feels good to do some hair and gesture practice drawings.

with love - M

Sketch Diary: Watching you indifferently color version

This drawing became an experiment in multi-media. I started with a sketch on some old card stock paper. Then I inked it. Then I colored the figure in with Copic markers. But then I did something a bit different from my usual.

I colored the background in watercolor... madness! Not really but it definitely saved me a ton of time. I just wanted a simple orange background and didn't want to waste a ton of Copic marker ink on it. I got really worried though, while I was doing it, because the water made the page super ripple-y. So I sandwiched it in a heavy book for a couple days and thankfully it smoothed out rather nicely.

The stars are bit childish maybe... but I like them. I wish I'd done more haha.

with love - M

Sketch Diary: TBT - Armored blonde elf

An throwback oldy! Hailing all the way from 2008. Probably colored in 2009. Still struggling with drawing hands...2018 haha.

with love - M

Sketch Diary: Inktober Day 17 - Short hair portrait practice

Working on my lineart skills. Feel free to color - but please give me credit, link back here, and tell me! Cuz I wanna see it.

with love - M

Sketch Diary: Inktober Day 13 - Worried look in blue

Time for my blue period! Hah but seriously, brush pens are fun. I took more time on my lines for this one and I think it paid off. I was able to get those skinny lines and some nice fat ones, too. I dig how she turned out.

with love - M

Sketch Diary: Doing the up-do

I went through periods of love and hate while sketching this quicky. I did the head and arm and hair using a fast gesture drawing method but then went in for way too much detail too quickly with the eyes and had to pull myself back out again to do the rest of the pose. THEN I went back in for details.... the quick gesture drawing method really works the best for me. I don't know why I stopped in the middle of it. Whatever. I've been averaging 2 drawings/inkings a day lately so I'm still pleased as punch.

with love - M

Sketch Diary: Slender all over

I didn't realize until after finishing this little sketch that I was definitely channeling some Keane. Specifically, her slender looking women in some of her paintings. She's mostly known for her 'Big Eyes' paintings but I like her other work, too. She had a wild ride though, if the movie was at all accurate. I recommend watching it regardless because it brings up the issues of selling prints versus originals, the desire to be in an art gallery, and just all around artist struggles.

with love - M