Sketch Diary: Watching you indifferently ink

I enjoyed this sketch enough that I thought I better ink it and try to color it. Haven't colored anything in a while so I'm looking forward to it.

with love - M

Sketch Diary: TBT - Orange hair, don't care

This little note card is throwback from 2010. I had all these postcard size cardstock paper things, originally meant to be used material for wedding invitations for someone but ended up not being used. Not one to waist good card stock, I tried out my Copic markers on them. The weird background of the cards (kind of marbled) didn't quite work though and made solid color areas look blotchy. Also, I wasn't so good at taking my time with blending yet. The white you see is acrylic paint added at the end. I don't do that method anymore but could see my self going back to it if I worked on bigger pieces. On small things like this though, it's way easier to just use a nice gel pen or something similar.

with love - M

Sketch Diary: Adventure Time fanart - Finn and Jake

And part 2 of some copied drawings - I do not own these characters! This style is SUPER foreign for me so it definitely helped loosen me up to practice drawing in this style. I would love to draw like this from time to time but I'd feel better about it if I made my own characters and maybe altered the style a bit so it's not just blatantly copying from the wonderful Adventure Time folks.

with love - M

Sketch Diary: Adventure Time fanart - Bubblegum and Rainicorn

Copied these from Adventure Time, I do not own these characters in any way. I wanted to share these drawings because for a sketch diary, copying and studying other artists' wonderful styles can be really helpful to me. So... I assume, that might be helpful for other folks to know.

I have very mixed feelings about fanart as a whole especially when an artist creates a piece of fanart and then sells it and doesn't own or pay any rights to the original creators. There have been stories about anime/game conventions that have limited or even banned fanart in one way or another in the last several years. I get it though, it becomes overwhelming when all you see is fanart everywhere and what you really want is to see people's original creations, ideas, stories. Something about profiting off someone else's artwork just doesn't feel right to me. That said, I also don't think it's right for me to say that people can't do that! If they wanna risk getting in trouble with copyright infringement, that's not for me to have any say on unless it's my own artwork they're copying. But everything comes from something, yeah? So let's all try to be a little kinder to each other on this topic.

with love - M

Sketch Diary: TBT - Medusa crazy hair woman in ink

Holy smokes this thing is old! But I still vividly remember drawing this and being so freaking proud of myself haha. Still am. This was definitely a trophy of a point when I was really taking my drawing seriously. September 2004 was the beginning of my Senior year of highschool and there lots of cool artsy things going on for me. I was in AP Art Portfolio and was learning how to build a real collection of my own work as well as trying all different art mediums from acrylic paints to soft pastels to dress making to knitting to digital painting (with a trackball!!!).  So hopefully I've improved since then but it feels good to be able to look back and still be proud of all that I accomplished at that time.

Try not to beat yourself up, fellow artists. It's easy to do. The real challenge is appreciating each drawing what it is and what it's taught you. I may not want to stick every drawing on my fridge but you better believe I make sure to thank each one... some just might see the recycling bin sooner than others.

with love - M

Sketch Diary: Tilted concern - up close portrait

Ta-dah!  This was therapeutic to draw. I definitely enjoy drawing portraits the most. The placement of the nose and lips gave me some trouble but uh... they're stuck there now! I was trying to get a more youthful looking face but still serious.

with love - M

Sketch Diary: My Fair Lady warm up

Quick warm up before getting into a more serious sketch. It was super serious. You'll see it tomorrow. Be patient. I know, it's difficult. I believe in you. Don't give up. Stay strong. Bananas.

with love - M

Sketch Diary: Long eared curly haired cutie - no erase

This was a quicky in my tiny 4x6 inch sketchbook. No pencil so no erasing. Just a pen and some mad skillz. IGNORE THE ARM OVERLAP. Shhhh.

Somehow I managed to not do a single inked drawing during actual October for the Inktober challenge. I think that's an achievement in and of itself  >.<  Of course then all of November, all I wanted to do was that challenge. I should just do it. Just all of December. And call it Ink-cember or something stupid like that. I'm always late to the party. Ink-uary...Ink-ruary... yeah no.

with love - M

Sketch Diary: TBT - Horned girl blue colored

I uh... I can't remember if this was pre or post Copics when I colored this beauty. Wow. Welp, here's to 2008 in all it's glory. Jeezey Petes. Why did I use the same blue for the... no, I'm not breaking down a drawing from  years ago. Totes not worth it lol. NEXT PLEASE

with love - M