Category: sketches

clothes

Posted on by abigailcossetteryan in artist, brush pen, character art, colorwheel, DND, geek, ink, pathfinder, RPG, sketches, style, watercolors

I really love clothes.

They are SO HARD TO DRAW.

The eyes of an owl? Easy. The drape of…well…anything? Not so much.

Pinterest is my friend and tutor. I scroll through pictures and collect images and cobble together outfts off a selection of reference photos. Most of them aren’t really practical, but I like to imagine the one above is actually quite feasible and also flattering. Imagine linen, a thick elastic fabric, and leather.

I’m finding that often less is more, when putting paint on paper. Which is sort of disappointing sometimes because the very act of putting paint on paper is fun.

This is Zare, the heroine of the stories I write over on ZareCaspian.com. I paint her often. Sometimes it comes out great. Other times it REALLY doesn’t. But it’s all educational.

I used to fashion blog a little, part of me misses it. But not really enough to get back into it. Taking pictures is time consuming. And not looking like a doofus–regardless of what you’re wearing–is also an art form. I am out of practice 😛 But I still like clothes. I like to play around with make up some days–I refer to it as war paint. Because that’s what it is, in many ways.

Let me know what you think in the comments, and if you like, subscribe so you won’t miss any art, incredibly profound musings, or other treasures from the Raven’s Landing!

Connect in every other digital way:

adventure arabian horse art art for sale birds books character art commission competition dancer DC universe dog portrait dogs Equine Artist flowers food for sale garden gardening geekiness green thumb hand lettering homey things horse horse training IliadHouse ink jumping liberty training love Midas movies paint pet portraits Photography Plants practice Real Estate recipes Smaug style support an indie artist watercolor wildlife writing

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner and Mailchimp to receive marketing, updates, and other emails from the site owner. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time. I promise there won’t be many, but you’ll get info about events and paintings for sale and things like that which aren’t really…bloggy.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.

Adventurers

Posted on by abigailcossetteryan in acrylics, artist, brush pen, character art, colorwheel, Commissions, DND, Etsy, geek, Gifts, ink, inktense, pathfinder, RPG, sketches, watercolors

If you don’t know what you’re looking at, this is probably a weird picture. I was commissioned to paint an adventuring party portrait for a friend–it is VERY difficult to fit 7 people in a single portrait! There is a fighter/barbarian, a wizard, a sorcerer, a druid, a ranger, a paladin and a bard. So, basically everything 😉 if you’re familiar with tabletop roleplaying games.

I made this with inktense, brushpens, watercolors, and masking fluid. Oh, paint pen and metallic pens by kuretake, also. Layer upon layer upon layer. It easily took me 8 hours.

I don’t know why wordpress isn’t letting me rotate these pictures, so, sorry you’ll have to crane your head. But you can get a feel for the layers of detail easily enough.

Also raspberry pie.

This was done in August, but it was a Christmas gift so I couldn’t say anything about it till now 😛

Let me know what you think in the comments, and if you like, subscribe so you won’t miss any art, incredibly profound musings, or other treasures from the Raven’s Landing!

Connect in every other digital way:

adventure arabian horse art art for sale birds books character art commission competition dancer DC universe dog portrait dogs Equine Artist flowers food for sale garden gardening geekiness green thumb hand lettering homey things horse horse training IliadHouse ink jumping liberty training love Midas movies paint pet portraits Photography Plants practice Real Estate recipes Smaug style support an indie artist watercolor wildlife writing

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner and Mailchimp to receive marketing, updates, and other emails from the site owner. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time. I promise there won’t be many, but you’ll get info about events and paintings for sale and things like that which aren’t really…bloggy.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.

Finley – dog portrait

Posted on by abigailcossetteryan in acrylics, Animals, artist, brush pen, Commissions, dogs, Etsy, ink, Pet Portrait, sketches

I so enjoyed putting together this portrait. Finley is such an expressive doggo. He had a whole instagram for me to work off! He’s quirky and *bursting* with personality. He’s got a great smile, too.

He sometimes cosplays as Sirius Black, so I put the constellation of Canis Major, and the bright star Sirius, behind him. Orion is there, too, because the hunter loves his dog, and I worked in the hare so he’d have something to chase.

I might possibly have really enjoyed astronomy as a kid. Mostly the names of the stars and the myths they were named after. I can’t find hardly anything in the night sky. I’m sure it helps that I’ve never lived someplace with a really properly dark sky.

We went to a dark sky park one time, but there was too much cloud cover and moonlight to see stars.

Someday.

Marvelous Moondancer

Posted on by abigailcossetteryan in artist, Ballet, brush pen, Commissions, dancer, Etsy, fairy, ink, inktense, Redbubble, sketches

My brother is a professional mime and dancer (UK folks, you should look him up!) but I don’t recall ever drawing dancers much. I drew one during Inktober last year and he actually came out really well. I was also helping out a local ballet company at the time, and ended up painting a whole bunch of random things for them (a toy box, and the firebird dancer, for starters.)

Pinterest, that great source of inspiration, saw me hunting for images all those times and has helpfully been handing me gorgeous photographs of dancers for months now. I guess it’s no surprise that I started thinking of ways to create more mythic performers.

It took me two tries to get the moondancer the way I wanted…and then I realized neither had wings and I had sort of wanted her to have wings. Whoops.

Full Moon

Oh well.

I guess I’ll just have to paint another.

These are both done with Inktense backgrounds, and the dancers themselves are brushpen. I’m really enjoying the blending of Inktense as a background. I also love watercolor backgrounds, so it’s not like I’ll switch entirely—but sometimes you just want the hazey look. I used hematite watercolor in the skirt of the New Moon (the dark dressed dancer), because the granulation and flow was JUST want I wanted.

Neither of them are for sale anywhere. But could be, so just say the word 😉

New Moon

Which one do you like better? I like the pale dancer better than the dark dancer. It was more what I was going for originally, but they both have appeal.

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner and Mailchimp to receive marketing, updates, and other emails from the site owner. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.

Chicka de de de

Posted on by abigailcossetteryan in Animals, artist, bird watching, birds, brush pen, colorwheel, Conservation, Etsy, garden, Gifts, home decor, ink, inktense, Pet Portrait, sketches, songbirds, watercolors, wildlife

Remember that love affair with birds? Still going strong. One of my favorite visitors to the bird feeder (though, lets be honest: almost everything is my favorite so long as it isn’t the squirrel) is the chickadee. I remember watching them at bird feeders in touristy locations—they were the only birds brazen enough to brave the proximity of the crowds. Sparrows are pretty brazen, too, but they spend their time under picnic tables rather than feeders.

My feeder is dominated by house finches and cardinals, but I do have goldfinches, titmice, and chickadees…and in the wintertime I see juncos regularly.

This spring blue jays and starlings started hanging around more, and I’ve noticed more robins in the front yard.

A sketch, and Inktense scribbles in blue and purple.

It had been a while since I’d noticed a chickadee, and one came and sat on a branch quite close to the deck doors—I was surprised that I had forgotten just how tiny chickadees are. I mean, I could probably fit 2 of them on the palm of my hand if they were so inclined.

Such a loud voice and big personality in such an incredibly tiny body—specially compared to the other song birds I’d gotten used to seeing.

Blending with a wet paper towel.

I painted this charmer for my mother as a mother’s day gift. I’m so very pleased with out it came out. #firsttry

Brushing in the branch.

I’d been experimenting for a while with inktense blended backgrounds, and had a really solid idea in my head of how to use the brush pens. I guess it shows. Inktense is such a versatile and sometimes befuddling medium. You’ll be seeing more of it in the coming weeks.

Brush pen, already a little blended. Drying before adding the black.

Have I mentioned that I love the brush pens? Love them. I love putting the color where I want it deepest and then coaxing it out further.

All blacked! And some sharpie paint pen highlights for the branches and white patches.

I still adore my Daniel Smith watercolors—I’ve developed an affinity for their particular granulation and vividness. I’ve been using them so much I’d forgotten just how special they were. My past weeks challenging myself with artist’s loft supplies have been…eye opening…and challenging. So, successful? You’ll be seeing some of that practice, soon.

Prints of the chickadee are in my Etsy shop, if anyone is interested. Just have 5×7 up there now, but 8×10 could be arranged!

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with me and Mailchimp to receive marketing, updates, and other emails from the site owner. I promise I won’t spam. There are just offers and news that won’t be on the blog. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.