Nightmares...

Moly_x_70 entry - first real use of cross hatching. Not quite sure how I feel about it. Not as repulsed by it as I thought I would be.
http://moleskinex70.blogspot.com/

Carolina's moly - moly_x_70

Today I finished my Alice In Wonderland themed entry in Carolina's moly. I am pretty happy with how it came out.

http://moleskinex70.blogspot.com/

Sunday afternoon doodles

california dogface, originally uploaded by gwsmomma.

It is a rare Sunday afternoon when I don't have one of my two boys needing me to do something ever few minutes. Today I took advantage of the quiet time (quiet is a relative term in this case as my husband was in the same room playing the most annoying video game). It's not the best, but at least its drawing!

Flowers

Here are two of the flowers that I have drawn over the last few days - due to issues with my computer not wanting to upload

images...this is all I got.

New book love...

This weekend, I spent most of my time at Borders and Barnes and Noble bookstores - just browsing the art books. I have been looking for books that would have quite a bit of reference material - like butterflies, plants/trees, landscapes, etc. I found this book with a group of Dover clip art books. So far I am loving it. Even though I have only had it for a few days - I have already been using it to get some practice drawing flowers. I will post some of the photos a little later. I also got a book with pictures of butterflies. I want to use this one as a reference for the wings when drawing fairies.

Jen's Moly - entry 1

Jen's Moly - entry 1, originally uploaded by gwsmomma.

Here is the preliminary drawing for my entry in Jen's Moly. I tried to follow Jen's style in a number of places so that the entry would flow with the one before it.

I just hope she likes it...

Here is Jen's entry:

entry 1 - with color

entry 1 - with color, originally uploaded by gwsmomma.

This is my first entry for my moleskine exchange. There are parts of this entry that I like and parts of it that I don't. I think it is okay for my first entry.

Well, that was fun...

As if the first time, back in December 2007, wasn't enough...Wednesday evening I was in another car accident. This time however, it was my fault. Not to make excuses, but ever since my last accident - I have been extremely anxious every time that I drive. When my previous car was totalled I purchased a Ford Expedition and while I love the car, I have been really anxious and have not gotten used to its size. I have expressed to my husband and friends a number of times my anxiety - particularly when it comes to changing lanes.

Wednesday evening I took my oldest son and my niece and dropped them off at the church they attend with my Mother. On my way home, I had just come through an intersection and saw a bus stopped in the lane in front of me. I know what you're thinking - I didn't hit the bus. Cars started to back up behind the bus. I decided that I was going to go around them. I checked the other lane and there was plenty of room between me and the car that was coming up from behind in that lane. I gave my car a little gas and began to move over - aparently there was not enough room between me and the car in front of me when I pressed on the gas. I slammed right into the back of the car in front of me.

Everyone was okay. The other car was driveable, the damage was to the trunk of that car. My car however, was not driveable. When I hit the other car it pushed my bumper in and bent the sides of it down. The steel part of the bumper is bent in and rubbing on my passenger side tire and does not allow me to straighten my tires or turn them to the right. So, it went up on the tow truck and back to the body shop.

While I was waiting for the tow truck and everything else associated with an accident, I texted my husband (who was at work) to let him know what happened. He tried to call me while I was on the phone with my Mother talking about our car insurance. When he couldn't reach me - he left work and hightailed it to me. Right as my Father and I were pulling out of the parking lot so that we could show the tow truck driver where the body shop was - my husband comes pulling into the parking lot. He ended up following us to the body shop. He was so cute. As soon as he could get to me he wrapped his arms around me, buried his head in the crook of my neck and squeezed. He was even shaking a little. I had tried to text him to let him know that I was okay. It really was cute that all he wanted was to get to me. Just made me love him more!

Now we begin the wait - when will I get my vehicle back. As of right now I will have to drive my Mother's mini-van. Call me a snob, but I hate driving her mini-van. Or my husband's truck. Not crazy about driving that one either - I have trouble parking it in the parking garage at work. Hopefully my car will be back quickly.

sign in - final

sign in - final, originally uploaded by gwsmomma.

Originally this started out very different. My first idea for my moly sign in page was not what I wanted. This just sort of flowed out. I like it a lot better and now just need to transfer it to my moly and add some color...no pressure right!?

Moly_x_70

Recently, I joined a moleskine exchange. Funny thing is that the flickr group is call "international moleskine exchange", but the other women in my exchange group are all from the US and Canada. Not very international. I still think that it is going to be fun. I am interested to see what each person will add to the previous person's entry.

When I first got my Japanese accordian album I was very intimidated by all of the pages - 60 to be exact. I sat the moleskine on my desk and that is where it has stayed for the past week. Staring at me, calling to me - "open me, draw on my pages" - I have glanced at it numerous times and still have yet to put my pencil on the first page.

I have been thinking and looking through various inspiration sites to try to decide what I want to draw for my first entry. I have been mocking up sketches in my sketchbook and came up with an idea for my sign-in page that is a little too cutesy...so, it will probably not go in the moleskine.

I did however put ink to the cover. I used a Prismacolor Metallic Silver paint pen to put a simple little scroll design on the cover. Guess you could say that I have taken the first step...

Kat

I don't know if any of you other ladies out there have what I will call a "girl crush"...you know - there is a woman out there that you think is so amazing and beautiful that you sort of have a little "girl crush" on her. Well, whether you do or whether you think I am totally nutso - Kat Von D from LA Ink is one of my girl crushes. She is beautiful and extremely talented. This piece came from a photo that I had of Kat from a magazine. I want to add some color to it - I am petrified that I will mess it up though, so I went ahead and scanned it in first. I was also way too intimidated to give her tatoos. I won't say I didn't try - but it looked ridiculous.

Four hours and a Geisha later....

Beauty, originally uploaded by gwsmomma.

Just a little something I worked on tonight. I wanted to scan it in before I added any color - just in case something goes wrong. I am going to attempt to use colored pencils - I guess we will see what happens.

Wish me luck!

**UPDATED 3/30/09

Maybe it is my lack of experience or maybe it is the cheap paper in the cheap generic sketchbook in which I drew my Geisha, but I am not liking the color that I have added.

Charlie girl...

So, I drew this girl lastnight and took her and my watercolor pencils to work with me today - and this is how she came home. I like her. I could use some practice with the watercolor pencils and with finding the proper amount of shading, but I think it looks good.

I have been trying to come up with my own characters and style. For a few months now, I have been pouring over "How to draw" books. There have been "How to Cartoon", "Manga Drawing", "Caricature Drawing" and "How to Draw Hip Hop". I have studied them front to back and back to front and combined information from all of them to come up with her. I found a unique way to draw the eyes that I am going to practice - so that I can get it just right. The lips really happened by accident. Being new to drawing/sketching I am still pretty heavy handed when it comes to sketching out the beginning of a figure. The little heart at the side of her mouth was a mark I made when I was trying to pick the pencil up off the paper. I really really like it though and I think that it may be a signature or something that is consistent with all of the girls I may draw.

I want to be sure though that I give props to some of the people who have inspired me and who's work I look to as an example. Please visit their blogs - they are amazing artists.

http://www.adventuresofanra.com/

http://britsketch.blogspot.com/

http://idassketchbook.blogspot.com/

http://janopdebeeck.blogspot.com/

http://lunchboxunlimited.blogspot.com/

http://www.annejulie-art.com/blog/

http://mikegiblin.blogspot.com/

http://pinkytoast.typepad.com/pinkytoast/

http://prettygoodforagirl.blogspot.com/

http://scarlettcat.blogspot.com/

http://shannonbonatakis.blogspot.com/

Eliza

Just a little something that I sketched while sitting at my desk.

Need to work on the eyes, but the rest of the face is good.

It's been a while...

Sometimes life gets in the way of the things that we like to do. I started with my self portrait and then really had the drawing bug. I have been trying to figure out what 'style' I wanted to learn. Do I want to draw things that look realistic - somewhere I have a drawing of a sandwich that makes me hungry. Do I want to draw cartoons? Do I want to emulate the person that first inspired me Suzanne Cabrera http://www.suzannebuchanan.blogspot.com/ or do I want to draw caricatures? I still haven't decided, but I have atleast been drawing. Here are some of the things that I tote around in my sketchbook...

I drew this when I took my son to see Despereaux in the theater...it was pretty dark, but I think it is okay...I could be wrong.

Strangely enough - I really like drawing feet...is that strange?

Caricature practice - I now find myself looking at everything and everyone trying to figure out the shape their head, eyes, mouth and nose would take in a caricature.

Of all the things that I have drawn so far...I HATE EYES!!!

Compared to some of the extreme talent that I have seen on the blogs I follow (some listed on this blog) - this is amateur, but I really like it.

I think that this one is crap...enough said