The Red Pencil Box: drawing

Showing posts with label drawing. Show all posts

Any and every time I draw or paint an octopus specifically, Subterranean Homesick Alien by Radiohead pops into (and gets stuck in) my head. I don't know why or when the association came about, but I do remember having the same issue when I painted this years ago. I could go on and on about my particular fascination with octopuses, but will stick to a simple appreciation of how challenging and fun they are to draw. From the uniquely shaped head, to the creepy eyes and mind-of-their-own tentacles, there is quite nothing else like them (both physically and otherwise, as this book will absolutely convince you). I found the original image for this drawing on Google, and just went with freehanding in pencil, followed by more permanent details using my favorite Micron pens.

submarine homesick alien

Monday, October 21, 2019

After a long (too long) break from colored pencils, I bought a fresh set of Prismacolor colored pencils about a year ago. The next task was to find the perfect picture to sketch, which was really difficult. I wanted to find something detailed that would be a fun challenge to sketch with vibrant colors. I immediately saved this photo I found on Instagram with sketching it out in mind.

a place to sit among a plethora of plants

Saturday, October 20, 2018

I created this zebra piece (more than) a few years ago, but it remains one of my favorite pieces I've done. It wasn't meant to be a huge time-consuming project and took just a few hours to complete, which goes to show that sometimes the most fun works are the simplest ones.

With this piece, I started out by lightly sketching an outline of the zebra with a pencil. Using a fine tip black sharpie, I then began lightly outlining the shape of the zebra using a stippling technique. The background proved to be an excellent color when it came to making the white colored pencil stripes stand out against the red. As always, I used Prismacolor for this. I was having such a fun time with the stripes that I wanted to have them sort of float off the zebra, which I think ended up creating an interesting effect since it drew even more attention to the pattern of stripes.

zebra

Thursday, August 17, 2017

This past week I had the fun opportunity to work on a custom piece- transforming the newlywed couple Maria & Ahmed into cartoon superheros for their thank you cards. A daunting task at first, googling how to draw cartoon superheros made it much less intimidating. I was so pleased with how it turned out, I wish I had thought of a similarly cute idea for my wedding thank you cards!

I used Windsor & Newton watercolors, Sakura Pigma Micron pens to outline, and just the black Prismacolor watercolor pencil for the hair (because my watercolor set doesn't come with the color black, which makes little sense to me). The duo featured capes, gloves (the usual superhero attire), and each person's signature features- Ahmed's glasses, and Maria's glasses + curly hair. I tried to go for a lighter pastel look for the colors, but with the end product being a scanned .JPG file, I didn't want the colors to wash out in the scan.

The non-cartooned couple!

superheros maria & ahmed: cartoon edition

Thursday, June 16, 2016

I did this drawing entirely using a #2 mechanical pencil. It was all I had with me when I began working on this because I was too impatient to buy better pencils and couldn't wait to get started.

I found this picture somewhere online when I was going through a Pete Doherty/English music/art/literature phase. The shadows and details in the portrait inspired me to replicate the photo. I had my reservations about how this would turn out- drawing people, especially faces, is not my strong suit at all. But using a grid system to draw 1" x 1" squares at a time helped. It also helps that you can't really see the subject's face (ha).

The quote at the bottom is taken from Death of Salesman. Although the work isn't English literature, I thought it fit well with the piece.

It reads: "Funny, you know? After all the highways, and the trains, and the appointments, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive." "Willy, nobody's worth nothing dead".

pete doherty

Monday, November 2, 2015

With the alarming news that monarch butterfly populations are rapidly decreasing, I figured I could pay homage to these pretty creatures with a post featuring them.

I used a combination of regular Prismacolor colored pencils and Prismacolor watercolor pencils. The watercolor pencils are like using watercolors (as the name would aptly suggest), but with the precision and control of a pencil. Simply sketch with the pencils using varying pressures (a light hand for a hint of color, and more pressure for more vibrant colors), dip a brush in water, and bleed out the colors.

I used a Chuck Close-inspired pattern with regular colored pencils that blended into areas where I used the watercolor pencils. The only downside to using the watercolor pencils is you have to be extra careful to never get water or raindrops on the piece.

The monarch butterfly

Thursday, August 6, 2015

This piece was a still life I did using Prismacolor colored pencils. I also used multiple layers of different colors of paper to add contrast and more depth to the piece, using contrasting colored pencils as well. Because of the nature of the intentionally-imprecise work, it was a million times easier than doing a realistic piece. My favorite part in the drawing is actually not in the focus of the piece. I love the detail in the wood pattern of the table and pattern of the tablecloth.