Skip-It!

I've been trying to think of what kind of piece I want to make for the upcoming Wonderland Art for Animals show next month at Leanna Lin's Wonderland. I sat down on Tuesday determined to at least start on something for the show. But I scribbled and scribbled and got absolutely nowhere. Everything I drew just wasn't doing it for me. So tonight, I thought to myself "What's going to make this piece feel like me?" And out came Skip-It! You know, that toy that could've been mistaken for a weapon if used the wrong way. My nostalgia for the 90s always finds some way to seep its way into my art and I have absolutely no problem with that! So here he is, a sketch of my piece tentatively called "Skip Skipping Skip-It".

Lady in the Water

I've just been drawing a lot, trying to create some new work. It's been very challenging for me to just get past the sketching phase and commit to an actual piece. I think a lot of it for me is the fear of failure and the other part is just feeling completely out of practice. It's been a really long time since I've drawn for "art" if that makes any sense. I usually just sketch out ideas for client work, then most of a project will be done and finished on a computer. It's been a very long time since I've created work with analog media. And although I have a digital drawing tablet and a great set of Photoshop preset brushes, I still prefer to work with the physical materials. For me, they're much easier to control but I know for others it's just much faster, easier, and less messy. 

So I honestly don't know where all this is going yet, but you'll just have to keep following along to see where it goes.

Brush Play

I recently downloaded a great set of Photoshop brushes by Kyle T. Webster and of course it's appropriately called Kyle's ULTIMATE Photoshop Brush Set. I got a chance to play around with it last night and it's by far the most naturally looking brush sets I've ever seen and used! And it's totally worth the $5. You can get it here.

And here's a quick little cat guy I painted up in Photoshop.

Brushing Up

I took some time off from all my holiday show production to do a little bit of sketching. I played around with a Pentel brush pen and tried to become more comfortable using it. I love that it's way more convenient than using a brush & ink and that the brush pen has a refillable cartridge. Here's are a few of my favorites from my sketchbook this week.