Clock creatures revisited: 7

Drawing for a new portfolio website

This is a drawing I did this morning which I'm planning on incorporating in a new portfolio website. More details coming soon!

B is for Baby

Here's the latest addition to the line of greeting cards. Still haven't printed these yet but I will definitely post an update when they're available!

Which color scheme do you prefer?

Thanks to Tammy for the suggestion of "B is for Baby" - can't believe I hadn't thought of that one.

Clock creatures revisited: 9

I'm not so sure about this one. I'll probably redo it with a different monster.

Clock creatures revisited: 10

Clock creatures revisited: 8

Clock creatures revisited: 6

I always meant to use pen to redraw the clock monsters I drew last fall and am just now getting around to it. Some will be pretty straight copies of the ones I already created, but others might be a little different. I'll be posting them in random order this time.

Thumbspeak

I drew this to illustrate the article Thumbspeak (about texting, as I hope you could've guessed from the illustration).

Dog (vector version)

Here's the same dog from the post a couple of days ago, but rendered in a different style.

Trio of Drawings

Here are the final images (minus a name that I'm going to draw on the sign held by the creature in the middle) for the aforementioned drawings I created for a friend. They'll be put in a frame similar to this, with each image at 5 by 7 inches.

Doggie

Birdman with sign

Here's another version of the birdman.

Birdman

This was another idea (sort of inspired by this post), but I made it slightly too small. It's painted by hand except for the background color, which I was playing with before I committed to it.

Monster holding a sign

I think I might redo this one so that it better matches the others in the series. It's a bit too dense. I drew this one first, but I'm not sure how well it matches the previous two.

Creature holding a flower

Monster Redux

Oops, I'm a bit late with these make-up posts. I've been in a drawing slump. I'm doing some monster drawings for a friend, so the next few posts will be the images I'm working on. This one is a revisiting of the first monster from Monster Month. These colors were added digitially, but I'll be painting the finals with once I've settled on the hues.

Drawing from life at TSA - part 2

Here are two more drawings from the session at the TSA. I think these ones were around 15 minutes.

Drawing from life at TSA

Sean and I went back to the TSA for another life drawing session. The model was great, but I was having kind of an off day with drawing. Most of my one-minute gesture sketches turned out ok, though. Here's a selection (I took pictures and then just copied and pasted the figures onto one page, so the grays are really uneven and it looks a little weird).

The Price of the Ticket

I drew this to illustrate the article The Price of the Ticket. It's still not entirely final, but I'll post it now anyway.

Red panda in color

Here's a colored version of the red panda image I posted earlier.

Semolina pudding plus bonus cat

Charlie oversaw the photo session for my semolina pudding. He looks a bit demonic in this picture, but he normally looks more like he does in the photo below!

I've been trying to recreate a vegan version of a farina pudding that my grandmother used to make. I'm using semolina instead. I've learned that semolina is a yellower coarse ground wheat made from durum wheat flour, which contains the highest amount of protein of any wheat flour, whereas farina is whiter and is made from softer wheat. They seem to taste pretty similar to me, though farina might be a little prettier.

I discovered, while making dinner last night, that Charlie loves playing with kale leaves and stems. He entertained himself sporadically for about an hour, chewing the stems, batting and chasing them around, and trotting around the kitchen carrying them in his mouth. (I checked to make sure that kale isn't toxic to cats, and found out that it's toxic to horses - you learn something new everyday.)

Red Panda on a hot day

I drew 90% of this drawing a couple of weeks ago but didn't end up finishing it up until tonight. It's based on a photo taken by a high school friend, Monica Gray. I loved when it popped up on my Facebook feed, and decided to see if I could render it in pencil. I might add some color and will post it when I do.

Crocheted llama-bunny creature

Here's a new little guy I created during my last two knitting groups and finished up tonight.



The poor thing just has a nose and a couple of eyes at this point, and I can't decide on his mouth. I guess his nose could be interpreted as a mouth, though. Click on the photos below to get a better look at the face options and let me know what you think.

Chinese dinner

For dinner the other night, I tried making the mock duck from my mom's book Dim Sum: The Art of Chinese Tea Lunch. The flavor was great and it would have worked fine, but the package of bean curd that I'd bought was mostly broken or tore apart very easily after I wet it. (This might have to do with carrying it home in my backpack from Chinatown East...) I got four or so decently-sized pieces and then just mixed up all of the broken bits and seasoning and steamed those in a pie plate. It all tasted good. Instead of making the shiitake mushroom core, I seasoned and cooked some tofu with ginger and garlic, then wrapped the bean curd sheets around it. Yum!

I also made some farmer's market kale with carrots, tofu, beef-style soy protein from the store at King's Cafe, and black bean sauce, all on top of rice noodles.

Another yoga pose

Here's another drawing I did based on a pose from the yoga magazine (this one was from a Hard Tail clothing ad). Looking at it now, I realize that the shirt might look a bit odd. It had an unusual tie-dyed pattern plus some folds.

I've begun to really pay attention to the hardness of the pencils I'm using and to use multiple pencils in my latest drawings. I used to just pick a hardness and then complete a whole drawing with that one pencil, but I'm finding that my results can be much more accurate when I have more control over the shading. It's also helpful to lay down my initial sketching lines very lightly and then work over them with softer leads. It seems very obvious, but I guess it's something I never thought much about. I used to just have to settle for being happy with my dark initial sketchy lines, or I would erase them.

Crocheted catnip mousey

Charlie is a big fan of this catnip toy I made at at knitting group session last month. It was fairly quick to make (the body and tail are all one piece, and the ears were made and sewn on separately. I made the tail extra long so that the toy can be easily tossed, spun around, and grabbed from the cat during play without risking life and limb. The design seems to work well.


Here's the toy in action. Four weeks after making it, it is holding up well and is very fuzzy all over now.

Yoga and Toki

I thought it would be a good exercise to draw some images from a Yoga Journal magazine that my mom left me when she came to visit in May. This one had particularly nice fabric folds to study. I drew it at my drawing buddy Camilla's house, and also decided to try drawing her budgie, Toki. The juxtaposition of them is kind of interesting, but was just happenstance.

TSA Open life drawing session

Sean and I went to the Toronto School of Art's life drawing session today, and did some drawing from a model for the first time in months. Here are a couple of fifteen-minute sketches from the session. As you can see, I ran out of time, but I'm happy with how the more filled-in sections turned out. I'm going to try to go to at least one life drawing session per week.

Portrait of an imaginary woman

Sketches from the Gardiner

I really like drawing the Italian pantomime figurines at the Gardiner Museum. They have very dramatic poses and interesting costumes (plus, they hold perfectly still!)