Tag Archives: horse

Lulu with Paper Lanterns, Copic Markers

 

Lulu, 6″ x 6″ Copic Markers

Once again I was not able to stay away from the edges. Sometimes I sketch out a frame about an inch or half inch from the sides but then I ignore it! Will have to work on that. Lulu is the latest in my horse drawing adventure Season of the Horse.

I think I will do more paper lanterns because they are really cool. I’ll probably have to figure out how to make them glow, so let me know if you have any tips!

Meanwhile, I have been sick for three days and it is super sucky! I am drinking tea and hope to recover soon. Totally sucky to be sick on the weekend. Alas!

Hello to Paint Party Friday! Thanks to everyone for dropping in!

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Donkey Fae, Season of the Horse

 

Donkey Fae, 5″ x 7″, Copic Markers

I started with this image for some color inspiration, but didn’t really stick to it.

I might try a feather mane with larger feathers for clearer detail at some point. Overall I can’t really decide what I think. That happens a lot a lot when I’ve spent a few hours and can’t really step back to assess the stopping point.

Linking late to Paint Party Friday! Thanks for dropping in.

Otherworldly Equines with Serious Ears

The Solstice Foal, 5″ x 7″
Copic markers, Staedtler and Prismacolor fine liners, gel pen

The Season of the Horse continues in fine form. Though, a very few attempts at  a whole horse body have been feeble at best. One of these days!

Guardian of the Glade, 5″ x 7″
Copics, fine liners, gel pen

Reference donkey. (I usually use a photo as a very general guide. The final product is not meant to look like the photo. I think most people know that!) I had trouble with the fuzzy ears, probably needs more shadow. Will need to do more of those.

Both of these have bits of wonky perspective, but overall they are rather happy magical equines. Happy Paint Party Friday to folks visiting from there! Loads of progress pics. Thanks for stopping by!

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Post 300, Themes and Schemes in Pen & Ink

The Smoking Fish, model #1
5″ x 7″ Copic markers, digital background

Themes I’ve been working on recently:

Here’s another witch, somewhat mummified.

The Ritual of Josephin, in progress
2.5″ x 3.5″ ink, markers, prismacolor pencil

Thanks for dropping in! Woooo, 300 posts!

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Silver Unicorn and a Pouty Witch, Copics

Moira, a Kladruber Unicorn
5″ x 7″ Copic Markers

In today’s installment of the Season of the Horse (a new project to improve my horse drawing skills), we have a unicorn based on a very old Czech breed, the Kladruber, found on Pinterest! The convex facial profile (rounded out instead of sloping inward), is an identifying characteristic of this breed. Here is an insanely adorable foal.

Hoping to get back in the swing of Paint Party Friday! Meanwhile, I’m still in early-Halloween mode with witch ATCs. This is Marciana, captured with a crabby scowl because her prized Fancy Chiggerwort spoiled. Bummer.

Marciana, in progress
2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

Thanks for dropping in! Still super busy at my day job. And I have to decide very soon about September’s 30 Paintings in 30 Days! Are you going to do it?

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Season of the Horse

Lilac in Progress
5″ x 7″ pen and ink, Copics

I finally decided that if I want to be good at drawing horses, I need to draw lots of horses. So please, if you have tips about horses, do not be shy about sharing them. Unfortunately I don’t have any or live near any, but I look at TONS of photos.

Past Horses, ATCs and an 8″ x 10″
Pen and ink, Copics (click to enlarge)

These are some horses from the last couple years. The unicorn on the bottom left, Thistle, is from just a few days ago.

In any case, expect lots of horses around here! Including donkeys, unicorns and ponies, steampunked and fancy-dressed. Maybe some carousel types. At the end I hope to have a Horses poster. In the meantime, there’s always the cats or the dogs!

Another reason horses (and unicorns) are a good choice right now is that I may have a table at a small fantasy con near Chicago, in November. And I need to make stuff to fill up my table. I think unicorns might go over well if I can manage to scrape off some of that cloying cliched reputation they have accumulated. Through no fault of their own, I might add.

The Season of the Horse is the fourth in a Slumbering Herd tradition of Projects, including 200 Maidens (started as 100!), the Art Card Dogs Project , 100 Cityscapes (currently at 26), and 100 Tiny Houses (just hit 50). Hooray!

Tons of progress pics below. Nice to see ya!

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Three Beastly ATCs – Llama, Horse, Sheep

Fuzzy Green Llama ATC, Copic Markers

 

This evening I was inspired to complete some Artist Trading Cards because I have joined a new community called  IllustratedATCs and it is all about trading art by mail. They do lots of stuff besides the ATCs, like moleskin journal swaps and inchies and twinchies and holy cow, tons of stuff. They have provided a helpful list of definitions (thank goodness).

I think I saw their link initially through someone at Illustration Friday, but I don’t remember! You have to apply and whoa, there are some seriously cool (and many professional) artists there. I got accepted (it takes 3-4 days), but then I was instantly intimidated. Super nice folks so far, though.  They have another site called ATCs for All where there is no application and everyone is welcome to join.

Horse with Blue Swirl Sky ATC, Copic Markers

I am pretty happy with all three, though the horse in particular is sort of caught between cartoonish and realistic as if I could not choose which way to go. I really like the blue sky on that one, achieved with the help of a Masquepen.

Pink Orange Sheep ATC, Copic Markers

 

Both the llama and sheep were done on top of light-colored swirly backgrounds also done using a Masquepen. I worked on all of them over the course of a few hours, doing some reading and IF visiting in between.

Thanks so much to everyone who visits! All comments welcome, of course. (Except spam.)

Llama reference

Horse reference

Sheep reference

 

An IF Misfire, and Lessons Learned

Jumping Colt in Copic Markers with Digital Sky

For a day and a half I was stumped over Jump, the Illustration Friday topic for this week. Things I considered: kangaroo, jerboa, jackrabbit, dog with frisbee, cavorting goat/colt/donkey/alpaca, leaping cat or bighorn sheep, lemmings jumping onto a bouncy castle. Jump starting an airship. Though I am posting this pony, I do not consider it a successful execution of the IF topic.

So why post it? Did I learn some things that might be useful to someone else? I hope so! And I will also say I don’t think it’s all bad, sort of a pony and pattern study. I like the flowers. I am going to post just a few progress pics and talk a bit about where I think I went wrong.

New Forest Pony

This is the extremely adorable photo I finally settled on. It comes from Northern New Forest Ponies of Western Yorkshire. I didn’t have much of a plan beyond drawing him. I thought I would figure out what he was jumping over later. This was a mistake!

 

Jumping Colt Ink 1

So here he is, cute enough, but not very interesting for an illustration. I was already inking before I decided what would go in the background (or the foreground, for that matter). And the horizon line was a mistake to include without knowing what else would be added.

I think the lesson of this enterprise is that one cannot expect wonderful things all the time if one does not plan ahead, and for me that means the sketching stage. Sure, sometimes things go GREAT with very little planning, but I suggest this is the exception rather than the rule.

Jumping Colt Masquepen

Flowers were added, but they look a bit like an afterthought because well, they were a bit of an afterthought.

Jumping Colt Color 1

Should have left him blue. Arrgh!

Jumping Colt Copic Markers

Jumping Colt Copic Markers, Digital Sky

I went with a digital sky this time because I didn’t want to spend any more time on it. I may yet add a Copic sky if I put the original in my Etsy shop, otherwise I will move on to the next thing.

And speaking of the next thing, and because I thought I should add a successful enterprise along with this unsuccessful IF entry, here is a green puppy ACEO (2.5″ x 3.5″ art card), that I also did this week. I must admit I think he is terribly cute. And I think that is a good way to end this post!

Green Puppy ACEO, Copic Markers and Multiliner

Thank you for stopping by! And thanks to everyone for their super nice comments lately, I really appreciate every one!

Two Horses, One Hound, Copic Markers

Horse 'n Hound Table Tennis Association

I stuck to a color family! I am very pleased with that aspect because I often try and rarely make it to the end. I mean even here, wouldn’t a pair of blue eyes or a purple background be neat? That’s the trouble with having collected half a metric ton of Copic Markers (ok hold on, I’ll check) (ok, about 115, various sizes, collected over 10 months or so).

I am once again feeling the necessity to branch out into more than headshots. However, Illustration Friday has been providing for that nicely. Oh! So my last post is heading toward 70 comments (about 8 are mine). Can I just say thank you so much to every single one and also holy cow! If I didn’t reciprocate, it is only because you did not leave your web address!

On a related note, because I was curious, I decided to count how many comments I had left so far this week for Illustration Friday. One hundred fifty-one.  Haha, is that insane or what? I doubt I will be able to keep it up, but I have been finding so MANY great art blogs. And I don’t have kids. For all you folks with a regular job AND kid(s) AND doing Illustration Friday, my hat is off to you. Seriously!

What I do is visit the IF site every day, several times a day. I know that other people don’t have the time to do this. On the other hand, I feel like I am building this wonderful, mutually supportive community. I have been able to identify a whole bunch of folks who visit regularly,and who I visit in turn. (If you are looking for folks who are more likely than the average to comment back when you’ve commented at their site, I suggest visiting the commenters from my “Capable-IF” entry just before this one – just click on their name. You will find so many great things!)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, here is how the Horses ‘n Hound thing happened:

Horse n Hound Ink

Horse n Hound Color 1

Horse n Hound Color 2

Horse n Hound Color 3

I’m thinking of starting to put together a book with some of my goofy beasts, each with a silly/weird/non sequitur type caption. (In case you wondered about the table tennis thing.) Thank you so much for coming by. You’re the greatest!

Oh! I almost forgot! I just wrote a how-to for Illustration Friday thumbnails (in my sidebar, here). If you’re someone whose thumbnail never works, give it a try.

Copic Carriage for IF “Round”, with Progress Pics

Carriage in the Round with Copic Markers

 

It’s Illustration Friday again! 100 people have already posted since this morning. I’m not sure why there’s a mad rush at the beginning of the day, but I imagine some people think the same of me, as I have been posting Friday night or Saturday. I do have a full-time job but no kids, so that’s one thing. Well, I suppose in my defense I am very enthusiastic about the whole thing. I like to do something new and post it when I’m done and then go visit lots of others.

I also believe everyone should visit at least a few! But I am not in charge. And I do appreciate the people in charge because IF is pretty cool.

So this carriage illustration is not my favorite thing I have done. In the first place, can you see the worried expression on the poor driver?  He’s waiting for his brother to return with a harness that fits. I mean really, if the poor courser took a step his back ankles would smack the wheels. He’s not even standing in front of the carriage, but off to the side. Also, I need to look into ways to make ground shadows that are not as terrible as these! And now, (dramatic interlude)… progress pics!

Round Carriage Ink

I’ll be honest. I almost started over right here. Lots of “round” but not much life! The horse beast’s body is actually quite round but it looked goofy so I covered it with a decorative coat! (With the added benefit of no chafing! Also the coat ended up being one of my favorite parts.) But even when I don’t love a sketch, I want to see if I can make something out of it.

Round Carriage Color 1

Round Carriage Color 2

Carriage in the Round with Copic Markers 8 x10

Now that I look at it, I think the back wheel should be the one further set from the carriage. Ah, I should have looked up carriage fabrication. Alas! I fear the background is rather uninteresting, but I was afraid trees or buildings would make it too busy.  Must work on these things!

Thanks for stopping in!