*Update!!* I'm gonna be in the Fruits Go Go art show, along with Gabe Swarr, Sandra Equihua, and lots of other cool artists! It's at the Monkeyhouse Gallery in Silverlake. Click here for details!
This is an older drawing that I posted on here a while back, only it's huge now. I inked and colored it on this funny crinkly old paper that did really cool things to the marker ink. Also the design on her skirt is sewn on with embroidery thread. I wanted to do more with string but ran out of time!
Here's how big it is, although now that it's in a huge frame it looks even bigger! I'm not sure I'll be at the gallery opening on Saturday, but I might be. I hope some of you LA based bloggers will stop by and take a look at all the cool art!
OK! Enough about that. My friend Ricky (my friend who does 1930 Nitemare Theatre on Dumm Comics) loaned me an awesome movie! It's called Freeway, and aside from just liking the movie, I also got really inspired to draw the main character.
The movie stars Reese Witherspoon...it's one of her earliest roles I think, as she looks super young. These drawings are not very good caricatures of Reese...instead I just kind of wanted to have fun trying to draw a simplified version of her character in the movie.
These first ones are pretty feeble. You can tell which drawings I liked though because I colored them!
Reese is really great in this movie. She plays a screwed up teenage girl in a modern "Little Red Riding Hood" story. She's angsty but goofy, and really likable. She makes great expressions too! Kiefer Sutherland plays the big bad wolf.
You know, Reese always gets crap for her prominent chin, but her chin wasn't the most interesting feature on her face for me. She's got this great big round cranium, flared, downward pointing nostrils, and a really cool mouth that I can't actually draw. Really very cute. I cheated on drawing her lips in these drawings. When I tried to draw them like real lips, they didn't look like hers. Now I have a new way of drawing mouths! Hooray! I couldn't figure out her eyes, though. They're kind of different in every drawing.
Her expressions are great! She makes a hundred expressions per monologue. If you want practice drawing real girl expressions, go rent this movie! And get "But I'm a Cheerleader" too!
I drew all these while watching the movie, but the bloody one was just made up.
Ok, that's it for now! Now it's time for more important business!! After years of begging my boyfriend, he finally caved and let me adopt a kitten! I won't talk too much about him now (there's already enough to read here), but you can expect a huge kitten post soon!
This is what Little Ricky has to say to you!
Remember to try and always adopt pets from shelters if you can! Lots of animals need loving homes! And be nice to your animals, or I'll kick your ass!
Thanks for the feedback everyone! This post is gonna have lots of crap in it.
To get started, an uninspired and weird picture!
Try and interpret it! Oh I'm so deep (lie).
Also in the comments of my last post a few people asked for inking tips. I'm gonna talk a little bit about how I ink, but remember that there isn't just one way to do it- if you are looking for lines that are more like old fashioned cartoons, then this could be helpful. Lots of people ink their drawings in other ways and that's perfectly fine too!
So first I chose a drawing to ink!! I chose this one because it's simple and would be easy to ink quickly since it's just an example. Note: I know this drawing isn't great- her elbow is in a really weird place...but ignore that for now!
So before I got started, I went over the basic rules to remember for inking:
1. No parallel lines! 2. The larger the shape, the thicker the line 3. The smaller the shape, the thinner the line 4. The closer a shape is to you, the thicker the line (example: a foreshortened hand coming towards you) 5.Follow the drawing you are inking- don't change interesting shapes 6. Follow the lines through 7. Avoid tangents 8. Use thick to thick lines (lines taper at the ends) 9. Don't round out corners and angles in the art (this is easy to overlook) 10. If you are inking traditionally, flip between the ink drawing and the original art to make sure you aren't toning down your drawing.
Also- and this is important!!!!! Inking isn't going to fix your drawing! If you aren't confident in the drawing you want to ink, then fix it before you try to polish it up. Inking is superficial- anyone can learn to do it with practice. The drawing underneath is what counts!
Here I inked the drawing poorly at first, then did it over again trying to follow the inking rules that guru Fred Osmond taught me so long ago. Also I inked it in Flash, but the rules still apply (getting smooth lines in Flash is kind of a bitch, let me warn ya).
I hope this makes sense! Inking is hard to explain with words.
Here's the colored drawing, just for fun! I like her color scheme!
On my last post Ben suggested drawing different types of girls, like American girls, French girls, etc...I like that idea! I'm gonna look into it...for now here are some Russian cutes that I found on a mail order bride site.
A lot of people suggested cool ideas for blog posts! I'll have to get on some of those. One person asked for more theories and crap, so if you are into that kind of thing, you can read some theories in the second part interview with Jason Anders here! Or you can click this weird drawing!
I know not everyone likes reading long winded crap, but I hope some of you will! Jason's questions were really interesting and fun to answer and I almost went off on a few rants. Check it out and then come back and tell me if you agree, disagree, or think I'm weird!
Lets see what else...oh, here are some notebook doodles drawn veeerrrrrry slowly and absentmindedly because I was watching a movie that I was into and not paying attention. Also the pen doesn't work if you draw fast. Does it even look like my normal drawings??
I kind of like Miss Squirrel
OH and another thing! This week's Skadi comic (the one explaining bush beasts) had a couple of "in jokes" in it, but so far only one has been discovered. Check it out and see if you can find it! Click for a direct link to the comic!
And lastly...I found an old sketchbook from '93/'94, and thought these primitive Beatles drawings were funny, as well as almost cute! Ah, a young girl in love!
