Coloured Pencil - Tumblr Posts
I threw some colour on some sketches from the last couple of months, since I had the pencils out for a commission and I should really use colour more.
However I should also learn to draw things on white paper if I intend to colour them, Felix’s shirt and eyes are supposed to be green but the yellowish paper has shown through in the scan.
This seems like a good moment to quickly spam some posts I drafted last year!
Originally this was going to have spot colour, but I already had the coloured pencils out so here we are. Put that tongue away Leilus.
A commission from last year, with one from two years ago for the same person. You can see the baby from the 2014 picture as a toddler in the more recent one.
I don’t think I ever advertise these baby portraits anywhere, but people somehow find out about them. I think it’s because people commission them as Christening presents, so then other people see them at the ceremony and decide they want one too?
Have some mixed-media Diamonds! I’m generally a bit lukewarm on Steven Universe, but I’m very, very intrigued every time anyone in the show mentions the Diamonds, so I was pleased that the newest episodes gave them so much screen time. I love the single-minded devotion and/or fear they seem to inspire in all the other gems. Mixed media brought to you by the realisation that a space background in coloured pencil would take more time than I was willing to invest in impromptu fanart.
“A Garden Party” My little sister loves Spring flowers, so I drew her this as her card this year. I stumbled across some old pictures of personified flowers and thought it would be fun to try something similar. I’m really happy with the daffodil in particular, which is lucky because that’s her favourite.
Sometimes I pause cartoons and sketch frames that appeal to me, I’m never sure if it’s good practice or a massive waste of time. I do it for fun though so I don’t suppose it matters. Practically every frame of Blue Diamond appeals to me so it’s a good thing she’s only had about 15 minutes of screen time so far.
My poor Mum is in hospital again (she’s very healthy but has had really bad luck for the last couple of years) so I made her a get well soon card. She really likes Poppet so I hope it will cheer her up.
At long last, pictures of Fret and Larkspur in colour, so you can all actually see a major part of the character designs I never, ever show! Also, I’ve finally worked out how to get muted colours out of my coloured pencils, it’s only taken 18 years... Sympathy with their environment makes elves of their type rapidly change appearance to match the plants and light where they live. Fret lives in a birch grove and therefore resembles a birch tree, Larkspur once lived in a beech forest and looked very different, but now she lives in a fetid marsh and appears sodden and mud-flecked, with hair like reeds. Fret had spent a century believing she had burned to death with her forest, and didn’t recognise her at first.
Apparently I hadn't got all the eyes out of my system, so here are four more. These are three aliens from a story I don't think I've ever shared before, so I suppose this can be their first introduction! All of them are members of a royal court in the far future, far away from Earth. Their names and species are in the captions, if you want some very minimal information about them. Maybe I’ll post full portraits some other time?
Happy New Year! I hope everyone still likes eyeballs in 2019. I realised I had exactly enough pages in my sketchbook to do two more sets of four eyes, so here is a fantasy set of an angel, a demon and two fairies.
My final set of four eyes to fill what has become the ‘eyeball sketchbook’. It was Diamonds, of course. The Diamond Authority is still my favourite part of Steven Universe, so I’m happy to finally have a canon design for all four! (Although I was disappointed that White wasn’t a point cut diamond. I think it would have been neat if their cut of gem got smaller but more refined as you went down, but oh well.)
It was my little sister’s birthday in April and here is her card for this year! My thought process went something like this: I can’t do Spring flowers 4 years in a row, what else does she like... she likes... wine? Drunk mermaids done bam I’m an ideas machine.
Day 2 of Mermay - a cute little sealmaid! I challenged myself to colour this one with a set of 6 novelty mini pencils, the sort you get in a party bag. They were waxy and terrible, but it seems you can still get good results if you try! They don’t scan or photograph well though.
Mermay day 5 is a river-dwelling merboy, he’s a playful little guy. He and the sealmaid would probably get along if they lived in the same type of water. I challenged myself again to colour this one with just two watercolour pencil stubs that are still too big to throw away. It was a lot harder than I thought, which probably means I should use limited colours more often!
Day 19, we’re all caught up! This one was inspired by DrawingWiffWaffles, specifically a video where she re-drew art from her followers. At first glance I thought the thumbnail was a pond mermaid with lilypads on her head. It was actually an ocean mermaid with a seashell crown, but I thought I’d try drawing what I thought I saw at first. I’m really testing the limits of those novelty pencils! I think the biggest issue with them is that they’re so low-pigment they don’t scan or photograph well.
Another BTS art challenge! J-hope's birthday was in February, so my pal Sammy talked me into trying to draw his hands every day for the month. (Arguably this is my own fault, because I mentioned a while ago that he has my favourite kind of hands to draw.) Some days I had time to do a little portrait as well, I think the Glass Animals one is my favourite.
Incidentally I thought we were going to post these together on twitter like we did with 3minJimin, but Sammy never posted hers! She left me completely exposed!
Here’s a thing I never posted - a blob challenge (where you paint random blobs and try to turn them into drawings). I was really struggling to make anything at the time and I remember being disappointed with it, but in hindsight I think they’re pretty good. I like the little ghost guy and the sea cratures.
Not sure if it posted so I'll post again and delete the old one haha! Okay, this is Namine from the Kingdom Hearts series- just in time to celebrate the newest trailer and the RELEASE DATE FOR KINGDOM HEARTS III!!!!!! God, I am beyond excited! Anyways, I got this new sketchbook and some new supplies I wanted to play around with and so this was the result. I think it's a good result myself :D In fact I might even invest in a large set of these coloured pencils, I really like them a lot! Done in Faber Castell Polychromos pencils in warm greys plus black and white on grey toned paper, a white Conte pencil, a Pilot G Tec black pen, and a Uniball Signo Broad white gel pen.
Muntjac Skull
Prismacolor on black gesso 5”x7”
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Prismacolor pencil on cardboard with a watercolor marker to blend the black.