Pencil Lines

Well, it’s been nearly a month since my last post, I should have something to show you. Let’s see what I can find…

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It’s my sister’s birthday soon. I bought her a scarf I’ve been meaning to mail out to her, but didn’t think that was enough of a present, so I pulled out my stash of Super Sculpy and got to work on a little present for her.

I need a lot of work with sculpting, hehe! I took a ceramics class in grade nine of highschool and loved it, but haven’t done any since; well, except for this little guy who I sculpted earlier this year.

I figure it would be easier if I had a proper space to use to sculpt (right now I’ve been doing it on my bed on top of a piece of cardboard), if I actually used tinfoil and armatures (haven’t tried that yet!), and if I had the proper tools (I used an old 3H pencil to detail this one, since I had nothing else pointy enough to use). Tools are expensive though, and I don’t really have the time (or, like I said, the space!) to give sculpting a real go.

Instead, I just have time for sculpting little things like this:

Sorry for any poor quality, I’m experimenting with The Gimp on my laptop. Still not that proficient. =)

Anyway, it went through a couple permutations. I started it thinking I’d just make something extremely small and simple, something more lego-esque, made out of simple shapes. But the more I fooled around the more detailed it got until it was too big to support itself on its own legs and had to be lying down instead. That’s when I decided to make it cute and sleeping. I don’t know, maybe my sister will use it as a paper weight!

I think it turned out really cute, despite the dirtiness of the clay by the end of everything (thanks to that freaking pencil I used to detail, especially around the face). I wish I had some kind of paint, any kind, to cover it up, but all I have are watercolours, and somehow I doubt those will work.

I hope it actually looks like the pony is sleeping and not, you know, dead. It was a bit of a fear as I was sculpting it, and only half way through it did look a little morbid.

Right, just a quick update. I have some sketches lying around, I just haven’t gotten around to scanning them. Soon!

As I mentioned in my introductory post, I’ve been in a bit of a slump creativity-wise for the past couple of years. I’ve had many urges and wants to draw, write and otherwise create, but my brain would be empty of ideas to actually put down, and anything I did come up with would be ruined by my impatience and frustration.

So when I pulled out one of my pens the other week and started randomly sketching on a whim, I was very excited when I actually managed to draw something. Something other than a mess of confused and irritated scribbles! Yay!

So here is the result of that sketch fest that lasted about a half-hour:

No references, and certainly no ideas. Just random sketching. Had some issues with the character in the lower left corner, as you can see; I have a tendency to deface the sketches I immediately hate. The horse at the bottom of the page and the figure with it’s back towards the viewer on the right were contour line drawings; drawn with a single line, without lifting my pen. I thought it would be fun!

Here’s my favourite part:

Creature. =)

A day later I did a second page:

I used a reference picture from DeviantART for that eye there, but I have since lost the link to it and my searches are turning up nothing. How unprofessional of me.

The mermaid was a remix from an old design of mermaid I used to draw constantly when I was fourteen. I must say, they’ve gotten a lot creepier since then!

My favourite part:

I really do enjoy drawing with ink. There’s something so beautiful about a single line, and being forced to use what you put down without the ability to erase. The drawings seem so much purer somehow, and it’s always fun to add more and more detail. They come out looking so delicate, and it really helps to teach you how to steady your hands.

Next we have a drawing of a horse I sketched with blue col-erase pencil a couple months ago. I inlcude this because I am known for drawing horses, and I thought I’d show people the fruits of my labour in all things equine from the past year or so:

‘Eh. Could be better. I’ve fallen behind a lot in my quest to be better at drawing equines, though I hope to try and pick it back up again! I have done better than this, and I want to get back to that.

Next is what I came up with yesterday, after watching “Enchanted” and “Mary Poppins” and being inspired by memories from my youth spent incessantly rewinding VHS tapes in front of the TV. Didn’t draw anything reminiscent of my youth, or anything really pertaining to the movies (except for a bad cartoony bust of Mary Poppins), but I’m glad I had the drive and the patience to draw anything at all!

I apologise for the vulgar language- er, actually, no I don’t. I’m actually quite proud of that there derierre, I’ve been trying for the longest time to catch those curves and I think I might have acheived it this time.

I love caricatures and stereotypes, and love drawing them. The lady in the center is one of my attempts at depicting a stereotype, and I’m quite proud of her. I imagine her name is Mabel, and she works in the office of an elementary school. Perhaps she brings in home-made cookies every Friday for the staff and her favourite students to munch on. I imagine she’d be the kind to play favourites, while doggedly asserting her fair nature. Hey, everyone has to have faults!

That’s it for my first sketch-dump. I promise, future entries will be smaller; at least, I hope they will be. I just wanted to share all these things at once, and see what happens.

Thanks for reading. =) We’ll see what I come up with next!