Illustration Friday - Muddy

Getting muddy is an occupational hazard for zombies. You know, crawling out of the grave and all. Micron pen on Bienfang Graphics 360 paper.

Illustration Friday - Focused

I drew this portrait from life. My son Andrew was sitting at the kitchen table and was very focused on his homework.

Illustration Friday - Confined

Hansel prepares to trick the witch.

I chose to illustrate a scene in Hansel and Gretel. The witch has put Hansel in a cage and is fattening him up. Her eyesight is poor, so every day she she feels Hansel's finger to see if he is fat enough to eat. He tricks her by putting out a bone instead of his finger.

I am teaching myself Photoshop and experimenting with color. This is the drawing I colorized:

My son Christopher posed for this drawing. He loves drama and was happy to pretend he was locked in a cage and needed to trick the witch into thinking he was thin. I took a photo of his pose and used it as reference. Here is the photo:

Illustration Friday - Renewal

I used a yoga pose to illustrate renewal, since I always feel renewed after yoga. Here is the full pose in a circular format:




And here is the full pose in a slightly different color scheme:

I used Crayola Chalk and Micron pen on Strathmore drawing paper, and I used a photo in Yoga Journal as the basis for my figure. The last version is the original version; I altered the color in the first two in Photoshop. The cropped version is my favorite.

Illustration Friday - Pioneer

This pen drawing is roughly based on a photograph of Charles Darwin by Julia Margaret Cameron. The photograph is here. I was enchanted by the texture of his beard. I didn't use any pencil; I drew directly with pen and took my chances. Blue .05 Micron pen in a Canson Field Sketch book.

Both Darwin and Cameron were pioneers. I assume everyone knows of Darwin. Cameron (1815-1879) was a British aristocrat who took up photography the last 11 years of her life. She did portraits of many luminaries of her day, and her pictures influenced modern photography.

Illustration Friday - Undone

She's coming undone.

.05 Micron pen on Bienfang Graphics 360 100% Rag Translucent Marker Paper, with a touch of pink Prismacolor pencil. I love the paper--there is absolutely no bleeding.

Illustration Friday - Hatch

A new crop of babies arrives in the cabbage patch. Here is a close up of the baby:

Illustration Friday - Entangled

When I saw the prompt entangled, I immediately thought of a thicket of bushes in my backyard. The tangles have long fascinated me, and I have been wanting to draw them for some time now. This prompt was a good excuse. I drew from life for about an hour and then switched to imagination. I developed the drawing in pencil and at the end added some colored pencil, colored pen, and pastel pencil. I left part of the drawing undone, because I think it looks more interesting that way.

Illustration Friday - Unbalanced

On Wednesday evening of last week, Mrs. Thea Gilberston from the town of Franklin was ajudged insane by Judge J.D. Perry and was taken to Mendota State Asylum on the Thursday afternoon train by Sherriff Buckley (Badger State Banner, April 13, 1893).

The above quote is from the wonderfully strange Wisconsin Death Trip by Michael Lesy, which chronicles crime and insanity in the 1890's in Wisconsin. I drew this portrait from imagination in pastel and charcoal on a watercolor-toned board and then adjusted in Photoshop Elements.

Illustration Friday - Blur

As Albert aged, he found the years passed by in a blur.

I drew this from life using pencil, scanned it in, cropped it, and added color in Photoshop Elements.

Illustration Friday - Strong

A strong padlock will keep your possessions safe. To render this drawing, I used techniques I learned in the book Drawing Realistic Textures in Pencil by J.D. Hillberry. The drawing is on hot-pressed watercolor paper. I used pencil, charcoal, and frisket film to render the image.

Illustration Friday: Caution

Caution: Don't run with scissors!

Here is double trouble:

Micron red and black pen and Prismacolor pencils on Canson Mi-Tientes Pastel paper.

Illustration Friday - Wrapped

Just got back from my summer vacation in the Adirondack Mountains. I did this drawing in my sketch book, using a mechanical pencil. I was inspired by my teenage son asleep in our hotel room in Ticonderoga, New York. Thanks to moonlight coming through the window, I could see the general shape of his sleeping figure in the middle of the night, wrapped in a blanket. I quickly sketched the scene, as best I could in the moonlight, and then abstracted the drawing in an attempt to make the drawing more ambiguous and mysterious.

Illustration Friday - Impatience

The problem with winning the rat race is you're still a rat. - Lily Tomlin

Although being in a hurry and impatience are not exactly the same thing, I think they are closely related. After all, if you are not in a hurry, what is there to be impatient about? Last Friday, as I was driving home from work, I saw a runner dash past me. Later, my husband told me he thought an illustration about impatience should include a clock. Voila! I had a concept for my illustration.

I used Edward Muybridge's photograph sequence of a running man as the models for my runners. Here is the sequence I used:

Illustration Friday - Modify

After the wizard's apprentice turned his little sister into a cat, she howled with delight.

I have been itching to make a drawing that combines human features with animal ones. The prompt modify was a perfect opportunity. I combined two photo references into one graphite drawing and then tinted the drawing with color in Photoshop Elements.

Illustration Friday: Idle

This is my submission for the Illustration Friday prompt Idle. I am inspired by Dorthea Lange's photographs from the Great Depression, a time when many workers were idle. This drawing is a quick contour drawing inspired by a photograph of a San Francisco bread line, shown below. I try not to copy her photographs but rather attempt to use them as a point of departure. My contour drawing looks more like a bar scene rather than a bread line, but happily this still fits the theme of Idle. The Great Depression meets Cheers? I like all the hats in Lange's photos.

Illustration Friday - Hollow

Although drawn by her beauty, he eventually discovered her hollow shadows. Mechanical pencil in a Canson sketch book.

Illustration Friday - Shaky

The grim reaper meets his match. Is he shaking with fear?

I see now that the grim reaper should be more distinct. I need more reaper and less flames.

Illustration Friday - Pale

I started with this drawing from life, which I manipulated in Photoshop Elements.

Illustration Friday - Clandestine

Dew-touched meadows and trees are actually clandestine fairy meetings. Happy New Year!