Oryx, And Happy New Year!

Here's an oryx I drew from a screencap I took while watching the livestream at the watering hole on the Namibia Cam:

https://www.youtube.com/@NamibiaCam

Its a lot of fun to watch.

 

Do I have any new year's resolutions?

No.

I resolved everything I was gonna resolve earlier in the year, so I'm gonna just keep tryna do everything I've been tryin to do.

The good news is I've been doing more artwork lately so that probably means more artwork in the year to come.

So for 2024 may God bless you, good luck, and remember to vote for Trump!
 

Merry Christmas!

 

I'd like to wish everyone a Merry, jolly or otherwise enjoyable Christmas.  And also here's another drawing done with those Kuretake brush markers.  Its a just a bit of crumbling wall drawn from my imagination but its good to experiment with different materials and styles and this was sorta fun.

Giant Bees - Or Tiny Rabbits?

I finished another watercolor.  It feels good to finish things like this. :)

More Yak-posting

 

 

A couple more yaks.

Reference images:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mutiger_Reiter_auf_Yak_Yama.JPG

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sarlyk_Yak.jpg

I like drawing yaks. I've been using Kuretake brush markers for the color ones like in the bottom picture.  The top one is just drawn in with a Micron pen and I'm planning to color it.  I haven't decided if I want to color it with the markers or use watercolor.  The good thing is I always print my designs out before coloring them so I can always do it again if I don't like it.

Yakitty-Yak!

 

Here's a couple of yaks I've drawn recently.  I like drawing things with lots of fur.

Here's the reference images:

https://pixabay.com/photos/yaks-thukla-pass-himalayas-trekking-7696129/

https://pixabay.com/photos/mongolia-yak-summer-alpine-meadow-3807650/

There isn't really a vast supply of free stock images of yaks on the internet but it sure beats trying to find photos of wooly mammoths.  There's a fair amount of paintings and renderings and skeletons out there but they are somewhat hampered by the fact that they aren't around anymore.

Squiggle With Bird And Snake

 

Another design.  I did the math and every design I finish takes me another 1/32nd or 3.125% of the way to having enough designs for the next coloring book.  So I'm already at 6.25%, yay!

Piggy Pig

 

I'm not boaring you am I?

New Fabric Design

 

I finished a new design for my Spoonflower shop and I ordered a fabric sample and the repeat is good so its for sale now.  You can buy some here:

https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/jpmorrow

I'm hoping to do it in colors at some point, when I figure out how.  Its hard to get colors to repeat because then the whole edge has to match and not just a few points where the lines cross over.  I got the edges to line up on this one by lining up the pixels in MS Paint.  Of course it is hand drawn but I use paint for necessary touch up and for the edges of repeating patterns like this.

Celtic Knotwork Coloring Book 3

 Here it is!  The first design for my next coloring book!

The first two coloring books are available here:

amazon.com/author/jpmorrow

One down, thirty one to go.  I hope to finish in another seven years.  I may finish another book in the meantime though as I have several other projects I'm working on.  So stay tuned for more artwork and potentially more books!

 Ah the sweet outdoors!  Rabbits, roses, giant roses and giant bees!  So peaceful.

7 Day Challenge, Drawing Animals And Leaves

 Just some things I wanted to brush up on learning to draw.  These were done with 05 Microns in different colors and the same size Uni Pins in light and dark gray.

These were all drawn from stock photos.  Here's the link list to the different stocks I used:

Lizard: https://pixabay.com/photos/lizard-sargantana-trunk-981252/

Salamander: https://pixabay.com/photos/animals-salamander-nature-1088057/

Rabbit: https://pixabay.com/photos/rabbit-mammal-wildlife-hare-bunny-5352643/

Frog: https://pixabay.com/photos/frog-rock-water-pond-nature-3903773/

Leaves: https://pixabay.com/photos/pile-of-leaves-leaves-fall-62808/

More Leaves: https://pixabay.com/photos/staircase-leaf-autumn-yellow-leaves-945888/

Songbird: https://pixabay.com/photos/nightingale-bird-tree-songbird-7167798/

There they are in case you want to draw them yourself, or see how they compare with my drawings.  I like linking to the stock photos.  It's good for the person who takes the picture and I think its interesting to compare them with the finished drawing and besides they're really good interesting pictures in and of themselves.

Me Coloring My Own Coloring Book

 

What's next?  Next thing I know people will be reading their own novels or solving their own jigsaw puzzles!

Anyhoo, a huge thank you to everyone who's helped spread the word or supported me on social media and especially if you've actually bought a copy!  Thank you all so much, it means the world to me!

If you want to you can buy a copy here:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CCZV8JB5/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2PDYP5DRAH72F&keywords=celtic+knotwork+coloring+book+2&qid=1690828548&sprefix=celtic+knotwork+coloring+book+2%2Caps%2C159&sr=8-1

Thank you again, whether you buy it or not, you are appreciated!  :)

 -Johnpaul

Fern leaves

Some fern fronds sketched in with Kuretake brush markers.
 

Cave Mouth Line Weight Tests

 

Here is the same scene - a cave mouth in the middle of a forest - drawn with three different thicknesses of line because I wanted to see how they would look.  The scene is from my imagination but it is amazing to me how the details - the exact arrangement of ferns and bushes - ends up so different from one to the next. This is partly due to it being easier to block things in with a thicker marker and easier to get more detail with a thinner one.  But it also goes to show that the imagination is often far from static, even if the basic concept remains the same.

New Coloring Book!!!

 

Yes that's right!  You don't often see me indulge in three exclamation points, but my new coloring book is live!!!

Here it is, almost seven years after the last one:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CCZV8JB5?ref_=ast_author_mpb

 Thank you in advance for any generosity, and don't forget to spread the word!

Celtic Knotwork Coloring Book 2

 I hit the publish button on my next coloring book, Celtic Knotwork Coloring Book 2, at 9:00 PM Friday night but amazon says it takes up to 72 hours for a book to process even if they don't find any problems with it.  So it might take a couple of days for it to be available.  I'm sorry, I didn't realize it would take this long.

New Picture And Update

 Here is a bird I drew with colored pencils.  Here's the wonderful stock photo I based it on:

https://pixabay.com/photos/bird-juvenile-pied-wagtail-wagtail-5499473/

I also have an update!  My next coloring book, Celtic Knotwork Coloring Book 2 will hopefully be coming out next Saturday the 27th!  So yay!

Here is a link to my amazon author page so you can find it:

amazon.com/author/jpmorrow

I Finished The Cover!

 I finished the cover for Celtic Knotwork Coloring Book 2 and I've been polishing up the images for the interior, so now I just need to finish putting it together and finish up the intro blurbs and stuff and it'll be done!  I'm still planning on publishing it in July but I've got so much going on it'll probly be late July, like the last week or something.  I'll let you all know when it comes out. :)

Sprig Of Nasturtium

 

Sometimes ideas for what to draw just sort of jump out at you.  I was moving the ladder and happened to break off a bit of the nasturtium that was growing on it, and I looked at it and said to myself 'I know what I'm gonna draw today'.  And here it is.  Sometimes its hard to decide what to draw, and sometimes its easy, but in any case, its always good practice once you get started.

Coastline With Floating Islands

 Looks like a peaceful sort of place.

Happy Little Clouds :)

 Here is a painting of clouds I did from a photo that I took.  I figure clouds are a good thing to learn to paint because they are in the background of so many things.

New Coloring Book In July!

Another knot!  This is the final coloring page for my next coloring book, which will feature 32 coloring pages, and its also going to do double duty as the '2' in Celtic Knotwork Coloring Book 2 on the cover.

I still have to design the rest of the cover, make sure the pictures are pristine and do layouty stuff before I can publish it so I'm planning on it being available in July of this year.  Yay!  :D

This will be seven years after the last one so I'm sorry for taking so long and thank you all for your patience.

In the meantime here is a link to the original coloring book for whoevers interested:

https://www.amazon.com/Celtic-Knotwork-Coloring-Book-Original/dp/1534761195/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8http://

Of course I will continue to work on Celtic knotwork as well as other projects so stay tuned for further developments!

Knot

 

Wow, only one more to go and I'll have enough designs for my coloring book!  Of course I still gotta design the cover and all that other layouty stuff.

Celtic Spirally Circle

 

Here's another one, only two more to go before I can publish my next coloring book! 😃

Of course I still need to work on the cover and layouty stuff, so it'll be a few months.  I'm planning on publishing it sometime this year though.

Also here's a link to my first coloring book for anyone who may be interested:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31858959-celtic-knotwork-coloring-book?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=1BvTvY5iHG&rank=6

Just Plain Knot

 

They can't all be super complicated, sometimes its nice to mix things up a little.

Just three more to go.

Birds With Plant Pots

 

And another one!  Bwa ha ha!

Zoomorphic S Curve

 Another Celtic knot.  :)

2022 And 2023 -- A Consideration

Stock Credits X and X.

 Art tends to be slow.  I don't fully understand why artistic endeavors tend to be slower than regular work but in a general way I think it tends to be the case.  One of the main reasons however is that for any given project we don't know how to do it until its done.  Of course we have some experience doing art already but it is never enough because a new art project always involves feeling ones way and finding a way to represent a vague idea that exists in the artists own head.  If we were merely trying to create content we could crank it out all day long on an assembly line, but since we have ideas of how we want it to turn out it usually takes a little longer and that's ok.  In fact its nice because the process of creating art is often enjoyable in and of itself and we'd miss it if it was over too quickly.

But why am I bringing up philosophical stuff that we probably know already?  Well its another year and I always like to start off the year with looking back at the old year and coming up with prognostications for how much I'm going to get done next year.  And its a lot easier to come up with predictions than it is to actually accomplish anything.  So first a look back at 2022.

2022.  In January I said I was going to share at least one short story on here and I still haven't finished any writing and I'm sorry.  Other than that I don't think I shot my mouth off too much.  I did get a fair amount done which is good.  I started sharing my art on Instagram and Truth Social so those are more ways for folks to find my artwork, which can't hurt.

2023.  I've been making progress on my coloring book which is great and I only have half a dozen more designs or so to go, not counting cover and layout and stuff before I finish it, so I hope to have it published sometime in 2023 or 2024.  I'm going to keep creating art and sharing it on social media as well.  I haven't given up on writing, its just a slippery medium and I can't make any promises.

Thanks for reading.  I hope you all have a good year and stay safe out there.

Celtic Man Petting Dog

 

Here's another Celtic knot, which means I've only got half a dozen more to go before finishing my Coloring book.  I hope to finish it either this year or next year, I think that would be super.

Happy new year!  :)