More Poodle Doodles

 

 

I finished another page of poodle doodles based on the great works of the glorious Lothar Meggendorfer, which can be found here:

https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Der_Pudel

Or here:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/8027317959?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

Actually the one with the big one with the pom pom on its tail on the right is from a different source on Wikimedia Commons:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Poodle_(PSF).png

I'm sick of drawing poodles, now I'm going to take a break and draw buildings and brontosauruses and other elements that I want to brush up on for my children's book.

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.

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.

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.

More Floating Islands

 More floating islands, with a little guy and a cabin.  I kind of messed up on wind direction because the smoke from the cabin seems to be rising straight up and the vines are hanging straight down while the clouds are blowing one way and the waterfalls are blowing another.  But its still a nice picture.

I sketched some chickens on post-it notes as references for the chickens that are wandering around on the island, since I'm not very good at just winging it.  That went well.  Drawing preparatory sketches is always a good idea and I might do more of that in the future.

A couple more sketches

A couple more sketches lately.  Hatching and cross-hatching are becoming more instinctive although of course there is still so much more to learn.

Yeah, I got a new Dover book for Christmas, called Medieval ornament, and its got tons of awesome ornamentation in it.

And I also got a blank sketchbook, so you know what that means...   :)