Hello, dears!
This week it’s my turn for Art Lab, and I have something a little different than my usual watercolor art for you today. đ Quite different, in fact: in this post I shall give you guys a tutorial on how to make a cute owl with graphite and colored pencil shavings! đ
But first, the inspiration behind the art: Continue reading
Hello, dears!
AHHHH I am SO excited about this post! Finally, after many months of working on my studio, I am ready to unveil the (almost) finished product! đ I absolutely LOVE it, and I hope you guys do too! If you need a refresher on what the studio looked like before (hint: it was a closet), click here to see part one.
Now. Walk right this way, please… And here we are! Won’t you step inside? Continue reading
Heyyyy, guys! Goodness it’s been far too long since I’ve done a recent art post. I have been sprinkling in a few pictures for CPC and Art Lab and such, I guess, but today I want to do a round-up of (most of) the pictures I’ve drawn in my sketchbook since the last art post, along with miscellaneous other art. I hope you enjoy browsing through the pictures! đ
My current sketchbook is almost filled with drawings and crinkly painted pages, so I put a new sketchbook on my Christmas list. đ Filled up sketchbooks are so satisfying!
Alright, I’m going to go in chronological order because it’s the easiest. XD Just note that I did make a few more drawings than this, but I didn’t want to you every single one or the post would get even more ridiculously long than it is. đ Anyway, this first drawing is just a fun, stylized, pen-and-colored-pencil doodle. I rather like the quote.
One night I was bored so I decided to try the three marker challenge (drawing a picture with only three colors) with Sharpies. I like some parts of it, but… well, it’s certainly not my best work, heh heh. Oh dear.
Um, this is a super strange drawing of a mini world on someone’s finger??
Now this drawing I actually like. I drew it from a picture in one of Loren‘s posts which is sadly eluding me. HELP. If anyone knows which one it was, could you tell me please? Thank you muchly. UPDATE: Katie found the post for me! Thank you SO much, Katie. đ Here it is.
I told you I liked the quote… XD I was trying out sketching with a colored pencil instead of a normal pencil and I like how it turned out!
WARNING. VERY CREEPY DRAWING AHEAD. Okay so apparently I have a REALLY hard time drawing deer (at least without a reference). SORRY GUYS. I did draw some better deer, but that will come later on.
*Sigh* Two bad drawings in a row? DON’T WORRY GUYS, IT GETS BETTER THAN THIS, I PROMISE. Anyway, this was a drawing that I tried to do for a CPC story (which you can read here), but it, um, didn’t turn out. But hey, it goes to show that although bad art is inevitable, that doesn’t mean you should give up. ART IS TOO AMAZING TO GIVE UP.
Ahem. Oh yes, I drew this little flurry for an online magazine I contribute to! Some are good and some are bad, but hey, you can tell they’re snowflakes. Does anyone else have a hard time making snowflakes symmetrical?
I like how this looks so far (it’s a vast improvement on some of my other hair drawings), but I don’t know if I’ll ever finish it. Oh well. đ
I really like this little guy, hee hee! Megan and I ordered a shirt for my brother that said “I FROGET” since that’s the punchline to one of his favorite terrible jokes which I cannot remember at the moment. XD There are plenty of online sites where you can design your own t-shirts, so I made the art and Megan did the rest of the designing.
Now we’re getting into some Christmas drawings. (By the way, CAN YOU BELIEVE IT’S DECEMBER?! I CAN FINALLY DO CHRISTMAS STUFF.) These next two I also made for the aforementioned magazine. I used my watercolor brush pens for this one…
And acrylic paints + a white gel pen for this one. I love how the painting turned out!
Here we have a lovely bad quality picture of a NeedtoBreathe quote, also for the magazine…
This is just a random Thanksgiving doodle with my watercolor brush pens again…
A strange-looking hawk I drew using one of my brother’s other shirts as a reference. đ
And now we’re caught up with my sketchbook! Next we have the “Beyond the Sketchbook” part, a.k.a miscellaneous drawings.
I drew this wrapping paper for our cousins’ birthday because they put these pets on their list (though they obviously knew they wouldn’t get them đ ).
Ooh, I really like the next one! I saw a photograph like this on Pinterest (right here) and thought it would be a fun challenge to draw. It was! It turned out a bit streaky, but I’m pretty proud of the lips, which are usually hard for me. XD
Phew, you did it! Thank you so much for reading this super long post – I hope you enjoyed! Which piece of art was your favorite? ARE YOU EXCITED FOR CHRISTMAS?
***Allison***
P. S. LOOK, IT’S SNOWING! ON MY BLOG! I love that effect. đ If you’re reading this through email or your Reader, you’ll have to actually visit my blog to see it. đ
YAY, I am so excited to share some of my recent art with you guys! I’ve been drawing a lot lately, and I think I’ve really been improving, so that’s good. đ
Also, before we start I wanted to mention this super good video (which I’ll show you in a moment) by Hullo Alice that talks about why it’s okay if not every piece of art turns out perfect. I thought it was such a good message!
Sometimes when people try to make art and it doesn’t end up looking like the idea in their head or they search the web and find soooo many better artists out there, they just give up, and think, “I’ll never be good at art, so what’s the use of trying?” The use of trying is that you WILL get good at art if you give yourself a chance. You might not ever get as good as the professional art you love looking at on Pinterest, but you’ll certainly be a terrible artist if you never try.
Listen, before you make some good art, you’re going to make (a lot of) bad art. That’s just how it works with anything – art, music, math, anything you try to learn. And that’s okay. Making bad art is part of the process of getting to be a good artist. If the piece you’re working on is terrible, just let it go, turn the page, and start again. You’ll get better if you keep trying over and over again, I can promise you that.
Okay, now that that little rant was over and you (hopefully) watched the video, I can show you my art. đ I decided to include some of my “bad art” (although not my worst XD) in this post too.
Let’s get started!
I shall start with some of my favorite art I’ve created – a zentangle elephant. đ It took me FOREVER to draw this, as you can probably guess. XD I had just purchased a new fine-tip pen at Hobby Lobby, and it was great for detailed work like this!
I also made a mandala in a similar style. I think it turned out so pretty! It’s probably the best mandala I’ve done, because usually they get pretty skewed. XD
Another mandala.. YIKES sorry for the terrible picture. O.o
Next up we have a little design I made for Livy’s magazine here (which you should totally check out!)
I’m also submitting this for the next issue of her magazine. đ I had a lot of fun with this one!
I’m not really sure what I think of the next piece… I guess it’s neat, but it didn’t really turn out like I was hoping. 
Oh well! Waterfalls are really hard to draw, aren’t they?
OOH! I love this drawing I did of the lovely Aria from purrfectlyinspired.com. It’s the best portrait I’ve done, I think!
Okay, here’s something I drew from you guys’ suggestions: a fairy. In the spirit of the post, I shall show you the two horrible renditions it took before I got it to turn out right. XD (I used them for testing pens and stuff, in case you were wondering. đ )
Actually the first sketch isn’t that bad… just, well, a sketch.
AHH SO CREEPY. Her face got smudged and made it look even more awful. XD
But finally that bad art enabled me to draw a good piece. Muuuuch better, yes? I hope you like the fairy, Sylvia!
So for this one I was trying to draw something interesting without using any reference photos. Well I sure paid for that with how her legs turned out. XD YUCK. I could NOT get the foreshortening and angle and all that stuff right, so I just called it good enough and finished the picture. đ I like the rest of it, though!
Some little water drop doodles from this amazing tutorial. You might think these are good until you see what I was looking off of. XD
Here’s a (pretty rough) concept sketch I did for a possible WordCrafters cover. What do you think? Do you like the idea of all the characters lined up like that? Also I need a better tagline. XDÂ Tell me your ideas! I’ll also do a more in-depth post when I’m ready to start editing WordCrafters.
Heh heh, do you like my play on words? Unfortunately the ink ran all over the place, but it’s okay because it wasn’t my best picture or anything. (It looks like the horse is shooting ink out of her nostrils. XD)
Ooh, this one is funny! I made this birthday card for my sister Megan who loves donkeys.
Ha ha! Yeah, I had fun with that. Although it took quite a while to draw the donkeys inside the card. O.o
Next we have a page of doodles. I picked a couple of random colors from my watercolor brush pen set and drew this. WHY DO THINGS LIKE THIS ALWAYS TAKE SO LONG?!
Here’s some bad-ish art. It got kind of all blurred together.
BWAHAHA this did NOT turn out right. Poor, failed pineapple. XD
Lookee it’s a cute wittle hedgehog from Clara’s suggestions! đ
Random watercolor doodle…
Blech, some more bad art. I very much dislike the color scheme – or lack of one.
I’m really happy with this one, though! I thought it turned out pretty cute. đ My watercolor brush pens are so fun for drawings like this.
A doodle/test page.
I haven’t finished this one and don’t know if I will or not, but this was drawn from a photograph of dew drops on a flower.
I really like how this turned out! My best horse picture so far, definitely. It’s a picture of my friend K. A.‘s horse, Gadget.
few more pages from my Bible journal… (would you like to see another whole post about it?)
Here are the ATCs I made for Hayley’s ATC trade (now closed).
And lastly, we have another rendition of the moonrise galaxy painting I did here.
And that’s about it! As for the bad art, some of you are probably rolling your eyes and saying, “Allison, seriously? You call that bad art?” Well I’ve done worse art – believe me. I just didn’t show it. XD Anyway, I know the feeling. I see “bad art” from other artists and I’m like “WHOA I wish I could draw that well!” And so you see, it depends on your perspective. Your bad art might be more beautiful than you think. âĽ
I hope you enjoyed this post! Which pieces were you favorite? Do you have any suggestions for what I should draw next?
***Allison***
P. S. My county fair post is coming up next! đ
Halloo, guys! I’m excited to present a simple tutorial for drawing faces! đ I’ve heard a lot of you say “I CANNOT draw people” or “faces are SO hard,” and you know what? I kinda agree. People can be really hard to draw. But you can do it! Today I’m going to show you an easy way to draw a face with just a pencil and paper, and then I’ll show you some different combinations you can use to get all sorts of interesting characters. đ
So. To begin, here’s how to draw an average, boring face without looking off a photo of a person. XD (I – and probably you too – can draw a better face when looking off of a picture, but sometimes you just want to make up something, right?)
Ahem.
Technique: Drawing Faces
Step One:
Sketch out an upside-down egg shape for the face and two short curved lines below for a neck. A grid like this is nice if you need help with the placement of the features (like I do). Just draw a vertical line down the middle of the face and a horizontal one between a half and a third down the face. You can see that my sketch is far from perfect, but that’s okay. We’ll touch it up as we go.
Step Two:
Using the grid, draw two oval or almond-shaped eyes. (You can add more grid lines if you like, but you don’t need to.) Eyes are usually smaller than you think, at least in my case. I drew these a bit too big. Getting them symmetrical is hard, but you know what? In reality, no one’s eyes are perfectly symmetrical – look in the mirror!
Step Three:
One common mistake made when drawing eyes is to draw the iris as a whole circle. Unless you are surprised or unusually pop-eyed, you won’t be able to see the whole iris. So make your circle go off the eyeball, like this:
Step Four:
Draw a tiny circle towards one side for the highlight, and a bigger, filled-in circle (or dot) for the pupil. Also draw a curved line above and below each eye for the eyelids.
Step Five:
Draw the eyelashes. This can be pretty tricky, and I think I drew too many eyelashes here. From far away, you can only see a few individual spikes of eyelashes, not a whole fringe. (Again, look in the mirror if you need help.)
Step Six:
Heh heh, this would usually be where you color in the irises, but I kind of forgot about it until step ten. XD You can skip to there now if you’d like or just do it later.
Anyway, now we need the nose. Draw two curved lines (kind of like you did with the neck) for the bridge of the nose, and two parentheses-like curved lines below it. How far apart you make them determines how big the nose is, as well as how far down on the face you put them.
Step Seven:
Curve your parentheses around a bit more to look like “C’s” facing each other. Then connect the bottoms with a wide curve or “U.”
Step Eight:
For the top of the lips, make a flattened “M” shape, which I think looks kind of like a flying bird. đ
Step Nine:
Connect the two ends of the “M” with a long curve. You can make it almost flat or very arched depending on how full you want the lips to be. Draw a line in the middle that echoes the curves of the top lip line.
Step Ten:
Now I remembered to color in the eyes. XD A simple way to do this is to color a dark line around the outside of the iris and fill it in with lighter pencil. Make sure to darken especially the top of the iris to make it look more realistic.
Step Eleven:
Now for the hair, which I am pretty terrible at. XD Oh well, you can tell it’s hair at least.
Using the face shape sketch you did at the very beginning, curve the hair around the head like so. (I decided to make the head a little shorter than I had originally sketched.) For this hairstyle, I kind of drew two elongated teardrop or comma shapes that meet at the middle line of the face grid.
Also now is the time to define the face shape at the jaw and chin. You kind of just have to play around with this part and experiment. A more round, curved jawline will look like a younger face, and a sharper, more angular jawline will look older or more masculine.
Step Twelve:
Start shading the hair. WAIT, DON’T PANIC BECAUSE I SAID SHADING. This is very simple. Draw darker, closer together lines beside the neck and at the top of the head, and lighter, farther apart lines for the rest of the hair. Don’t draw many lines at all at the top sides of the head, which will make the hair look more shiny and highlighted. Leave a little gap where the two sides of the hair meet for a part. Or just look at the picture and figure it out for yourself. XD
Step Thirteen:
Finish shading the hair. Also *facepalm* I almost forgot the eyebrows. XD Oh well, you can add those sooner or later, it doesn’t really matter. But you should add them or the face will look kind of weird and blank. Eyebrows are simple: just draw a bunch or really short, slightly curved lines. Or you can draw just a single curved line for an even simpler, less realistic version.
Lastly, erase any grid lines and smudges, add shading around the face and under the neck if you want to (you don’t have to), and you’re done! Ta-da!
To tell the truth, this isn’t my best portrait. The face is too round, the eyes are too big…Â but that’s alright. This is what you have to do – if it doesn’t turn out good the first time, do it a second… and a third, and a fourth. đ
Now since you know how to put everything together, here are some ways to change up the facial features. It’s so fun to try different combinations!
Here’s another Art Lab post I did on how to draw eyes: Episode 23.
Have fun mixing and matching! Also before you go, I wanted to show you a colored pencil face drawing I did off of different pictures. You can tell I do a lot better when I look off of something. XD
Which little cutie is your favorite?
Well, I hope you found this tutorial helpful! Would you like me to do another face tutorial, like maybe how to do colored pencil portraits or profile portraits or an easier or harder version? What do you want to learn how to draw? Maybe I can do the next Art Lab from one of your suggestions!
Thanks for reading, dears, and have fun drawing!
***Allison***
I absolutely adore writing letters to my amazing pen(cil) pal, Charis, and also decorating envelopes to put them in. Today I decided to do a round-up of the envelopes I’ve decorated so far. I hope you enjoy! Also, you should really check out the lovely assortment of decorated envelopes and art Charis has made here! đ
I think this is my first envelope. It’s okay, but thankfully they have improved since then. XD
Aww, this is one of my favorites! It’s simple, but so cute.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you there! XDÂ My family wondered what the mail lady thought when she saw this. đ It’s not my best eye ever, but it was quite fun to draw, especially the iris. I drew this because Charis has blue eyes, and I love drawing eyes!
As you can tell, this was from Christmas. đ
The light blue marker stopped working on the sky, but the faded effect turned out kinda neat.
A galaxy envelope from when I first learned how to draw galaxies. đ
Eh. This one’s okay but the lines from the other side of the envelope kind of mess it up. (The weird splotches on the leaves are to cover up addresses.)
And last but not least, my most recent and possibly my favorite! I love how this turned out, with the colors and everything! Would anyone like an Art Lab post about the inspiration behind this and a tutorial on how to make it?
Well I hope you enjoyed that, dear readers. Which envelope was your favorite? Do you like decorating envelopes?
Thanks for reading!
***Allison***
Heh heh, so some of you are probably like, “What?! She just published this post!” Well yeah, I did… but I didn’t mean to. XD I accidentally hit the publish button before I finished. Oops. đ Now that I have explained all that, let’s get on with the real stuff. đ
Guys, guys, guys, look! It’s the 25th Art Lab post! WOOP WOOP! And today I’m doing something a little different, to celebrate. Okay, not really to celebrate – it’s mostly because I wanted to, but we can say it’s to celebrate, right? đ Ahem. As I was saying before I so rudely interrupted myself, today I’m just going to post some pictures of some of my recent art rather than using someone else’s art as inspiration. I’m always inspired when I look through bloggers’ art posts, so I hope this post inspires you to sit down and start drawing! đ
First up I have a few ATCs. (If you don’t know what Arist Trading Cards are, I highly recommend you click here to find out! They’re so much fun!) Some of these are recent and some are not so recent.
YAY doughnuts! Yummy. I really like this one. đ
I did these watercolor cherries from a tutorial on Pinterest (which you can see here). They turned out great – if you don’t look at the cherries on the tutorial, that is. XD
I love this quote/verse thingy, and have a canvas with these words on my bed.
We learned about geraniums in Nature Study, so I decided to draw one on an ATC.
I made this ATC ages ago, but I still love it. đ
This is the first page (besides the title page) in my new sketchbook. Eh, could be better, but it least it’s welcoming. XD
It’s a rainbow lion! It didn’t turn out quite like I had hoped, but I still like it.
I liked drawing the lion’s eyes so much that I did another one on a separate page.
Ahhhh, I love this one! I wish our roosters looked this pretty. đ I actually just finished this today with my new Prismacolor colored pencil set. It took me several days to draw this, but I’m very pleased with how it turned out! (And in case you’re wondering, I did look off of a photo.)
This is another of my absolute favorites! On my birthday I decided I wanted to draw a fox. I had a picture in my mind, and what do you know – I got it down on paper and it actually looked good! XD I didn’t copy anything but I did look off of some photos and drawings for reference. She’s such a cute wittle thing, don’t you agree?
I drew this for my horse-loving friends, and for those of you who requested a horse drawing. Here you go, girls!
Here’s another ATC which I drew a long time ago. I think it’s so funny but neat. XD
Another mandala ATC…
I drew this for art class because my art teacher wanted me to experiment with an art medium I’d never used before. I was like, “Um… I can’t really think of any art supplies that I have at home but have never used.” XD Finally we came up with artist’s pastels! It was fun to experiment, but I don’t especially like how easily they smudge.
I haven’t finished this one yet and probably won’t for a long time, but I wanted to show you guys how it looks so far. I had the idea to make a collage of barcodes, and I think it’s looking really neat! I’m only using the ones off of receipts, so it’s going to take a while to collect enough to cover the whole page. Heh heh.
A random Sharpie doodle…
I love how this one turned out. I’m kind of proud that I could get the highlights to look fairly realistic because I usually have trouble with them. đ
We were playing around with charcoal in Art Class, and this is what my practice page turned out like:
Here’s my actual drawing made with charcoal:
And last but not least, one of my very favorite favorites, a picture I drew of Bethany from a photo Loren’s gorgeous post. I just LOVE how it turned out! The background was inspired by a super good teenage artist named Sydney Nielsen that I follow on Instagram. She also has a YouTube channel here. You should check it out –Â she’s really amazing!
Are you inspired yet? XD I hope so! Which was your favorite piece of art from this post?
Also, I wondered if you have any drawing requests for me! I’m not guaranteeing I’ll draw whatever you ask, but I’d sure love to hear your suggestions and I’ll definitely try some of them!
Thanks for reading, dears, and have a lovely day (or night). âĽ
***Allison***
HA HAÂ do you like my title? XD I don’t really like the term “birthday haul” because it seems kind of greedy or something, but that’s just my weird opinion. So anyway, I looked up synonyms for “haul” and found “harvest.” đ And there you have the story of my title.
Ahem. Let’s move on, shall we? Oh wait, before we start, I must say that I just really wanted to brag about my presents and how many I got and how great they were and… I’M JUST KIDDING I’M JUST KIDDING! Goodness, don’t look so shocked. XD Heh heh, but no, I am not trying to do the aforementioned, just in case you were wondering. I’m posting this because I personally like reading birthday posts myself and because I thought you guys might enjoy one too. đ
Okay, now we can start! đ By the way, these gifts are in no particular order. I just put them all on the table and grabbed what was handy first. XD
Ooh look! It’s a bullet journal! My mom and dad gave me this and it’s so pretty! I’ve actually only heard about them recently, but I thought a BuJo would be quite helpful. I’m still getting the hang of it, but I really like it so far! I think it’s more of a system than a thing, which is nice because you can customize it pretty much however you want. Do you think I should do a bullet journal post sometime?
My friend (who has a blog here) gave me a bag of luscious chocolate truffles. OHHHH YUMMINESS! Enough said. XD
My cousins gave me these lovely watercolor brush pens. They’re so neat! They’re kind of like a marker but with a paintbrush tip. They actually color more like ink than watercolor, but if you use the waterbrush that comes with it (see it there on the right side?) you can get a more watercolor-y effect. What I really like about these is how fine the tips are.
I thought maybe I should show you an example of how they work…
My Grammy and Grandaddy gave me this wonderful sketchbook. I love it! It has 128 nice, thick pages. I used the watercolor brush pens on it and they didn’t bleed through, although you could kind of see the drawing on the other side. I can’t wait to fill it up! đ
Another thing I really like about the sketchbook is how flat it is when I open it. Some sketchbooks are always wanting to close up on you, but this one doesn’t!
This thingy came along with the sketchbook. It’s rather neat and pretty, but I have no clue what it is. XD It’s obviously a ruler, but it looks like it’s meant to be something else too. I thought maybe a letter opener, but Dad says it’s too blunt on the end. Guesses, anyone?
My sister Megan and my grandparents both got me several skeins (is it skeins? balls? fluffy squishy things?) of beautiful felting wool. Have you heard of needle felting? You should look it up online or on Etsy. People make absolutely amazing things from felting wool! A sweet lady at church recently gave me a felting kit and I’m having fun experimenting. I’m sure felted things will show up in a later post. đ
Two of my friends gave me Hobby Lobby gift cards. YAYAYAY I LOVE HOBBY LOBBY! *Happy sigh* I think I’ll buy a tri-fold poster board so I have a better photo background for things like this. Heh heh. And I can’t wait to see what other fun things I find!
Awww! My littlest sister Carmen gave me a rock she had found and quite a few coupons for setting the table. ⼠It was so funny, but so sweet! (Don’t you just love little kids’ spelling and handwriting?)
AHHHHH YAY! My parents got me a pack of 72 Prismacolor colored pencils! I am SO excited because I only had 24 before and I absolutely love Prismacolor brand colored pencils. They color so smoothly and with such rich, brilliant pigment. I’ll definitely show you some of the drawings I’ve made with them in my next art post. đ
Okay, I spent WAY too long arranging the pencils in rainbow order and then trying to get a good overhead shot of them all lined up. XD But it was worth it, right? Ahhh, they look so pretty. đ
My grandparents gave me these helpful little colorless blender pencils. They’re for blending the Prismacolor colored pencils, and they work brilliantly!
My Grandpa and Grandma gave me these gorgeous ferns. ⼠Ohhhh I love plants in general and ferns especially!
Well, I hope you enjoyed this fun little post. đ Do you like Birthday Haul *ahem* Birthday Harvest posts?
As always, thanks for reading, my dears, and have a lovely day!
***Allison***
Hi, guys! Welcome back to Art Lab.
I’m so excited for today’s “art lesson” on how to draw galaxies! I learned this from the lovely video down below which was made by a teenage artist named Sydney Nielsen. She is super good at drawing!
Art Inspiration:
Ahh, so pretty. đ I decided to use a slightly different technique but with the same idea for today’s art.
I started with a black paper, so it would blend in with the rest of the drawing better, but you could definitely use white if you want. I also wanted to try using oil pastels instead of colored pencils, and it turned out very well! So just a note: whenever I say “oil pastels” in this tutorial, you can also use colored pencils like she showed in the video.
Let’s get started!
You will need the following:
1. Like the video showed, I started with light colors and gradually blended in the darker shades. I used the pink and blue combination because 1.) it looked so pretty when Sydney used them and 2.) there were several shades of each in my oil pastel box. XD
2. Next I drew in the white sparkle stars. I think this is what makes the piece really special and space-y. đ
3. Almost done! Just need to finish the stars yet. Get out your white acrylic paint and start splattering. It works best to get your brush a little wet before splattering the paint, but you don’t have to. Do NOT do this step on your mom’s favorite fuzzy rug or in your best Sunday clothes. Trust me, that will not end well. XD
If you want, add a few more sparkle stars with a white gel pen. I like to do this because they stand out more than the pastel or colored pencil stars do. And you’re done!
***Allison***
Allison Marie 