Muffin top illustrated, take one

Lately I haven't been very productive but my friend Angie has put a stop to that asking me to make some illustrations, so I'm having fun doodling, inking and playing with them in photoshop.


She's starting an awesome fashion blog called Fashionista Mileurista (it's in spanish but I'm pretty sure with time she'll make it available in both spanish and english, go take a look!) and wants some illustrations to go with the articles, since one of the images she wants is a muffin top and I was already in the funny-faces mood I came up with this one that may or may not be suitable, either way I did have so much fun with it!

Now I'm thinking that I'll probably play a bit more with this image on paper, with watercolors, to see how it looks.



I've promised to make a little smiling face for her Twitter icon too which hopefully is up to par with the ones she made years ago for mine, I like the final linework but was worried because once resized to the actual tiny icon size it wasn't working, a cropping was needed but I still wasn't happy (click on the image to full view it and you'll see the cropped icon actual size) and after taking a look at it she agreed too.

So this is currently in the middle of a changing process, as much as I like the idea of having her inside her bag that will most probably be edited out, and I need to figure how to keep that scarf in, happily floating around and still not interfering or getting the face reduced.

So revamping the current icon is already in my to-do list and -since I've been playing with styles for the blog illus- I'll probably give a shot to the idea of a more realistic detail of a muffin top seen from behind too (such as the rough sketch on the left of the page), in graphite/charcoal and watercolors.


What do you think? quirky and crazy fun or serious and realistic?

Going romanesque in this new watercolour painting

This one is a detail of the romanesque main facade of the Basilica de Santa María la Mayor in Pontevedra, I took many photos of this doorfront and surroundings when I was there last september with the idea of a series so it was due time to make the first approach. I chose this one first because I loved the idea of having a figure sculpted with glasses on, and I liked the fact that a skull was included too.

Each time I think of Galicia the 2 words that come to mind are "green" and "stone" that's what I want to be the focus in these series, today I'll be working in some texture tests, so instead of a color test I'll see what kind of pigments will work better for texture purposes.

I don't usually share the process previous to painting, right? it's different for each new painting I do. Here are some rough sketches and value studies for this one, I always said my sketches were rough, that explain my "rough sketches" to be uber rough.














Links to the whole WIP: Step 1, Step 2, Step 3, Step 4, Step 5

Subway sketching past sunday

I haven't sketched outdoors lately at all, looking through my small Surroundings sketchbook the last one I did outdoors is dated sept.24th, so last sunday I took my sketchbook with me in my way to take a test, resulting in 7 sketches in the subway.

The first 3 were from the few people on the train around 8 am, there's not too much people at that hour in the subway on sundays, the good thing is that the three of them were distracted and/or more than willing to pose for me so I could look as much as I wanted, the color and text were added later at home. My favourite model of this batch was the poser, the "sleeping" guy of the 3rd pic, he wasn't sleeping at all! I clearly saw him staring at me while I was drawing the previous one and the moment he noticed me looking for a new subject he just posed like that, I had a great time drawing him in those baggy clothes and much more interesting pose than the usual passenger.


I did the final 4 in my way back home at midday, and this time I was lucky enough to sit in front of sleeping-party-girl, I've found that a sleeping model is the best in the world! had to make 2 sketches of her, face and feet; I'm not happy with the standing man though, I messed up proportions badly :(, and then couldn't finish the last one either because we arrived at my station but he was really interesting, I wish I'd had a couple more minutes to sketch him.


And here's the one done in september, I don't think I posted it back then, looking at it now I wish I'd forget about the rest and focused on the corner with the poster and the motorbike :) loved drawing it!

Maybe I'm just doodling giraffes but at least I'm not procrastinating

I doodled it yesterday night and started throwing acrylics in, I've been playing with it this morning and it's ended being acrylics, marker and chalky colored pencils. Somehow among all my stuff I don't have any kind of fixative, how has that happened!?!?

Plus I've just noticed it's anatomically incorrect!! WHAT!?!?!?! Oh, well, it'll have to do.

I hope this finish with my obsession of making giraffes for this guy who's gathering 1 million of them.

The three owls

I'm thinking of giving them a tiny weeny head up there between the eyes, I gotta decide about that yet, meanwhile here it is, the wannabe 3 wise owls that can't help seeing evil. My favorite is still the one in the middle, poor thing.



I haven't got time to adjust the colors in PS, I'm sorry if the scanner has made it too flashy again.

Today I should paint something more in the serious field, yes? YES!

Link to the previous step: Step 1

Three wise owls?

I've been thinking about the 3 wise monkeys lately, in japanese it's said "don't see, don't hear, don't speak", in english it's adapted to see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. And I've kept wondering why us, awesome westerns, haven't adapted the imagery entirely, owls are traditionally symbols of wisdom here, right? so why not adapting it to the three wise owls? well, keep thinking, after a quick doodle playing with that idea it's almost obvious why not...



I better let it rest for a while so the ink can settle a bit more before throwing water all over the place.

Santa Claus is coming to town (as a greeting card)

Good morning everybody! Ok, the fourth card is finished before the second LOL, this is Santa coming to town during Christmas night, get the cookies and milk ready guys!


So far the first 3 are already up at my prints shop in Deviant Art if you want some, from tomorrow on they'll be offering a 30% discount! Don't miss it :)

I'll upload a banner later on the side of the blog so everybody have it handy during the whole season.


An since I haven't put up the progress of this one so far, here are some shots I took while painting:



Link to the previous step.

September swap

Well, I've just received an email from Reni saying she got it, I'm so glad that the small painting arrived safe and sound and that she liked it, I guess now I can post it and why not as a little step by step?

It is based on one of the drawings I made during my trip to Galicia during early september, we have an old little quince tree there, I have no idea how old it is, sure older than me, it feels great to sit on that wall so what better idea than taking the sketchbook and draw for a while?



And the step by step (ok, I know, it's easier to see them if they're not changing constantly so here are the finished quinces and the former graphite sketch), now I can sit, relax and wait for my own surprise in the mail, can't wait to see who's from!

Back home!

I'm back from my trip to Galicia, had a great time but even if I planned to paint A LOT rain soon disagreed with me, got to stay home more than I'd planned but still doodled some landscapes from there, these 2 are the views from the balcony.



I tried to paint this first one but it wasn't working as I expected so I ended up adding marker instead of finishing the color.





This other was done as an experiment, I wanted it to look like I was making a map instead of a drawing so it's kind of sterilized, not weight in the lines and lots of detailed tiny stuff, my neighbor could tell who lived in some of the houses so I guess the experiment worked, though it doesn't really look interesting LOL.

sketches

These are near my home again, same distance but in oposite ways, the first one is the Glorieta de Quevedo, a beautiful plaza with a fountain and sculpture of the writer in the middle, it looks gorgeous specially during summer since the whole morning the sun hits the water running and it sparkles beautifully. Looks like the second one is currently a building used by the administration, it's funny I've spent all my life thinking it was a church but it isn't, I've just read it was built as a hospital for workers, I guess I'll stick to the fact that it DOES look like a church so I don't look completely stupid lol.





And then a couple at the waiting room again, if I'm lucky I won't have to spend hours there anymore so I'll take these as a celebration for that

backs backs and more backs

I've just realized waiting rooms are perfect to sketch people, but it looks like sketching their back is the only way to sketch them freely without having to worry about time, when they are not backwards they tend to get anxious and run away lol.

I loved the ear of that man, I couldn't make it justice

Saturday doodle on site

Yep, this time my surroundings' journal entry is not even a place per se, I was waiting for the bus again after almost loosing a hard fight against my *gasp* building's gate, yep, it refused to let me out no matter what, do you know how it feels to be let out of your home? (as in forgetting the keys inside) well now think how does feel like being locked INSIDE. At least it wasn't only me, an old lady was there with me trying to get out too.

So when I finally got out and went to the bus stop just to see that the new advertisement there was the promo of Ong Bak 2 I realised I had my journal doodle of the day, because when you feel like kicking and punching something there's nothing like thai style, with your knees or your elbows or your knees AND elbows... while flying! then again I can't do a flying kick to save my life so drawing it should be more than enough.

Couldn't sketch it all since the bus came pretty soon for once. I think this one will remain in black and white.

Morning sketches

I've been neglecting these weekly sketches, shame on me! so I'm trying to resume them properly, even if I hadn't even picked my sketchbook since July 24th I'd put it in my bag yesterday, met a friend to had breakfast and after a nice morning chatting and window shopping, in my way back home I decided to stop for a while and sketch a bit since it wasn't late, these are the results, both sketches are not farther than 20 meters one from the other


There where I put a blue sky actually is a huge net surrounding a golf area I think, I haven't get in there ever and even if I wanted to sketch from the front garden there was a security guard there so I didn't even try. So the front door will have to do, it's a beautiful place even from the outside anyway.



This other one was my first target, all the way back home I had the fountain in my mind, then it happened to be the most unsuitable thing fora quick sketch, the concrete walls that form the fountain are completely uneven with an interesting design and I failed badly to capture it, yet I hope it still has the right "feel" to it, I enjoyed painting it.


Next time I'll choose a place in shadow to stand while sketching, august is being hot!

More sketches

I'm not painting at all lately, it seems that everyday there's something that keeps me away from the painting table so I'm balancing it doing the july sketching, fast, easier and pressure-free, I could get used to it, it's so much fun! I thought after sketching the open MRI it was mandatory to sketch the high field one too.



And this weekend wasn't a painting weekend at all, I've spent it at a friends house taking care of her dog while she and her husband were out, dog's name is Luca and she's really old and having a lot of health problems and she never ever stays alone in a room if she can go with you so it was like having a second shadow somehow, but she's a doll and I had a good time with her and seems like she did too since when I was leaving their house she followed me to the stairs instead of staying home with my friend. I planned to draw a lot of sketches of her but since 95% of the time her pose was the same I ended up doing only one.

midnight incoherence

Since I could have had a better day I guess it's time to spice it up with some stupidity that'll let me go to bed with a smile in my face so, here! Rhonda, you thought I wouldn't do it, right? but I did! just in my journal though, it's probably not apropiate for a big banner after all,



And I got some goodies last week that I forgot to post, I was going to smell the aqua fix (yes I had to buy it after all, even if there's a chance I never ever use it) but it happens to have one of those secure caps, stupid thing! one of those that can't be opened just by turning, you need to push and then turn to make sure that children can't open it, well I spent over 2 minutes trying to open it duh', and after all the effort it doesn't really smell! I don't even know why I have to smell all these new products when I buy them lol, anyway I bought some sketchbooks too and a set of Pitt pens that I love, I'm a new fan! And of course the excuse to place the order in the first place, a tube of raw sienna :)