Author: Cynical Woman

 

 
I had fun with this one today. I got the tentacles colored in and then I decided to add spots, similar to the ones on the images of octopi that I looked at for my color references. I used Concepts airbrush tool to make the blue spots first. The airbrush tool gives a fuzzy faded edge to the stroke, which I liked. I just dabbed on the spots here and there, changing the stroke size as I went to get some variety. Then I went back with the filled stroke tool again and drew in the dark pinkish spots over the blue ones. That pink is actually the hot orange I’ve been using, but with the opacity set to about 35%. Everything else in the drawing is so crisp with flat colors, I wanted the spots to be a little different.

After working on this mermaid for a while, I switched back to work on this one…

 

 
No, I still havent finished her hair yet, but I have spent a lot of time on it. Each one of those dark red swirls is drawn by hand, all of them carefully fitted together to give the hair what I hope is a sense of motion.  I expect it’s going to be another couple of days before I get this hair done, and then I have to think about what I’m going to do with the dress//tentacles! I really haven’t thought about that one. I do want it to have some decoration, but I’m not sure I’ll have the energy left to do anything with the dress/tentacles after finishing the hair. I’ll figure something out, though. This is coming along too nicely for me to not give that dress/tentacles some love and affection 🙂

 
Slowly but surely, inch by bloody inch, this piece is getting done. And that’s how it is with every piece of art – every drawing, every painting, every crochet project, every story, every novel… They all get done a little at a time until suddenly you’re done. And then you look around and go, “Now what?”

It’s the “Now what?” part that always gets me. I made a beautiful drawing. Now what do I do with it? Seriously, I need to do something with all this artwork, just like I need to do something with all the crochet I did last month, and all the polymer clay charms I did last summer. I know I could open an Etsy shop, or post stuff on Society 6 or Zazzle, but for some reason, I never get around to it. Maybe that should be January’s creative challenge. “Now what? Sell it!”

What do you think?

 

 
When I first started working on this drawing in Adobe Illustrator Draw, I went with a very different color scheme – muted pinks and greens. But I’ve been using those colors a lot lately, so I decided to change things up for the second go around.

For inspiration, I looked at images of octopi. A lot of the images I saw had a lot of oranges, hot blues, maroons and purples, and occasionally some bright golden yellows. I played with that for a while and came up with a color scheme I think will work – dark reddish browns, primrose yellows, bright aquas, and dark oranges. I think it works, but I’m still working out how I’ll use those colors throughout the entire drawing.

One thing that will help is Concepts color wheel. Concepts uses Copic colors. When you select a color, it will also show a list of different shades or tints of that color. In the image above, you can see the all the shades and tints for the dark reddish brown I chose. I’m using the lightest shade of thatfor the ruffled trim on the dress, and I used two other shades of that for the top hat. I’m doing the same with the other colors as well, and it seems to be working out.

So I’ll keep working at the colors on this one. I’m still working on the other mermaid, the one with all the long flowing red hair. That hair is just killing me, but I’m determined to get it done. And I’ve got the Pirate Queen set up as an SVG file, so I think the last week of this month, I’m going to take that drawing and any others I’ve finished and clean them up then post them someplace where people can get prints. I’m thinking maybe Society 6 for these, although I could also set them up as shirts on Threadless or cards and other items on Zazzle. I don’t really know yet. I’ll figure it out, and let you know.

One of the reasons I’ve spent so much time working with Concepts this month is because I’ve been looking for a replacement app for Adobe Ideas. Adobe replaced Adobe Ideas with Adobe Illustrator Draw, which is very nice for drawing with, but…

I cannot export my work in any useable format.

Adobe Ideas allowed users to export their drawings as a vector PDF, which could then be opened in Illustrator or almost any other desktop vector program. Adobe Illustrator Draw will only allow users to export drawings as low resolution PNGs. Unless you own a copy of Adobe Illustrator CC on your desktop. Then you can send Adobe Illustrator Draw images to CC and work on them there. Of course, that’s assuming you have a copy of Adobe CC. Which I don’t.

The end result is that I have some drawings that were half-finished when Adobe made the switch from Ideas to Illustrator Draw. I wasn’t worried initially about it, because Adobe said they would be adding the SVG or PDF export eventually. Well, it’s been about a year since Adobe switched things over, and still no SVG/PDF export. So I am now exporting LOW RESOLUTION PNGS of my half-finished drawings in Adobe Illustrator Draw so I can re-start them (and FINISH them) in Concepts.

And I have to say, the results are pretty good.

 

 
For this image, I was able to go back to the original sketch, done in Sketchbook Pro by Autodesk, and start from the beginning again with the inking and colors. And how does it compare with Adobe Illustrator Draw? Well, here’s the unfinished drawing from that app.

 

 
I actually think the inking looks better in the Concepts app. There’s more line variation, and I have more control over each individual line. Plus Concepts has a text tool, which is a nice thing to have!

I got back some images of the busted robot coloring page I did earlier this month. I should be posting those tomorrow. For now, I’m going to watch Doctor Who and relax for the rest of the evening.

 

 
I love desaturated greens and pinks, and these seem like the perfect colors for this drawing. Now that I’ve laid down the flat colors, I’m going to add some details – cross hatching, highlights, shading, more hints of those pretty pinks, greys and greens. Time to have fun!

 

 
I’ve just finished my fourth day in a row of volunteering for Girl Scouts. I think I’d be willing right now to drink some of that wine.

No comments today. Too busy, too tired. Just pics of today’s drawings.