The Butterfly Grows

Yay, the poor butterfly now has antennae and a head!  I went ahead and sketched in some flowers tonight and have started the background shading.

The book I am using to teach myself is called Mastering the Art of Drawing and Painting Animals by Jonathan Truss and Sarah Hoggett.  I cannot wait to try out some other techniques in the book.  No, I'm not getting a commission from that link or from talking about the book. ;)  I just like it when I can find things that other people have referenced easily and thought you might too!

Other Projects

Sometimes, one gets to a point and has to venture out to other mediums.  It helps start the creative juices flowing, allows you to appreciate your fellow artists more and sometimes, you find you like it better.

In my case, I have always enjoyed sketching, but never have felt it was my medium.  I picked up a book at Barnes and Noble recently, demonstrating how to sketch animals using a variety of mediums.  Colored pencils, charcoal, oils, acrylics and even watercolor!  It has wonderful tips, a great breakdown of tools needed and just enough guidance to give you a push.

This is the current project I'm working on from the book...a monarch with colored pencils.  I'm curious to see how it turns out, but was amazed at myself how pretty the wings look...but, I've always been partial to monarchs.

Excuse the poor picture. It is from my phone's camera.

Creature Colors

So, the mysterious tentacle beast continues to progress and grow...

The creature has been baked, after carefully positioning the tentacles prior to baking.

As you can see, the tentacles overlap, writhing and grasping each other.  There is madness behind my reasoning.  I have a lot of ideas for this piece and how it's going to be finished.

First thing, though, that ugly flesh colored clay had to go!

I used a mixture of acrylic paints and mica powders to get the iridescent shine that can be (somewhat) seen in this piece.  The pictures really do not do it justice.

A closeup shot that I just like.  You can still see the indentations that the vase made when it was propping up the tentacles.  That's okay...it has already been covered in the next step, which I will be sharing with you very soon. :)