Illustration Friday: Wings

For this week's Illustration Friday challenge, and for our (fingers crossed) next Super Bowl champions, I give you Ravens in Flight.

I drew this with the real drippy pen brush in Painter. I love the real drippy pen!  It feels so natural.  It's much more responsive to pressure and stroke speed than the crowquil or bamboo pen brushes.  Expect to see more real drippy pen images here.

I added two layers of Painter's real watercolor.  I know I said I didn't think I'd use it again because it's painfully slow, but I could not resist.  I am a watercolorist at heart.  The second layer was a killer.  It took my poor little PC ages to process my brushstrokes.  I may have to plan compositions that require only one layer of real watercolor.

My Favorite Things

Inspired by Abigail Halpin, I have decided to follow John Hendrix's advice to find my artistic voice.  Please visit his blog to read his five recommendations.  It will be worth your time.  My post today addresses Hendrix's first recommendation: "Learn to solve problems on your own terms."

As Hendrix points out, "When we make things we enjoy, our work gets better."  I tend to forget about this when I start to solve an illustration problem.  I focus on the specific needs of the assignment and set aside the what I love most about drawing.  This is not usually necessary.  I can infuse my illustration with things I love to draw most.  Hendrix offers up a simple, but helpful exercise: Make a list of 100 things you like drawing and keep the list up in your studio to remind you of what you should be including in your artwork.

Here are some of the things on my list:

gnarly trees
children climbing
town houses
castles
Victorian houses
skinny cats making mischief
apples
steaming coffee mugs
teapots
anthropomorphized rats
tiny mice
old stone churches
stacks of hardback books
ink bottles
fire hydrants

You can see a lot of these things in the older posts on this blog,

... and you can expect to see even more in future posts.

Illustration Friday: Myth

For Illustration Friday: Myth: 

Self portrait as a drawing demon.

Executed in Painter 12 using the crowquil pen and various acrylic brushes.

Illustration Friday: Ocean

This week's Illustration Friday offering and my first stab at using the real watercolor brushes in Painter.  I like the realistic look, but the strokes take so long to load that I can't see myself using the feature regularly.  Next, I'll be exploring other means of adding color to my digital ink drawings.  I will definitely be making more use of Painter's crowquil pen brush.  It's heavenly!