Free Draw Friday - Fritz

Here is my cat, in a cat tree. I feel it looks pretty basic. Maybe even a little cartooney. I wish it was more realistic, but, practice makes better.

Sorcery - Fritz

The prompt today was sorcery. The alternate prompt was lamps. I just did them both. I haven't checked, but there is a 90% chance that if I look through the reddit thread, I'll find this same mashup. I can't be the only one who thought up this joke. Oh well.

Earlier in the morning, I decided to mix some colors and see what I could get. The answer? I need practice mixing colors. For instance, you'll see one combo has an asterisk in it. The reason being that this mix horrible, but, I know for a fact I can make a gorgeous orange out of it. The trick, almost no red. Anyways, I spent way too long on the chart. I know that there are better and faster ways to do it. I'm thinking about having a page in a sketchbook to try just two colors per page, with different mix percentages of those two colors. That'll be a lot of work.

Ancient Tomes - Fritz

I thought I did pretty good yesterday. Well, today, here is this crap. The prompt was "ancient tomes" and I thought that sounded pretty cool. I thought I had a cool idea. Turns out, not really.

I think, if I was honest, that the thing that messed me up on this particular sketch was that I rushed it. I didn't really take my time on perspective and the painting was rushed.

After ink and paint I was looking at it thinking I could do better. But, I'd already done it, so I thought I could fix it. I added some colored pencil and some white Sakura Gelly Roll ink. I think it helped. Kind of.

Fantasy Plants & Nature - Fritz

With every prompt that they put up on reddit, they offer an alternate prompt. The alternate today was "coffee tables." I wasn't feeling the plants thing, in spite of mixing 30 square inches of greens and such. Just wasn't feeling it.

Our coffee table, also known as an old trunk in some circles, is also an old trunk. I bought it at a junk store we have here in town, carried it about five blocks, and I love it. There are several different things written on it, and I've tracked the trunk from Alaska to Indiana to Texas. Of course, those things are just painted on there, it might not be true.

Elves - Darling

 

Today's  prompt was Elves. 

I spent the majority of my time on this drawing on my elf gal, but finished up with a pretty little wisp. 

One day, maybe I'll start scanning my drawings instead of just taking a picture. Such a crummy capture like this. 

-Darling

Elves - Fritz

The post title is a lie. The prompt was elves. I watched Netflix. Tony Robbins was on there. I put elf ears on Tony Robbins. Don't judge.

Non-Dominant Hand - Fritz

Today we were meant to try our hand, our non-dominant hand, at drawing something. I looked up left-handed famous people and President Barack Obama was first on that list.

Netflix - Fritz

What is the last thing you watched on Netflix? That was the prompt today. For me, it was Stranger Things.  I'm only about half way through it, but so far, it has all the things I love.  Conspiracies, mystery, a faceless mystery corporation/government agency.  Count me in.  Now, Winona Ryder is pale, but she isn't this pale.  The picture is a little washed out, but also I painted it way too light.  I am happy that it at least vaguely looks like her.

Interestingly, she is the hardest part of the show for me to get into.  Like, she's acting it really well, but I can't help to see her as a teen aged goth type.  Though she's in her forties, if they had cast her as one of the highschoolers, it would have been easier for me to believe.  She's great, I'm just not buying it.

Free Draw [Bird Week] - Darling

The Reddit "SketchDaily" prompts all week have been bird themed. Today, being "Free Draw Friday" during Bird Week, I've decided to draw a few "birds." 

There has been a "scheduled power outage" at my place today, which is annoying, so I just said fuck it and took photos of my drawings rather than scan them properly. 

I think there is a lot of improvement to be had in some of these drawings, but I'm generally happy with them. 

 

^ I referenced this outfit/pose from a "line of lovelies" in The King and the Chorus Girl. I haven't seen the movie, but the ladies sure looked lovely in the photo, indeed. I failed a bit on capturing the winged sleeves on the top, but the idea is half there. Also, blonde hair isn't easy to draw, by any means. Wondering now how to capture the more subtle hues in blonde hair, rather than resorting only to noxious yellow.

 

^ Attempted to draw Rita Moreno. I definitely don't think I captured her fine, pretty eyes or her smile, but I like the shapes and the colors! Maybe a year from now I'll do one of those "one year later re-draws" and see how my skills *hopefully* improve.

 

^ Pretty much all around happy with this one! I think she kind of ended up with a "Mona Lisa" expression. What's she thinking?

- Darling

Balcony - Fritz

Today, it's all about the balconies, baby. I mean, not for me, personally. No, I'm pretty sure those things are death traps.

I am having a blast practicing watercoloring, but I think I should paint in a bigger sketchbook. I won't until I finish all the pages in this one, but it would be nice.

Fireflies Didn't Work - Fritz

So, right now on reddit, all the prompts are birds. I didn't want to paint a bird, so I asked my sister what I should paint. She told me fireflies. Well, joke is on her. I tried. And guess what? I can't paint well enough to capture their ghost-like nature-beauty.

I gave up. What could I paint? How about...my paint! So here is my paint palette/box thingy. I have a black color in my palette. I really dislike it. Forget the fact that it's actually graphite grey. I still don't like it. I've been having such a blast mixing colors, even blacks and greys. The blacks and greys in this painting are mixed by me. I feel like the "black" I put in there is just a waste of space.

Car stuff is really expensive. It's the worst.

Pokemon GO

When I started this blog I said to myself "Fritz, this lunch meat has gone bad." Now, those things aren't related, but now we know each other better. Also around the same time I said I wouldn't miss a day on this blog unless something important comes up. This was before I knew Pokemon GO was going to come out.

Pokemon GO. You've probably heard of it. How do I know? I actually watched my entire city shut down completely for three days straight. Shut down and playing Pokemon GO. Went to church on Sunday, Pokemon GO. Park, Pokemon GO. Target, Pokemon GO. The only time I didn't see Pokemon GO happening was when Tiny Feet suggested Pokemon was for kids. You get that dirty language out of my house, Tiny Feet!

In actuality, Pokemon and I go way back. One of my first jobs ever was working for Wizards of the Coast, maker of the Pokemon card game. It was a retail gig, but also I had a lot to do with running the Pokemon tournaments for the kids there. It was a lot of fun.

Anyways, here are my sketches for today and the weekend. This is Koffing and Oddish from Pokemon. One thing I was really happy with with these is the colors. I've been pretty hooked on the aspect of mixing color and I think I'm doing fairly well. I like the puzzle of seing a color and figuring our what it's made of. For the purple of Koffing I started with Cerulean Blue, Chromium and Quinacridone Rose. I figured the skyish blue and the pink/red would make a good purple. I wasn't right initially. My first mix was a very royal purple sort of color. I saw I was, somehow, lacking both blue and red in the color. I added a touch more Quin Rose and then a ton more Cerulean. That got me a lot closer but I realized I was missing some warmth from the color so I added a bit, just a touch, really, of Ultramarine Blue. That did the trick!

I've learned that having a scrap piece of paper for testing colors is an absolute must. Anyways, there you go!

Free Draw Friday - Fritz

I asked the wife what I should sketch today. She said cats. I'll probably do that, but first, this building. We have a downtown area here in town we call "The Square." It's really a very cool place. Live music all the time, weird hippies, trees, all sorts of great things. One of those things is J&J's Pizza. The pizza and calzones are amazing.

The most fun thing about this was that I did it on location. "Plein air." I was covered in ants by the end of it, but it was fun. I lugged my entire painting kit out there, but it was too much. I mean, I used it all, but I need to think of a way to have the tools I need in a smaller package.

Vexillology - Fritz

Today's prompt was "vexillology." Apparently, that's something to do with maps. The study of. I didn't feel like doing anything like that, so I painted this guy in headphones.

Tiger Lily - Darling

Well... it's Tiger Lily... as a tooth. I had some dental work today, so I guess my head is just in that space.  

Tiger Lily - Fritz

Today's prompt: tiger lilies. I didn't feel like painting a flower so I painted Tiger Lily from Peter pan

Lazy River - Fritz

The prompt today was "lazy river."  I guess there is one good shadow that I like in this.  Otherwise, I think it's pretty terrible.  That's why I'm painting and drawing every day, though.  I'd like to be less terrible.

Benjamin Franklin - Fritz

Here he is.  I painted it.

Anatomical Diagram of Human Anus and Cthulhu Vagina

I didn't bother painting this one because I couldn't stand looking at either of them.

Free Draw Friday - Darling

This is from LAST week... because that's just how I do, sometimes. This was my random idea, Mushrooms and Constellations. It's not much to look at, but I'm happy with some parts of it. I would like to get better at going for bold, deep colors, rather than the light *barely there* that I do now.

The Hulk vs ???

The Hulk vs Childhood Obesity.

Scarf Llama - Fritz

Painted the scarf llama for my wife!