Hot Tea

A hot cup of tea for a cold winter day!

Reference Photo Source: Janis Photography, found on DeviantArt.
http://browse.deviantart.com/photography/?qh=&section=&q=yellow+tea+cup#/d15vfcp

This was a nice, quick drawing to do. It is very good practice to do simple, still object drawings now and then. They are especially helpful to practice shading, which affects the depth and dimensions of the drawing. Awareness of light sources and the contrast of light and shadows are important to these features and add to the realistic qualities of the drawing. I chose the above reference photo because I liked the way the handle made a heart shape with it's shadow on the teacup. I added the steam coming from the cup to add
warmth to the drawing-
because no-one likes cold tea!

Tara

Reference Photo

Framed

This is a drawing in graphite of my mom's dog, Tara. Tara is a Tervuren, or Belgian sheep dog. These dogs are tan and black, and have a lot of thick fur. For this drawing, the fur was the hardest to do. However, the face and especially the eyes were the elements that I was trying to draw attention to the most, so in this case it was not necessary for the fur to have a lot of detail. When creating a drawing I find it is important to think of what features you want to bring out the most. When drawing live subjects that are looking directly at the viewer, it is usually best to try to draw attention to the eyes. Eyes are often the best features for expressing emotion, and it is where most people naturally look when they are talking to someone. Unfortunately for me, at the time I was drawing this I did not have the best reference photo - as you can see above the camera flash completely blocked the eyes. Therefore, I had to draw the eyes from memory and occasionally looking at the real thing. This portrait was a Christmas present for my mother, hence the wait to post!

Work in Progress

I am currently working on a couple of pieces, which should be ready to post before the New Year. One piece is a completely original artwork I designed of a tiger. It is to be submitted competitively at the beginning of January for a chance to be the Dalhousie cover for their undergraduate writing journal, called Fathom. Since the tiger is Dal's mascot, I thought it might be a good idea for a cover, and I don't think it has been done for the journal before. So far it is turning out nicely, and hopefully it will be finished and ready to post soon.
Happy Holidays!

Frog

Reference Photo. Source:
 http://images.livescience.com/images/060707_amphibians_04.jpg

In my biology course at university we were leaning about amphibians - and I thought it would be fun to draw one!

Medium: Graphite pencils
Time: Approx. 3 hours.

Ice Skates

Ice Skates

Reference Photo
Source: http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-4991290-white-figure-skates.php

I don't usually draw objects/still life, but I wanted to do something different and so decided to draw some ice skates. It was hard to get a good picture of the drawing, but I think this looks close enough to the real thing.

Medium: Derwent graphite pencils, eraser, sketch paper.

Snow Leopard

Snow Leopard

Reference Photo
Source: http://woxys.deviantart.com/art/Nanga-the-beauty-queen-

The snow leopard - one of the most beautiful animals in the world and inspirational to draw. I didn't get this piece to turn out exactly as I wanted...I'm still experimenting with the colored pencil medium.

Medium: Prismacolor colored pencils, black pastel paper 23x30.5 cm.

Mandarin Duck

Mandarin Duck

Reference Photo from National Geographic:
http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/

I wanted to do this piece in colored pencil because the colors of the feathers are so pretty!

Medium: Prismacolor colored pencils, 35.5x27.9 cm sketch paper.

New DeviantArt Member!

Drawing has always been a fun hobby for me, and I have recently decided to share it with other people. The two main ways I do this are through this blog and through DeviantArt. If you have not visited http://www.deviantart.com/ I suggest you do it as soon as possible! It is a really cool site. You can view other people's artwork, and if you are an artist yourself (of any medium and skill level) you can become a member of the site (for free). I recently did this and it is great because I get an account to post my work on the site, and other artists can view it and give me feedback. I find this especially helpful as an amateur artist. My code name on DeviantArt is HarmonyInContrast. Follow this link if you would like to view my profile (and gallery) on DeviantArt: http://harmonyincontrast.deviantart.com/

Dragon

Drawing Reference: Original Artwork by J "NeonDragon" Peffer

This is my first dragon drawing. I relied on reference material for this one too, as you can see below. There are some differences between my drawing and the original, intentionally done. The mediums are of course also different, as I used only graphite pencils.

Drawing Reference Obtained
from DRAGONART by
J "NeonDragon" Peffer.

I found my drawing reference in the book: DRAGONART How to Draw Fantastic Dragons and Fantasy Creatures by J "NeonDragon" Peffer. The author/artist also has a really cool website: http://neondragonart.com

I really enjoyed drawing this dragon. Credit for the original artwork (drawing reference) goes to J "NeonDragon" Peffer.

Arabian Horse

Reference Photo
Photographer: Bob Langrish
Source: Spirit of the Horse book

The photo I used for reference was taken by photographer Bob Langrish. If you like drawing horses I would recommend using his photos as references, because they are BEAUTIFUL! This particular photo I found in a book called Spirit of the Horse, photos by Bob Langrish and text by Nicola Jane Swinney.

Thestral

This is my drawing of what I imagined a Thestral would look like. You may recognize the name of this creature if you have read the Harry Potter books. I drew this before I ever saw the Thestrals that were designed for the Harry Potter movies (which I think looked amazing).
For this drawing I used a picture of a horse skeleton as a basic reference. I drew the skeleton first, then the outline of flesh/skin over top. For the wings I referred to pictures of bat wings. Although it doesn't look like the animated Thestrals made for the movies, I have to say that I am happy with how my drawing turned out:

Unicorn

Reference Photo
Source: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3371/3591407464_a7e30e3b99_b.jpg

Materials:
22.9 x 30.5 cm sketch paper

Blending stumps (1/4 and 1/2)

Q-tips
White erasers
Derwent graphic pencil set (Soft: 9B, 8B, 7B, 6B, 5B, 4B, 3B, 2B, B, HB, F, H).

Time: Estimated 4-6 hrs.

Comments/Tips:

I don't have an exact time stamp on this because I worked on it over several days, whenever I had spare time.

I did this freehand - a.k.a no grids. I almost never use grids, though it works well for some people. Instead, I take my time with my outline sketch in the beginning and eyeball it for proportional correctness.

I used all the pencil types in my set. For the mane, I started with the lightest shades (lighter shades are the hardest pencils, such as B, HB, F, H) and then worked in the darker shades (the pencils with softer graphite, the softest one being the 9B). I had to be careful with this though - you can't press too hard with the harder pencils because they will break your paper; also the soft graphite does not go on well over top.

For shading I used blending stumps, and I also like to use Q-tips for larger areas. Some people also like to use kneaded erasers or blunt white erasers for blending, but I prefer these tools.

I did the highlights last, using white erasers. I keep cutting my erasers down so that they have a nice sharp edge - particularly necessary for the hair of the mane. Luckily, because I used different pencil shades for light/dark areas, most of the highlighting was already done.

Below is a video showing this piece at different stages of development:

Gryphon

Here is a drawing I did back in August 2009. It is my version of a gryphon (or griffin, if you prefer). I used a few reference photos for this one to create my own image. Some of the pictures I used as references were of hawks and tigers. I know the traditional gryphon is supposed to be an eagle's head and a lion's body, but I wanted to do something a little different. I like the tiger stripes.

Bison

Lily

Canada Goose

                 

Doe

Jerucho

This is a drawing that I did of my cousin's horse, a bay Andalusian called Jerucho. I did this drawing a year ago (July 30, 2009).

Twilight Book Cover

I was bored one day and decided to draw the front cover of Twilight. I think it actually turned out pretty well. I just used an eraser and a mechanical pencil (2B). I drew this a while ago, so I don't remember how long it took me to complete.

    

                                                 

                                                   

Please view this from an artistic point of view (i.e, if you love/hate Twilight, this is not the place to discuss it, so please don't fill up the comment box with Twilight stuff).