Fairy tales' end

Carla's online class, 2014: Year of the Fairy Tale drew to a close this month.  A great experience, I enjoyed the class structure where there is a research period followed by drawing, painting and mixed media work.

Final fairy tale art: adding some color to the title page.

Graphite, ink and colored pencil.

I benefited from this year-long class through exploration of techniques (new, old, experimental) so much so that I am eagerly awaiting "2015: Year of the...???"

Magic horses that are basically the same... but different :-)

My sketch:

The use-the-paint-tube as a tool technique (Carla's 2014: Year of the Fairy Tale) yielded this horse:

Bold.

Using the same sketch for inspiration, here's the next drawing:

I immediately thought, "Inktense colored pencils".

And here he is:

A magic horse and washable markers... a test

As in my previous post, the creative impetus for this comes from Carla Sonheim's 2014: Year of the Fairy Tale.

Never having worked in washable markers where I add water to them, I thought I'd do some testing.

First, sketch an imaginary magic horse in graphite and then color with markers.  Use a brush to add water:

Get the colors down.

Next, more layering and blending:

Add the eyes :-)

Then details with graphite and charcoal:

Finis

These washable markers are a bit difficult to blend using water but they are easy to clean up and very inexpensive.  This was a fun experiment.

From sketch to sculpture

The creative impetus for this post is from an assignment for Carla Sonheim's 2014: Year of the Fairy Tale online class.

This is the sketch:

Hm-m-m, I wondered how I could fashion those legs... ones that would allow this horse to stand on its own.  I used a spool of wire.  I didn't know how to create proper "joints", therefore, conceptually I would be creating a three-dimensional "one-liner".

With my wire as my "ink" and needle-nose pliers as my nib, this is the result:

Begin at one point and keep going.

3-D one liner :-)

For bulk, I cover the wire form with aluminum foil and then applied the modeling "clay":

Yay, still standing.

Big head and big tail.

I really enjoyed making this little guy.  I still have a lot of wire left on the spool...

More Mixed Media Horses

Horses for 2014: Year of the Fairy Tale.

I had never used washi tape before except in creating a few greeting cards to send to friends.  However, I had seen several instances of its use in collage and I liked them a lot.  So-o-o, combine washi with paper collage... et voici, more horses :-)

 

And then just washi tapes:

If you'd like to see more from before, click here for yesterday's post :-)

Mixed Media Horses

In  Carla's  2014: Year of the Fairy Tale class, we are on our seventh fairy tale - and our prep work involves horses literally drawn from one's own imagination  :-)

After finishing the suggested 60 line drawings of horses, I was looking for another way to create twenty more.  I used a simple technique from another of Carla's online classes, Blobimal Artists Books, random collage pieces adhered to the paper and from there "finding" and defining the horse with line work.

These are some of my favorite horses created this way:

 

The random collage elements get my creative juices flowing :-)

Designing ball gowns

Eight months in,  2014: Year of the Fairy Tale online class is going strong.  Carla's class assignments explore many techniques and themes that I can "take for a spin"; if I am really taken by any I can explore further on my own.  The class keeps moving on and every fairy tale teaches something new.  This experience in itself is valuable for me.

We are in the discovery period of Fairy Tale #6 - and it's all about ball gowns.

Designing/daydreaming the gowns, the details and of course the fabrics...sigh.  I enjoyed it so much I was surprised.  Since these are just black and white sketches, much is left to one's imagination.  So let it take flight :-) 

For waltzing... gowns with room to move.

Under the ballroom lights - sparkle, sheen, translucence.

Illustrations from Fairy Tale #5

(2014: Year of the Fairy Tale) where the emphasis is on gesture, emotion, symbolism and background.

This first one is of the pregnant Queen with one of her sons:

Delivering very sad news.

The young princess and the youngest of her brothers:

Come out of hiding...

The young Queen and King:

Together <3

Of the four, my favorite illustration... just because I love ravens :-)

 

 

A brother raven.