Episode 64

Hello, dears!

In honor of it being less than three weeks until Christmas, today I’m going to show you guys a tutorial on how to make easy but beautiful Christmas-themed art. Grab some art supplies, turn on some Christmas music, and here we go! 😀

Art Prompt: Watercolor Nativity Scene

I hope this isn’t cheating, but the art prompt for today is actually my own art… XD I made a series of printables like this one for my Etsy shop, and liked making them so much I wanted to show you guys how you to paint it for yourselves!

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You Will Need:

• Waterproof pen (like Microns) and/or a pencil
• Blue, black, and white paint (I used watercolor)
• White gel pen (optional)
• Painting supplies (paintbrush, heavy paper, water, etc.)

1. First, let’s draw the stable. I’m using a pen so it will show through the watercolor better later, but you can use a pencil if you want. This part is pretty easy – make a simple house shape, and a line beneath it for the ground.

2. Next we’ll make the manger. Draw a rectangle with a thick “X” beneath it. Then draw a tiny face and half an oval for the body.

3. Start drawing Joseph. (I penciled in the whole thing and then outlined it block by block in pen so it’s easier for you guys to follow along.) First, draw a tall, narrow triangle with a blunt end. If this looks weird, don’t worry – we’ll fill in everything with black later on, so the lines won’t show.

4. Finish Joseph. Add a short line connecting to the stable wall for his legs, and a curved line almost touching the manger for knees. Draw what shows of his arm coming from about the middle of the blunt triangle. The head is the trickiest part – I always just redraw it until it looks good. XD I gave him a short headscarf thingy as well.

5. Start drawing Mary. We’ll do the same thing with Mary. Draw a slightly shorter triangle than last time.

6.  Finish Mary. Add a wavy line from her neck to the ground, and legs and an arm like with Joseph. As you can see, I had to extend the manger a little bit because she was too far away to reach it. XD I also tried to make her face a little softer than Joseph’s, with a more prominent forehead and less prominent chin, and then gave her a longer headscarf thingy.

7. Paint the background. The hard part is over! Now cover the top portion of your paper with blue paint. Try to make it darkest at the top and lighter towards the ground. You can use a paper towel or a clean, dry brush to lift some paint and make lighter spots for a more galaxy-like texture.

8. Add some stars. I used white gouache, but you can use other paint or a white gel pen.  Make sure the blue is mostly dry, especially if you’re using a pen. If you’re using paint, dilute it with a little water and tap the paintbrush handle to splatter it across the paper. While you’re waiting for everything to dry, you can go ahead and paint the ground in with black.

9. Paint in the silhouettes. This part is fun. 🙂 After everything is dry, fill in your outlines with black paint, touching up  the shapes if you need to.

10. Add details with a white gel pen. This step is optional, but I think it really makes the drawing pop! I added the Star of Bethlehem above the stable, a few rays of light over baby Jesus, and then outlined all silhouettes with white gel pen.

And ta-daa! You’re finished. Looks lovely, doesn’t it? I love this type of art. ❤ If you made a piece of art inspired by this post, we’d love to see it! Find out how to add to our Art Lab gallery here.

What did you think of the painting? Are you excited for Christmas? (Like that’s even a question… XD) Isn’t splattering paint an entertaining pastime?  And do you think you’ll make this piece?

Thanks so much for reading, dears, and have a lovely day!

***Allison***

Episode 63

Okay, I’m a bit annoyed at WordPress.  I had this all written out, and then the kind WordPress deleted it all for me. 🙂

Today I actually don’t have a prompt for today.  I was brainstorming what to do that was slightly Christmasy, but still something that will last well through January and February, and so I came up with some evergreens.  I wanted to give it a new twist, and so I chose my least used and detested art medium, water colors.

It seems that most artist really enjoy water-color, so I went with what the majority seems to enjoy.  What you’ll need for the art project is:

~water color paints~

~water color paper~

~pencil~

~brush~

~water~

~white acrylic paint~

So, to get started, grab your paper and pencil.

Lightly sketch your main pine tree.  I decided to do a typical pine tree, even though I’ve never seen this type where I live.  In the South, our pine trees look like this.

When I was little, I asked my mom why pine trees in the Christmas books didn’t look like real pine trees.  Apparently those kind of pine trees grow where it snows.

I decided to do four different colors on my picture, with four different zones.  Zone one is the farthest from focus, and zone four is closest.  I did zone two as mere peaks, and then added slight detail for zone three.  Now, grab your paints.

Honestly, I don’t understand how you would like water colors.  They stress me out. XD But, I chose the dark blue paint for the sky, and slathered it on there.  While it was still wet, I used my finger tips to add texture.  I think that’s my favorite part of the whole picture. 🙂

For zone two, I chose blue-green, and put it on there.  Since the dark blue was still wet, they kinda combined, but I actually decided I liked that look.  Now it was less defined.

For zone three I used the brightest green I had.  I love the pop of color, and I just slathered it on.

On zone four, I took dark green, and added dark areas here, and lighter areas there, until I was happy with it.  Just play around until it agrees with your eye. 😀

Now, I kinda forgot to take a picture in-between?  So, we’ll have to go with this.  The paint had started drying, and so I took the light green and used it to define zone three slightly.  Don’t go over board, because we don’t want the viewer’s eye to be drawn there.  Take the dark blue and add it to zone four, along with some dryer dark green.

Next, take some acrylic and mix it with water.  Put some white on the top of zone four, and then take the left over and splatter it all over the picture to make it look like snow.  Let the picture dry before you sign it, and you’re done.

Do you enjoy water-color?  Are you looking forward to the holidays?  What is your favorite Thanksgiving food?

~~Amie~~

Episode 62

Hello, everyone! I was actually supposed to post this yesterday, but unfortunately WordPress decided to be mean and not let me upload photos or save my draft. -_- So here I am today! Also, I had inspiration for this artwork, but that too decided to be mean and disappear off the face of the earth. Let’s just say it kind of the same except with music notes instead of stars. Anyways, let’s get started!

This is what we will be creating today.

You will need:

• A sketchbook or a blank piece of paper
• A black, fine-tip pen
• A pencil

I started by drawing the figure with my pencil.

Then I started adding details. You can make the dress look however you want, but I decided to make it fairly simple with stars instead of music notes. 😀

This is what mine looked like when I was done with the brief sketch.

Once I was done with the sketch, I started penning it in!

This was when I was about halfway through. I decided to color in my stars, but you can just outline yours if you would like. 😀 And yes, the stars were as time-consuming as they seem. :p

Finally, once I penned in everything, I erased my pencil lines, and voila! I hope y’all enjoyed, and have a fabulous day!

~Danielle

Episode 61

Hello, dears!

Welcome back to another Art Lab post! Today I’m going to be showing you my drawings for Inktober 2018. Inktober is a challenge to draw one pen or ink drawing each day for the month of October. You’re supposed to follow the “official prompts” which I’ll show you in a bit, and then share your art with others.

I’ve never done this challenge before, although I’d heard of it, but one of my lovely readers asked if I was doing it, so I decided to try it! I’m glad I did. 😀 Even though I didn’t strictly follow the rules (it was close to the middle of October before I had time to start), I did use all the prompts and drew something every day when possible. 🙂 Here’s the prompt list:

Art Inspiration:

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I usually tried to do something somewhat creative with the prompts and not use the first idea that came to my head. Some of my art turned out splendid, while other pieces I wish I could tear out of my sketchbook. XD Buuuut I suppose I’ll show you all of them anyway, as a reminder that to make good art, you have to make some bad art too. 😉

Alright, Day #1! I couldn’t decide whether to draw a poisonous mushroom or a black widow spider, so I drew both. 😉 I didn’t realize I had any colored inks other than gold ink until after I had “finished” the drawing, so I just added some random purple afterward.

For Day #2, I discovered I DID have colored inks! Do brush pens count? Because that’s what I used. If they don’t count… well, I didn’t use color for most of the pieces after this. Anyway, I drew a lake with trees around it/in it for the prompt “tranquil.” It was a nice idea, but with the bright colors and different sizes and directions of lines, it didn’t turn out very peaceful after all. XD

I like this one! Since it’s fall, I decided to draw roasted pumpkin seeds with a cut pumpkin in the background.

Ooh, this is one of my favorites – maybe even my favorite! The prompt was “spell,” so I took that two ways – one as in “magic spell” and the other as in “spell a word.” I wrote sentences from the chapter in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe called “The Spell Begins to Break,” forming them into the outline of snow melting from a flower as winter is defeated. It took rather a while to write so many tiny letters, but it was worth it. 🙂

I figured since I’ve already drawn a detailed chicken (here’s a print of it), I’d go for more of a cartoon style this time. That hen is one skilled balancer, eh?

For the prompt “drooling,” I thought about Anna from Frozen – remember that scene before the coronation? But I didn’t have internet access for days 2-12 (I drew them in one day to catch up) and I didn’t trust myself to draw it without a reference. XD So I used a picture from a dog breeds book to draw a St. Bernard.

How could I go through Inktober without drawing an eye, right? XD I attempted to draw an exhausted eye, and it sort of worked. It also kind of looks unimpressed, heh heh.

It was hard to pick an idea for the prompt “star” since there are so many beautiful things to draw with stars! I could have done a watercolor night sky illustration… but watercolors aren’t ink. Instead, I drew the Milky Way pouring into the Big Dipper. 🙂

This one was HARD! I drew a baby for the prompt “precious” – referring to both the baby and human life in general, born and unborn. Since I didn’t have internet, I took a picture of myself holding a lens bag so I could get the hands right. XD I didn’t exactly get the hands right, but it DID help. WHY ARE HANDS SO HARD??

Ooh, I really like this one! For the prompt, “flowing,” I drew a girl with flowing hair and a flowing dress standing in a flowing stream. 🙂

“Cruel” is a hard prompt, isn’t it? My cousin likes to doodle faces like the one on the left, so I took inspiration from her and made a Hitler-like face glaring cruelly at a little boy. O.o To accentuate the difference, I drew Hitler Guy with sharp, angular lines, and the boy with soft, curvy lines.

Ugh, this is one of my least favorites. It’s so scribbly and poorly drawn, but ANYWAY.

I quite like this one, though! It took a while. This castle is very well-guarded with I believe five knights in shining armor and many crocodiles swimming around the moat. Also a sturdy stone wall, a drawbridge, and iron bars across windows and doors. The kingdom should stay safe for years! XD I’m not the great at coming up with buildings, so I’m happy with how this one turned out!

I didn’t want to draw a boring, circular clock, so I drew a boring, circular clock in a clock tower. Eh. *shrugs* At least I drew patterns on the roof.

UGH I DO NOT LIKE THIS ONE. It’s hard when you don’t have a reference other than your own fingers! (After the internet came back on, I decided to try and draw without it for the rest of Inktober, to make it more of a challenge.) I drew a weak, falling-apart rope, and a hand not strong enough to hold on any longer. I guess the hand isn’t terrible, but I had to add extra lines to make the shape right since I couldn’t erase, and then add more lines to make those stand out less, and it just got really muddled.

This was inspired by some envelope art I did, which I’m sure will come up in a later post. I love mountains! ❤ These are more like lumps of rock, but oh well. They’re angular. 😉

I didn’t want to draw any gross swollen eyes or fingers or toes or something, so I drew the swollen-looking leaves of a succulent being watered by a rather swollen end of a watering can. XD

I forgot a prompt here, so I had to divide this page in half to add it in, since I had already written out the rest of the prompts in the sketchbook. I thought about doing a ship in a bottle or a world in a bottle, but decided that was kind of unoriginal, so I went with fireflies. 🙂 I used my gold ink to make them “shine.”

How do you like your marshmallows? Straight out of the bag? Lightly browned? Perfectly toasted? BURNT TO A CRISP? Apparently this person prefers the last option…

 Something with glass is the obvious choice for “breakable.” So I didn’t draw glass. 😉 I drew someone breaking a Hershey bar (maybe to go with the scorched marshmallow). The hands are improved, I think, although they’re rather out of proportion, with short, stubby fingers. All the same, I think this turned out alright.

This one is confusing, I know. I got confused myself many times while trying to draw it. The girl is drawing her arm which is drawing a card from the pile, and the person drawing the girl is erasing some errant lines. And then, of course, I drew all of it. PHEW.

I really wanted to draw a diamond for “precious,” but decided to save it for this prompt. Diamonds are so fun to draw! The ring is just a scribble, but ah well.

I first thought about a pig in the mud for this prompt; therefore I discarded that idea and drew a girl jumping in a mud puddle. Isn’t she cute? I’d like to draw more people in this style eventually.

I first thought about a knife chopping vegetables, and I kind of wish I drew that. But nope, I drew a guy (or girl) chopping down a tree. THE HANDS. WHY CAN’T I DRAW HANDS? *facepalm* This is where I really needed a reference picture because I could NOT, for the life of me, imagine how people hold axe handles! -_-

For “prickly,” I knew right away I wanted to draw a hedgehog, and this time I went with it. Hedgehogs are just too cute to pass up. 😉

OKAY I APOLOGIZE – THIS IS UTTERLY TERRIBLE. This is by far my least favorite. *hides* It would have helped so much to simply make a pencil sketch first, but I didn’t do that for a bunch of these drawings (again, more of a challenge!) and decided not to here either. THAT WAS A MISTAKE. I was going to draw two people stretching/bending to make a heart, but when that didn’t work, I kind of just drew random lines and eventually just gave up. *shudders*

This one is a tiny bit more acceptable. A bit. I puzzled over how to draw thunder without lightning accompanying it (because then the lightning would be the focus, not the thunder), and ended up shading some of the clouds and attempting to make the tree blowing in the winds of the storm. Eh.

Ooh, I do really like this one, though! I like this style of drawing. (That’s my problem – I like so many different styles of drawing that I haven’t really found MY style, since I draw in, like, 234875 different ways! XD) I am aware that this is pretty unoriginal, but I couldn’t think of many other options…

This one is simple, but I like it. For the prompt, “double,” I drew a double-yolk egg cracked into a bowl. And… yep. That’s that. XD

Jolt was a hard prompt too. (I think verbs are just hard in general.) I decided to draw a cow shocked by a jolt of electricity from an electric fence. 😛 The cow is, heh, cute… but not very cow-like. You’d think I could do better than that having lived on a dairy farm for most of my life, but as we already established, I HAVE TROUBLE DRAWING WITHOUT A REFERENCE SOMETIMES. :’D Ohhhh dear.

I was going to say, “and ending on a pie note,” as in “high note,” but this is more like a mediocre note, so… You are (sort of) spared a terrible pun. AHEM. For the final prompt, “slice,” I gave in and did what came to mind – a piece of pumpkin pie. The dots on the side of the pie took forever. *wipes brow*

And that’s all, folks! I hope you enjoyed seeing my interpretations of the 2018 Inktober prompts and listening to my mainly disparaging comments. XD Please don’t take them too seriously, though. I know sometimes it’s discouraging (“well if THAT’S bad, what about MY art?”). That’s happened to me as well. But don’t worry! #1, most of the time we’re our own worst critic (cliche, I know), and you’re not as bad off as you think. #2, I was annoyed at some drawings simply because I know I could have done better. However, it was still a fun challenge and it showed me that I REALLY NEED TO WORK ON HANDS, and also that a reference picture is often invaluable. 🙂

Before you go, I’d love to hear – have you ever done Inktober? Which of my drawings were your favorite? And what would you have drawn for one of the prompts?

Thanks so much for reading, dears, and please have a lovely day!

***Allison***

Episode 61

Hey guys! Welcome back to Art Lab! We all know that distressed clothing items are in right now, but what about distressed art? I got the idea of “distressed art” from an old pair of jeans while cleaning out my closet the other day. (who knew that old jeans could be art inspiration? XD) After a few attempts I finally got it right – and I’m super excited to share it!