Happy Monday!

Hi everyone!  Just wanted to say "hello" and wish you all a happy Monday. :)  Today is pretty full, so I won't have time to post.  I should have something new sometime tomorrow, though. :)

In the meantime, enjoy my new header and have a great week! :)

Sketching with Beast'sbelle: Kristoff and Anna

Okay, so my plan for today was to do some writing on my book.  However, when I ended up with two sick kiddos, that plan became slightly less practical, so I did some drawing instead. :}

Really, I should be doing one of my promised posts right now, but I was too excited to wait to share my drawing with you. :}  This is the first time I've attempted to draw any of the characters from Frozen, and I'm quite pleased with the result. :)

I started by Googling Frozen images.  The one shown above has always been one of my favorites, so I decided to try replicating it.  I found the image HERE.

Because it can be difficult to copy a picture that's upright on a screen, I decided to print it out as well.

I started with a very basic outline.  I really hate doing this (I'm too impatient to do things correctly), but it does at least give me a good goal to shoot for.  Besides, I've been teaching my elementary students all about the basic shapes that make up the building blocks of our drawings.  I felt like I should probably practice what I preach. ;)

And then I totally changed it because Anna and Kristoff were NOT cooperating at all. :}

Experimenting with arm angles.

This is what I ended up with at the end of the sketching session.

I decided I wanted to color the picture this time around, so I outlined it in pen.  I really need to get some new fine point Sharpies or something along that line.  They work so much better for tracing artwork than ball point pens. :}  At least I was drawing on computer paper instead of sketchpad paper this time. :)

This is the point where I always hesitate and think, "Do I really want to color this, or just add some nifty shading?"  When you erase the pencil and add color, there's no turning back, and you can really mess up a good drawing. :}  I guess I'm a glutton for punishment, though, because I kept going. ;) 

I was able to erase all of the pencil, but was irritated to discover that my eraser left an odd little red rub mark on the page right between the two faces.  It would NOT come off. :{  Oh well...moving on.

I thought that this would be an excellent opportunity to use my incredible new Sharpie set I got for Christmas (thanks, Mom and Dad). :)

I also decided to supplement with my trusty Pentel Color Pen set. :)  (Sorry for the annoying sideways upload...Blogger hasn't done that to me in a while!)

So, between this picture and the last were a few hours of experimentation and struggle.  I thought I took some pictures of the process, but apparently I was "in the zone" a little too much to think about documenting every step. ;)  

I made a couple of discoveries when coloring these two.  First, they have a pretty difficult color palette when you're dealing with basic markers.  I found Anna's hair especially challenging.  The color you see above was a result of several experimental layers of marker from both sets. :}  She has goldenrod, two shades of orange, yellow orange, and even a light brown in there.  Kristoff's hair was much easier, but still required a bit of trial and error.  I also need a better skin color.  Both Anna and Kristoff have much fairer skin than what I gave them, but that was the lightest skin tone I had.

Their clothing gave me some trouble, too.  The colors were pretty difficult to match, and some of them I just had to change altogether.  If you compare my finished picture with the picture I used as a reference, you'll see some pretty major differences.  If you just look at my picture by itself, it's not so bad. ;)

The other thing I discovered while drawing these is that Anna is REALLY hard to draw in profile.  She and Elsa both have a very exaggerated profile with a big, sloping section between forehead and nose, and their little button noses and mouths poke out at a rather odd angle.  My Anna ended up with a slightly different profile simply because I couldn't get her to look right in my drawing when I tried to draw her faithfully. :} 

Overall, though, I was pretty pleased with how it turned out...

...except for that annoying red smudge!!  I know it's not really that big, but this is where my silly OCD perfectionist side comes out. :}  I knew it would bother me every time I looked at the picture.

Aww...they're so cute...wait, what?  What's that smudge there? ;)

So, my only choice was to color in the background around them.  I left a slight white edge around both of them so they wouldn't get lost in the backdrop (I was especially worried about Kristoff's dark vest disappearing into the dark background), selected a nice, deep color from my Sharpie set, and went to work.  Listening to the Frozen soundtrack while I worked made it go a lot quicker (normally I'm far too impatient to fill in a whole background!).

I actually started with just a thin border around the two, but I kept enlarging it 'til I got to this point.  Then I knew I would never get the arch perfectly even...

...so I decided to fill it in all the way.  The weird, unfinished edge on the bottom will probably drive me nuts, too, so I'll probably end up either adding to it or trimming the picture.

One cool thing was that the picture looked pretty good from the opposite side, too (something I always check to see how I did on proportions; if it looks normal from both sides, you did pretty well). :) 

I think Anna's arm might be a little short, or her head might be a little big, now that I'm looking at it repeatedly, but overall I'm super pleased with how it turned out, especially since this was the first time I'd drawn any of the characters.

And here's a side-by-side comparison.  Definitely a different color palette, but not too bad.  In my defense, Anna's hair is a little lighter in the original picture than it is in the movie. ;) 

And this was the result of my art day on my computer desk. :}  I can't believe I didn't follow my own instructions to my kiddos and keep a spare piece of paper underneath!  Thankfully, most of it came up with a Lysol wipe! 

After I had finished, of course I had to stop by Ribbet.com and play around with some editing. ;)  I really like how these two look "winterized" with a Frost Frame. :)

I also decided to do a new header with my sketches, so here's a copy of my old one.  At some point, I will actually have a header that does not feature Frozen characters. ;)

Not sure how much time I'll have for more drawing (this one took me about four hours), but if I do try another one, I'd love to experiment with Elsa. :)

Talk to you guys later! :)

New Header (Thanks, Spicys!)

I just realized I never added my previous header to the posts.  Here it is:

This one is one of my very favorites (you can click it to see a larger version)! :)

I also wanted to be sure I mentioned that the tinsel garland background on my header was an idea I got from The Spicy's blog.  (Thanks, girls!) ;)

What a day!  I've been running around like crazy and just got home a couple of hours ago (5 something PM my time).  I still have to do dishes, put away laundry, bathe 3 children and get them to bed, pack...and I'll be on the road sometime tomorrow morning. :}

Talk to all of you next week! :)

New Collage Option at Picmonkey.com! :)

Hey guys, just another really quick post.  Within the past few days, Picmonkey.com added a collage option to their site.  It's a little bit more involved than Picnik was.  Unless I'm missing something, there's no way to add text and effects directly to your collage, which means you have to make your collage, save it to your computer, and then upload the completed collage to Picmonkey again to add further effects.  Correct me if I'm wrong, please! :}  I'm also really hoping that eventually they'll add a direct link to Picasa like Picnik did.

Anyway, I've been goofing around with it for a while, so I decided to try a new header, featuring my BFC Ink dolls.  Hope you enjoy it! :)

And as always, here's a copy of my previous header:

Have a great day, everyone! :)

Almost Time for a New Header!! :D

Hey everyone!  I just had to do a quick post because I've been playing around on Picnik.com, trying to figure out a really special header to celebrate on Monday. :)  It's been really fun experimenting with different things. 

Anyway, I wanted to put my current header in a post for posterity's sake, so it gave me an excuse to talk about it. ;)  Talk to you all again soon! :D

 

I've Been Tagged!

Whoops!!  I completely spaced that I was tagged by Elliebob while I was on vacation.  Sorry I forgot, Elliebob. :{

Man, it's getting difficult to come up with 7 random facts about myself that I haven't already used.  I'll see what I can come up with, though.

1.  I will celebrate my 30th birthday in September.  (Yikes!! Am I really that old?)

2.  I've been to Disneyland 3 times.  Once when I was 6, once when I was 12, and once when I was 4 months pregnant with my oldest daughter (no fun rides that year!).

3.  My husband and I both attended the same school from Kindergarten through the 12th grade, but he was 2 years ahead of me (and 3 years older).

4.  I'm currently working on the first in a series of Christian fiction novels...slowly but surely.  I'm hoping to get them published after all three of my girls are in school (which gives me another 2 years to get my act together and finish!).

5.  My very favorite Bollywood movies are "Veer-Zaara" (yay Shahrukh Khan!) and "Vivah".

6.  One of my secret dreams is to see a Broadway play in New York before I die...preferably one of my favorites, like "Beauty and the Beast" or "The Phantom of the Opera".

7.  I have one sibling, a brother who is 3 years younger than me.  Through marriage, I have 3 sister-in-laws (my husband's 2 older sisters and my brother's wife) and 2 brother-in-laws (my husband's sisters' husbands).  I have 4 nephews and 3 nieces by marriage.

Okay, I'm going to tag some of my newest followers:  Jennifer, Koda Lou, Emily, Hayden, Ley Firewalker, and Kendall.  I'm not tagging Elliebob because she just tagged me, and I'm not tagging Hritik fan because she doesn't have a blog (just in case you thought I was leaving people out). 

Have fun everyone! :)

P.S.  I'm getting ready to change my blog header, but since I love my current one so much, I thought I'd post it here so that I have it on record...especially since I gave the picture away! ;)  I may also add it to the sidebar.