Drawing a Mandala: First Attempt

There were so many firsts with this video. First time drawing a Mandala, first time recording the process, and first time editing a video on an iPad Mini.

Old Sketch: The Red Dress

I was searching through my crafts box, looking for bending paper and I came across a bunch of my old unfinished sketch books. This drawing was in one of them.

Red Dress by enchanteddroppings on DeviantArt

So Many Art Books and Not Much to Show

I got mad at myself this morning. The night before, I was online looking up gesture drawing videos and finally gesture drawing books. Whenever I find a subject I want to learn more about, I look for books. Yes, I could just continue searching online for blog posts, tutorials and articles, but the quality of those are always hit or miss. At least with books, I can look at the ratings and reviews they've received. Also, books have gone through a professional editing process and the publishers found a reason to publish the books.

This has been my process for years. Before writing this, I had just returned from my mailbox, where I picked up a book I ordered about making comics and two workbooks that were made especially for storyboarding. At that moment, it dawned on me that I probably have a ton of books on drawing that I've either didn't finish or never read. So I searched through my boxes (I know, I'll buy bookcases soon) to look for all of my drawing and art related books. Including the book about drawing comics I just got today, I have 15 books. 15 BOOKS!! To be fair, one of them is from graduate school and two of them are "The Art of ..." books. I've included the "The Art of ..." books because they do show the process of how characters were created and storyboarding techniques. 

Helping

When I first start drawing this minion work, I thought, hey minions should be easy to draw. They are just simple shapes. But then I remembered that I suck at line art, so my lines are bumpy. I also added shading and a lot of details. A couple of weeks later and I am done. Cleaning up the lines is what took most of the time.


Helping by enchanteddroppings on deviantART

I did learn a little bit more about the tools in Sketchbook Mobile and how to draw using a digital program, so that is a plus. there are a bunch of things I still don't like in this work, but I had to stop at some point.

Drawing: BMO with DA Muro

Okay, I'm not obsessed with BMO. I just happen to want to use him to test out new programs. Since he looks like he should be easy to draw (not true depending on the program), I am using him to test out and learn different apps.

BMO by enchanteddroppings on deviantART 

I drew this over several days using DeviantART's online drawing app Muro. I started drawing this while watch the NBA All Star Weekend events and I just finished it today. The app has some limitations, for example the amount of brushes, but it is still a decent drawing program. I saw an option to upload brushes. When I learn how, I will. Having your own brushes that work exacting the way you want it will help to keep you sane. I have a Wacom tablet that I bought years ago. I'll dust it off and try it out with the app to see if it can pick up pressure sensitivity and because drawing with a mouse pad is torture!

Afternoon Sketch: Cali Lewis

Renee Busee, the SketchBook community manager from Autodesk was on Geek Beat TV teaching the hosts how to use Sketchbook Pro and how to draw. Watch the video below if you would like to learn too.




I ended up following along and creating the sketch below.


Sketch226132250 by enchanteddroppings on deviantART

I have an issue with shading. It is something I have been working on for years with little to no progress. But this was a quick sketch so I wasn't trying that hard. I was just following along. Next time I'll do the highlight on another layer so i can fix issues instead of making them worse.

Train Sketch: BMO

I've suddenly become obsessed with BMO. I think it is because he looks so easy to draw until you start drawing him. If I drew him by hand, he would take less time to draw than trying to draw him on a mobile device or on a desktop device using a mouse pad.

I drew this yesterday on my train ride home. I am running out of space on my iPod and I wanted to go over the apps I have so I can delete the ones I don't use, don't like or need anymore. I download the Adobe Ideas app a while ago bt never used it. When I opened the app and took my first stroke, i was shocked and how smooth and accurate the stroke turned out. Immediately started drawing BMO.


Photo Feb 20, 12 11 40 AM by enchanteddroppings on deviantART

Drawing while on a MTA train is tricky. If you are on a local train, there are less bumps and the train down go too fast because it will have to slow down in a minute for the next station. I was doing okay until my train left Manhattan and was in the under water tunnel. there were too many bumps and I hand to wait for a smooth spot to start drawing again.

The sketch is  a bit sloppy. there are lots of places were I could clean it up but i didn't want to spend hours on something that was suppose to be a quick sketch. As far as the Adobe ideas app, so far I like it  a lot and I recommend it. I'll do a review on it in another post.

Night Time Sketch: BMO

Wow, this took way longer than it should have. Looking at the drawing, it consists of simple lines and shapes. If I was using a vector program I would have been done in five minutes. Instead I spent close to an hour trying to clean up the lines. You can still see that the lines are not clean, but it is time for me to go to bed. My high of the Seattle Seahawks winning the Super Bowl is dying down.

Tools:
Autodesk Sketchbook on Android
Wacom Bamboo New Solo Stylus