Zentangling - Part 1: Basic Tangling

Zentangling is a type of ink art that has been around for about a decade now. The idea between zentangling is to connect a series of patterns to make a bigger picture. It is a lot easier than it sounds. When it is really boiled down all you have to do is draw a shape, divide it up and fill it in with a fun pattern. But enough talking, let me show you some of my own drawings.

If you look at this pictures you can mostly see the sections of the images and the patterns that I used for each section. Here is an image that you can use to practice any patterns that you come up with. I know that this week was very basic but next week we will be going into more detail with some complex zentangling and what you can do with it. Plus, a surprise!! 

Add to the outline and zentangle. What will you make? Will it be a city scene? An airport? Show me what you created in the comments. Be creative!

Turning Words into Art - Filled in Shapes

Words: Bye Bye Miss. American Pie drove my chevy to the levy but the levy was dry and good ole boys were drinking whiskey and rye singin' this will be the day that I die. 

One of the first projects I did in my third-grade art class was to put words into shapes, It is a very simple technique that requires not very advanced equipment. In this blog post, I hope to show you how to use this technique on your own and what you can use it for. 

Step 1: Picking the words

This should be the easiest part of the process. This is where you get to select your favorite book quote or lyrics. It is really up to you. 

Here are some sites you can check out if you are out of ideas:

Brainy Quote

Quotes by Topic

Step 2: Picking a good shape

let's say you choose this quote:

No great artist ever sees things as they are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.
- Oscar Wilde

Think about all the potential shapes or objects that come to mind. For the American pie picture that I have at the top, it didn't take me long to decide on a pie. Other quotes can be more tricky but get creative!

Some images that come to mind might be:

A paint brush

A paint palette

A canvas

Step 3: Drawing out the shape on paper.

For this step use a pencil and the sheet of paper that you won't put your final piece on. You are going to want to keep a few things in mind as you choose what you want the shape to look like. 

1. Make it simple and obvious to what it is. 

2. The length of your quote and where each word will eventually go. 

Here is an example:

Step 4: Inserting the words

Continue using a pencil and lightly work on filling the shape in with words. Go lightly because you might need to try a few times before it will fit properly. 

Here is an example:

Step 5: Redo it all on your final sheet of paper. 

Still remain to be cautious and use that pencil lightly. You might have to accommodate for the size difference between your practice image and your final one.

Step 6: Color it in

Again a few things that you might want to keep in mind. 

1. The color of your object

2. What would be easy to read

3. Make the letters pop from the background

Step 7: Admire You beautiful Art Work!

Drops Of Jupiter - Mixed Media Artwork

Turning Your Favorite Song Into Art

This is my very first multimedia piece! I was inspired to make this piece by the song Drops of Jupiter by Train. This is my favorite song of all time. It is fun to listen to and to play on guitar. The songs lyrics are fun and imaginative. It is one of those songs that proves that you don't need to be dirty to have a good song. The songs lyrics have always painted images in my head and I have always wanted to make a piece of art using the song lyrics. It took a few years before I knew what I wanted to do and until I was able to except that whatever I did won't be perfect. I'm going to show you how I used different lyrics in the song to contribute to each element and what I used to make each element.

The Girl On Saturn

Lyrics; Was it everything you wanted to find

And did you miss me while you were looking for yourself out there

Can you imagine no love, pride, deep-fried chicken
Your best friend always sticking up for you even when I know you're wrong
Can you imagine no first dance, freeze dried romance five-hour phone
Conversation
The best soy latte that you ever had, and me

For this part I used  oil pastels to draw Saturn and colored pencils to draw the girl drinking the soy latte. i like to think that she is contemplating all the good things in life while she stares into space looking for herself.

Shooting Star

Lyrics: Tell me, did you fall from a shooting star

One without a permanent scar

The star was made out of sketchbook paper, oil pastels and chalk pastels.

The Sun

Lyrics: Tell me did you sail across the sun

Did you make it to the Milky Way to see the lights all faded

And that heaven is overrated

For the main part of the sun I used color pencils and light oil pastel. For the rays I used oil pastes. I purposely made two of the rays faded to fit the lyrics.

Venus 

Lyrics: Tell me did the wind sweep you off your feet

Did you finally get the chance to dance along the light of day

And head back to the milky way

And tell me, did Venus blow your mind

Venus was made out of oil pastel. The background is painted onto a canvas with oil pastels.

Drops of Jupiter

Lyrics: Now that she's back in the atmosphere

With drops of Jupiter in her hair, hey, hey

Jupiter is again drawn with oil pastels. It took me a while to decided how I wanted Jupiter to look like but eventually I choose to have the drops of Jupiter rolling off.

What's your favorite song or a song you want to see as a piece of art? Let me know in the comments!

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So You Want To Draw A Character? - HARLEY QUINN

This is a being of a series that I am starting that will be sprinkled throughout the next few weeks. This week we are doing  a female character from the new Movie Suicide Squad. Her name is Harley Quinn.

The reason that I really wanted to draw her is her unique style. I've seen nothing quite like it before on a bad guy. Usually, action characters, especially the bad guys, are decked out in black and gray. She has her own style, its crazy but so is she.

This is the final product but let's see the process.

When drawing faces pay (especially female faces) look for the cheekbones and the chin, That helps if make it look like the characters face.

When drawing the body there are some tricks to drawing the proportions. One shoulder is the length of half a head. If you have a picture that you are drawing off of you can draw lines down from the head and ears so you can have a range. Also, measure if you really want to. It's all up to you. You're the artist!

What's the difference Between a Character and a Person?- Step One

Welcome to the second post of our series! Today we will be talking about the difference between drawing a generic person versus drawing a character. A character is usually already established as either a person that you already know, an actor, a TV or movie character, a Meme, (The one factor that would be different would be if it is a character in your imagination if anyone else out there also likes writing stories:))

Step One:  WHAT MAKES THE ICON THE ICON?

What about that character makes that character recognizable? Let's put it this way. Since Halloween was Monday think about if you were going to dress as this character for Halloween what are the first things that you would want to get for your costume. For Example, if you were to go as Harry Potter you would most likely draw a lightning scar and get a pair of glasses.  For example, here is a snippet of  a post you that will be coming soon of STEP BY STEP CHARACTER DRAWING with Harley Quinn from the new movie Suicide Squad.

At this point of the drawing, I had finished putting what is iconic about her face in. The first thing is her hair. Left side red, right side blue. The second thing that is very iconic is her necklace that says PUDDIN. I'm not a super realistic artist. By no means do my drawings look like photographs and that's okay. If you get the iconic items down than the drawing will "look like" the character. 

Here is a drawing of some superheros I made them rally sloppy but you can probably tell who they are based on some of their iconic items.

Challenge: On your own draw some characters making the iconic elements clear but don't worry about the rest. I know that I have done a lot with super heroes but they are a great place to start because it id easy to find what is iconic. If you desire a warm up that is a little more of a challenge you can go for fairy tale characters.

Note: When you are just drawing a face remember that every face is unique. Look for what makes that face iconic if there is anything specific, (beauty mark, gold tooth, etc.) Sometimes it's not as obvious so you can just focus on these things. Face shape, Lip shape, eye shape, hair style, and than the color of all of the above.

Good luck on your drawing!

So You Think You Can Draw a Character? - Colored Pencil - Marilyn Monreo

I recently got a big new set of Prismacolor pencils. (Please put in the comments if you want me to do a review of the pencils.) I learned from a recent art class that I took that when you are working with a new medium it is a good idea to start with black and white so you can practice working with your darkest dark and your lightest light. Value is a big part in making any picture look realistic.

Always start with making a value chart so that you can see what your medium is capable of.

Then you can take a look a what you want to draw. First looking for the darkest dark and lightest light.

Then you draw everything in between. Soon you will have your full image. You can then go through randomly and fix any details that you noticed that are wrong. 

Of course, you won't get everything perfect but that is what practice is for.