Playing with instruments

I created these drawings for the music department of a local university. They were exciting to draw because I usually work black lines on light colored backgrounds. I had to think a bit backward when working on these drawings, which made the whole process fun and interesting.

Flowering Apples

Drawing Morinda

I was commissioned to draw a beautiful girl named Morinda. I wanted the drawing to be very soft yet have a lot of interesting elements running through the drawing to keep things interesting. So, I first drew Morinda with lots of soft colors -- pinks and quiet browns, and then added lots of soft splotches and a bit of a checkerboard pattern to the background. Also, for something different, I took pictures of this portrait at various stages as I worked through it and made the animation below.

Scary Chick Revisited

Two posts back I put up a picture I drew called "Scary Chick." Today, I re-opened that file and turned off a lot of the layers, just to see what I had and what each one was contributing to the overall picture. After playing with the file for awhile, I decided I really really liked the much simpler version you see here. This isn't to say that I don't like the previous version, I just think there is something nice about this one too. There is just something I love about simplicity, spaces that are free to lounge about in, visually. Very relaxing. So, I share.

Scary Chick

How the girl in this picture became know as "Scary Chick."

My husband came in the room while I was working on this drawing and this is how the conversation went:

Him: Oh, scary chick.
Me (hopeful): You think she's scary?
Him: Yeah, she's scary!
Me (elated): Cool!

Now, I didn't intend to draw something scary. That wasn't why I was excited. I was just excited that she is what she is. I feel like every time I draw something, it takes on a life of it's own and I'm so excited to see what the drawing looks like in the end. So, welcome Scary Chick, excellent meeting you.