Hello, everyone! Yesterday I recorded the entire process of my newest drawing, a damask inspired adult coloring page.
I draw in Clip Studio Paint, and as I worked, I had a free program, OBS, running on my monitor to capture every line as I drew it. The drawing itself took five hours–probably a bit more–and I sped the video up 45 times, so that it could be viewed in under five minutes. Why so short? Because I had an original song that I wrote that I wanted to use as background music! Plus, because shorter videos are easier to digest/watch than longer ones.
The finished drawing will be included in a new project I am working on, and is available as a free download here on my site.
Click on this picture, to download a full-size .jpg you can print out and color.
Hello, everyone!
This afternoon, I was in the mood to draw a mandala, and I decided I would record my process as I worked.
Currently, I work almost entirely digitally, and when I create my mandalas, I use the super awesome art program, Clip Studio Paint.
Created for comic book and manga artists, the program is a joy to draw in, and has lots of time-saving tools, like the symmetry ruler, which you can see me using in the video.
Take a look at the video, and if you’d like to color the mandala I drew, you can download it as a free printable by clicking on the mandala image above.
Let me know what you think of the video and the mandala!
Over the years I have done so many illustrations. As I develop new coloring books, I have been enjoying revisiting my old work and redoing them so that the illustrations—many of which are digital paintings—are converted into line art appropriate for coloring.
Some of the images I don’t just turn into line art, but I redraw, re-imagine, or redo. Often I add in more detail than what was in the original, so that they are more intricate to color. Sometimes I am not happy with the level or quality of the art.
I just finished doing such a redo with the following piece.
Whimsical Flying Witch Illustration originally done in 2007.
I have always enjoyed this piece. I especially love the colors. At the time I was experimenting wit a whimsical illustration style with highly stylized characters with odd proportions. It is still for sale on greeting cards in various locations of the internet.
But it never really sold all that well, and I believe it’s because it’s perhaps too quirky. Also, the witch is a bit of a conceptual mess… Her posture and outfit suggests pinup, but she is decidedly matronly.
This piece is perfect for a drawing redo!
And here is the result:
Flying Witch and Cat Halloween Coloring Book Page redo: 2017
To appeal to more people, I embraced the pinup suggestion of the original and turned the witch from a matron to a lovely young woman. I unified the style, and went with a classic semi-realistic cartoon, and added in more details in the hat and hair and legs to color. I also changed the kitty cat to match the style of the new drawing, but kept the touches that I liked, such as the basket of spilling candy corn and the magic sparkles from the wand.
Eventually this page will make it into a Halloween coloring book that I am working on this October. It won’t be available in time for Halloween, but it will be ready for next year.
I enjoyed highlighting the differences between the original images and the redrawn coloring page versions. Stay tuned for more posts like this in the future.
It’s been a little while since I have been able to check in with you guys. It’s almost the end of May now, and the school year (which has absorbed much of my focus) is winding to a close.
Spring is in full force here in the Midwest finally, and I have been coming out of winter hibernation mode. This return of the flowers, bees, butterflies and green growing things is the inspiration behind my newest coloring project.
I’m working on a book of nature doodles, which are intricate drawings inspired by doodle art, Zentangles and, paisleys and henna art.
Like my other coloring books, I plan on including about 30 images in this new book, and I think I’m off to a pretty good start.
So far I’ve drawn the butterfly and sun goddess pictured here, a tree of life, some lovely mushrooms, flowers, and a dragonfly.
The tree of life is already available as a free download on my Coloring Page Freebies page – and on etsy and in my store here on this site, I plan on offering a selection of digital prints of a few more of the drawings in this book before the book is out.
I’ll be updated the blog here as I get closer to the book’s launch, but if you’d like to know for sure when the book will be available to purchase on Amazon, please sign up for my mailing list below.
Today I thought I’d share a little behind the scenes look at the digital proofer that CreateSpace uses in the self-publishing process that they offer. While going through the final approval on the digital proofs for my newest coloring book, “Illustrated Christmas: 25 Holiday Designs to Color,” I made a quick video flip through of what the book looks like. CreateSpace is so easy and fun to use.
I’ve approved the book, and it will be available on Amazon later today or tomorrow. I hope you’ll check it out. 😀
