Dragon Eye

"Eye of Toothless"
2.5 in. x 3.5 in.
Colored Pencil on Black Cardstock

I couldn't believe how long it took me to get this finished; but with working way more hours, sore hands and twitching eye lids (which is very annoying and makes it hard to see by the way) I was only able to do this is small spurts. I love how different it is working on black paper but this paper in particular was not made for colored pencil and I found it out the hard way. It didn't want to layer the colors right or at all and was a little frustrating. I don't think I will being using it again for pencil so maybe I will bust out the gel pens and play with it that way.

If you haven't see "How To Train Your Dragon" you are missing out on a wonderful movie. This is actually from one scene when the main character meets his future best friend. I absolutely love the detail and attention they put into these characters and dragons and I am so excited that the second season to the show just started.
I am actually hoping to do the eyes of some of the other dragons, which gives me an excuse to go get better black paper for pencils :P

Playing With Metallic Pencils

Over the weekend I had some free time to try my new pencils. I have used metallic pencils in the past, but that was over ten years ago and they weren't water soluble.

So first I made my reference cards, I have this for all my pencils. Though admittedly these are the only ones with three different ones!

Then it was time to play with the black paper, something I have never used before. I was hoping it would bring out the metallic more but I think some of the color I used under them for shading took that away. I tried taking a picture of it with the camera and also scanning it to see the difference. Definitely going to have to play with it some more.

Scanner:

What a silly smile he seems to have.

Camera:

Then I tried something that I have been wanting to do but afraid to, watered the subject and not just the background.

Scanner:

Camera:

First off, I LOVE this guy! I feel for my first attempt, this came out awesome, even if it isn't perfect. I might even frame it. Secondly I used actual water color paper this time. Not sure if most notice this, but a lot of papers have a different tooth on the back side of them. I used the back of the water color paper cause I thought it looked neat (and there was a weird splotch on the front). As you can see when watered, the pencils lose their metallic altogether.

Next I will have to try them on regular white paper, though when I was doing my little reference card I wasn't impressed but that just could have been the paper type. So here is to me crossing my fingers I get some free time again soon!

New Stuff

Out of some serious curiosity I finally looked for and bought some colored mat board. A small shop the next town over had some 'scrap mat' for sale and I thought they were the perfect size for a test trial. I also got some black card stock paper to try for my new metallic pencils.

If you'll excuse me, I have new shiny toys to play with in the little free time I am now enjoying! ^_^

Living Treasures Animal Park

Went and seen the animals for my birthday. I think I spent more time playing with the goats then taking actual pictures :D

This cutie was just cuteness overload for me, so little and fuzzy!

This little piglet managed to get out of the enclosure because it was so small and fit right through the openings. Momma pig was not happy about it and made sure to keep it with the others after that!

That was the first time I had ever seen a baby zebra.

The first picture I took, I was scared to try to stick the lens through the fence because it was watching me so closely and I thought it might try to peck the camera. The second time I stuck it through with no problems but the first one I am definitely using for a future drawing!

Sometimes, Things Don't Work Out

Well, I definitely didn't make the deadline because this is as far as I have gotten. The colors are brighter then that, just didn't care I had poor lighting when I took the picture. I started out steadily working on this everyday, and then I got my second job and that picked up drastically. So the last two weeks before, I had almost no time to work on it. This week is just has work heavy and I believe the rest of the year is going to be this busy. I know I am going to want to finish this, but right now it feels like more of a demand then something enjoyable and so I am just letting it sit till things are less crazy.

My Lobelia 'Crystal Palace' had finally came up, which at first I thought they were weeds till I let them flower.

They are a really vibrant purple that almost makes them look 3D and the camera just wouldn't pick that up. The hubby likes them and wants to landscape them into the front yard next year.

I took a trip to the park a few weeks ago and saw this butterfly and these orange flowers.

I don't know what kind of flowers those are but they were very pretty and it seemed the bees liked them just as much.

We went to the Animal Park for my birthday this past weekend, I'll post that later. I'm super excited about one of the pictures because it is going to make an amazing reference photo in the future!
Time for bed, have to finish my full work week and all that :/

Lilies and More

My flowers finally popped out, was pretty excited when I got to see them. Oddly enough it was only one color that made it to full maturity. I keep wondering why that in the mixed batch only the yellows came out and the rest either stopped growing half way or didn't come up at all.

They seem so perfect!
Then there were my "I will be amazed if I get flowers out of these".

Got some bachelor buttons...

and a well chewed on scarlet flax. There was another flower that had survived but it didn't last long enough for me to get a picture. We got a bunch of rain and now are being hit with a heat wave, fun fun.

Picked the first tomato from the garden today, it is just a cherry tomato but seems decent sized for one.

Swapping Subjects

Got a little bit colored and now I am putting this aside for something else. I will come back to it (I hope) but something caught my attention.

The Color Pencil Magazine had a drawing competition every month. I have been watching it for awhile now, waiting to see if anything 'calls out' to me and this months finally has.
-->Here<-- is the subject, I don't care about winning; I just know that if I draw that bird, when I am done, it will feel really good. There is a good chance I won't even enter it in.
I won't be posting progress of it or anything, sounds silly but this has that "Do it privately" feel to it.