GottaCon

This weekend I'll be selling some prints and some original ink drawings at GottaCon.  It'll be my first artist alley table and I really don't know what to expect, so it should be interesting! If you're in Victoria this weekend, come by and say hi!

I was also asked to talk on one of the panels called "The Art of Gaming".  I'm not a big public speaker (well, it's probably been years since I've done any), so, ya, a little scarey but it'll be good to break out of my comfort zone.

And here's some recent random sketches:

Merry Christmas!

  

ArtOrder Inspiration Challenge - Process

When I heard about ArtOrder's Inspiration Challenge, I jumped aboard. This was a VERY open and fun challenge.  You basically illustrate anything that inspires you.  I ended up illustrating something that inspires a lot of my art, which is aquatic scenes and creatures.  I've always loved the water;  From pretending I was a mermaid when I was a kid to scuba diving which is now one of my main hobbies besides art making, so it's pretty fitting.

Figuring out which inspiration to focus on was tricky though!  So many things popped into my head: fairy tales (Peter Pan in particular), art nouveau, trees/nature, Artists like Arthur Rackham, Dulac, Klimpt, John Bauer, Kay Nicholson, Waterhouse, and a billion more, water, flying, fantasy creatures, flowy hair, Greek myths, and on and on... I really didn't know what to do, there were too many ideas floating around.  Here are a few idea scribbles:

 

After 2 false starts (I actually finished a whole painting but decided not to use it for the challenge), I finally decided on the underwater/mermaid theme.  I also threw in an old gnarly tree (love drawing those). I did some rough thumbnails to help decide on a composition/pose. Here are a few of them:

 

I then collected some reference and drew a sketch on some watercolor paper:

 

I inked it with a brush and some pens:

Next came the watercolor. One book that I ended up flipping through to give me some ideas for the this stage was "Dreamscapes: Creating Magical Angel, Faery & Mermaid Worlds in Watercolor" by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law. It has some great little watercolor tutorials in there.

Here's how the watercolor turned out: 

 

I took a last step of finishing it off digitally. It's the best of both worlds. I love traditional but I also love digital.  Since I'm not where I want to be yet with my watercolors, it's nice to have the option to finish it digitally. It's also faster (no drying time) and I was running short on time.  I took some inspiration from a Muddy Colors blog post that Justin Gerard did where he uses a similar process.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with it.  If it gets picked to be a part of the ArtOrder book that would be awesome!  But if not, that's ok too.  I learned a lot during the making of this painting and continuing to learn and grow as an Artist is the most important thing.

Etsy Store

I now have an Etsy Store!  https://www.etsy.com/shop/MichellePapadopoulos

After taking part in Inktober and creating all those ink drawings, I thought it might be a good idea to sell some of them. I had a blast creating them and people seemed to like them so why not!

Eventually, I'm going to also put up prints and paintings but for now, my ink drawings will have to do.

More Inktober

This month has been super inspiring.  I've been having a ball working on these ink drawings daily (well almost daily; I missed a couple).  Here are a few more.  I'm thinking of opening an Etsy shop and selling some.  We'll see!

These ink drawings for Inktober are so much fun to create! I really love working with ink.  Ink and watercolor are something I really want to get more into.  I feel like my whole outlook on making art has been changing the past few months (well probably since IMC).  I'm really interested in a different style than anything in my portfolio right now.  I will have to create a whole new portfolio eventually with the kind of work I like to do now.  And I'm still figuring that out...

Here's a video I created of one of the Inktober drawings.  It was a pretty quick and fun video to make since I didn't have to speak in it (yay!).  I screw up a lot when I have to speak.  I hope to make more of these!

Inktober

It's Inktober!  I jumped on the bandwagon a bit late (hadn't even heard about it before) but I did 3 ink drawings the first day to make up for it.  It's a lot of fun so far!  I have been interested in doing more ink work and more traditional work in general, so this was a great opportunity to get motivated and jump right in.

I'm trying to free my mind and draw whatever I want without thinking too hard about it.  My creativity sometimes gets killed by over-thinking things; For example: Would other people like this? What should I have in my portfolio if I want to illustrate for X or Y? Maybe I should have more of this or that in my portfolio, it has to be PERFECT! (and it never ever is)...  Those kind a things.
So, none of that!! I will just draw whatever is in my head at that moment.  I think this will give me a better idea of what I really love to draw because I have had trouble figuring that out.

Here is my arsenal:  various pens, markers, and inks.  I love the look of toned paper with black and white ink.  I also bought a couple "fancy" inks, one in gold and one that has an iridescent green shimmer to it.  While I was at IMC in June, I bought a Winsor & Newton Series 7 Sable brush and I can't say enough how much I love it!  It is a little pricey but it should last for quite a while.  You can paint a line that is about a centimeter think to as thin as a hair with it, no problem.

I'll be posting them all on my Tumblr.
Here are the first 6 sketches:

More to come!