Inktober 2014 - Progress

Inktober is in full swing! I've been trying to do one everyday (except for yesterday - I was in a Canadian Thanksgiving turkey coma).

So far, I've tried a few different papers and tools.  One of my faves is a gold leafing pen (Krylon Leafing Pen) but I've only used it in one drawing so far.  I also love using a pen with a #101 nib and sepia ink - that's my go to right now.

It's not always easy coming up with ideas on what to draw everyday but it's a fun challenge.  I try to get a rough sketch of an idea done during lunch at work and then when I get home in the evening I'll find some reference and ink it; it keeps me busy!

Inktober 2014

It's that time of year again!  The ink-fest that is Inktober.  The deal is, you're supposed to do an ink drawing per day through the month of October and then post them online.

I took part in this last year for the first time when I was just starting to draw in ink.  It was a challenge to keep up with it but it was so much fun!  At the end of the month, I had a bunch of pretty drawings which I eventually sold at conventions.

One of the reasons I love it is because you only have a day to figure out and execute a pretty much finished drawing. It doesn't give you time to over-think anything or tweak things to death (guilty).  You just have to come up with stuff from you head and just do it.  It's also fun to experiment with different inks/pens/papers.

I started an evening pen and ink class recently. So far it's been great and I've learned some new techniques.  What perfect timing.

Looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with!

Here's day #1:

I'll be posting them all on Twitter: @ArtOfMichelle and on my Facebook Page (which hasn't seen a lot of action lately, until now): https://www.facebook.com/MichellePapadopoulosArt

IMC 2014

This is an overdue post.  It is the process for the painting I created at the Illustration Master Class workshop back in June.  It was my third time going and it hasn't gotten any less amazing! The teachers, the students, the lectures, the studio time and just hanging out with other Artists makes it one of my favorite weeks of the year. I can't say enough good things about it.

Below is the final painting, I also did a bit of digital tweaking to the colors.

 

I started out with a bunch of thumbnails which I did before the workshop started:

This year at IMC, we broke up into 3 core groups.  My core group was with Iain McCaig, Mike Mignola, Rebecca Guay, Greg Manchess, and Scott Fischer (who are all awesome):

 

After the crit and a favorite thumbnail was picked, I did a larger sketch/value study with ink:

 

Then I created the final drawing on watercolor paper: 

And onto watercolors!

 

Iain was helping me with some color comps, and while doing those, the idea to give her bright red hair happened. 

 

My IMC work station:

Final Painting:

The IMC 2014 group shot. I miss this crazy group of people!

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.