Griz

This is a piece from the Arctic Myths project I am currently working on. Depicted here is a female Grizzly Being - which is to say a human being with some very prominent Grizzly Bear characteristics. In this picture we have a large and bloated female taking a drink from a stream. The Grizzly people are known to be rather nasty. They are grave robbers. They plunder and steal and murder. You really do not want to encounter a Grizzly being in the wilderness. You will be yelling and screaming and running for your life.

Back in the Weeds

Here I've decided to take a couple of pieces from a few years ago and tweak them up a little so that I could pop them up on to my new Etsy page. These paintings were pretty monochromatic before, and I suppose they still are to some degree but I have added some more colour and made some minor adjustments to the drawing and design. These 2 pictures are small - 5 x 7 inches and are watercolour, gouache and pencil crayon on cold pressed paper. I like to think of these little characters sitting on the edge of a field, meditating over the sheep or cows that are just out of sight.

Crow Witch

This drawing doesn't have anything to do with anything I'm currently working on. I really just had a  hankering to revisit,  my old avatar who keeps a watchful eye on me and my online networking activities.
I hope everyone is having a pleasant Sunday.

More soon.

Getting Warmed Up - 3

A couple of recent character studies -  from reference.

Getting Warmed Up - Part 2 - Hands

Hands are hard to draw. Much continued practice is required. That's all there is to it. I'm always looking for good hand reference. I can find it in magazines or my wife's crafting and gardening books and of course there are the ones I'm using to type this post. There is no shortage of hands around here, only a shortage of the drawing of hands. In fact, I should probably do some more tomorrow !

Getting Warmed Up - Part 1 - Figures

The Human Figure In Motion by Edward Muybridge is one of my very favourite reference books for the human figure. One of the things I like best about this book is that the pictures are small so if you are going to draw from them you are pretty well forced to deal with the basics like proportion and gesture. There is no room for fancy pencil work here. The pages above were done with a simple gel pen directly on to the paper with no fiddling around or worry about pretty picture making. The idea here is to loosen up and think about the basics of drawing. I like to try and see how long I can leave the pen on the paper before I have to pick it up to start a new line - it's a part of the exercise  :)

Etsy

Hi Folks.

Just a small announcement to let you know that I now have an Etsy gallery where I have a few originals for sale, like this Magic Card above.

http://www.etsy.com/people/LarryMacDougallArt

Please feel free to drop by and take a peek.

Thanks again for all your patience  :)

More soon.

Lavender Sketchbook - A few More Faeries

A bit more drawing for the Lavender Blue book cover. My usual practice when working out a design for a cover is to draw many of the elements separately on loose paper and then trace them into place on a piece of translucent layout paper or with a light box. I do this because it allows me to draw freely and assemble without tightening up in order to make everything fit properly. Also, assembling in this way brings a slightly random aspect into your composition as items drawn separately are combined and made to work together. I first started doing this many years ago in animation school where all your drawing is done on a light table. It was such a great way to compose a layout that I never really found a better way to put a picture together. This process will not work for everyone but I find it quite helpful.