I'm rather pleased with this one. Did you know that banner bearers are actually super important? In ancient battles, they stood at the front lines and used various signals to communicate the general's orders to the troops. There was an important battle between the Greeks and Persians in 480 BC. called the battle of Thermopylae. The Greeks were outrageously outnumbered. However, when a banner bearer accidentally dropped their banner, the other bearers thought it was the signal to retreat, and dropped their banners as well. The entire Persian army was routed by the significantly smaller Greek force. So technically this lady is much more important and powerful than any flashy warrior could be.
I played with some different rendering techniques in my digital lineart/with some diagonal shading in the shadows in addition to my usual cell shading. I used the same colour as the hair /skin/ clothing in for my lineart on a 'multiply' layer then duplicated that layer and added a blur/reduced the opacity for its copy to soften the look of the lines.
Here's a traditional art sketch card, produced on a 4 X 5 inch blank licensed card. The cut lines are set at 2.5 X 2.3 standard trading card size. Artwork is Copic marker and Prismacolor colored pencil. This card was created as a random insert for the 2018 Rittenhouse Archives Star Trek Captains collection Card series. See more at Sketchcardsandcovers.com
#28 - A collection of ballpoint pen sketches drawn on printer paper & scanned. This is what my lines look like when I'm not using a stabilizer in digital software to get the nicest clean lines. I tried to separate my scanned lines from the various shades of off-white that the scanner picked up. I adjusted the brightness and contrast levels in photoshop but I'm not very knowledgeable on how to achieve the best results.
The five part illustration series Don't Lose Yourself. You can lose yourself in many ways; Consumerism, Heartbreak, American Culture, Loneliness, Giving In, Giving Up, Settling. The five part illustration series, “Don’t Lose Yourself” highlights the chaos we don’t notice around or within ourselves when we’re disconnected away from reality. Sinking so deep, we forget our own values or who we are. The collection reminds us to stay within ourselves by showcasing the dangers of what happens when we don’t.
Acrylic on river rock. Believe it or not, except for the sun, I only painted over lines that were naturally in the rock...you can even faintly see the outline of another saguaro to the right of the shadowed one!
Drawn with Clip Studio Paint and XP-Pen Artist 15.6 Pro pen display tablet.
Critically Endangered The White-headed Vulture has undergone catastrophic declines in population number, with an estimate median decline in 96% over three generations (45 years)
This decline has been seen in its very large range from West Africa, across to southern Africa also. Reductions in populations of medium-sized mammals and wild ungulates, as well as habitat conversion throughout its range best explain the current decline. Additional threats include indirect poisoning at baits set to kill jackals in small-stock farming areas. This species is also recorded in trade in West and Central Africa as this species is used for both traditional medicines and also they are intentionally killed for use in witchcraft. This species is part of the Accipitridae bird family, which diverged from all other species of bird 49.6 million years ago during the Paleogene period. Vultures split from the other genera in this family 12.7 million years ago. This species is highly sensitive to land-use and is concentrated to protected areas. Individuals were marked with patagial (wing) tags in Fouta Djallon vulture sanctuary to monitor movements and for a toxicological assessment of the vulture population of the park. Additional studies to monitor the movements of individuals within and between protected areas in underway is South Africa. Info: Edgeofexistence . org #birdlife #birds #birddrawing #birdsketch #whiteheadedvulture #vultures #bampidraws
Started this with 4 or 5 random horizontal lines (drew with eyes closed). While free drawing, decided to add little eyes and faces etc. Undecided if I should color or not. Main thing is I had a lot of fun making this. (I have a bunch of time lapse videos of this spontaneous project).
Two wicker chairs in the sun.
One for the waiting,
one for the hoped-for.
The table between them
holds its silence,
its place set for bread or talk.
I draw what is here—
lines quick and unerasable—
and what is not here,
her presence,
waits with me in the white of the page.
Imperfect Lines, Honest Presence
This sketch is not perfect—and that’s exactly why it’s alive. The bold figure, the dissolving hat, the tilted chair: all of it feels unfinished, fleeting, caught in motion. It’s what the Japanese call wabi-sabi—finding beauty in the imperfect, the impermanent, the incomplete.
But there’s something deeper here too. A quick sketch is not just what the eye records. It’s what the soul permits. To draw without fixing, without polishing, is to admit the world will not hold still for us. Life slips past. The lines break off. And yet, somehow, the essence remains.
When you sketch this way, you are not the master of the moment—you are its guest. The pencil does not carve permanence; it pays attention. The act of drawing becomes an act of being present, of honoring what is already vanishing.
So here’s a challenge: grab a pencil and sketch someone near you in sixty seconds. Do not erase. Do not perfect. Let the lines falter. When you finish, ask yourself: What truth did the imperfection reveal?
Perhaps presence itself is the real art.
For our 10th anniversary this past Monday, we went on a hike at Land's End. It was cold and blustery! Got a quick sketch in from the labyrinth. Rain lines added as it started to rain by my son.
Sometimes wisdom comes in a joke,
and sometimes laughter carries truth.
Brian spoke like a sage,
Mike answered like a friend,
and together they held the room.
We draw to remember.
Not only the lines of faces,
but the presence of goodness,
the gift of voices that echo
long after the chairs are empty.
Throwback to Mj in Spider-man Homecoming!!! I am really very happy that Mj/ Zendaya have more screentime and lines in the new Spiderman Far from home. I ship her with Spider-man/Tom Holland
