Another one for my friend. Not only does she own a pizza shop. She is also a huge Grateful Dead fan. I couldn't help but have her dancing with one of the bears
I printed my black and white zentangle drawing on marker paper and colored it with alcohol markers. At first it was a bit to garish with too much contrast, so I painted a warm grey over the whole piece. That gave me what I was looking for. Of course, THEN I completely undermined that with making a bunch of wild colored ones (two shown here) by playing with them in Photoshop. I shall be using this (along with my Zentangle koi posted la while back) for printing blank cards that we sell for charitable (mostly foodbanks) organizations.
Bear was most respected animal in Finnish mythology
It was born in the skies on the shoulders of the seven stars of the Great Bear
From there, the bear was let down to earth in a golden cradle with silver straps, into the forest
A very closeup drawing in 4B, 6B, 8B pencil on Fabiano hotpress Studio paper. I bought some Pitt Graphite Matt pencils and wanted to give them a maiden voyage. They are much lighter on the scale of deep blacks than I expected. More like rarified F pencils. But I like them.
Progression image 5 of 6. 11x14 Marker paper, Medium Graphite Pencils (asst. B-5B). Here the drawing started to come together. I used a metal tip to a mechanical pencil and dragged it along the paper to create the highlight effects in her hair. It is effective but irreversible, so I don't do it very often.
I try to do a couple of birds a week (obviously don't post them all). This is based on an on-line photo reference drawn with a "soft" Palomino Blackwing pencil and a 4B Koh-I-Noor Hardtmuth Progress woodless pencil. Hence the dark velvety black.
⚡Flash Back Friday⚡ Going back to a blackbook doodle from a few years ago. Why am I showing you this? Because graffiti art is, and has been, one of my greatest influences (aside from M.C. Escher). It is an art form I love, and I gain much inspiration from the graffiti scene (legal and illegal). I don’t really show this side of my art to the world, but it is fun for me to create, and it definitely informs my other pieces of work.
