Flawless - sold

'Flawless' sold

6" x 6.5" colored pencil on Bristol

click here to purchase

The other day I really wanted to draw a portrait where the features were the focus and the skin tones were very light. This is what I came up with. I like how it draws your attention to her eyes, which are always my favorite part to draw or paint.

I usually start with the eyes when I draw in colored pencil, but then I get bored with the rest of the drawing and quit after a while, so this time I was a good girl and drew her hair and the base of her skin tones before I drew her eyes. :)

This drawing is also my loose interpretation of another character from Cassandra Clare's book series The Mortal Instruments. This is close to how I imagine Clary Fray. 

And I've been experimenting with taking different photos of my artwork for my Etsy shop listings. Etsy gives you five different spaces (I think) for different photos of whatever you're listing so the viewer can see it from different angles. Here are a couple me and my son did today:

What do you think? You guys have any other ideas for photos I could take? I'd love some suggestions.

Reference photo by Katlinn Lewis, thank you!

Isabelle Lightwood

Isabelle Lightwood

character study from the book City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

graphite on Strathmore 400 11 x 14"

I'm working on having some giclee prints made up of this drawing. They should be available in my etsy shop by the end of next week. An 8 x 10" will be $30. Smaller sizes will be coming soon as well.

 'Shadowhunters: Looking Better in Black Than the Widows of our Enemies Since 1234' - City of Bones   

The other day I had the strongest urge to just draw something. I have been neglecting my sketchbook lately and if I do that for too long I start to feel very unhappy. So I started this drawing from a non-copyrighted photo I found of a young woman with a hefty dose of attitude while I was waiting in the car to pick my kids up from school.

After about fifteen minutes of drawing I realized that she reminded me of someone. A character (Isabelle Lightwood) from one of my favorite books, City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. Once I realized that, the drawing started to take on a life of its own, and it was SO much fun.

No, wait fun's not the right word to describe it, it was just enjoyable and satisfying to put on paper an image I had held in my head since I had first read these books nearly four years ago.

Drawing characters from books is something that would not have occured to me if I had not found and became friends with Kim Kincaid. She is an amazing artist who draws character studies from books she loves (a fellow bookaholic just like me!). Click here to see some more of the characters she created from this same book.

Sometimes I really feel like drawing is as close to real live magic as I can possibly get. And it is awesome.

Have a great week everyone! See you on Tuesday. :)))