Snow Day Special

My friends in warmer climates constantly say they wish that it snowed by them. I say fooey! While I love how the first moments of a snow fall are incredibly beautiful, snow is just a pain in the butt. Eventually it gets dirty and brown, you have to clean it off your car in the morning, driving conditions are usually terrible, and grumble grumble grumble. So I'm pretty much snowed in and might not be going out at all today. As a result, I am making this post. I'll even include an extra piece. That's right, three pieces today! Thank you for reading about my brainsplosion.

Robot Speedster

Horror

Dragon Turtle

Gluttony

This past weekend was my grandmother's funeral. Depressing weekend. That side of my family is super Italian. I mean, I have an uncle that grows his own grapes and makes his own wine. So when we get together every meal has to be a feast. I ate so much I think I'll be working it off for the foreseeable future. Anyway, we're coming up on the end of the sketches from past work. This blog is constantly a month or two behind but I've been trying to catch up with my current work by posting more pictures per post. I would estimate that in a couple months I'll be posting current work. Here are my two sketches. I think the first one is from a Magic card and the second I think is from a magazine. Thank you for reading about my brainsplosion.

 Demon King

Scratchy Dragon

My First Strathmore and Moleskine

I never really paid attention to what paper I was drawing on until this past August when I decided to take a more deliberate and serious approach to my art. I was in the hospital and you can only watch so many movies and TV shows, play so many card games and board games, and sleep so many hours before you feel you're going to quietly die of boredom in your sleep. I had some ideas I wanted to put to paper and asked my parents for a notebook, a sketchpad, a pencil, and a pen. They came back with a Moleskine notebook and a Strathmore 400 Series 6"x8" drawing pad.

The Strathmore 400 Series drawing pad is great. Spiral bound so it lays flat and pages aren't easily removed. It's the perfect pad to take with you everywhere. Amazing with pencil drawings and India Ink. I've used it for markers (crayola because Prismacolor and Sharpie will bleed through), color pencils, and charcoal. I find that 6"x8" is a great size as it's not too small but small enough that it's portable. I also have pads of other sizes for less portable applications. I've bought other drawing pads and sketch books but the weight and texture of this paper is my favorite.

Now a quick note on the Molskine brand notebooks. Moleskine pads and books has several great aspects to them that make them worth their elevated price. They have usually have a built-in book mark, an elastic band attached to the cover that helps keep it closed, it always lays flat, and it has an expandable pocket that is useful for storing scraps of paper. I only possess a ruled notebook but I've seen and felt their watercolor paper and I have wanted one ever since then. I use Strathmore Windpower and 400 Series for my watercolor and mixed media works but the Moleskine watercolor paper seems a little heavier and smoother. I'll let you know more about it when I purchase my own.

Gesture Dragon

BONUS SKETCH
Did this from a picture in a magazine. I used a graphite stick and didn't erase. If you've never tried it, don't erase at all in a sketch or two. I find that it's a good exercise in building confidence.Thanks for reading about my Brainsplosion.

Links

Strathmore

Moleskine

Sharpie

Prismacolor