African American History Month: Thurgood Marshall

4"x5" pen and markers

© 2010 Mellanie Collins

February is African American History Month, so I thought I’d work on a few drawings of people whose stories inspired me when I was growing up.

Here’s a drawing of a young Thurgood Marshall. The grandson of a slave, he became the first African-American Supreme Court Justice.  He served from 1967 – 1991.   Here’s a short biography of Justice Marshall from the Center for History and New Media.

Sketching on the Bus

A few weeks ago it was snowing and I had an errand I had to run so I rode the bus downtown.   I thought it would be a great opportunity to do some sketching .  I found myself a seat behind this kid and I just had to draw his hair.   Luckily he didn’t move much and he sat there for my whole ride. I was glad that I had my cool and warm gray Pitt brush pens with me.   Unfortunately I wasn’t able to do the hair justice, but it was great fun!  I like to imagine that he knew I was sketching away behind him and was secretly pleased.

Goodbye 2009! Happy New Year Everyone!

5x7 walnut ink and colored pencil

This year has really flown by for me.  I’ve been busy drawing and painting artist trading cards and I haven’t come up for air very often.  I counted up my scans for the year and found that I had made 204 ATCs  for swaps and personal trades–and that doesn’t include a few 5×7  and 4×6 pieces that I had done on request.  All finished art, not sketches.   I’ve never made so much art in my life.   I’m pretty pleased about that.

So what about 2010?  What goal do I have?   I want to relax and enjoy myself.   Instead of working on a list of things to improve, I’m going to work on a list of things it would be fun to explore.   I’ve learned that when  I’m having fun and getting enthused my work tends to improve on it’s own.  When I struggle and strive,  my work gets tight and strained.  I may learn some new techniques but the drawing seems flat and lacking.

Well, that’s my theory.

Thanks everyone for visiting during the year and leaving me such wonderful comments.   I love sharing my work with you.  I wish you all the best for 2010 and hope you have a safe and Happy New Year!

Another Parrot ATC: Meet Shadow

2.5" x 3.5" colored pencil/wc pencil

After drawing a parrot portrait for an trade some months ago, I got a request from another parrot owner.  This  artist trading card features Shadow, a nanday conure  talented enough to maintain his own blog:  A Parrot’s Point of View.  Shadow is also the inspiration for the  children’s book  “If You Were a Parrot” by Katherine Rawson.   Katherine provided a number of charming photos for me to work from and I quickly fell in love with this bird.

 

 

Another Van Gogh-style ATC

2.5" x 3.5" oil pastel on canvas paper

I’ve been in a bit of a drawing slump and fighting a cold, so not much art is getting done these days.  Here is another Van Gogh-style card from the swap I mentioned on my last post.  While I tried acrylic paint on the last card, this one was done with oil pastels.

I hope you are all staying well and drawing happily! Thanks for stopping by!

Lazily Copying From a Master: Van Gogh ATC

2.5" x 3.5" acrylic on canvas paper

One of the ongoing swaps over at Illustratedatcs.com is the Art History 102. Each month the host chooses an artist and we can make cards adapted from one of the artists works or create a work in the artist’s style. I signed up for the Van Gogh month and this is the best card of the three I did.

I wanted to try some acrylic painting.  Since I have a tendancy toward muted tones I thought working from some Van Gogh paintings would be an excellent way to experiment and practice.  I had no real interest in copying the painting exactly.   I just wanted to focus on color and see if I could get through a painting without it turning out brownish and dull.

I’m pleased with how this turned out.  Now that I look at it again I wish that I had kept it.

ATC: Graphite Portrait Sketch

Here’s a sketch I did for my pal Kati. It’s been a while since I’ve done a graphite piece.

Fall is here. Back to Blogging…

Hello there! Can’t believe it’s September already. Now that summer is almost over I feel a little more like spending more time at the computer. I’ve spent most of August trading a lot of custom portraits on atcsforall.com and illustratedatcs.com. It’s been challenging and fun.

Here’s one of the cards that I made for a trade on illustratedatcs.com.  I like the way the eyes turned out in this portrait. I’m still not comfortable with watercolor, but it’s not bad. Just a year ago I was so terrified of watercolor. I’m so glad I decided to just get over myself and give it a try. Perhaps I’ll be able to take a class next year, but right now I’m just going with my instincts.

I’ll post a few more of these portrait cards next week.

Thanks for stopping by!

Back to the Sketchbook

It’s been a long time since I’ve just played around in my sketchbook.   I forgot how fun it is to just scribble and hack away without any real attachment to the outcome.   I had spent some time working on an ATC for a self-portrait swap.  It just wasn’t working .  The drawing was okay, but I didn’t capture myself at all.   I  was suddenly just so fed up!   I needed to relax and loosen up.  There was nothing left to do but grab a few pens and my book and just cut loose on the page.  The results were surprising–and pleasing.

ATC: Turtle Portrait

2.5" x 3.5" colored pencil

I needed to draw a turtle artist trading card for a trading partner last week.  I looked through some pictures I had taken at the zoo and came up with this guy.  I like the expression on this face.  What a grumpagus, if that’s a word.  If not I’ve just made it one.

I’m planning more regular posts for August.   I’ve finished a large stack of artist trading card requests and now I can get back to my daily drawing.  I’ve noticed that my drawing has become so tight and careful lately.  I want to try a few different things to get the fun back into my drawing practice.  Hopefully they will pass muster for posting.

Thanks for stopping by.   I always love to read your comments.