Actually painted a portrait of somebody’s baby the other week. Looked nothing like this one, who was just practice for baby paintings. Can’t show the portrait, because it hasn’t been given to the recipient yet.

Then there’s this freaky smiling guy, again rendered in good old-fashioned watercolour.

Gotta pay more attention to landscapes and backgrounds. Also practicing with the “Pen Tool.”

These are simple, but done with different techniques and programs. Up above is purely digital, drawn and painted in Photoshop.

The guy below was drawn in Adobe Illustrator according to a pencil sketch, then coloured in Photoshop. I’m happy with the ink lines I’m able to create, and they’re fast to do, too.

This strange woman was painted in black wash on paper, then coloured in Photoshop. Nifty! I want to be able to blend the colours more.

Still, all things considered, they look good to me, and my pics will continue to get only better.

I’m still adventuring in colouring sketches, and hence, cartoons. Difficult to figure out what’s too much, because I like the original drawing, done in roller pen in the sketchbook, just fine. But these flat colours with subtle gradations are all right. I also have to work on my colour sense, to let things blend into each other, and advance and recede as I like them. Much of it’s a question of confidence. I’ll play other little tricks as I gain it. Nice, as I’ve been saying, to have another skill.

More cartoon colouring. I’ve noted that few people are visiting the blog on Sunday, so I can post today in relative obscurity.

This took me a bit of time, but taught me a lot about digital painting, and making clean lines in illustrator and photoshop. It started life as one of my silly little sketches, so it’s not a real kind of airplane. I’m experimenting with different lines to see which ones are the prettiest and fastest to create. I think hand-drawn ones win in the end, but I’m more comfortable with the digital ones now.

Still playing with the digital painting. I think I get so carried away with the technical challenge I sometimes forget to make an interesting picture. Hence this horse, not doing much of anything. George Stubbs I am not! Actually, without the “ink” lines, this looks a lot like one of those paint by numbers kits. I promise I’ll get better with the digital painting soon. Still think you might be interested in seeing the process!

Of course, it would have looked better had I used a photo reference instead of drawing it and the reflections out of my head, but that’s the way I am.

Meanwhile, here are a few real ball-point pen drawings I did. It’s a medium I enjoy. Again, sort of frowned upon by the finer galleries, but I like doing the tones with crosshatching.

Painted this digitally at a friend’s, after her feline companion. Still working on brushes, colour mixing, etc.

Young Nora was being obstreperous, as is easy to see from this photo, and she got my little finger this morning as I was trying to take something breakable away from her. So I’ve given her a new identity, as below:

So there.