JFlah's Blunders

  Click for reference by Mike McCarthy   Click for reference by Mike McCarthy   Click for reference by Efrain Malo   Click here for reference by ".mb. 2018"  

 For a while now Valerie 's figurative sculptures have been on my radar - love the hair and the long limbs of her pieces - the lithe poses. Lots of fun to look at and draw.  Here's another from Valerie 's studio. And a few bonus sketches - from images I found on Pinterest .

Ok, so I didn't follow the rules this year. I did my sketches but didn't post them all. Here are ones I failed to post: Source: https://imgur.com/9fK6vcW Loved this one so much I did a digital painting too. Source: https://imgur.com/9fK6vcW Source Source Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/WecIqruEZfo Don't remember where this one came from. It's kinda wonky so probably an original - LOL I think it was inspired by RizzyFig's cute mermaid, but don't remember. Sources: https://unsplash.com/photos/DziZIYOGAHc https://unsplash.com/photos/oWTW-jNGl9I  

The head of our PreK ministry asked me to help her make a craft for the story about Hannah praying for a baby in 1 Samuel 1:9-2 8 . She brought me a neat idea she found online where only the hands/torso change when the page is folded. Thankfully I had time to sketch up an original version of what she brought me. Click here to download this design for free. Finalized version created in Adobe Illustrator: Preliminary sketches:  Ideas she provided:

Loved doing this! Love the shapes and the expression. Sculpture - Marguerite by Rose-Aimee Belenger

Inspiration from Unsplash

I really have trouble with perspective - but this still turned out cute - should've cleaned up my pencil work... Source: Unsplash,

Almost caught up on the challenge...

Inktober sketch #3 Sketch - inked... Boy!  I need to work on my inking skills! Probably need better tools too... Inspiration - I couldn't find original artist but saw it first on pintrest

Probably not going to make it all month, but I'm going to try for at least one every other day. Don't plan to ink them - my goal is to sharpen my drawing skills some - have really let them atrophy. Without more adieu, here's #1 for Jake Parker's Inktober challenge . Prompt: Poison Sketch - pencil on paper reference photo

James McAvoy - cf Victor Frankenstein - sketch 2018 You can tell I didn't take as much time with this portrait as I did with the one of Baker... You can tell what I was going for and that I didn't quite get there. Boy! I need practice.

Seems like a lifetime ago that I worked at Crown Craft designing baby bedding for their NoJo brand . It was a job that saved me from several bad life choices and helped to redirect me. But not only did it do those super important things, it helped me to see that I have decent design chops and each time I get in a spot where I think I'm invisible, or think that I'm not important or am not "good enough" I go check the status of the design I did at Crown Craft. The baby bedding set I designed for NoJo's Little Bedding brand is called Dreamland Teddy and since it took off and did so well, they've since made a pink version to compliment the neutral one I created while I was there. Surely they'll eventually phase it out - it's been selling for nearly eight years on walmart.com. On days like today, I go read the reviews of young mothers saying how much they love the cute design and I thank God that He gave me the ability and the opportunity to bless...

And this is a version of Malan's sketch I did - sure enjoyed myself... it is the best of the group I've done so far. Love Malan's style. Couldn't find a copy of the original online - just know his original is better than my version of it LOL cf Dave Malan book of sketches

Another one I sketched from Malan's book . Wish I had a better grasp on how he decides to shade. His version of this one is at least six times better than mine. Click here to see his original. cf D Malan's sketchbook

Was super excited to get a copy of Malan's book of drawings. I've been sketching several of them and will post results soon. It's obvious to me that he's certainly more skilled than I am. He's drawing from life and I'm having trouble simply drawing from his sketch. Here's the original. cf D. Malan's book of sketches

The youth minister came through and asked me to create something for an upcoming event and when I pitched my idea, he laughed and said, "Sure." So - here's what he got. I love my job! And, process (scanned sketch, colored it in photoshop): quick sketch to get me started... put some color on it in photoshop... And, voila! Pizza dude is at the pool party.

Ok, so I'm on a snowman kick... gotta draw them to get them out of my system sometimes...

Here's the "final" poster design. Might be tweaked a little more, but this is basically it. Made the angels subtle and the nativity prominent. Thankfully the boss was around when I was working on placement of the pieces. He helped me choose three angels and decided he wanted the nativity big. Here's the inspiration:

Here's the nativity sketch - sketched elements separately, scanned them at a high resolution then compiled them into the scenes. Wish I'd had more time to work on these, but I think I've done ok in the time allotted. I'm glad God's given me a place to work that will allow me to do creative things like this even though I still feel a little funny about being found sketching when the boss shows up at the door and says 'what cha' doin?'

Did a lot of angel sketches in prep to put together the Spirit of Christmas design for this year. Here are the most successful ones. Only three made it into the final.