Michelle Jackson

Just a quick freehand ink doodle for this weeks IF theme: Contained.  Before I dozed off I had to get one more drawing in and without forcing myself to think I came up with this doodle using a prisma pen, and nothing else.  I cleaned it up the edges, and added a tiny splash of color in PS.  To balance the odd shape, I duplicated the image a few times and placed them around the original, using the white space as a border.  

A simple & quick illo from a sketch for a girl named Tulip, who indeed loves tulips from her tulip garden.

Cheers!

I made it this week, Hoooray! I’m really happy that I could make some time this week to participate in IF. It’s been a little hard lately, I know I keep saying that. This was designed to be the front of a card. It was sketched out on textured lined cream cardstock, outlined in pen, and colored in with watercolor colored pencils. There’s some tweakage to be done, but I love how the banner at the top turned out, overall, and being spot-on with the hand-lettering. (I never can get that right.)

Here’s another little sketch of something goofy I like to do when eating oranges.

This is an old old drawing I did for an art class. It must have been right when I started high school from the look of my signature. I grew up as a foreign service brat, and had lived in Zaire for a little more than a few years before moving back to the U.S. I really had a hard time adjusting, and really missed many things about Zaire. We had moved months before the country went to crap, so we were lucky to have left when we did.
I still remember a lot of beautiful things about the country. This drawing shows Zongo Falls. We had driven four hours from the city out into the country where some parts of the roads had been washed away. Sometimes when we past little mud hut villages, the children would come out running after our cars to just smile and wave at us as we went by. My experience at Zongo Falls was exhiliarating. Everything was so natural and as it was. Even the restaurant that was located upstream seemed in its place. They served authentic Zairian food, and it was delicious. I ordered Chicken Mwambwe, a kind of spicy tomato stew, and Fu-Fu, a leafy green local favorite. Afterwards a guide took us on a hike towards the falls. He lead us to about the middle portion of the falls so we could see the water coming over the ledge and into the crevice. My brother, friend and I dared to walk on the slippery rocks to look over the ledge a little more and to be in the mist of the falls. So that was some of what I remember of Zaire. A beautiful country and lots of memories!

This is the original sketch I wanted to use for this week’s IF theme, Communication. The sketch just kind of ’screamed’ out!

This is my first real attempt at digital painting. The tablet makes it so much easier to do this. I first established where my lighting was going to be coming from and drew an arrow to remind me. I also started roughing in tonal values of her face. This is my first time doing a step-by-step, and it’s kinda of a sad one.. I’m a little further in the detailing in this example btw.
I placed a colored background in the back to help me see the outline of her face, mouth and teeth. I worked on her facial structure and attempted to highlight and shadow. It’s pretty sad, I know. I also added her hair, but didn’t focus on the details, since I’m beginning, I figured her face would be a good start.
I kind of cheated with adding color. I painted a flat brown tone over the entire facial area, and under the layer blend mode options, I chose ‘color’ which gave me the depth and color I was looking for. I took the eraser and cleaned up my edges some. Using a darker and lighter tone of brown, I shaded and highlighted some of the areas.

I have a ways to go, but had a lot of fun doing this! Must.. do.. mooore…
oy… why does she have an adams apple.. blargh..

Once the burden had been lifted, she felt as light as a feather and ran passionately without a care, spreading her new found joy!

A second rendition has been done, per the critique of Bearuh on the ThreeThumbsUpGallery Blog. “Thats really great! I like tablet Pcs too! I recommend using your space more.. And maybe have the faces bigger for more of a focus point. AWESOME!”
Thanks Bearuh!
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Their feelings for each other sprouted out and was placed not only into each others hearts, but into everything they’ve ever loved in life.

*playin around with the new tablet.. i luuuuuv eeet! It really makes things so much easier for me, and can’t see how I went so looong without having one.. well.. this size!

Here’s the original sketch!

As she laid in the field of paper poppies, her worries and cares drifted away with the clouds that passed her by.

I don’t have a particular super hero in tightie whities that I’m drawn too. Isabelle’s super heroes are the everyday people and animals that are in her life. They’ve always been there to catch her when she fell. She’s about to now; see her legs are kind of in a ‘I need to go pee-pee stance!’
Needs a bit of work, but I really do like the overall idea. Thanks for lookin!

Nana, who was in her 80’s, didn’t live in an area where a lot of people lived. Alfred, having a good memory and remembering what day it was, baked a lovely cake for Nana on her birthday.

Phew! I made it. I had this sketched out in my book all week, but only had time tonight to carry it out. I thought I’d try something different. Wanted to use colored paper and play with the negative space… obviously need a little more work.
I took a stencil tool and pushed the outline through velum onto the cardstock. Took a blue and green colored pencil to highlight the lines and shade the areas. After scanning it in, I did a little digital cleanup.

And for those of you who must know… if this were me, I would have pushed the clock over onto the floor by now!!! (I’m soooo not a morning person)

Nando: Clocky

there’s always one in the bunch that wants to live on, so it found the Fountain ‘O’ Youth!

This started out, last friday, as a few simple notes, then a head inspired by the cartoon Avatar. For the next four days I kind of let my mind go wherever it wanted. This is incredibly mindless, but it really helped me out, creatively, to just let my mind and hands do whatever without too much thought. It was a fun exercise. (By the way, this is a two page spread from my sketchbook, which is why there’s the split down the middle.)

Here’s another view of it sideways, so you can see the other face. Thought it looked kinda neat this way too.

… and with the mighty wind, he sang with all his might, wishing the one he loved that they might hear him wishing her a goodnight…

See the original sketch from my sketchbook pages!

Can you find the word?!

i’ve gotta make time to do this stuff in illustrator or something.. I haven’t quite gained control over colored pencils or pens yet, and it’s driving me nuts! I think I’ll try to go digital for this friday’s challenge.. I owe it to myself…

What a hard theme for this week. I kept wanting to do something a little different, but I couldn’t think of anything. I stopped thinking about it for a few days, thinking I’d have to sit this one out until today at lunch a few ideas started to come out.

It’s been awhile! I think I was burnt out from the pressure of sketching, creating and finishing up home projects, and was soooo relieved that we actually had a few weekends to relax. I’m starting back up again! I’m also in my interior decorating mood, and have started planning, laying out, measuring, etc… all the upstairs bedrooms, halls and bathrooms!! I’m a little slow on the uptake, so this weeks effort was a little weak, but I wanted to contribute to help get me motivated again.

She’s enjoying a nice cup of cocoa in a big comfy chair in a quiet coffee shop, after a brisk walk in the bitter cold. yum.