Taming the Dragon

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I am learning, as I open myself up to more spontaneous illustrations, that I never know where it will take me. It scares me sometimes, yet the time is right. There is this desire to expand that must be satisfied.

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When the business blogger sent me an article called Taming the Multitasking Dragon, it only made sense to have a busy dragon. In the end, I left him to stand on his own, no extras, but along the way I learned that researching dragons was not that easy. I mean – no one has actually seen a dragon!

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You can look up vintage dragons, you can look up current art on dragons, but in the end, you can do whatever you want with a dragon. I also reviewed bats wings, goats faces, eagle’s talons. The tail was a mix of reptile, squirrel and imagination.

Somehow he ended up pregnant looking, but that was ok. One observer really wanted to just “poke that fat belly.” Yeah – you try that! He has fire!

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Weekly Sketchbook

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The only way to get to know a subject is to study it. Over the years I have taken copious photos of hummingbird moths, but until I started doing these fast sketches, I don’t know that I really had seen them. Gorgeous little creatures about the size of the end of your thumb.

My favorite pen for fast sketches is the Micron 05. I am branching out and trying others too. It is amazing how awkward that can feel.

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I also used a Copic brush this week for the chickadees below. It has been a long time. I have some work to do with that tool to get back to some level of comfort.

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Weekly Sketchbook – Winter Birds

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An exercise in “seeing”. I call these my 5 second sketches and am challenging myself to do them daily.

In using a Micron pen, it keeps me from attempting to perfect the sketch and just move on.

I am studying Indiana backyard birds that winter over for some oil painting I am working on.

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