#art experiments

[rapidpunches]

[fifdraws]

Elfen Lied was once again fun to rewatch 💗 It is a product of its time, sure, but I guess so am I? Anyway I was happy to browse tumblr and see everyone loves Nana. I love her friendship with Mayu :)

[bismutharts]

does it still count as a zine when i'm just drawing whatever watercolour thing comes to mind but it's in an 8 page booklet? i say yes

there will be a reblog with closups, because the textures up close are really beautiful and tumblr doesn't want me to add more than 10 images at once

it'd make me very happy to hear which page you like best

this is part of my project to make a zine a day in april

[sketchypenface]

Some more experimentation with halloween things and colours. And the ghost now has a witch hat!

[bar-berry]

[agblend13]

Nothing is cozier to a flaming sun than wrapping herself in a cooling shroud of space ✨🌈☄️

In my spare time I've been experimenting with translating more of my painting subjects into sculpture. This is created with hand molded plaster gauze then painted with acrylics.

Anka Yanovna 2024

(Sold)

[theangrycomet-art]

style experiment ft my favorite magical boy

[catirlgirlurl]

Experiments in shrink plastic! I have a plan for a gift so I made some test pieces first. Featuring my Project Neural Cloud wife Imhotep, a Sylveon, and others. Made with acrylic paint markers (and in a couple of instances, a fineliner).

Stuff I found interesting:

Trust the process, not the instructions. It said 3 minutes in the oven, I put these in for 5 and they're still curvy, so I could have gone for longer.

Paint side down! Sweet Immy's hair is a bit flaky on the back :( but the layers are also quite thick sooo.

The fineliner pen came out surprisingly well...

Lines on one side and colour on the other makes for an interesting visual!

The glittery paint markers ... don't glitter so much.

... I used a terrible colour for Immy's skin lmao, sorry bébé 💔

The D20 wasn shamelessly traced from a sticker I have, from Sioned Mai on Etsy. They also sell pins, if that's your vibe. No other comments, just plugging a cool creator~

All in all a fun experiment, and I've learned a lot. Meant to test how much a punched hole would shrink, whoops. Oh well. Next time!

[christianfrederiksen]

Some sketches I made to do a bunch of experiments with fixative and spray varnish on chalk pastels. I'm trying to come up with a way of doing chalk pastels that doesn't need to be put under glass after.

[oli-draw]

I also experimented with patterns

[fayessketchbook]

Here they are, all the requests I got! I took the opportunity to experiment with new brushes for each fanart :D

Thank you so much to @good-beans, @loregoddess, @nowis-scales, @zorua-adorable, @acerikus and @elegyofthemoon respectively for the requests!

[magicalflyingart]

Tried to mix pixel art and watercolours. Process video under the cut.

[prettylittlelyres]

Drawing the Sandalwood Girl

An experiment in drawing with my non-dominant hand

In the last few years, I've been having trouble gripping pens and pencils, because the top joints in my fingers are weak. I have Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder, and although physiotherapy has helped with a lot of the resulting joint problems, there's not much I can do to stabilise my fingers. I could wear finger splints, or use pencil grips, or both, but these are quite expensive options. I opt for pens and pencils with thick bodies, because I don't have to pinch them. After work one evening - I work from home because it’s best for me with my changeable health - I decided to sit down and try it.

I did write (type, rather!) a whole 1,500 word essay with my left hand in my first year of university, because I dislocated my right arm 24 hours before the deadline and didn’t know how to ask for help, so I knew it wouldn’t be as hard as that, but… still quite a daunting thought. Picking up the crayon to make the first mark on the page was scarier than I expected it to be; I was quite shocked by how nervous I was.

Knowing I wouldn’t be able to do GCSE-level artwork with my left hand, because I can barely hold a pen with my left, I decided to be kind to myself and do something very simple. I got an old favourite book from my childhood (“The Sandalwood Girl” from the “Puddle Lane” series by Sheila McCullagh, Ladybird edition) and used one of the illustrations as reference.

I have a box easel that gives me a tilted surface to work on when I don’t want to (or can’t) spend an evening hunched over the table, drawing, and I have a big crate of about 150 Crayola wax crayons, plus lots of watercolour paper, which creates the most beautiful relief texture. I set my lamp and my easel up on the floor, got a cushion to support me, and started drawing with my left hand. I found I had to hold the wax crayons so peculiarly (relative to my right-hand habit) and couldn’t put much pressure on the page, but going over my work again and again let me build up the colour with a lot more control than I have in my right hand.

This is what I came up with - about an hour of drawing, I think, although I didn’t time it - and I’m so pleased with it!

My left wrist hurt a bit, but I thoroughly enjoyed this drawing, and I’ll definitely be drawing more with my left hand in future. I’m determined to make more visual artwork, but it’s not always possible with my hypermobility - my right hand takes a beating when I use my walking stick - so maybe this will help me do more of what I love. I also really liked the challenge of drawing with my non-dominant hand.

If you're an artist looking for a new challenge, this is exactly the kind of thing I'd recommend. (With apologies to my dear ambidextrous friends, this may be less of a challenge for you than for others.) I'm really looking forward to trying again!

[sailor-tri]

Having fun again with art and doing something different again

[sketchypenface]

Another set of acetate drawings onto ink splatters and acrylic markmade backgrounds. Whilst I thought that the colours clashed greatly, I still thought these worked really well. And I thought the corn on the cob stood out a lot, partly due to the shadow it formed.

[bar-berry]