Lady October

Wow, Fall got here so fast this year I barely had time to really prepare for it.  Here in Germany, we have beautiful Falls.  I'm really enjoying all the colors this year, and the kids have taken to bringing me home the extra special leaves that they've discovered outside.  Unfortunately, they were really sad to discover that the leaves tend to dry up after a few days, so I've been scanning some of their best leaves so that they can keep them forever.  This in turn inspired my latest drawing for the month of October.



This month I'm trying two new things.  1. I tried out a new computer program to color my sketches.  2.  I'm trying to post a bit more about my sketching process which is actually a bit scary for me.

I'm very happy with this drawing.  I did have a hard time deciding between the colorings of the background, so I've included my two favorites in this posts so you can compare the differences.



This drawing was done by hand, then scanned and colored on the computer.  I tried to do it with my new program "sketch book pro", but I still need more practice with it and went back to using photoshop.  I do have to say that I love the pencil feature on Sketch book pro.  It is almost like using a real pencil.




Background two is a cooler tone than my first pick.  I like how subtle it is, and it is my second favorite of all the different backgrounds I tried out.




I wish that I could say that I'm one of those people who can just sketch out awesome images without even trying, but my preliminary ideas are often really rough.  I just want to get the idea out, and then I work on refining my ideas and doing another few drawings before I have a final image that is ready to color.  This sketch was done at an indoor play area while my kids were bouncing in the background.  I don't usually share my rough sketches, but I'm really proud of how much better I'm getting at drawing figures and objects without having to have a reference.



I love coloring my sketches by hand with paint or pencils, but I'm also loving being able to color them on the computer because there is more freedom with trying out different ideas without having to redraw the whole image and start over if you're not happy with a color.  In this drawing, I tried several ideas for the the Lady's undershirt before I finally chose these stripes.  I knew that the stripes were right because they made me smile the moment I drew them.



I also toyed with a few ideas for the dress fabric pattern before I drew out the final design.  I love the little bugs and beasts that are hidden in the pattern.  The frog might be my favorite part of her gown.

Surprisingly, I didn't struggle with the color for the cat.  I always knew that she had a grey cat :)

This drawing was a real pleasure to work on because I was so very inspired by the season.  Where do you find your inspiration?  In the seasons, daily life, in your day dreams, or somewhere else? :)