Sea Animal

This was my first airbrushed background. It takes a little practice, and this one came out uneven, but with nice colors.

I used a torn paper mask (fastened down with dry Zig 2-Way Glue), a little bigger than the center image. I used a pale gray (C1) marker to color the blank edge. That made a nice little colored edge that I really like.

Then I dabbed the center image with Colorless Blender fluid on terry cloth to get the mottled texture.

Daisy Drawing in Five Colors

I drew a 4x6 line drawing, then scanned it and pasted it into Powerpoint, 4 on one 8.5 x 11" page. I printed it out and colored each set of daisies in bright colors. (Shown above.)

About a week later, to make a thank-you card for a friend, I printed one onto a 3.5x5 Crane note paper, and colored it in lighter colors. (Shown below.) The dotted ground and background were inspired by Michelle Wooderson's post on coloring a galvanized bucket.

Updated July 9, 2010: Because it includes a card, this post has also been added to my new "companion blog." Please click here for "Mostly Markers - Cards" to see it there (dated the same as this original post.) For the future, I'll post all of my new greeting cards in Mostly Markers - Cards. This blog, Mostly Markers, will also still be active with all of my non-card drawings and reference posts.

Ribbon Doodle 2

A bench? The inside of a hot air balloon? Maybe just a ribbon doodle. I enjoyed making the details of the coloring.

Copic colors used: BG000, C1, Y000, RV91,95, R29,59, V04,09, BV20,23, G07,21,28,40, E41,44
Paper: white Crane's card approx. 4x6"

Parting of the Red Sea

In the Exodus story, the pillar alternated between fire and cloud. But at our church's Easter Vigil service, during the reading of this passage, my mind's eye saw it as fire and cloud together, with a deep V of water, so that's how I drew it.

Tree with flowers

When I colored the tree originally (see below), I thought it looked too dark and heavy compared to the flowers. So I drew a new tree, colored it, and cut it out. Then I cut along the bottom of the old tree, slid the new tree in (on top of the old tree, behind the front-most red flowers), and glued it in place. Much better.

Old tree:

Hilly Landscape 2

A friend asked me for a drawing like the left side of Hilly Landscape 1. I did this for her, scaling it down a bit to allow for a frame, and with the house colored like her family's summer cottage.

It's not easy for me to recreate a drawing. And reducing the size made it harder. I think it's because a lot of my drawing is gesture (movement) and not just visual.

I traced it on thin paper, then cut out some shapes along the lines & traced around the paper shapes in pencil. As I did that, I shifted some of the elements around to make it work in a smaller space. Then my final ink drawing was freely moving along the general line of the pencil.

Copic colors used: same as Hilly Landscape 1.
Paper: ecru Crane's card approx. 4x6"

Baby Booties

Knitted, not drawn! My mother's pattern. For a friend I sing with.

Fish Doodle

When I finish a drawing, I'm often ready for something different. After a detailed project, I was in the mood for simple lines & simple colors. This fish doodle was the result. In grade school, I think we would have called this a scribble drawing. The black Copic multiliner was 0.8, a thicker line than I typically use.

Copic colors used: R000,24,29,59, BG000,05, Y15, YR14 (eye)
Paper: white Crane's card approx. 4x6"

To try this, click here.

Iris Bouquet 3

A friend asked me to color my iris drawing for her, but with "her colors." So we went through the color chart together, and she picked out her favorites. I was able to use all of them.

She double-matted it with soft purple and deeper green, which looked beautiful with it. I had intended for her to cover up the bottom part of the vase (it looks too tall to me), but she liked it tall.

Click on the "iris" label, below or in the label list to the right, to see the other coloring and also the original line drawing.

Garden with Red Bench

At first, this drawing was just a rough pencil layout. If I wanted to finish it, I expected that I would clean it up, make it look more ... finished, I guess. But after a while, I decided I liked it in its rough state. So I inked in the lines (with my Copic multiliner) and colored it.

The first part I colored was the red bench. It just felt like it wanted to be red. The fence is solid warm gray (W3) with Colorless Blender to make the lighter stripes. There are lines of colorless blender in other areas, too.

Browns with Blue Green and Blue Violet

This may be a gourd bowl with water. But on the back, I wrote "music," so it may be an instrument, a horn of some kind. Whatever it is, I like the shapes and the colors, and especially the dark blue-violet ribbon tied in a bow.

Copic colors used: BV08, V09, BG72,75, E09,33,37, YR14

Pink and Green

Sea life, maybe.

Copic colors used: R000,00,02,32, YG63,97, Y000, G000,07,14,21, Drips of 0, Red and olive multiliners

Heart Drawing

The drawing was based on this silver necklace, a gift from my husband.

Copic colors used: BV20, RV91,95, silver Sanford Uni-ball Gel Impact pen.
Paper: ecru Crane's card approx. 4x6"

To try this, click here.

Star Circle

The shapes and colors make me smile.

Copic colors used: Y000,13, R000,02, V000,12, RV000,11, G000,12, BV20,23
Paper: white Crane's card approx. 4x6"

To try this, click here.

Flower or ...?

Flower? Art glass vase or paperweight? Dancing dreidel? Mask? All suggested by viewers.

January 23, 2010: This drawing, from January 2009, is my entry for the current weekly theme "clumsy" on Illustration Friday. It's awkward, but I like it anyway.

Copic colors used: Y15, YR04,09, G14, B24, C1
Paper: ecru Crane's card approx. 4x6"

Mary 12 of 12 - Holy Family

The last Mary in the 12 Marys of Christmas series. I like the interaction with the baby. I got the arms better-proportioned. I was glad I tried this series. Vacation over, back to my day job.

Copic colors used: Cool gray multiliner; Bench and blankets E41,44, V000, RV91, Y000,13; Halos Y13; Baby E00+R000, R00; Mary & Joseph hair & skin E21,29,37,R02; Joseph robe BV20+W1, BV23; Mary robe & veil BG000,32, B24,29,32

Mary 11 of 12 - Dancing with the Baby

I wanted to show Mary's joy, in contrast to yesterday's post. I made her arm too long (again!) but I like the sense of movement.

Copic colors used: Ground W3 with streaks of 0; Baby E000+R000, R00, RV91,95; Halos Y26; Mary E04,21,29,37, R02, B06,41,45, B41+BV31

Mary 10 of 12

Love her expressive posture. Not sure where that headdress came from, but I enjoyed the flow of the fabric and all the "embroidery" details.

Later I noticed I drew her hands wrong. No wonder she looks so serious. She's thinking, "How will I ever take care of a baby, with my hands on backwards?"

Copic colors used: E21,37, B24,32, BG05,45, BV20,23, Y19, shadow W1, horizontal lines W3

Mary 9 of 12 - Abstract - Mary with Elizabeth

My childhood and adult church life has not had much of a focus on Mary. As I worked on this series, of course, I reflected on her story and what her experience might have been like. Before the birth of Jesus, as told in Luke 1:39-56, she visited her cousin Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist. I drew them together in one of yesterday's Five Oval Marys. For today's drawing, I used some of their words, and words about them.

I needed an abstract drawing as a change from drawing people. For the shapes, I did some tracing of my French Curve templates, and added some echoes of those lines. I drew and colored with greens and grays for Elizabeth, blues and browns for Mary.

Copic colors used: Mary BG45,72,75, E37, YR14, cobalt multiliner; Elizabeth W1,3, G28, YG63, BG93, olive multiliner; Dots of 0

Mary 4-8 of 12 - Five Oval Marys

I made the five oval frames in PowerPoint, then printed the page. Along with drawing the five pictures, I added the flowering vine.

The captions are: Center "Mary with baby Jesus," Top left "Mary with Gabriel," Top right "Mary with Elizabeth," Bottom left "Mary with star and angels," and Bottom right "Mary with shepherds."