LydMc

Happy Halloween! Halloween is almost here again, and you know what that means... costume pARTy! In case you missed the original  Halloween Costume Art , I like to commemorate the holiday by drawing various (often hilarious) costumes pulled from the latest costume catalogs.   Random Costume Assignment This year I enlisted my brother to help randomly assign costumes for my usual cast of characters.   Even though the costumes were completely random, a lot of them worked out quite well for the people who received them. 1st time is not the charm Once I knew who was who, I took some time to sketch out a possible plan. Ten people is quite a lot to fit into one picture, especially since I wanted them to interact in some fashion.  Getting ink A few preliminary sketches later, and I was ready to start inking. This is one of my favorite parts of the process, as it refines all the hazy spots and makes it look so official! Gibdo attack! (Bonus points if you get

Bird's Eye View Have you ever wanted to draw, but had no idea where to begin? This sort of creative block seems fairly universal to most any creative avenue (writing, painting, cooking, you name it), and one of my favorite ways out of this rut is to step back and do a little R&D.  When it comes to art, for me that means working from a reference. This not only gives your creative brain a break while still flexing the muscles, but also gives you a chance to study up, refine your skills and experiment with new styles.  Where can one find references like this, you ask? Pinterest, of course! Hey, fancy ladies! These fancy ladies were inspired by this  Fashion Photo  which struck me as soon as I saw it . I referenced the clothes, hair and postures of the ladies, but gave them to a few of my own characters instead. (If I really wanted to maximize the learning experience, I should have gone after that background, too, but... maybe next time!) Women's Fashion Sketc

Birthday Book Brownie! This  year's birthday cake was extra special because I got to share it with another awesome character... Dewey! I love a good book and this guy's no exception. I drew the little dude as part of my Leadership class project (a do nation station benefiting the local library) , and then made the cake in honor of Dewey's official debut. So what kind of cake do you bake for such a celebration of literacy? So we meet again... A book cake, of course! Or in this case, a book brownie. In the interest of fewer crumbs in the library (and because I make a killer brownie), I opted for a brownie cake instead of the usual.  Books & Brownies? Yes, please! A good tip for showstopping brownies? Doctor up a boxed mix with tasty extras like cinnamon, vanilla and chocolate chips. I also swap out half the oil for applesauce, as it's less oily and you can't tell the difference. Isn't he cute?? When it came time to decorate

Happy Halloween 2014! One of my favorite October pastimes  (besides busting out my coziest sweaters and fluffy socks)   is drawing fun costumes from the annual Halloween catalogs. Each year, I have friends pick out their favorite costumes and then I assign them to my crew of fictional characters.  The picture above is fresh off the sketchbook for Halloween 2014, and this year, the costumes were chosen by my brother, my mom, and my boyfriend (who was also kind enough to lend me some of his Prismacolor markers). Can you find the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 cameo...? Ghosts, pirates, and fairies of Halloweens past abound in my binders of old drawings, and I dug out some of the more entertaining pictures to share.  While most aren't quite as polished in the quality department, they do a great job of showing the progression of my art skills, and of costume catalogs.   Crazy as it may seem, this picture was from 10 YEARS AGO... Spooky! I had so many costume requ

It's raining Beebles! When times are tough, it's good to have an outlet. As it so happens, times have been pretty tough recently (hence the temporary blog hiatus) so I know this firsthand. Still, I didn't realize the truth of it until one of my relatives asked me what my outlet was. After a moment's thought, I realized I had indeed developed a renewed passion since the troubles began: arts and crafts.  Along with teaching myself to crochet and dabbling in doilies (blogs to come!), my first defense was in the form of art.  In the manner of true art therapy, I took to drawing, sketching and coloring like I hadn't done in weeks.  Blub blub, blub blub. One of my favorite pastimes has always been creating art from scratch, usually featuring fictional characters of my own design. However, sometimes even thinking of what to doodle can be taxing. Since this was the case for me, I used some of my brother's Magic the Gathering cards to, in essence, mak