The Flight of the Dolphins

Hello Friends!

The Merry Month of Mermaid May {Mermay} continues.  No mermaids today, but some of the underwater friends of mermaids by way of a trio of common dolphins in a galactic ocean.  Inspired by Ida Andersen Lang at Drawing Magic Circle.  

I can't pretend otherwise that I'm chuffed to bits with this one, and I'm even thinking I might push the boat out and frame it.

I hope you like it.

Until next time

Stay safe and stay well

Debbie xx

Successes and Failures

Hello Friends!

Life is full of opposites, and no matter how much I enjoy creating art, i feel that my failures outweigh my successes.  Typing is tricksy  for me at the moment, so today I'll not mince about and I shall get straight into the pictures. 

I'll begin with the failures.  This is my reference photo for everything shown today.  It was an app on Facebook, I think I wrote about it a few months back, whereby your photo is turned into how you would look as a Viking, a fairy, a princess, a Celtic warrior, and more, including a mermaid. This is me as a mermaid.  She has become my muse for Mermay.

I have to admit I am less than pleased with my first two attempts in various types of watercolour mediums.  They are whimsical in appearance.

Attempt one

Attempt two

Then I decided to swap out my medium of watercolour paint and pencils for graphite.  Here's what happened next.  It's quite a difference.

Finally resulting in this

I don't think she's too shabby at all, even if I do say so myself.  It's the first time I think that I've attempted an open mouth smile showing teeth.  I'm not disappointed with my efforts at all.  Every time I do a drawing or sketch in graphite I find myself thinking I've found my best media.  What do you think?

I have to say I really do enjoy working in graphite and mostly use a mechanical pencil with a graphite refill, along with a paper blending stump {tortillon}, a kneadable putty eraser, and a Tombow retractable fine point eraser.  I also use various graphite pencils and graphite blocks {useful for shading in big areas quickly}.  It can be messy work because the sign of good graphite is how dirty your hands get when using it!  

Until next time

Stay safe and stay well

Debbie x