Mixed Monday Monday - an eye with watercolours and coloured pencils

 

Hello friends! Really miss the daily eye sketches with coloured pencils now that I've completed 2 sketchbooks...so I painted an eye in.watercolour and refined it with coloured pencils! Super fun! :)

Have a great week ahead!

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Thursday's desk- a week of eye drawings

Have really been enjoying my daily 30 minute eye sketches. Some days are more challenging than others....especially when it's late in the day and I'm trying to complete before I lose natural daylight. But it's been fun to challenge myself to see how much detail I can render in 30 minutes. *high fives all around*

Happy almost Friyay friends! :)

 

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Thursday's desk - the week in eye sketches

 

Well friends, I'm pleased to inform you that I've fallen into a daily routine of a 30 minute eye sketch quite comfortably. *high fives all around* I'm almost at the halfway mark of this current pocket-size sketchbook.

Of course, the annual #the100dayproject starts next week...so I shall see if I can still keep up with the daily eye sketches. *winks*

Any guesses on what subject matter I would tackling this year?

Last year I did mixed media blooms. Definitely want to work on something different this year so that I can hopefully get somewhat proficient at it at the end of the 100 days. :)

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Sharing my latest eye sketches and answering Cindy's CNY question

 

Well friends, this gal has been drawing her eye sketches for the past week without skipping a day! Woohoo!  *high fives all around*. Just wanted to share the eye drawings so far as well as answer my bloggy pal Cindy's CNY question. :)

This was Cindy's question.

"I have a CNY question. Is there any special significance to it being "your" year? Like, if you were born in the year of the rabbit, is it extra special each time a rabbit year comes along? We treat 0's and 5's as milestone years - do those who follow a lunar calendar treat multiples of 12's as milestones?"

If it's your animal year, your luck is supposedly bad since you will offend the God of Age. And this occurs every 12 years.

There are ways to "remedy" the situation including keeping a low profile, not embarking on a new business venture, not having large celebrations etc.

So if something bad happens to someone in their animal year, the older generation might attribute that to having bad luck based on the year of birth.

But a person's "luck" based on the date of birth (according to the Chinese Lunar Calendar) constitutes 30% of their overall luck. They can hang around their buddies who have better luck to block the "poison arrows". For instance, the rabbit has the dog and pig as its buddies.

You can also carry some lucky charms to block the negative energy.

But I think working hard and being a good and kind person will definitely help you turn a bad year around since this constitutes 70% of your overall luck. :)

In terms of birthday milestones, it's still celebrated in decades. Except that the Chinese count the year in the womb as the first year. So when my grandma celebrated her 90th birthday, it was the year she turned 89 according to the regular calendar. 

My auntie Nora (Uncle Clive's wife) wanted to celebrate her 60th birthday in style but couldn't because that was in 2020 and her animal year of the rat...and of course, when the whole Covid lockdown happened. Coincidence? Or just bad luck? *dramatic music plays in the background* 

Yep, she should have celebrated in 2019 when she was 60 based on the Chinese Lunar calendar. But she said since the celebration never happened, she's still 60 three years on. *LOL*

And there you have it, all my eye sketches so far. :)

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Mixed Media Monday - Let's get back to the eye sketches

 

Did I mention that I started my daily eye sketches 2 weeks ago? Well, that was a false alarm. *LOL* I think I did 3 and stopped. Just stupid to add something to my plate that was already overflowing with life plus CNY prep. But here we are, trying again today. :)

Happy week ahead friends! 

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Friday's desk - this week's mixed media eyes from the sketchbook

 

Happy Friday friends! Just sharing Friday's desk - this week's mixed media eyes from the sketchbook. :)

I set a time limit of 45 minutes for each eye and try to get as much details in  within the time frame.

Usually it gets done in the time allocated...unless I make a major boo-boo and need to salvage the piece.

Just 9 more eye drawings to completing this sketchbook! *excited*

Enjoy your weekend friends!

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Tuesday's eye drawing from the sketchbook

 

Happy Tuesday friends! I'm really enjoying the new colours I've added to my Holbein Artist Colored Pencils. It's been fun layering the new colours with my existing colours to get even more variety of colours. 

I'm so glad that my local art supply store decided to bring them in. They are my fave coloured pencils...I had to stop using them for a while because they were expensive to replace out of Japan (I bought mine in Japan) but now I can buy individual colours and "complete" my collection. *winks* They are actually cheaper than Prismacolors here *happy dance*. 

P/s: I have ALL the colours for Faber Castell Polychromos and Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils...so it would be nice to have ALL the colours for the Holbein too, right? *LOL*

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Mixed Media Monday - recent eye drawings from the sketchbook

 

Happy Monday friends! For this week's Mixed Media Monday, I'm sharing some recent eye drawings from my sketchbook.:)

Life has been busy but I've been keeping up with the daily eye drawings this month (sometimes I "cheat" and work on a few partially ahead of time so that I don't have to start from scratch every single day...which is extremely helpful on busy days....but I do COMPLETE one every day.)

Been playing with a lot of colours...and having fun! 

Have a great week ahead!

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Mixed Media Monday - mixed media eye from my sketchbook today

 

Happy Monday friends! Just sharing a mixed media eye from my sketchbook today. :)

Enjoy your week ahead!

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Tuesday's page from the sketchbook

 

Happy Tuesday friends! Still working on the daily eye drawings....trying to add more lines and details. Have yet to tackle deep wrinkles (for an older person) because those are quite challenging and require many layers which this cheap sketchbook with really thin paper can't handle.

But I'm 1/3 into my sketchbook and I'm excited to have a complete sketchbook (albeit a small one) of eye sketches!:)

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Tuesday's eye drawing

 

So I struggled a lot with this eye drawing. First of all, I went a little crazy over the colours in the iris. And then I added a teardrop...and it was looking all crazy. But I managed to salvage it and it looks maybe okay? *LOL*

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Mixed Media Monday - how I draw a mixed media eye in my sketchbook

Hello friends! For today's Mixed Media Monday, I will be sharing how I draw a mixed media eye in my sketchbook. :)

I usually start with a quick sketch with my non-dominant hand (left). It keeps the drawing loose and is part of my ambidextrous goal for 2022..*winks*

Then I go in with another colour....clearly still with my non-dominant hand...it looks messy at this point but the goal is to put some broad strokes and colour down very lightly.

Then I add in the iris of the eye. The key is to go in with light strokes and to layer the colours without blending. This gives you the flexibility to "correct" if you don't like the strokes/colours/shapes.

Once I'm happy with the overall shape of the eye,  I like to go in with the darks to create some depth (and drama). Still keeping the marks really light and loose.

Next I go in with warm colours to "brighten" it up - orange, yellow and red...and start blending the colours together.

Next step is to go in with the pupil and darken certain areas to create depth to the eye.

The final step is to draw the eyelashes and add in the white highlights.

Now, if you like the really smooth look, you can burnish in the colours. The unblended look is more my style...*LOL*

And there you have it, how I draw a mixed media eye in my sketchbook. :)

P/s: I used Faber Castell Polychromos and a white Posca paint marker for highlights.

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