Riverdale Obsessions & Derwent Artists Pencil Impressions

 

If you've been following any of my social media feeds you may have noticed my recent obsession with the new CW show Riverdale. Logically it makes little sense as to why I like it so much. First off it is a teen drama and I have watched enough of those in my lifetime that I thought I was pretty much done with them, especially with (so bad it's good) Pretty Little Liars coming to an end later this year. But when I saw it pop up on my Netflix I couldn't resist the first episode. If it was rubbish I had only wasted 40 minutes of my life and I could move on to the next thing. But seven episodes and three drawings later here we are.

Fun fact I had already drawn someone from

the Archie universe without even knowing it until I started watching the show. In fact she was the first sketch I did in my #sketchaday2016 - Josie from Josie and the Pussycats back when she was a Riverdale Redhead.

But anyway back to this version of Riverdale. The best way I could describe Riverdale would be a mix of every teen drama you have ever watched, filled with cheesy but witty dialogue straight from the 90s, and then with the aesthetic of the 50s with a modern twist and film noir with murder mystery thrown in just for funzies. And not forgetting to mention at least one slow motion moment in each episode (not even a lie... watch each episode back) for dramatic effect. The show is an all round fun watch, plus it is just so pretty to look at across the board.  TV shows that have a strong visual identity paired with fun drama always appeal to me - the other show that springs to mind which is the same in that regard is Pushing Daisies.

After episode one I was hooked and started my usually obsessive research and not too far into my searching I came across the gorgeous character portraits and with my new Derwent Artist Pencils and grey toned paper in hand I began draw. I was hesitant to use my Artists pencils at first because as said in my previous blog post I hadn't really found them all that easy to use. But I will say they do fair quite well on toned paper and blend nicely too. I'd say if you have the skills you can make them work, you just need to spend some time with them and learn how to best use them. I will say though even though the colours are nice I still stand by the thought that the vibrancy of the colour just can't be achieved to it's full capacity with these pencils. In person the drawings look bright and strong but scanned in and compared to their reference you can see how muted the tones are!

My intentions in the beginning where not to one by one draw the whole cast but it's slowly starting to look that way. The colours schemes of each portrait are so beautiful and I can't help but keep drawing them. I started with Betty Cooper because I loved the pink and purple tones but also at the time of drawing she was my favourite character. Episode three, Body Double, is probably my favourite episode so far and Betty's role in that episode is just like..... YAAASSSS QUEEN! From the three drawings I still like my Betty one the best.

I then went onto draw Riverdale's favourite boy but every viewers least favourite eventually - Archie Andrews. All about the Boy is the alternative title me and my friend like to think Riverdale could have been called especially in those first couple of episodes. Every single character is in love with him. JUST look at those looks Jughead be throwing him.

Life before the hand!

And finally I recently finished Veronica Lodge. Her hand was the bane of my existence for those few days. It is combination of all of my weaknesses - out of focus subject, unidentifiable shadows (what are fingers cause I couldn't even see them at first) and hands in use. Thankfully it is now over and I don't need to think about it anymore. However her face was a joy to draw and I loved all the maroons and browns next to the blues and purples.

At the moment I'm taking a break from drawing anymore but if I was to do anymore Jughead would definitely be next and maybe Cheryl. Part of me wishes I did them in my Faber-Castell Polychromos but it's too late to turn back now. But overall I'm very happy with how they are turning out especially since they are the first coloured pencil drawings I have done in a while without having used a base of Promarkers. It's nice to prove to myself I can go back to basics and still have the drawings turns out well.

Anyway... now back to getting my Riverdale fix after that 3 week hiatus! 

Hazel, xoxo

First Impressions of Derwent Artists Pencils

So let me set the scene. I'm in TK Maxx with a friend wandering around all the nik naks before we were about to leave. As I was having a casual browse through the clearance section I catch a glimpse of the Derwent logo underneath a couple of books. Hidden on the shelf was a tin of 72 Derwent Artist pencils for... wait for it... £25. Quickly I whip out my phone to price compare incase I was getting excited about nothing. The cheapest price I could find online for these pencils, which originally retail for £115, is £75. And so before I know it I'm clutching at this large tin with a death grip as if I think someones going to fight me for them. I even caused a whole bunch of glassware shelves to the rattle in fear as I walk by with tin.

If you've read any of my blog posts before you might be aware that last year I spent a good amount of time searching for my ideal coloured pencil - click here for blogs on derwent coloursoft and faber-castell polychromos - and in that search I briefly considered buying the derwent artists pencils but eventually settled on faber-castell polychromos which I absolutely love and highly recommend to anyone looking for a good quality coloured pencil that aren't so expensive you have to sell an organ. Even though I hadn't bought the derwent artists pencils back then I was always curious about them since I knew they where wax based (unlike the oil based polychromos) and are considered a harder leaded pencil meaning they are easier to sharpen to a point making detail work a charm.

Now that I have tried them out the first thing I will say is that I am so glad that I got

them at the price that I did because if I had invested full price for them I would be quite disappointed with their pigmentation quality. Not that they are bad pencils, they just don't have the colour pay off I would expect for the price you pay for them. Even though I knew they where hard, which is great for layering, the colours seem almost diluted and you have to work quite a bit harder to get anything nearer the vibrancy of what the colours on the end of the pencils claim to be.

Before I tried them out with an actual drawing I went through all the pencils and

sampled them to see if they where the same quality across the set. While doing this I found that a couple of colours where more colour true than others and even some felt like they had a slightly different texture. You'll notice a blue square that pops more than the others and when using that one the lead felt slightly softer which I prefered since I didn't have to lean as hard. Overall the darker colours where easier to use over the paler colours such as the yellows.

Even though I knew they where hard leaded pencils I still expected to be able to eventually build up the colour but before I even got to the colour I expected the wax starts to build up making it hard to add more layers leaving you with a slightly faded colour that can go no further- you'll be able to see this with my bug drawing. I will say though that I tested these pencils at first on paper with little to no tooth (the WHSMITH basic sketch pads) which could have some part to play with this issue. When I eventually tried the pencils on paper with more tooth the colours seemed to pop a little more and I noticed it was very important to keep the pencil sharp in order to layer the colours correctly.  

If you look closely you will see the pencil has taken on an unusually hairy sort of texture.

I will continue to use these pencils mainly because they are so easy to use for detailed, light work, but what I think people need to know about them is they have limitations to what they can do. If you're going for a subtle look they are ideal but if you want to pack a punch with colour you're going to spend a long time trying build up colours that might not get to where you want them in the end. Something to keep in mind. Also, as touched on before, they need to be kept sharp and used on paper with some texture in order to perform at their best. The more smooth the paper, the more likely the pencil will burnish quicker making it harder to build up layers a depth.

I think if I can begin to use them alongside my polychromos I could get some good work but I've yet to try and see if the wax and oil will mix well. I get the feeling that I might be using them in the wrong way because some people seem to love them. If you have any tips I'm all ears! Show me your ways. If my opinion changes over time I will be sure to let you know. At least I can say I have tried them now and for the price that I got them for, who can say no. All I have left to try is prismacolour, derwent inktense and drawing pencils. Let's be real though, Caran D'Ache Luminance are the ultimate dream.

Hazel, xoxo

Sketch A Day 2016 - From Then To Now

This time last year I was thinking a lot about New Year's Resolutions. I've never been one to make them and if I did it would always be silly small ones like drink more water or vague goals like get out of your comfort zone more often. And every year I would never follow through with them. And to be honest the idea that resolutions are saved for once a year is ridiculous. Changes can and should be made at anytime but I do understand that the clean slate feeling that comes with the New Year helps push people to try and better themselves in whatever big or small way.

So I was looking back at 2015 and thinking how little art I had been doing. And it suddenly occured to me how little I had done since 2010. Every now and again I would start something but it would usually sit on my easel unfinished taunting and shaming me. I would get sudden bursts of creativity out of nowhere but I wouldn't harness it in the moment and so when I got round to drawing the desire to do it would fade fast. I wanted to change this. I didn't want to feel like I couldn't do it anymore.

So on the days leading up to New Year's I started to think about drawing and holding myself accountable to it in some way. I wanted to challenge myself to be better. In the years I hadn't been drawing as much I could have been improving and developing my style. To think of where I could have been by now annoyed me so much but instead of wallowing in what I hadn't done I decided to make a start on improving. The only way to do that was to start drawing again and Sketch A Day 2016 was born. There was no hesitation, just the decision on New Year's eve that it was going to be my resolution. I hadn't thought about the logistics of how I was going to do it but instead jumped right in. And I'm so glad I did!

I considered January a warm up period where I would start to get to grips of how I would start to make it part of my routine. At first I thought of it as a wind down activity at night where I would spend 30 minutes to an hour sketching before bed and sometimes as a waking up activity. But eventually I began to move it around the day just so it didn't start to feel like work. The time I would spend on each piece would get longer because I began to enjoying it more but also because I started to grow self concious of uploading half finished pieces.

Even though I knew it didn't matter what I drew and what the finished piece looked like, just as long as I did it, I still couldn't shake the feeling that I had lost some skill over the last couple of years. Most of my sketches where small to begin with and I spent a lot of time trying to think how I could make the sketches like a diary of my life and also like a time capsule of 2016. I also wanted to try and draw with different mediums every couple of days to mix things up for both me and whoever was following along.

Thinking soon turned into over thinking and by the end of February/beginning of March I started to grow impatient with myself. I saw no improvement. My sketches didn't impress me for the most part. It was exhausting having to shush my self conscious mind just to make another small sketch. But in a way this type of thinking is what helped push me to make better things and it was a sign I was getting into the swing of drawing again. I knew I could do better and so I did.

The make a splash watercolour challenge came at just the right time. I craved colour but didn't have the time for my acrylics. Watercolours where the perfect gateway. At first, as always, I was rusty but despite that I still liked the colours which meant I always appreciated the final piece. My watercolour period ran into my marker period which then led to me trying out different papers and soon people started to express interest and so I began to take commissions. Now there haven't been that many but the fact that have been paid to draw is a pretty big deal to me. And since I haven't been overwhelmed with them I still have to time to do what I want and I haven't grown to dislike them so I've got an okay balance going on.

Let's not lie to ourselves here. I haven't held up my side of the bargain completely. There have been many missed days and dark periods of nothing. I even spread many sketches out over a period of a couple of days which cheated me out of a couple of sketches. So I don't have a total of 365 sketches to show you. But what I have done is kept my creative juices flowing everyday of the year whether that was drawing, painting, writing, making, reading and even singing if that counts. I'm living a far more creative life than before. I have dabbled with acrylics, watercolour, charcoal, graphite, oil pastels, soft pastels, all sorts of pens, markers and ink. I have used different types of brushes, canvases, paper, mdf and even done a little sewing with felt. I'm sure there is plenty I haven't done. Oil and gouache have still to be touched on but I can save that for next year. All in all despite not sketching every day I have done a lot! More than I have done in the last 5 years combined!

Little did I know on January 1st 2016 that this #sketchaday2016 was about much more than simply drawing everyday. At risk of sounding cheesy it was about putting creativity at the heart of my life. I'm not saying I'm magically living my ideal life at this moment in time. There is still a ways to go but I've taken steps to change my life for the better. I feel like I'm working towards something and I wasn't before. Now I don't have a clear and succinct answer of what it is precisely. I just know that I need art in my life in some capacity. Without it I feel like I'm lying or being someone else.

So where to go from here? As I've said before I will not be making #sketchaday2017 a thing. This time the challenge is to make but without the accountability of every day posting. I want to be able to draw without having to share it. And with that I want to start making more personal and original works. That being said I won't disappear off the face of the Internet. I will upload... just not as much. At the moment I don't know when my next blog post will be. We will all just need to wait and see. For now I just want to thank anyone who has liked, commented and followed me through this year. I really appreciate everyone who has taken the time to show support in any way, shape or form. And if you've made it to the end of this particular blog gold star for you!  It's been a journey.

All that's left to say is I hope you have a wonderful New Year and hopefully 2017 will finally be the year of drinking more water. See you in 2017!!!

Hazel, xoxo

Sketch A Day 2016 Favourites

I knew about half way through 2016 that eventually I was going to put together a favourites of the whole year.  I could see my drawings start to bundle up in scraps of paper and sketch pads. And I can't believe it's already 2017 and it's time to pick out my favourites. So I sat looking over all the drawings and paintings which got me reminiscing of where I was and how I felt when I did them. I have finally managed to narrow it down to the 16 pieces that are within this blog post. 

Funnily enough these pieces where all done from May onwards. Not that I don't like the drawings I did from January to April - in fact there are a few pencil drawings I did of my family from old photographs that I really love for sentimental reasons but they didn't quite make the cut. With the ones I have chosen I feel like I stepped out of my comfort zone and showed improvement in technical skill as well as just loving how they turned out. And most of all I remember drawing and painting them and what I was feeling and thinking.

These are my #sketchaday2016 favourites!

As you can see a large bulk of these are portraiture which is to be expected since I always gravitate towards portraiture. But I've also grown to love landscapes, scenery and animal portraits this year too. I'm glad I managed to step away from portraiture enough to try some different subject matter to help improve my skills all round. 

I was also interested to see what other people's favourites where this year. According to Instagram these are my best nine posts from 2016. There's definite colour scheme going on here.

Here are the best nine from Facebook. Slightly different but also a few in common.

And finally the Tumblr favourites which has been heavily affected by fandoms. The Always doe piece got 149 notes thanks to all those Harry Potter fans out there.  

Across all the social medias it's been a good year! Since I'm not continuing with the sketch a day this year there won't be a favourites like this anytime soon. But I will definitely keep posting when inspiration hits! My next post will be recapping on the year! 

Hazel, xoxo

November Sketch A Day Faves

December is here! I was going to to say I can't believe at first but to be honest I can. This year has felt like the fastest year yet even though some months felt like they where going in slow motion at times. November was a pretty good month for me. I haven't drawn this much since probably earlier in the year. I don't what came over me. Suddenly I just had a burst of energy and it became really easy. All things good things come to end though as Nelly Furtado would say and I have slowed down a bit. But enough about now and here are my favourites from November and it is the first time in a while where I had to narrow it down! 

First up my squirrel pencil sketch! I originally intended for this drawing to be a quick, small sketch and even though it was small it definitely wasn't quick. Turns out drawing tree bark doesn't come as easily to me as facial features but I really like how it turned out. No better feeling than challenging yourself in whatever small way and it paying off. Plus it helps me work on my patience.

My favourite thing about using varying tones of paper is the challenge of figuring out how shade and light works. Even though I haven't mastered coloured pencil on black paper yet (still can't manage to get those colours to pop!), I love the colour palette of my sparkler drawing against the black background. Also I really love my grey paper too especially when I get to use my white charcoal and I got to use plenty of it for this Marlon Brandom portrait. Everything just comes to life when you add a highlight!

This month I also played with my soft and oil pastels some more. I have fullt come to terms that precision is not something I am going to achieve with the soft pastels but as I have mentioned before I really enjoy the difference in style and I'm beginning to appreciate the texture of the paper I get with soft pastels like in my Matilda drawing. Plus the green colours are just really pleasing to me. In regards to my oil pastel piece of Antelope Canyon I love the strong colours and the blend of oranges against the blues and purples. I'm still getting the hang of layering and how far I can layer but I've managed to incorporate quite a bit of colour in this one without creating too many layers. 

I decided I wanted to do more portraits but almost didn't do these because I had already drawn the Olsen twins earlier in the year. In the back of my mind I had pressured myself to not repeat ideas too much or at least too close together. But when I found these photographs in a style similar to the ones I had done before I couldn't say no. For some reason Ashley was harder to do than Mary-Kate. It took my three attempts of the outline to get it right. But thankfully I stuck with it. 

And my final favourites are my christmas decorations.  What I like about painting them is that I get to use my acrylics and since the mdf shapes are smaller than you average canvas, the paintings come together way faster, meaning I can do a lot more. 

So December is here. Currently I am working on a commission that cannot be shown in it's entirety until the very end of the year but when that's all finished up and I can start making more ornaments! Hopefully it will get me back in the Christmas sprirt. My problem is I get excited way too early and then run out by December. My aim for this month is to do at least the same amount or more drawings and paintings than November! The next time we will speak will probably be the last #sketchaday 2016 blog unless I do a December Faves and a full year Faves. Haven't decided yet. I guess you will have to wait and see. 

To the final stretch!

Hazel, xoxo

Toy Story Alien Costume and Make-Up

This year for Halloween I went as an alien from Toy Story as part of a group costume. At first I wasn't going to do a post on how I made the costume since Halloween had already past but I decided that I may as well since one, people should do more costume parties outside of Halloween and two, I spent a solid hour painting my face, neck and arms green. The world should know! 

I looked through pictures on the Internet for ideas on how to put the costume together - even made a Pinterest board. What I eventually settled on was a handmade hairband, skater dress with a felt pizza planet logo and leggings. It was pretty simple to put together and only requires some patience in regards to sewing.

Materials used

A4 Crafting foam - lime green and white

Double sided sticky tape

Needle and thread

Felt sheets - blue, orange, yellow and red

Lime Green pipe cleaner

Marker pens

Hairband

Lime Green face paint

Bright Eye Shadow Palette

Chunky Belt

Lime Green Leggings

Blue Long Sleeve Dress

 

Pizza Planet Logo

I started by tracing out the orange circle and the yellow ring making sure to keep a bit of excess yellow felt on the ends of ring so I could tuck it in behind the orange felt. I then cut out the pepperoni and mushrooms out on the red felt sheet and used a blue marker to turn mushrooms to purple. Same with the green herb bits, I used the yellow felt and a green marker. Just saved me having to buy more colours of felt. From there I laid out where I wanted every piece to be and started to sew the orange and yellow pieces onto the blue felt. If you want you could probably just sew straight onto the dress and do without the blue felt but I wanted to be able to use the blue dress again without having to unpick everything. Once everything was on the blue felt I trimmed the excess felt away and sewed the logo onto the dress making sure to stretch the dress when sowing it on so when I put the dress on the badge it wouldn't be ruffled too much since I'd already accounted for movement.

Alien Hairband

Initially I planned on using felt for this too but I'm so glad I ended up getting the foam because it ended up being way sturdier. The first step is to fold a pipe cleaner in half over the centre of the head band and twist the pipe round each other so it creates a secure antenna. 

The dodded line is where the foam folds under the hairband 

I then drew out a shape like the top half the drawing/rough template above and folded over the foam so when I cut around the shape I had drawn I would be left with a shape similar to above.  I made sure that the middle tab would cover the bottom of the pipe cleaner on the headband but also wouldn't be top thick that it would stop the hairband from gripping to my hair all the way round. I stuck the three white foam oval eyes and eye lids on the outside with double sided sticky tape and the ear shapes on the inside. I used marker pens for some shading and the pupils and then sowed the top of each side to each other to secure it in place leaving room for the antenna. Originally I used double sided tape for this step too but it eventually busted open when left for a while. The foam is sturdy enough to withstand sewing just as long as you don't create to many holes (take extra care if you decide to use a sewing machine).

Make Up

Thankfully I did a trial run and a patch test of the face paint otherwise it would have taken a lot longer on the night. The first time I looked slightly more like Disgust from Inside Out which is an alternative costume idea you could use. 

 

I started with a clean, bare face and used a foundation brush to pack the paint on and later went in with a sponge while it was still wet. However don't use the sponge too much because you will end up taking the paint off your face more often than getting it on. Once I was happy with my paint layer I set it with a mix of green, blue, yellow and white eyeshadows using the darker colours to conture and create dimension. Originally I was going to wear a bun but eventually decided to keep my hair down so I didn't have to paint the back of my neck completely. I used a white eye pencil to make my eyes look a little bigger and mixture of blues and yellows on my eyelids. 

If I had more time I definitely would have painted more little aliens on my nails but I haven't quite mastered nail art yet so I'll have to leave it for another time.

Et Voila!

So once the leggings are on and the hands are painted (if you can get gloves... it's a lot easier) that's the costume complete. If you have budget I would recommend attaching a purple roll neck if you want to be even more accurate. If your like my mum you'll be asking "What about padding? Won't you need padding to make you look round like the aliens?" You can probably skip that step unless your fully committed to the look. I also thought about attaching aliens to my belt and carrying around a claw but it just wasn't in budget. Ain't nobody got time/money for that!

So that's it! Written out it seems like a bit of work but really it's pretty simple. A bit of cutting, sewing and taping really. Hope you like this post from me.

 

Until next time, peace out!

Hazel, xoxo