Tablet Graffiti

I drew these last night on my graffiti wall on Facebook, and I said I would share them with you guys to show you how much better my drawings look when I use a program that allows you to vary your colors and lets you have shadows and light.

This first one is the first picture I drew on my graffiti wall with my tablet.

It's certainly not perfect, but I am very pleased with how well I did the skin tones. They look more realistic then the ones I've done before.

This is the second picture I did, still working on my skin tones. This picture was harder to get the colors just right because I made it further away and could hardly see what I was doing on the teeny tiny screen I have. But I still think it turned out well. What do you guys think?

This third picture is one I did of "me". Or how I imagine me I guess. I'm holding my tablet and pen if you can't tell. :) I just did a basic black and white, just to see what it would look like. I really like how it turned out though. Basically it looks the same as a few I've done recently on real paper with a pen.

This last picture was more of an experiment with blending backgrounds. I just wanted to see how well I could blend my background while still having some light shine through. Sort of like a fog effect or something. Plus, I like drawing robots for some reason. :) Overall, he turned out better than I thought he would. I gave him better blended cheek color than any of the others I drew.

Overall, I'm quite satisfied with how these turned out. I can't wait to try it out again, I just need to think of some other things to draw first. :) (I told you I was in a creative rut!) If I get anymore ideas, I'll try to draw them and post them, so you can see how well I progress. :)

Some of the first

Can we have a drum roll please? I'm about to reveal to you some of my first drawings / sketches with my Bamboo tablet, so please, hold all laughter, snickering, and snide remarks until the end of the show. ;)

First, we have, what I think I meant to be, a couple of worms. More specifically, a boy worm and a girl worm who kind of sorta really like each other. :)

This next picture is supposed to be a devil/goblin sort of monster. The pitchfork is really all that's devilish about him, but I guess he could still be something of a devil without it. Either way, I don't think it matters. I was basically trying out the tablet to see how well I could draw scales and textures. I haven't installed my new paint programs yet, so hopefully it will look better when I do. And last but not least is one that I did in color. Something very simple, yet colorful. :)

Like I said, these are just the first few pictures I've done with my tablet so far. Hopefully they'll get better. Alot better. :) I drew a few pictures on my graffiti wall on facebook and will hopefully get to publish some of those tomorrow, since they look a lot better than these. :)

I hope everyone had a good Christmas. As for me, I'm kind of glad the holidays are almost over. I'm just so exhausted! It will be nice to get back in the groove of things so I won't have to worry about my schedule and wrapping presents and making sure my neice and nephews didn't spill the beans and blurt out to everyone what their presents from me were. :) Plus I've been in somewhat of a creative rut this past week or so, so maybe once I have time to think about something besides presents, I'll have a better creative flow.

*Fingers crossed* ;)

Merry Christmas!

Okay, I know I didn't finish the twelve days/drawings for Christmas, but I have been so busy buying Christmas presents and wrapping them and everything that I simply haven't had the time. Plus, I got an early Christmas present that I just had to try out. Do you want to know what it is? A Bamboo Fun Wacom tablet! I can't believe I have one now. A wonderful friend of mine got it for me and gave it to me early and I was absolutely shocked. I've never used a tablet before, so I've been trying it out and I love it! Below I've posted some pictures of it, and hopefully once Christmas is over and I have time to set it up right and fool around with it, I'll be able to post some pictures I create from it.

Here's the box.

And here's what was inside.

I hope you have a merry Christmas and get everything you all want, too. ;D

On the 6th day of Christmas...

"On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...six geese a laying!"

We made a snow globe...um, I mean snow tube?

Looky, looky! We made 'snowglobes'! :D Me and my neice that is. :) You can check out what we made here, on my other blog. If you're looking for a fun project to do with the kids or something that will keep them occupied for a bit while you're wrapping their gifts, this will definately do the trick. :) Plus, you can make so many things besides what we made. The possibilities truly are endless. :)

Here's a sneak peek at the one that I made.

On the 7th day of Christmas...

I'm sorry, but on this seventh day of Christmas, my true love can not give to me .... seven swans a swimming. Simply because I have no pictures of mine to post of any swans or anything else that goes with this day! :S

However, I do know that I'm getting 6 geese a laying tomorrow....but sssshhhhh! It's supposed to be a surprise! :D

My own Homemade Sketchbook

Okay, my other sketchbook that I had gotten from Barnes & Noble, I believe, has run out. So, while surfing the web this weekend, I came across a fairly easy set of instructions to make one of my own from my own paper and things. You can see the instructions I used here. This was a fun project to make, especially if you need quick and thoughtful ideas for Christmas presents, or if youjust need something for the kids to do while you're working. Anyway, here's what my second book came out as. (The first one was...well, just horrible.) Once you get the hang of it, it's really not so bad. :)

Update: You can view my other sketchbook attempts here:
Attempt #2
Books, Books, Endlessly Books

On the 8th day of Christmas...

"On the eigth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me....eight maids a milking!"

On the 9th day of Christmas...

"On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...nine ladies dancing!"

On the 10th day of Christmas...

"On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me....ten lords a leaping!"

On the 11th day of Christmas...

"On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...Eleven Pipers Piping!"

On the 12th day of Christmas...

Today makes it twelve days until Christmas, and I said I was going to try and make a post each day to do with Christmas. So, to stay in tune with the song (On the twelfth day of Christmas....Twelve drummers drumming), I've decided to post this picture of some crazy creatures I made out of leftover scrap paper that I couldn't bring myself to throw away. :) It looks sort of like they would be drummers, since their hands are so oddly shaped.

"On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me....Twelve Drummers Drumming!"

Brrrrrr!

After a day or so of nice, warm, spring like weather, the temperatures have begun to drop once again. So, I decided to post this picture, since it looks cold to me, and it's getting cold outside once again as well. I'm planning to start working on some projects to go with the 12 days of christmas, since it will be 12 days until Christmas tomorrow. I'm not sure what I'm going to do, but hopefully I'll find something fun to blog about each day for it. :)

Harry Potter 5 comes out today!

Yay! If you're a Harry Potter fan, then you're just as excited as me, since the fifth Harry Potter movie (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix) comes out today! I loved it in the theatre, but now I'll have a pause and rewind button, so I won't miss anything! :D

Be sure to hurry and get your copy, or buy it for a Christmas present for the Harry Potter lovers in your family!

I finally got it!

I finally got my Mary Engelbreit winning prize pack, and look at what was inside! :D

If you can't tell, that's cherry smelling soap in the reindeer box. :)

It's a snowball fight!

This is the last sketch in my favorite sketch book, and it's one I really love. It's a snowball fight! :) It hasn't snowed yet (at least not enough to stick to the ground) but wherever these girls are, it seems to have snowed enough to make a fortress of snowballs! :D Hopefully we won't have quite that much snow, as it would be difficult and dangerous to drive to work in, but maybe we'll have a little bit of snow soon. :)

Quote of the week

"It is important to remember we all have magic inside us." ~ J.K. Rowling

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Yay! It's snowing! The first snow of the season! How wonderful! :D I already decided that the first day it snowed I would post a snowy picture, so here it is. :) Sorry if I've already posted it. It's one I've had for awhile and I'm starting to forget which ones I've added and which ones I haven't! :S

Happy Holidays

Just wanted to say Happy Holidays to everyone. I can't believe it's almost Christmas! I've got lots and lots of shopping left to do....

100th Post!

Wow, 100 posts already! :D Time to celebrate! I may have already posted this picture, but it seems so fitting to this occasion that I'm going to post it again.

Quote of the Week

"Some men have only one boook in them; others a library." ~Reverend Sydney Smith

Frames

I've been buying pictures frames and painting them to coordinate with my paintings, and here are a few I've done so far. I've been thinking about doing some of these as Christmas presents, but I haven't decided yet. My favorite pick of these is the mouse. I originally had just a blue frame, but it didn't look right. The dots on the frame really made it 'pop' to me.

Cute...mice?

Here are a couple of mice I created on Facebook's Graffiti app. I think I'm getting much better with this app, but I think it would be so much better if I had a tablet. For now, I'm stuck using the mouse...so I drew mice! LoL! :)

Process

I love it when illustrators and artists show their process of what they start out with to their finished product, so I thought I would share one of mine. Okay, first here's a rough sketch I did.

And here's the drawing I did in pen and ink that looks a little bit better. :)

And here's the final piece I have ended up with so far.

I colored the picture in with watercolors, and I LOVE the bright colors, but I need to make the girl with the flashlight's shirt a little bit darker since it's blending in with the 'monster' behind her. Still, I think it turned out better than I planned. I'm not sure if it's because I put more time and detail into it or because the watercolors are working out better than my other mediums. I'll have to do some more pictures before I know for sure. :)

More robots....

Here is a picture I did last night with watercolor pencils. I thought it was cute, although I can't think of any sort of story or quote to go with it. I'm not sure if the blue robot is consoling the green one or what, but still, I thought it was cute. :)

So much to get, so little time....

Christmas is only about a month away now. (Less than a month, actually! :) So I thought I would post this octopus to show how I'll need about ten arms to get all my gifts intime for the holidays! :) I'm so excited about Christmas this year. Of course, I think I get excited about Christmas every year, but this year seems different. Maybe it's because we have our decorations up early this year, or because it seems like it was just Halloween yesterday and if I blink again, Christmas will already be here and gone.
Either way, I can't wait to see everyone on Christmas morning, and to have that good feeling that comes when you give someone something that they really, truly want. :)

Let the show begin!

I absolutely love this picture. I created it with my watercolor pencils and ink, and thought it was just so cute! It looks like this frog prince is standing in front of a curtain to me, so I guess he's the one telling everyone that the show is about to begin! :)

Quote of the Week

"The painting has a life of its own." ~Jackson Pollock

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody! :) Gobble, Gobble!

A new car

Today has been one rough day for me. I don't know if I've posted about it before, but if not, then I'll do it now. My car is now gone. I was going to work this morning and the poor thing didn't even make it out of the driveway. The transmission is going out and while it may have a few more miles left on it, I don't think it will last much longer. So, I took the day off of work (as I didn't have much of a car of my own to get me there anyway) and tried to go find another one to buy. So my day has not been much of a happy one. So, I thought to help my spirits, I would post this cute little car I did over the weekend. It's not the best, but if I had a real car like that, I'd be happy. :) It's also done with watercolor pencils, and ink.

Billy goat

Here's what I've been working on over the weekend. Watercolors! :) I did this goat with an ink pen and a black watercolor pencil. I've got tons of watercolor pics and several black and white pics now, so be sure to look for them! :)

One a piece

I've been on a creating rampage this weekend, and I've discovered that I love watercolor pencils. They're so much fun, and I've figured out how to create some pretty pictures with them! So, while I was creating some pictures, my neice wanted a picture of a ballerina, so I drew her one. But I couldn't possibly draw her something without drawing something for the other two, so I made a robot for my oldest nephew( since he loves "Transfomers" and gagdety things) and a frog prince for my youngest nephew, since he kept pointing to the frogs on my capri pajamas. :) So, here are all three pictures together. A robot, a frog, and a ballerina.

Quote of the Week

"Whatever you can do, or dream you can, Begin it." ~Goethe

A perfect day for a scarf and mittens

Like my title says, it's a perfect day for a scarf and mittens. So what did I put on this morning? My scarf and mittens! :D

Plus, since Thanksgiving is next week, I decided to go ahead and upload a picture for it. I did this one on Facebook's graffiti, so it's not as good as I would like, since I'm still getting the hang of the application, but it's kind of cute, so I thought I would post it for the holiday season, and since the weather seems to have that holiday feel to it. :)

How do I see my self....

I don't know why, but I've been doing bunches and bunches of self portraits lately. I guess I'm just trying to figure out which one best describes me. Here's another one I did last night that I really liked. I thought it turned out really well. I wasn't looking to make another self portrait, but it sort of turned out that way. :) This is how I imagine my chic self, I suppose. Very calm and collected and somewhat sarcastic. :)

Some late night sketches

Here are some late night sketches I've done over the past few weeks and months. And yes, I'm fully aware that there are only two little pigs, and not three as there should be. I guess that just means I'll have to draw another little piggy! :D

I think this pic is supposed to be me when I'm daydreaming. :)

And here is a group of Robots I drew, just for fun. :) I seem to love robots, but Idon't know why. I just like drawing them I guess.

Copyrights and laws

All right, this has been in the back of my mind ever since I've started my blog, and even my friends and family have asked me about it, but as far as I know, I've done everything I can to protect my work. But, after reading this post/article from another illustrator/artist, I thought I would post the link so you guys can read it for yourself, as well as the comments. Plus, when I looked at my stats the other day, I saw that someone had visited my website by searching for "steal facebook graffiti". This bothered me and after seeing the post, it bothers me even more as I think about it. I already try to put my name on almost all of my work, yet I know sometimes a piece or two, or three or four, might get past me without my signature. Yet, even signatures can be cropped out or smudged over. But I have all the originals, so I have proof I created my work, whereas anyone who steals it won't. But just in case, please remember that all artwork and writings belong to the maker, and you shouldn't use it without their permission. Other than that, I hope you enjoy my work and I hope it inspires you like other artists' have me. It's one thing to be inspired by someone's work, but it's an entirely different thing to steal it and say it is your own. So be sure that your work is protected!

Just a reminder: All artwork is Copyright Mindy Lou Hagan © 2007 - All Rights Reserved

Watching the sun

Here's a different sort of pic I did on facebook graffiti. I tried to go for realistic more than cartoony, but I think it sort of ended up kind of looking like both. (The grass doesn't look quite right to me. It looks...cartoony. :) Anyway, I thought I would share it with everyone. I did like how the tree turned out. And the sky. I'm trying to work on my blending on the computer.

Out on a limb

Here's another facebook graffit pic I did. If you have an account on facebook graffiti, you should check out all the awesome work by the people on there. Their stuff is awesome! Maybe if I get a tablet one day, mine will be better. :)