It’s been a while since I’ve done a Sketchbook preview post. I thought I might actually get around to doing it. I used an old red woolen shawl as a background, but I think it was not the best choice. Still, here they are.
I haven’t done one of these in forever, but since I just filled a sketchbook, I thought I should share some of it before I start on my new book. If anyone cares, I use Canson Universal Sketchbooks in nine by twelve inch size. Each book has a hundred pages, though I usually tear out a few and quite a few never get onto the blog, since I do some drawing that isn’t paper doll related. I like the Canson books, because they are fairly inexpensive and they take both ink and pencil well.
So, that’s all the previews for this sketchbook set.
So, several months ago I mentioned that I was collecting skin-tone colors. To the right is the palette I pull nearly all the skin tones I use on the blog. On top of each color block is the alpha-numeric hex code that defines each color. These tones were collected by looking at photographs of actresses and models from a variety of different ethnicity and than simplified from an original image file of over fifty different colors.
After a while, shades of peach and brown start to meld into each other until they all look the same.
Generally, I don’t think in ethnicity when I’m coloring paper dolls. I think in color. How much red is there? How much yellow? How much grey or blue? Is it a warm color or a cool color?
The human species is hundreds of colors, the differences subtle and complicated. Paper dolls on the other hand, especially those who are supposed to share shoes, need to be a smaller collection of colors. I thought someone other than me might find this set useful, so here it is. The other nice thing about this set is this: Each of the colors prints out clearly different from the others on my cheap color printer. That is an advantage which is well worth the limited palette to me.
It’s all Flock stuff today in the preview department.
I’ve been doing a bit of drawing, but have been having trouble getting it from sketchbook onto scanner and then onto blog. So, here are a few pics of things I’ve been working on.
Today, I did a lot of inking after work… and photographed it on an empty box left over from the move… I do seem to still have a fair number of those laying about.
I almost gave her a peg leg, but I restrained myself.
Heads for a few different Pixies and a steampunk-ish Pixie set, I finished inking today. Hence the photo-op on the deck… I love having a deck. It’s a new experience.
The Dictionary Girls get to be a little modern here with a set of nautically inspired clothing. I love the stripes and the flared trousers. Behind this set, if you look closely, you can see the hints of the next page which holds some other pieces of, as of yet, un-inked dictionary girl attire.
As I sit here prepping this post, I have giving out candy to small children. Is there anything cuter on this planet then children dressed up for Halloween? I don’t think there is.
