War Memorials Book Design

I wanted to show these off for the week of Memorial Day. I am very proud of the way these came out. I really focused on making them interesting for the kids to read, but enough respect that if a soldier picked it up they would enjoy them also. Some of the pictures that I found for the books actually made me tear up a bit.

My Sketchbook #13

I am still working through the Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain book. Here are more of the exercises from the book. I really had to force myself to do these. I still feel a little off, but I figured if I made myself do them my interest will come back.

Exercise #5: This was about practicing different stroke techniques.

Exercise #6: This exercise was about practicing symmetry and working through the confusion of shifting from the left to the right. I always have a problem with symmetry so I should have practiced this one some more.

Exercise #7: This one was a little confusing for me. The idea was to draw the image upside down so that you couldn't understand the parts of the image. The book suggests that most people can't make out images upside down or reading handwriting upside down. My problem with this is I can make out the images and I can read upside down. So I really tried to not pay attention to what the parts of the image was and focus on the lines of the drawing themselves.

Mini-Break

I have taken a mini-break. I had a bit of a hard time dealing with Mother's Day and then this past weekend was Mom's Birthday. Plus we have been super busy at work.

I try very hard to not let any kind of depression get me down for too long. The way I like to deal with it is usually either sleep (which I haven't been getting enough of) or I check out of reality and read a book. All I have been wanting to do is relax and read. I just haven't been wanting to draw much the past couple of weeks. I know in my heart my Mom wants me to continue on and I will.

I am going to try and get back next week, I just have to give myself a mental break every once in awhile.

Until Then!

Creatively Tara

My Sketchbook #12

This is Exercise #4 of the Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain Book. I had to draw a corner of the room.  This is the corner of my living room. The bear is really dark and it was hard to see all the lines in it. I did want to get a couple more of the exercises done, but got busy and didn't get to them.

Skywatch Book Design

These Skywatch books were published back in 2009! I really enjoyed working on them. I have a fascination with anything Space related.

Creatively Tara

My Sketchbook #11

I was feeling like I needed a little more structure in my sketches. I have been having a hard time coming up with new things to sketch and decided I could use some instruction. I started the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards back in November 2010. I stopped reading it and decided to do my Sun A Day Project instead. I am now coming back to it. My next sketches will be exercises from this book.

Exercise #1 was to draw a Self Portrait using a mirror:

Exercise #2 was to draw a person from memory. This proved a little more difficult because I am used to using references. I decided to try and draw my Mom, with her curly hair, before she ended up in the hospital:

Exercise #3 was to draw your hand:

It will be interesting to see if I improve that drastically by the end of the book.

Creatively Tara