Inktober 2019 #5 – Sacrifice
Tag: #series
Inktober 2019 #3 – Khajiit
The Khajiit are a broad range of creatures that look like cats or cat humanoids. I drew this one to look like our kitten, Little Exmoor. He only had one eye and we called him pirate kitty. He was a sweet cat and we miss him a lot. I was really excited to be able to draw this piece in his memory.
Inktober 2019 #2 – Wrathstone
Inktober 2019 #1 – Guar
Inktober has begun! This year, I have decided to follow a different prompt list from the official one. I am following a list created by The Elders Scrolls Online, which is a fantasy based video game. I don’t often give myself the opportunity to draw this subject even though I really enjoy it. I figured this would be a good way to scratch that itch. The first day’s prompt is a guar, a reptile-like creature.
Sloth Totem Drawing
I am very happy with how my “Sloth Totem” turned out! I stayed completely care-free the entire time I worked on this piece. I didn’t know how it would turn out in the end but I didn’t worry about it. I just let it happen and it happened well! I have shared this on social media and so far it is getting a lot of positive feedback.
I’m not entirely sure why people love sloths though! To be honest, I think they are a little creepy in real life. I can totally get on board with the calm and chill lifestyle though!
I will cover the symbolism of sloth after Inktober is completed. I shared a FSM Update to explain everything that is coming up in the next month! Make sure you give it a glance to see what’s in store!
Speaking of store, if you would like your own print of “Sloth Totem” it is available in my shop here.
You can also find home decor, apparel, accessories and more with my “Sloth Totem” piece. Click here.
Thanks for stopping by! Leave a comment below and let me know what you think about sloths. Cute or creepy?
Stay chill, free spirits!
“The main thing is to relax and let your talents do the work.” -Charles Barkley
Inktober is Drawing Near!
I am looking forward to Inktober this year. I had a lot of fun with it last year. I followed the Inktober prompts as well as my own theme. Each sketch was from a horror/monster movie. This year I am thinking about doing something similar. I enjoy sticking with a horror theme to get geared up for Halloween! I have started a list of legendary monsters that I think I will stick to this year. Although, I do have another idea that I might change to at the last minute.
The official prompt list has been released and a lot of the prompts tie in with my legendary monsters so that will make things easier. Although it is always fun to try and come up with a creative idea that relates to the prompt.
This will be my fourth year participating in Inktober. Here are a few of my favorite sketches from previous years.
It’s nice to compare my work and see how I have improved over the years and also areas where I could still improve. It’s all about getting better, right? Practice makes perfect!
If you want to check out more, here are my previous posts related to Inktober. Inktober 2016 | Inktober 2017 ~ Part 1 & Part 2 | Inktober 2018
Are you participating in Inktober this year? What are your plans or thoughts? Leave a comment below! Or share a photo of your own sketches! Thanks for stopping by!
Until next time, free spirits!
“Ink is the transcript of thought.” ~Alphonse De Lamartine
W.I.P. Slumbering Sloth
I’m starting my next piece and I’m giving in to this sloth obsession that has been going on. It seems like every year their is a strange animal that people go “ga-ga” over! This year is the sloth, I guess. Perhaps it’s one of those “you’re so ugly, you’re cute” kind of thing? Or is it their slow, calm and chill attitude? Whatever it may be, I’ve decided to try my hand at a sloth.
This is my rough sketch. I don’t think sloths really sleep like this but I wanted to play off of their lazy-like appearance. I’ve been really tired lately between work, family, summer activities and staying up later than I probably should. When I look at this, I can just imagine taking a nap in the trees with a nice, cool breeze. That would be the life, am I right? I think it’s safe to say we have all been there.
I have some of the ink done. This piece has a lot of patterns in it naturally so incorporating them will be fun! I also can’t wait to start the color. I don’t typically incorporate backgrounds for my totem pieces but this one definitely called for it. The leaves will be neat to create and green is one of my favorite colors to work with.
I hope you enjoyed the work in progress of my Sloth Totem. Check back soon to see the finished piece! What do you think about sloths? Cute and chill? Or Ugly and Freaky? Leave a comment below and let me know what you think?
Pleasant Dreams, Free Spirits!
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~Totem Animal art by Free Spirit Meg~
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Turtle Totem Finished Piece
This piece was a challenge. I do not know why though. It was not fluid. I never really found a flow to the drawing. Usually I know what I want to do just by looking at it. Not this time. I had no idea what I wanted to incorporate of how I wanted to execute it. Perhaps a small bit of it was that I am still learning how to use the watercolor pencils. It takes time and practice. I know this but it is still frustrating when something doesn’t look the way you want it to.
I feel like I could have added a lot more detail with my ink work also. I have noticed that I have slowly slipped away from adding pointillism to my pieces to incorporate shadows. In my earlier drawings, I used this technique frequently. I should have used it with the turtle to allow it to blend more and become more real.
Although, I encountered a problem with my pens. The ink from the pen activated the watercolor pencil on the paper, therefore, it gets gunk on the tip of my pen and stops working. I thought it would be easy to add the ink after the color but it doesn’t really work. Maybe I should try doing the ink first and then use the watercolor pencils. Or else I will have to try a different type of pen.
I also grew very bored and tired of the piece. I had so many other ideas that had popped in my head that I would have rather been doing. I should have just abandoned the piece and came back to it later. I think the end result would have been better. I was just in a rush to finish it by the end. I was ready to move on. This definitely did not help the outcome.
It is not my best work but it is far from my worst. I still like the whimsical feel of this turtle. I really enjoy the smile and added that feature for a good reason. The reason I wanted to draw the turtle in the first place was because of an incident that recently happened to me. I was driving down the road with my brother in law and we saw a snapping turtle trying to cross the road. It had almost been hit a handful of times so we pulled over to rescue it. It was challenging trying to move it without getting snapped at but we were successful and got the turtle to the other side with the help of another driver passing by. We felt like super heroes and referenced a funny quote from one of our favorite TV shows, Futurama. “I saved a turtle today. What have you done with your life?” I was thrilled to be able to save the turtle and wanted to create this design to go with the phrase.
Have you saved any turtles lately? Share your story in the comments below! I would love to hear more success stories about our turtle friends! If you like this piece, you can find this and others in my shop at Redbubble!
Thanks for stopping by!
Take care, free spirits!
Flamingo Totem Drawing
My Flamingo Totem is complete! It seemed like it took forever. Landscaping season started back up for me while I was half way finished with it. I can’t dedicate as much time in the day to drawing as I could over the winter. It really made the flamingo drag on but I forced myself to finish it and I’m glad I did. I am really happy with the outcome.
I actually have two versions of the flamingo. The first version, pictured above, was my initial idea of just doing the body so I had plenty of room to create the patterns and tangles within the feathers. Feathers are a lot of fun to create using Zentangle. While I was working on the body, I realized, aside from their color, one of the flamingos most distinctive features are their long legs. I thought it would be neat to incorporate the legs into the drawing making one big project. I used three sheets of my drawing paper to create one huge piece of the flamingo with it’s legs. I scanned the three images to my computer and pieced them together creating this long legged beauty!
I am really happy with how it looks as a full image. My only complaint is my scanner. Unfortunately, it couldn’t capture the really HOT pink color I was using so some of the areas are more dull compared to the original. Without comparing it though, the scanned image still looks pretty sweet!
I have both of these versions available in my shop at Redbubble. Click the links below to check out apparel, home décor, stationary and more!
Flamingo Totem (with Long Legs)
You can also check out two patterns that I created from these pieces. The pretty blue background compliments the pink nicely. You can find these in my shop here and here.
Which design or drawing is your favorite? Leave a comment below! Thanks for stopping by today! I have quite a few ideas for my next couple projects so check back often for new work. I hope you are enjoying some nice weather!
Stay flashy, free spirits!
Flamingo WIP + Updates
Happy Monday everyone! Was your Monday as blah as mine was? Sometimes, days are just like that. Rain doesn’t help those days either. You just want to curl up on the couch and watch a movie until you pass out. Any how, I survived the Monday blues long enough to write my post tonight. There are a couple updates I wanted to share.
First of all, I have added more color to my Flamingo Totem. It’s becoming very bright and I’m excited to finish it! I have always avoided pink in the past since it was far from my favorite color. Lately, I have had more of an open mind with my work and have used it for my Flying Squirrel Totem and now flamingo. It’s nice to change things up every once and a while. Plus, I have always put limits on myself and my work, unintentionally. I use to “make rules” or guidelines to my art that I wasn’t allowed to teeter from. Like I was forced to stay within a certain style of art or subject. I have no idea how I picked up this terrible habit but I am proud to say I have kicked it and now create whatever I want, whenever I want, however I want. My art has improved greatly because of it! I’m even going to pick up painting again, which I am excited for. I just need to get some more supplies, first.
Secondly, I wanted to share that I’m back to my full time job as a landscaper. I’m going to have to make some changes to my future content. As you can guess, Spring and Summer are the busiest months for a landscaper! Last year, I tried to keep up with my Totem Animal posts the best I could. I always shoot for one post a week but it can be difficult keeping up with everything. Not only do I need to create the drawing itself but I put a lot of time and energy into the research for each totem. Then when I have an understanding of it, I need to type it out for my blog. This is done in between my landscaping job, family responsibilities, social obligations, appointments and every once and a while….sleep. Not to mention any other efforts that need to be put into my business as an artist such as marketing and social media, editing my work for products and uploading it to my online shops (Redbubble and Society6) and how about just talking and connecting with people! I always tend to lose my mind a bit when Spring comes around! I have to lighten the load.
I do not want my artwork to suffer and obviously I can not take time away from my family or my job that is currently paying the bills. Therefore, I am going to halt new Totem Animal symbolism posts. I will continue to create the drawings like I have been but I won’t be able to go over each one in detail about their symbolism. The art is more important than the writing and I don’t want to become discouraged because I can’t keep up with both! Don’t worry, I will still continue to keep my blog. I just won’t be able to write such lengthy posts for a little while!
I hope you like the Flamingo Totem so far. Let me know what you think in the comments below! Thanks for stopping by this week.
Happy Spring, free spirits!
