Ice

I meant to blog this past week, but I've been fairly tired and unmotivated in the evenings. I was also overwhelmed by how many ice photos I had and didn't know how to narrow them down. To be honest, most aren't very fabulous; it's the subject matter that I find really interesting, so I still wanted them to do more than sit on my hard drive. So I made a slideshow! Fading photos in and out to music is one way to make them seem a bit prettier. ;)

This might seem kind of long, but hopefully it's entertaining. There's music, but feel free to watch without--it's not pertinent. I did want to give a shout-out to my friend Michael, though, because his music is the soundtrack. He composed and recorded these years ago and I've been wanting to use his music in a slideshow for awhile now.

Here's the video, and then scroll down after it so I can tell you about some fun paper snowflakes!

Ice from J M on Vimeo.

The other day my 15-year-old niece, L, learned how to make these snowflakes at school. Then she came home and made some for her bedroom, and her mom instagrammed them. I loved them and wanted to learn how, so last night we Skyped and she taught me. It's pretty simple once you get the hang of it (it took me a few tries to cut the paper correctly--I felt so incompetent since my 7-year-old niece got it on the first try). You can make all sorts of sizes and colors depending on what paper you have on hand. I used some cheapy (better, since it's thinner) scrapbook paper to make the one above (seen above my couch), but you can use printer paper, origami paper, maps, newspapers, anything.

A friend on Instagram said she wanted to teach her daughters, so I thought I'd link to a few videos that teach you how. You can also just do a search for "3D snowflake tutorial" and find some options. Here are a few:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-47Gif6aVe0 - This has the woman actually talking to explain, whereas the others are set to music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tmhFQpruyE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYnwns68sbE

I really enjoyed doing a craft via Skype and I think we'll have to do that again soon. I've also learned how to make rubberband bracelets from my niece N via Skype, and my friend Dan was even able to tutor L in math! It's obviously way better to hang out with my nephieces in person, but since we live a few states apart, I'm really glad I can still see them and spend time with them.

Have you ever made these snowflakes? My friend Dania said she made them at work one year, and they hung them all over the office!

Drawing: My general method (part 3)

If you haven't read them already, you may be interested in my first and second posts for this topic. I'm talking a little about my drawing process, specifically for this picture.

[Please excuse the photos from this series--I didn't know exactly what I'd want to cover when I took them, so I am now wishing I had some better shots.]


The first step I took was to make an outline of the main objects by following the grid on my page against the grid over the original image. In the above photo you'll see a reminder of the original picture in the bottom left corner (imagine a grid over it) and part of my first sketch. I marked out where a dark shadow would be over the hand to help guide me later.


Next, I focused on the first hand. (No, I didn't mean to position the kneaded eraser so it looks like the hand is tossing it across the page. :P) Now I'll just talk a bit about drawing as I know it. I don't really know how to organize my thoughts, so bear with me.

So much of drawing (in this style) is not drawing itself, but seeing what needs to be drawn. I have to really study the original that I'm drawing from. If I overlook a particular shadow or highlight, I can throw off the realism I'm after.

To give something a three-dimensional look, it needs to have plenty of shadows and highlights in varying degrees, just like what happens naturally. I try to note spots of dark shading, medium, and highlights, and then plan a range. The darkest shadows can be "black" and the lightest can be "white" (or paper-colored). I need to figure out good mediums for the other areas and be sure they still stand out from the darks and lights. If all of the shadows were just one tone, your picture is then just two "colors" and flat-looking as a result.

Highlights stand out when they are next to a shadow. To bring out contours, it's good to have extremes next to each other. I usually need to exaggerate every darkness and lightness in order to make things stand out as they need to. Note that I put a darker shade behind the fingers so they show up against the background.

Smudging/blending is important, at least in my drawings. Art stores sell stumps and other products to help with smudging, but I find I do the most with either my fingers or Kleenex. I'm classy! I will often start with an overly-dark patch and then smudge to create the medium-range shadows near it.

Erasing is part of drawing. It's just drawing in reverse! I go back and erase-in my highlights since I can't help but smudge too far and darken areas that need to be paper-colored. I erase to bring out bright spots and define edges.


These two images were taken three days apart. When the left photo was taken, I wasn't happy with my work. I almost always get to this point in a drawing where I know something isn't right, but I can't quite figure it out, and I start feeling hopeless like it's too late to fix things. I was having a hard time erasing and blending, so I went to the art store and bought a couple of new supplies. The new pencil I got was soooo helpful in smoothing things out, and the clean eraser helped fix some problem areas.

I also had to go back to the original grid and re-evaluate where I had placed certain shadows and borders. There was some funky roundness on the fingers that didn't look right, so I basically redrew in some of the crucial lines and started over with the shading. It just took some studying to see where I had gone wrong. I don't know if you can even tell (these photos kind of suck) the difference in the two pictures, but some minor changes were done that made a big difference to me.


I had a challenge with my original picture, and that was the blurry patch in the foreground. It's one thing to have blurry cards in a photo, but in a drawing it would just look weird. I decided to just use an actual card as my reference for the card being dealt. I laid down a card and took a photo at an angle that I felt represented the angle in the drawing (and the angle someone would be seeing the card if they were across from the dealer). Then I worked loosely from that photo. It's far from perfect, but I was satisfied (I settle for way less than perfection in my drawings!). I did some vague lines to give the card a recognizable Bicycle look, but didn't stress over the details. I'm just not really a details person when it comes to pictures.

And, as you saw before, this was my resulting picture (after some more shading, erasing, blending, etc. etc.):

Faaarrrrrr from perfect, but good enough for me. I don't know how many hours were devoted to this drawing, but I don't like to push things too far past the Line of Fun, so it couldn't have been that many. 

I hope some of my notes were helpful, though I realize I wasn't ultra specific in this entry. Like anything, it just takes practice (something I could use!) and a willingness to try different things to get your desired result. Thanks for reading!

[Some snippets of pictures I've made in the past.]

Drawing: My general method (part 2)

People are often quick to say they can't do something, such as draw, before they have even given it a good try. It's fine if you're not interested in trying; I'm not interested in trying a whole bunch of things! But don't say you can't when you don't actually know, and don't use that guess as a reason not to try something that you'd actually like to do better. There's my motivational speech of the day. ;) Main point: Let's all stop making excuses and just be honest with ourselves and others.

Last time, I discussed the prep I do for "serious" drawings (I usually skip the grid when I'm playing Pictionary). Today I want to talk about some of the materials I use to make the job easier. It's amazing what a difference the right pencil makes.

As I said, this isn't a passion for me, so I'm not very informed on all the best products, but there are some basic items that are easily obtained at an art/craft store, and they aren't even expensive. You don't need to be a professional to justify the purchase of a few supplies totaling under $20. Also, the following items would make a great gift for someone who would like to try drawing more seriously.

1. Paper. You can use any paper you want, but you might like having a sketch pad that is large, sturdy and textured. The right paper makes it easier to smudge and erase, and sketch paper is made to work with art pencils and other mediums. Strathmore is a popular brand that I've used, though I'm sure there are many great brands.


2. Pencils. Graphite pencils are sold in varying degrees of hardness. They are labeled with Hs and Bs (and sometimes Fs and probably other letters) to let you know how hard/soft they are. HB is your standard Number 2 pencil, which falls right in the middle of the hard/soft scale. If you want something harder (and therefore lighter on the page), you get pencils like H, 2H, 4H, etc., where the hardness increases as the number goes higher. Softer pencils are labeled as 2B, 4B, 8B, etc. I have no idea how many types there are. The softer the pencil, the darker you can draw without much pressure. Drawing is way-the-heck easier with softer pencils, in my opinion. I love using something more toward 6B or higher. For this drawing, I believe I was loving the Pentalic Graphite in 9B for a lot of the shading.


3. Erasers. Yes, there are also better erasers than the pink ones you used in school! Different erasers have their strengths and weaknesses, but one of the main ones I use is a kneaded eraser (shown above in packaging and after use). It's like a piece of putty that you can shape for particular jobs. You want to erase a thin line? Form a point or edge in the kneaded eraser and swipe it across the paper. It lasts a long time because you just knead it to freshen it up for more erasing. You'll likely want an additional eraser for bigger jobs. If you look in the art aisle there are lots of choices meant to erase cleanly without tearing up your paper. They aren't magical, but they are helpful.

That's enough for now. In my next post I'll conclude this little series with some (possibly vague and unhelpful) information on my actual drawing process. Sorry if this groundwork is kind of boring. :) Have a great day!

Drawing: My general method (part 1)

Instead of a photo tip, I'm going to mix things up a bit. Sometimes, I like to draw. I bust out the art pencils every couple of years if I want to make a gift for someone special. It's not a passion, so I haven't studied or practiced techniques since college (and that was just because of some required art classes for my first major, interior design). My knowledge has stayed the same for many years, and I have no immediate plans to further it. Maybe someday, though--I would like to take a painting class sometime.

I give you that intro so you know that whatever I share here is just the method I was taught and use, but it's not necessarily the best or most professional method. In fact, those of you who are more experienced in this area might cringe. You're free to comment with further suggestions, just don't diss my drawing, por favor. It's finished and in the recipient's home, and it was the thought that counts. :) I know it has problem areas.

Okay! I did the above drawing a few months ago as a birthday present. I took some photos of the process with a write-up like this in mind, in case anyone's interested. This post will discuss the prep I do before starting a drawing. Next time I'll get into actual drawing techniques.

1. Find a photo to use. I can't draw very many things from my mind with much accuracy. I need a photo or my proportions and shading will start going haywire. Many people do not require photos. Some people might think using a photo is cheating. I say it's cheaper than hiring a live model.

2. Print off or photocopy the photo in whatever size you wish. I change mine to grayscale (sometimes upping the contrast or making other edits) first, since the resulting drawing will be in "black and white."

3. Make a grid on a transparency (like those sheets people put on overhead projectors). You can draw the grid directly on the photocopy/print-out, but it's nice to be able to remove the lines during the drawing process, plus this step is so tedious that you'll be glad to have a reusable transparency for future drawings. You can draw the grid (using a fine-tipped Sharpie) in whatever measurement you wish, but it has to be consistent. I typically mark it off in 1/2- or 1-inch boxes, depending on the size of my printed photo. Use a ruler and a straight edge. Be as precise as possible. (NOTE: In this particular case, I tried to save time by using some semi-transparent plastic that had lines on it (pictured), but it's not preferred. I couldn't see the picture well enough behind it.)

4. Make a grid on the page you'll be drawing on. You'll have to do some calculating and planning to figure out how big you want the resulting image to measure and what that means in terms of the grid size. This whole process can be the least fun and also very time-consuming, but for me it's necessary if I want to keep on track with proportions and have less erasing to do. Make sure to make very pale lines! They will eventually need to be erased or smudged away, so make them only as dark as you absolutely need them.

By now you have a setup similar to those drawing games you find in activity books. You will be following the same concept of transferring what is in one square to another square. Next time I'll talk about that process and some of the tips and equipment I use.