Digital Mixed Media Blog and Miscellaneous Sketches

Senior year has been pretty crazy so far-but fun!! Three art classes is the most awesome thing I could have asked for this year. And in one of the art classes, Digital Mixed Media, I had to make ANOTHER blog! I seem to be starting a collection of collections of art, if that makes sense. The new blog is over on the right side with the other links, but here’s a link up front in case you get lost:

http://abbymcgrathdigital.blogspot.com/

In AP Art this week, me and my friends er.... dismantled (that’s the most pleasant way of putting it) some traditional mannequins that artists use for figure drawing and hot-glued them into a murder scene, I mean, still life that we will draw parts of in charcoal. It’s going to be pretty interesting when it comes out. I’ll post the pictures once it gets done.

Just so that this post is not completely pointless, I think I’ll post some recent doodads from my sketchbook.

I’ve been trying to write a fantasy book for a month now, and I’ve found I understand my characters better if I draw them (plus, awesome illustration practice). This is my protagonist Lynna the Artful Dragon who creates pictures with her special multi-colored fire:

This is her friend she meets along the way, Finley the would-be princess that’s getting chased by her cousin Farold who wants to take over the world:

Finley’s got a friend too: Yara, the last fairy in Chromania who rules over all the butterflies:

Another “friend” of Finley’s, this is Vian, Farold’s BFF who used to go out with Finley but now is chasing her down for his bro. (I only started this one yesterday)

In addition to illustrations for a potential new book, I also have been working on some celebrity portraits. Though it’s only about ½ done, here’s a drawing of one of my all time favorite people, Barbra Streisand:

This portrait of Arwen from Lord of the Rings, unlike the one of Babs, is actually done:

And then these are just some random things that don’t belong in any real category:

Mannequin still life pictures coming soon to a blog near you!! 

New Progress Before School Starts

One short day, and I’m back in school! How should I spend my last day of summer vacation? Blogging of course!

Here’s a piece that I’ve been meaning to post but just keep forgetting about. I did this in my watercolor class that I took over the summer.

 I’m not 100% certain on my art-tiara-portrait thing as I was in the last post, but I think I’ll post the new pictures anyway, just to keep it up-to-date.

I have been working on a new piece for the past week or so, and I think it came out really nicely. It’s a sketch that I made sophomore year of what I call the “Creative Bubble” In a nutshell, it’s the doodles that float around in this super crazy mind on paper in bubble form. When I first thought of it in tenth grade I had started it on a giant canvas, but it turned out to be a disaster. So this summer I thought I’d try it again, this time on black paper with pastels, and I think it looks totally awesome.

Here’s the original sketch:

Then what I like to call the skeleton of the piece (as you can see, some stuff in the bubble changed since the original sketch)

The first bits of color:

½ done with the color:

½ done with the piece:

Yes, that is my cat. Natasha was helping me throughout this project, so it seems only fair I give her a little credit.

Lightening the color:

Close-Ups:

Final Piece:

I know everyone else my age would kill me for saying this, but I really want to go back to school.

Gotta get back to Hogwarts, gotta get back to school... (A Very Potter Musical)