More Drawing Lab Work

As I'm able to snatch bits of time, I continue to work through Carla Sonheim's Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists, in no particular order. As I pulled out my sketch book last night, I realized that I hadn't shared my "Eyes Only" page. The task was to sketch in pencil four eyes as identical as possible, then use different media to embellish them -- lead pencil, black ink pen, charcoal, and coloured pencil. Here are the results:

Last night I had the opportunity to work on Lab 8, "Imaginary Creatures," which involved making random strokes of water colour in red, blue, and yellow, then using a black micron pen to define the lines of an imaginary creature that became "visible" when you looked at the random marks, and layering with more watercolour and vine charcoal. I started three, but only had time to finish one, which I entitled, "Baby Bump Bliss." As I had fun creating it, I thought about two ladies that have inspired me -- cyber friends, if you will -- Leah  and Erica -- both of whom are expecting their first child. So, as I played I also prayed for them and their baby bumps. I hope they both get a little smile from my imaginary creature :)

I've never used vine charcoal before, and didn't really know what to do with it, so I just did a bit of shading around the edges. I really don't know much about shading, though . . . Any words of wisdom about that?

I was actually pleasantly surprised at how fun this activity was. I expected to have a really hard time "seeing" anything in my random markings, cuz I'm not much of a visionary. But I got quite a kick out of creating this happy, little critter.

Have you had any fun with your imagination lately?