Fearless Friday, When Life Gives You Lemons

the Painted Apron

7 years ago

I love to flip through books and magazines a take a quick photo with my phone of something that catches my eye, like this refreshing lemon-lime cooler

source

I love to draw and sketch with pen and colored pencils, it’s not messy, so you can do it anywhere

Don’t over think, try to just jump in and see where it takes you

From the first lines, the glass was apparently going to be “wonky,” a little tilted and not even, but that’s ok, it’s called “personality!”

Often times you can make adjustments as you go by “fooling the eye” with the addition of another element

In this case the branch of kumquats on the left seems to make the glass stand straighter and the additional detail lines inside the glass help hide the imperfections too

Now for the fun part, coloring!

I start in the light areas and gradually deepen and build the color layers

I used shades of greens, yellows, orange, brown and gray

I added another kumquat branch, above right, to balance the drawing and make the glass look straighter

To finish, I added a few touches with yellow, orange & lime green markers to heighten the contrasts

Cheers!

Juicy Details

I have a multitude of colored pencils, collected over the years, Berol Prismacolor is a favorite

I used a Stabilo 0.4 fine black liner for the sketch. Stabilo 88 pens have tips that are encased in metal which makes them long lasting and compatible with rulers and stencils and are designed to have a long cap off time. They are available in a wide assortment of price ranges and kits on Amazon here

I just got a basic set of these acid free Tombow Dual Brush Pens, one tip is flexible like a paint brush and the other is a standard fine marker tip. They can be used for calligraphy also and my 10 color basic kit came with a blender pen too. These are also available in a variety of colors and kits

I have several other new supplies that I can’t wait to play with and share with you soon

Have fun and Be Fearless!

When Life Gives You Lemons…