Category: Sketching Blog
Imaginary Animals – paintings by Karen Little
Several years ago I fell in love with the teachings of Carla Sonheim who wrote the book “Drawing and Painting Imaginary Animals: A Mixed-Media Workshop with Carla Sonheim.”
Carla is a very imaginative and happy artist and teacher who inspires others on her website, Carla Sonheim Presents, (www.carlasonheim.com). Her subject specialty is fantasy.
I’m revisiting the techniques I learned from her with the idea that someday I might lead drawing classes to residents of my home community. Right now, however, I’m just having fun painting the Spirit Animals I see in rock, concrete, leaves, and other piles of stuff.
The most recent paintings are shown on top.
Concept Art
Concept art, when integrated into a serious project, takes a great deal of planning and skill. At the level you see in my article, creating imaginary creatures is fun and a good way to expand your imagination.
If, however, you wanted to elevate your illustrations into children’s books, games, or other types of professional reproduction, follow the advice provided here:
- Sketching for Concept Art with Donald Yatomi, a video tutorial published by Craftsy.
- The Art of the Picture Book by Shadra Strickland, a video tutorial published by Craftsy.
- Shadra Strickland’s YouTube Channel
- Drawing and Painting Imaginary Animals: A Mixed-Media Workshop with Carla Sonheim, a book.
- Search phrase of “Developing Concept Art” on Google.
- Search phrase of “Concept Art Tutorials” on YouTube
- How to become a better concept artist by Donglu Yu on CreativeBlog. Note that CreativeBlog has many excellent articles on the subject.
Karen Little – info@littleviews.com
Note: All art and photos on this website are the property of Littleviews.com and Littleviews-Crafts.com and may not be reproduced in a fee-based publication without permission. Do you want to post these images in a commercial article? Request permission from Karen.
Sketches of Farmer’s Markets, Festivals, and All Things Fall by Karen Little
Here you’ll find sketches of miscellaneous scenes, including those in farmer’s markets and festivals.
Started in October, I’ll add new sketches to this page through the end of November.
All sketches are done in graphite, which in this case refers to very inexpensive mechanical pencils. Coloring, when present, is done through Photoshop.
I enjoy sketching from reference, meaning photos or videos, because there is so much to learn from “stopping” fleeting movement, but when its nice and I’m out and about, I add some urban sketching to the mix. If you’d like a picture of your child sketched for free, just ask me, Karen, at Info@Littleviews.com.
Karen Little – info@littleviews.com
Note: All art and photos on this website are the property of Littleviews.com and Littleviews-Crafts.com and may not be reproduced without permission. Do you want to repost? Request permission from Karen.
Pencil Sketches of Children and Community by Karen Little, September 2018
The sketches of children and community seen here were all done in August and September 2018.
New sketches will be added until the end of the month.
All sketches are done in graphite which in this case refers to mechanical pencils. Coloring is done through Photoshop.
The sketches are done from reference, meaning photos or videos. If you’d like a picture of your child sketched for free, just ask me, Karen, at Info@Littleviews.com.
Karen Little – info@littleviews.com
Note: All art and photos on this website are the property of Littleviews.com and Littleviews-Crafts.com and may not be reproduced without permission. Do you want to repost? Request permission from Karen.
Pencil Sketches by Karen Little, July 2018
The pencil sketches in this series were done in July 2018 during a trip to Racine, Wisconsin, Upper Michigan and Detroit.
My primary interest is in sketching people, however, now and then, I do do a few buildings.
When the weather is optimal, I sketch outside, too.
Unfortunately, my scanned tones are uneven and the actual sketches look better on paper. Hopeful I’ll improve the presentation on that in my next post of sketches.
Karen Little – info@littleviews.com
Note: All art and photos on this website are the property of Littleviews.com and Littleviews-Crafts.com and may not be reproduced without permission. Do you want to repost? Request permission from Karen.