Mostly I Do Art...

Hello, friends - and if you're in America, Happy Thanksgiving. I don't really buy into all this "it's a celebration reminding us of how we bullied and stole from the Native Americans" thing. That's just you  looking for an excuse to be mad. Thanksgiving was the day that the first European settlers in the New World chose to THANK all of the people (including the natives) who helped them, and to praise the Divine for allowing them to live another year. It's not about Native American rights, or Christian morality, or even Black Friday sales. It's about being thankful for what you have, and not taking for granted the people who have your back. If you've ever been to Appalachia, you might recognize one of our more popular tourist destinations, Gatlinburg. I've been there myself thousands of times. I'll grant you, it's a bit like a tiny Las Vegas, but you can't beat the scenery, and the people are always friendly. The best time to co...

I've been plagued by a terrible, nagging headache, and this is how my mind chose to represent that feeling. This fellow may be pint-sized, but he feels like he weighs a metric ton, and he won't stop poking his pointy toe claws into the soft spots of my poor skull. This is one of my first serious uses of PITT Artist Pens, and my opinion is that they're just okay. The color blends well in smaller areas, but a heavier toothed paper will start to break down if you put the color on too thickly, and the color doesn't look as nice when blended over large areas. Perhaps I'm doing it wrong? I wonder if these markers offer a blender pen...

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Things are not always what they seem, and the same holds true for dragons. At first glance, this fellow seems to be swooping in for a quick meal. But look a little more closely - those fluffy little crows are asleep. And the dragon - he's not landing. He sits, delicately balanced on the thin wire. His outstretched wings provide an awning to shelter the balls of fluff at his feet from the pouring rain. These birds aren't his dinner. They're his friends. Green dragons, traditionally, are considered more benign. They prefer quiet, green spaces like deep woods or mountain tops to the habitations of man, but this is due more to man's distrust than the dragon's nature.They are historically the more non-violent of the dragon races. This fellow is a kind of dragon called a wyvern , that is, it has wings instead of a front pair of limbs. The dragons of Skyrim  are of this genus, only much, much larger. It is commonly debated whether or not wyverns are even dragons. This...

Here we go with #Day3 of the #NovemberSketchbook. Today's offering is a pair of tiny jewel dragons eating from the dog's dinner bowl. I placed my hand in the image to give it some scale, since these tiny fliers are about the size of the common pet store lizard. Dragons, like problems, come in different sizes. One might naturally assume that these tiny "problems" wouldn't be much of a problem. But it would be extremely unwise to think that just because a problem is small, it is any less of a threat. One or two of these little ones might not seem like much until you consider that little problems, when ignored, can grow into larger ones that are much more difficult to hide. Or worse still, little problems left unchecked can accumulate, like an overburden of snow ready to come crashing down on you. The moral? It's best to deal with problems when they're still small.

Okay, so obviously, November's sketchbook topic is ( trumpet fanfare ) DRAGONS! And by dragons, I mean all kinds - like this nasty-tempered fellow from Skyrim. To get a sense of the scale of this aerial terror, click on the image to enlarge it and take a look at the two figures on top of the right-hand tower. Those battlements belong to Solitude, and those are Stormcloak archers. I think it's safe to say their arrows are mostly useless against this monster. Quickly! Summon the Dragonborn! I'm not going to put too many restrictions on this month's #sketchbook. Any medium will be acceptable, so long as the image is in the official book. I've found that I prefer the rich versatility of graphite. The level of detail that can be achieved is just tremendous. My preferred sketch pencil is a Faber-Castell draftsman with a very hard lead, coupled with Pro Art's PRO Series pencils for shading. I also use SAKURA Pigma Sensei Manga Pens and Berol Prismacolor colore...