It’s Been Awhile

Sorry I’ve been so quiet lately, but right about the time I was starting to get my mind around some projects, our car decided to start having trouble. Always a stressful thing, we decided it was time to stop putting money into a car that seemed to have some of the same issues over and over… so we bought a new one!

Unfortunately, it may cut into project funds (and of course it’s just in time for hail season here, which is always nerve-wracking). At least we have a reliable car again.

One of the projects I want to work on involves art supplies, and so I had to haul the old drafting table into the living room in front of the fireplace. It’s not like we’ll need the fireplace again anytime soon.

I had to make a decision when we first moved here due to lack of space in our small apartment: art or sewing, and sewing won.

It’s been some time since I’ve really drawn anything (and if you knew me, you would know that’s a huge thing since I have been drawing… well, since I could hold a pencil). I figured it was time to get back to it because sewing has slowed down a little.

I’m also still inspired by The Hobbit movie, especially the dwarves, so of course that’s a great subject for me to focus on. Unfortunately, I feel stiff and rusty, so I decided to start with my cartoonier style. I actually did my first sketch Wednesday to shake the rust off and figure out what I wanted to do. Unfortunately, my husband came home sooner than expected and I wanted to hang out with him, so I didn’t finish the whole thing.

My quick sketch of a cartoony Bifur holding a bird toy — not finished, and I definitely have a lot of rust to work through, but it’s nice to be drawing again!

I decided to start with Bifur, because I loved a scene in a video where he was playing with an eagle toy he’d made (added at the end of this entry). I still have a lot of work to do on it, as well as getting used to all his costume details, but it was so much fun to draw again.

I joked to my husband that I should draw all the dwarves (including Thrain and Thror) in the same style and have them framed as a set. I barely finished my sentence before Christopher was nodding his head excitedly. Ha! I have no idea where we’d hang them, especially since I’m sure I will do a lot more of them.

I guess I better get to work! Like I said, I need to finish the sketch and see what changes I’ll make to the pose, and then I’ll transfer and finish it in brush and ink, and maybe color it on the computer. I need to hook a scanner up and hope that works (another thing I’ve not had access to for a long time, and the image above is actually a photograph of the drawing, not a scan). I may end up just sketching the dwarves for a while and getting used to that again before finishing. I am not even sure my ink has survived after all this time!

(Bifur’s part with the bird toy is towards the end of this video…)