This Blog Has Moved to WordPress

Hi Everyone,

I decided to move my blog to Wordpress after getting very little engagement here on Blogger. I had been running another blog on Wordpress, and noticed more people were finding my posts there.

New posts from this blog, as well as the old ones, can now be found at https://miriamsketchbook.wordpress.com/

Sketching Jack-o-Lanterns...Plus Future Seasonal Video Ideas

In October, I kept thinking about Halloween. I uploaded a video where I painted bloody letters and another where I painted a jack-o-lantern. I filmed multiple makeup looks and making Halloween decorations, which I will upload next year. I also sketched the jack-o-lantern in the photo above in pencil days before Halloween.

While I only uploaded two Halloween videos this year, I plan to make eight for next September and October. I am also going to make more seasonal videos in the future. I uploaded a video where I drew feathers last week, and am going to do a feathers realism challenge next week. The feathers are roughly for Thanksgiving (turkey, feathers ;) I am also going to have winter themed videos, like one where I paint a knitted scarf and another with a tree without leaves. Not all of my future videos will be based on the season though.

If you have any video requests, comment below. Thank you!

Drawing a Tree on My Whiteboard...while planning future videos

Yesterday, I was brainstorming ideas for future videos on my whiteboard. Bloody letters and a jack-o-lantern in acrylic paint for October. Feathers in pen for November. A knitted scarf for December. I needed more video ideas to fill a gap in late November. I thought about how I have drawn trees before, and began to sketch one on my whiteboard with marker. I made little curved lines to add bark, and drew the outlines of branches. The tree looked like it did not have enough branches, and I wondered how to add branches that would be behind the ones I had drawn if the tree was three dimensional. I was able to draw light lines with my marker for branches that were towards the background. This looked okay, though I want to experiment more with shading if I draw a tree on paper.

Here are more photos of the tree on my whiteboard:

What do you think? Should I turn a tree like this one into a how to draw video? Do you have any requests for future videos? Please leave a comment, even if it is anonymous.

You can find the how to draw videos that I have already posted on my YouTube channel, Varietygirl1.

Hats Made of Clay

 How To Make a Clay Hat Out of Baking Clay

From My YouTube Channel: Varietygirl1

 

 

After I made my first clay dragon, I had some extra clay. I looked around for something to make, and decided to make a hat. At first glance, I knew I could make a hat with two cylinders; a thin one for the brim and a thick one for the top. I also wanted to add a ribbon and flowers. I had to experiment with shaping the clay in order to add the flowers and ribbon. I made about two hats before I filmed myself making one.






I made the clay hat video before I decided to re-make the dragon. Both videos are from before I started using Adobe Audition, so there is some background noise.


I still have some extra clay. If you have any suggestions for what I should make, please leave a comment. Thank you!

Creating Clay Dragons

A few years ago, I needed a three dimensional piece of art for a portfolio. Usually, my art consists of two dimensional drawings in different mediums. Then I remembered working with clay when I was at a summer camp. I had not worked with clay in years, but I decided to try it again.

I wanted to make a clay version of a dragon I had drawn. I started by making a smooth base, and then added lots of scales. I could not get the dragon to stand, so I made it in a sitting position. I was so short on time, I took the dragon to show people without baking it. The head fell off a couple times, and I tried to repair it with scrap clay at the last minute. I was so nervous that the whole thing would fall apart as someone looked at it. Luckily, the head did not fall off again until I took it home :)



I had another chance to show my dragon about a week later. This time I baked it. Someone suggested adding some type of wiring to the inside of the neck in order to hold up the head. I added toothpicks instead, and it worked! The ears were a little burnt, but it looked good.

Multiple people who saw the dragon asked how I made it. I described the process, but they thought it was difficult. I remembered getting the same reaction when I brought a bigger version of my model house in for a school project. In both


cases, people thought it was hard to make, so I made a how to video. I made a baby dragon for the video, just like I made a second, smaller house.

The photo on the right shows the baby dragon:

Here is the video that shows how to make the dragon:

How to Draw Simple Eyes is Now Published

Earlier this week, I posted about my ideas for a video that showed ways to draw simple eyes. Now this video is on YouTube, although you can watch it from the blog post.

The video shows how to draw three different types of simple eyes, eyes looking in different directions, and eyes that show emotions. It also shows how to use the simple eyes as an iris in more detailed eyes.

For many of my videos, I used a single shot from the video as a thumbnail. For this video, I decided to experiment with the thumbnail. I cropped multiple shots from the video, and edited them together. I was having trouble getting the cropped photos to be the right dimensions for a thumbnail, so I added a blue border. The colorful border may draw someone's attention when they are looking for videos to watch. I might change the thumbnail to something less cluttered later, though I want to see how this one does at gaining views/watch time.

The Thumbnail:

 



 

Photos I combined:

 

 

 

 

Please comment below if you enjoyed the video or like the thumbnail. You can also leave questions, requests for future how to videos, etc. Thank you!

Drawing Simple Eyes: A How to Video Coming Thursday August 13, 2015

My latest how to draw video featured realistic looking eyes. Days after I filmed this video, I was sitting in geometry class learning about circles and arcs. I began to doodle using the types of lines I was learning about, and realized I could create eyes with circles and arcs! When I got home, I redrew the eyes with my camera recording.

The photo above shows the three types of eyes I came up with. The one on the far right has straight lines as well as arcs. I will go into more detail of how these eyes contain circles and arcs in the video this Thursday.

After a while, I worried that these eyes might be too simple for a how to video. I wanted to add something else about eyes. One idea I have is to show how to use these types of eyes as an iris, and turn them into more complex eyes. My second idea is to talk about eyes looking in different directions. The photo below shows a sketch of the second idea from my whiteboard. Please comment below if you think I should add either of these two ideas to the video, or both.