Sketch Night at the Opera: Anna Bolena

This week, I had the pleasure of attending Anna Bolena by Gaetano Donizetti, performed at the Ordway Theater. As always, the Minnesota Opera has put together a grand production, tense with drama!

Here are the sketches I made during the show. I fiddled around with ink for a bit before catching my groove in pencil. As always, my approach was a bit gestural, as I tried to capture as many instances as possible!

 

  

 

 

Thanks for checking out my sketches! If you're interested in seeing a performance of Anna Bolena, check out the Minnesota Opera's website-- it will be running 'til November 18th! Sketch nights at the opera take place during the final dress rehearsal of each production.  If you're interested in hoping aboard the sketch train, these events are hosted by the lovely Black Hat Collective, a twin cities comic-making club. We are very welcoming to newcomers! Well, that's all I've got for now... Have a sketchy day! <3

Inktober Conclusion

October's daily ink challenge, "Inktober", didn't make it onto my daily to-do list after all, but I did get a small batch of ink drawings and doodles out of it! It was just what I needed to kick into convention commission mode. Also, it feels good to get my hands inky after spending so much time working digitally lately! The ones below were the very first few I knocked out.  The drawing was fast, because I was so eager to get re-acquainted with my inking tools! From left to right: Hunt 102 nib, Pentel pocket brush, Hunt 108 nib. Above, Howl and Sophie were inked with a G-nib.

 

That princess' arms are just "ouch". Not my finest work, but the challenge was way fun! I recommend it. Next year, I'll hop on board, day one.

Happy Birthday, Sam!

A birthday sketch for my friend, Sam Alden. He makes a lot of great comics. Go check them out! Do it now! Gingerland -- Dubblebaby

Commission Examples

Pencil

Ink

Markers

These are some sketches that I did up to represent commissions that I can offer while at conventions. They're 3.5 x 5 inches, and the paper is from a nice little Strathmore pad. I suppose it's kind of a strange size... I'll probably just chop that extra half inch from now on and make it 3 x 5.

I tried out some new things on these sketches. First, I used 2B pencil in conjunction with yellow mechanical pencil lead. I think I like it? Not sure yet. It's nice to work with, but in the end maybe it doesn't look as clean as straight up graphite. I did the inking with a pitt pen and pentel pocket brush, because I'm still debating whether it would be a good idea to bring my india ink and quill pen to artist alley. I wouldn't want to spill anything! And lastly, Strawberry Shortcake was colored with copics, prismacolor, and tria markers. Markers are such a new thing to me! I only recently acquired a decent amount of them, so I'm just now starting to color things. I'm a marker newbie!

Inktober Day 1

I just learned about "Inktober"-- a daily ink drawing challenge. I'm a a little late getting started, but I figured, why not give it a shot?

Nabucco - Opera Sketches

The Minnesota Opera has begun it's new opera season, and it's first show is Verdi's "Nabucco"! The story, "...follows the plight of the Jews as they are conquered and exiled from their homeland by King Nebuchadnezzar (Nabucco)."--Minnesota Opera

 I attended the final dress rehearsal with my fellow Black Hatters, to sketch the night away. Watching the opera and sketching at the same time is challenging. Add to that subtitles that must be read and, well... Unfortunately, I missed out on some plot points. But oh, the sights and sounds were simply marvelous! The costumes, sets, and singing are totally enjoyable even without an understanding of the Italian words. Such grand performances just fill my spirit right up with bright, burning goodness.

Below: Abigaille, older daughter of Nabucco

Above: Fenena, Younger daughter of Nabucco, and the High Priest of the Hebrews

I've had the honor of attending several of these dress rehearsals in the past, and I'm still working out the best way of capturing the magnificence of it all in my sketchbook. By nature, I am incredibly slow at everything, including sketching. This time, I tackled the job with my brush pen. First, I drew a rough impression with pencil. Then, I quickly attempted to give the characters more substance and form with ink. The result was far fewer sketches than usual, but all of them are way more complete looking than usual. This has been my first round of opera sketches that I didn't feel the need to work back into afterwards. Yay! 

Star Field ~ Doodle

Good night, and sweet dreams!

Figure Drawing Sketch Dump

Sketches from mid-June to mid-July. I've been drawing from models on Deviant Art in order to BEEF UP my figure drawing skills! I used the stock photos of kxhara and SenshiStock, along with some other random images. Beef it up, beef it up!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PB and Marceline Doodles

Katie and I dressed up as Marceline and Princess Bubblegum at the Sci-Fi Fantasy convention CONvergence a few days ago. I've got Adventure Time on the brain!

Opera Sketches ~ The Giver

The Minnesota Opera's production of The Giver was very enveloping. I tried to document a bunch of cool moments in gesture drawings and I couldn't help but jot down a lot of the intriguing dialogue, too. Here they are- cropped and assembled chronologically.

It looks like blogger doesn't allow you to zoom in on this. Sorry about that! You can see all the details if you visit my DeviantArt! :)

I thought this moment was really funny and cute! --In a grey world, the main character starts to see colors here and there. His friend must have thought he was really weird when he reached out to poke her!