Expressions Series #4 The drawing & Coloring

These are some of the steps in the creation of Expressions #4...of course you know how it is? I get into the process of drawing, inking and then the coloring and I forget to take pics. I tried to record the process...but sometimes I forget even though I have my camera right beside me. Oh well I think I did better on this one than I have the others, so maybe you can get the gist of my progress. First I do the drawing...and I even remembered to leave a boarder this time...it makes it so much easier to mat and frame if the finished piece has a boarder of 1" to 1 1/2"...I usually just use the width of the yard stick which is a little over an inch...I started with a piece of Strathmore drawing paper that is 18"x24"...that seems to be the size that I find the most comfortable to work on...or maybe it is comfortable because that was the size I had handy when I started...lol..
you know "roll with the flow" and what ever is handy...lol

A little more drawing...

Once the drawing is completed then I begin the inking process...I used an extra fine Sharpie permanent marker...this process takes almost as long as the drawing...because I seem to make it so complicated and have to really watch to not cross over any lines...unlike pencil there is no erasing errors at this point.

Now comes my favorite part...the coloring...this is when I think about being a little girl again and coloring in the multitude of coloring books that I colored when I was young. I use Prisma Pencils,

my all time favorite colored pencils.

The red poppies in the right hand corner are from a picture taken by my good friend Dawn Gold,

from the UK...she took the pic one day while walking her dog. The pic was awesome and she gave me permission to use the image as a reference for my drawing. I like to us photos as reference material for my flower drawings. Most of the other images that are in the drawing are from my head. Sometimes I use magazine pics of girls to achieve different expressions and skin tones...but most of the ribbons, butterflies and of course the wild hair are just my imagination. And yes I do thank the "Big Guy" for my imagination. My mother says I was born with this imagination and she even has some drawings I did when I was 3 yrs old...I used to wonder why mothers save stuff like that until I had children and grand children of my own. LOL

Some more coloring...I decided to make this a little risque...lol.

Don't forget to click on the pics to make them bigger if you want to see the details. :)