Enormous Ancient Sea Turtle

This is one I've been looking forward to inking. I photographed this ancient sea turtle at the Smithsonian last year. This sea turtle would be big enough for a couple humans to take a ride on. Ancient earth had some enormous creatures! Enjoy.

Music Division News: Find My Wintersong Album at Bandcamp Site

Bandcamp.com is an excellent way to put your album on the internet so that others can hear the tracks for free, then buy if they wish. There are many, many bands on this site, kind of like a musical flea market. This site is especially helpful to the little guy/gal who may not be able to get his or her stuff on i-tunes so easily. Here's my little booth, with full previews of the entire album. Please go and listen: http://chris-truelsen.bandcamp.com/

(And a special thanks to Steve Howard for introducing me to bandcamp.com. A friend of his has helped develop it . . . .)

Experiment with Flowers: A Sampler

Unless you want to use white correction fluid-as they do in comic books-ink work is just not correctable. It is also not advisable for large works of art. An 8 x 10 section of paper, I think, is really too big to try a work and not expect there to be any mistakes or just simply, sloppiness. (Note: the drawing itself is more symmetrical than it looks in this photo. The camera was at a slight angle).

That is where this work has gone awry for me. This is one of my first attempts at using more than just a single color in pen and ink work. This was done using Faber Castell's Pitt artist pens.
If you try them I think you'd like them.

First I used a photograph I took as my model, first using transfer paper to trace a good deal of the image onto a white sheet of paper. I then sketched in additional details with pencil.
Once I had the image in place, I used my photograph as a reference as I inked in the colors in a decorative pen and ink style.

Here's what I'd do differently: first of all, I'd plan to do a much smaller work, just a few inches in length and width. Once I'd selected the parts of the photo I wanted to use, I'd create a model sketch in pencil just to try out different cross-hatching techniques, as well as the values of the composition. I'd also use less black. I was hoping that by adding black around the flowers I'd get them to "pop" more. I think that I could have accomplished that by using darker coloring, but avoiding black. The areas without flowers or greenery would still use black cross-hatching; maybe just one or two styles would be better.

Here's what I liked: though there were areas that needed work, I think this ends up being a good sampler for the kinds of techniques I'd like to use on future drawings. Let's zero in on some of the sections I liked.

1. This was a nice little bit of black crosshatching, with diagonals to the left and to the right, and with vertical strokes up through the center of them.


2. I like the black cross-hatching pattern around the bud below. It has some rounded strokes, as well as straight diagonals.


3. The section below by itself would make a nice illustration. The only thing I might do differently is not using black to outline the flowers. However, it might be OK around the green. I'd have to test it out. I like how the blues and lavenders mix optically when placed side by side.


4. The section below also would make a good illustration by itself. I especially like the cross-hatching in the lower right green sections and the buds to be found there.

5. I really like the buds below. From the various colors used, to the decorative patterns throughout, this turned out nicely. I even like the way the black was used here. Reminds me of something one might find in a medieval illustrated book . . . .
6. I like the flowers in the grouping below, as well as the patterns that comprise this section. This could almost also make a nice illustration by itself by adding or subtracting a few parts of the selection here.