Edward and Bella - Suzi Blu's "Le Petite Dolls" style

A new challenge. Am I up for it? All I can do is try my best with the tool set I am learning.

Rob Pattinson who plays Edward

It all began when Elena of Scrapbook Royalty asked me to draw the logo for a charity event in the spring of 2010. She had seen my beginning sketches from Suzi Blu's August "The Goddess and The Poet" online class I was taking. As I mentioned in a previous post - I had NEVER drawn before. You did not want me as a partner playing Pictionary. . . I thought I had months and months to get it right. I was then given a dead line of a couple of weeks for the logo. Yikes.

After that challenge, I signed up for two more of Suzi Blu's online classes: "Le Petite Dolls" and "Marie". They had their own set of parameters, but came much easier after the more realistic Goddess class. I started sharing what I was learning with other friends/artists and yes, scrapbookers. . . They were fascinated.

Then Elena appeared again with a new challenge - another Spring charity event that centered around the characters in the book "Twilight" - Edward and Bella. She would like this logo to be in the Le Petite Doll genre.

What was Twilight and who the heck are Edward and Bella. To the book store - Borders, here I come. Well, I am almost finished with the final and fourth book in the series. I have seen the first movie. I have purchased a magazine exclusively devoted to this book and it's characters and my humble attempts follow.

But first, a little background in my character and who I am and how I view challenges. I relish them. I taught piano and organ (yes for money) from the time I was 15 years old. Each time I went to my lesson with my teachers, I could barely wait to show them what I had accomplished and to see what new piece I had to tackle that week. I learned early on how valuable practice, practice, practice is. And how rewarding success or improvement is after you have put in long hours and hard work. I always tried to pass this on to my own students saying, "I'd rather have you practice 10 minutes each and every day then 1 1/2 hrs on Sat. There is something about daily practice.

So here are my attempts. I am posting a bunch of them in a slide show at the end of this blog. They aren't "right" yet, but they are getting there. New challenges? After sketching, you have to now color them. Edward is a vampire and has skin smooth like marble. How do I achieve that?

Suzi has been so great. She has taken me under her wings. And, you know what? It's just like piano lessons. It's the basics. Are your eyes on the same plane? Are your eyes the same size? Did you measure? The pupils need to be in the middle of the eyes. Draw the entire eye, put the pupil in the middle and then erase what you don't need. With music lessons - it's the scales. We hate them but they are the basis for improvement.

I've never had a problem sleeping. (I would just go to bed around 8 am and get up at around 3 am - I am a morning person. . .) Now I stay up late and still wake up early. I wake up thinking about Julie Prichard's online Journal class. I saw her finished journal up close and personal. OMG, the richness of the pages. I CAN do that. I just need more practice. Camera classes. Re-doing all the Goddess canvases again. How can I make them better. Watching all the videos again. Finishing my Le Petite Dolls class and Marie (I bought the 12 x24 wood for Marie - it's ready.) All I need is TIME and I don't work. . .

Chris Cozen is coming to Stamping Details in Poway and I am signed up for her color class. Boy do I need that! And thank goodness she is going to have a class where we bring unfinished canvases. I have three 12xs12 canvases "almost finished" from and in the style I learned in my first Chris Cozen's class way over a year ago. (I do have three finished canvases hanging in my computer/art room!).

I am hoping that showing my work in progress and not being afraid of someone saying, "who does she think she is, that is horrible" that I will encourage others to try new things and keep working and trying to improve. I truly am not happy with what I have so far. But, I see things I like. How do I keep Edward from looking like an alien and a girl? Challenges. Welcome them!

So below are my current attempts at Edward and Bella. I just learned that they have a deadline also for the logo advertising the event in the spring. They don't have to be perfect by Oct. 25. I can make corrections like I did in the middle of the night in PhotoShop. Like I did with the Good Witch and the Bad Witch logos. The logos only appear on a website. Next spring you will see the finished Good Witch/Bad Witch canvases. I am really proud of them. They are sooooo much better than what I did quickly to get the logo up that is on Elena's website.

I have no idea what I am going to use for backgrounds for Edward and Bella. Any ideas and suggestions and criticism are welcomed.