I learned to draw filigree a couple of years ago while painting “Lighthearted.” Filigree is an ornamental, decorative flourishing pattern that started in metalwork. It’s been around since 3000 BC. Today, it’s still on American money, architecture, and very popular for tattoos. I’ve always been too picky to choose a tattoo but if I ever get a tattoo, it’ll probably be some type of filigree design.
Painting filigree for me is like taking a break from working while still working. Filigree means absolutely nothing. It’s just pretty. While drawing and painting filigree, instead of doing my usual mental gymnastics, it lets me create freely. Freeligree! Oh no, I just did it again. I’ve got to get a filigrip, don’t you filagree?
I created this painting in 2016. I wanted to paint a Christmas tree with a sad expression and how it might feel in contrast to such a joyful season, as a joke.
One evening on December 1st of that year in Chicago, I decided I wanted to spend time sketching at a cafe in the Lakeview neighborhood. Ordered a plate of fries and a glass of water for dinner.
Thumbnail sketches of various ideas
Sketching at restaurants and cafes is super fun for me, especially when I’m sketching my ideas instead of sketching the cafe environment exactly as it is, or sketching the food in front of me. I sketched 3 thumbnail drawings in pencil first. If you haven’t heard of the term, I didn’t actually sketch real-life thumbnails, like the type on your fingers. It’s called a thumbnail sketch because the sketch is small and messy, like thumbnails.
The pencil sketch that was used to create the final painting
Or maybe it’s just the thumbnails on my fingers that are messy because they cracked in the past when I fell down the stairs at my house, not unlike Rachael Leigh Cook’s character Laney in “She’s All That.” But I really committed to the bit and continued to pick at my cuticles, mostly in high school during Algebra class. Since then, I’ve been fixing them by filing them and painting on vitamins and strengtheners. They’re finally getting better and look almost normal. This took several years. If you need advice on what nail strengthener I used, I’ve got you but you should probably go to the doctor.
After I completed the three sketch variations on my tree idea, I chose one idea and sketched the final pencil sketch underneath the thumbnail sketches. That’s the one transferred onto watercolor paper using a light box underneath the sketch and the watercolor paper.
To make your tree feel better, always place a mirror on the opposite side so that the tree can see how beautiful and loved your tree is.
Over the years, I have worked on several sketchbooks and completed sketches that I later transferred onto watercolor paper, where I created final paintings. That’s my way of practicing sketching. But my sketchbooks barely contain pages where I sketched and practiced the same subject over and over. I used to not be able to spend much time sketching in a sketchbook just repetitively sketching the same thing because it couldn’t keep my attention and I got bored. But now I’m a total practice pro after completing this first page.
The inspiration for this was crunchy autumn leaves from my hikes. I’ve also been very into silhouetted plants so a few tulips and grass to practice brush pen ink lines. The question is “What does it all mean?” These are a few sentences in plant language. It’s what the plants say right before you step on them. Excuse my accent.
This coming Sunday, my project IllustrArticles will have been running for 9 months. For fun, I put together a bunch of before and after sketches of some of the illustrations I’ve created for the site. The left side is the initial sketch of the idea. The right side is the completed illustration:
So far, I’ve managed to speed up my drawing process by cutting out some steps that I used to do. I used to draw the entire sketch with a non-photo blue pencil onto the watercolor, ink it, erase any showing pencil, and then do the watercolor.
Now, I just scan the small sketch, printed out a larger size of it, and then put that printout on a lightbox, and put the watercolor paper on top. From there, I ink out the lines right onto the paper with brushes. After that, I paint the watercolor. Sometimes watercolor goes on before the ink. Cutting out the steps of drawing in pencil on the watercolor paper has made the process faster and makes cleaner illustrations in the end.
Pencil lead glistens in the sunlight as I celebrate my Halloween morning by drawing skeletons. This is a study for an illustration still in development.
