Month: August 2019

cars and trucks, Illustrations, short stories

My Sweet Chevy

Michele B. Naquaiya

57 chevy.drawing.web

Once upon a time I owned this sweet car.  It was great and ran great with no problems. I had it for around 10 years.  At the time, it was considered a classic but I didn’t think it was old. I sold it to 2 German guys who flew to Los Angeles looking to pick up cars for their German Classic Car Club they were starting up.  This was my all purpose car and I needed it for everything, including kids and everything that comes with kids.  I got really tired of people stealing parts off of it.  I could not park it anywhere without coming back to find it had been stripped again.  Times change, cars change.  I don’t really miss it because it was a lot of fun when I had it.  Hope it’s still alive and doing well in Germany.

flora and fauna, Illustrations, Nature, Odd Little Stories

California Live Oak Tree, WIP

Michele B. Naquaiya

oak tree.web.wip

This new drawing and is part of a new way of working for me.  I am in the process of writing a story and want it illustrate it.  It takes place in California under a big live oak tree.  There are animal characters that will be placed under this tree.  The big difference about this drawing is that it is completely digital.  I am still pretty overwhelmed with the digital process because I am doing everything from scratch.  I am working on my Wacom Cintiq every day, and every day the environment gets a little easier.

By far the layers and brushes successfully keep me somewhat mystified and even though I am not new to photoshop, I am new to the amazing number of choices I have to work with on the Cintiq.  The tablet is still huge at 24″ and I am slow because I have to process the thoughts of how and where to find things on the interface.  Which of the new brushes do I use and deciding which colors.   Nothing is coming quickly and easily.  But today I feel I successfully captured the light of the California landscape here.

So at the end of today’s session, I merged all my layers into this one piece.  The next time I will add a new layer and that will be the beginning of the animals that I will be placing in the landscape.  I don’t know how I will figure out how to capture the specific point of view I am looking for.  But for now, I am happy.

 

animals, dogs, horses, cats, Illustrations, Revising Old Work

Appaloosa in Training

Michele B. Naquaiya

young trainer.web

This is a young girl I knew in California as a very talented and hard working young trainer.  I did this watercolor of her with an underpainting in soft pink tones.  She is resurrected here.  Enjoy.

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animals, Illustrations, scratchboard drawing

Silver Tiger Engraving

Michele B. Naquaiya

tiger.silver.web

This is a scratchboard engraving drawing on silver paper.  I have gone back and made some changes on the Cintiq.  I sure am having fun on the cintiq  and there are so many possibilities. It’s exciting to realize I am in my infancy here with this drawing tool..  What great things to look forward to.

Here it is in my online store: