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The first thing you need to do is to find your strengths and weaknesses. Build on what you know and learn how to work around your perceived weakness. My main strength is attention to detail. I know that eyes with eyelashes, eyebrows, and color get a much better reaction than just black dots and that by adding detail I can cover up areas of my drawing that isn't so great. Perhaps yours is that you can make eyes that are evenly sized. One of my weaknesses is that I have trouble coloring within the lines. I learned that by retracing the outside line of the eye slightly larger than before, I can cover up areas where my coloring didn't stay where it should have. I suggest to you that your main weakness is simply a lack of knowledge about marker work and not a lack of skill. Armed with the proper knowledge, your previously hidden skills will begin to shine.
The second thing you need to know is about markers and how to make them work to get the best effects from them.
My criteria for buying markers are: Can I buy them locally and do they work on balloons. I don't want to find out that I'm out of a color of marker and not be able to replace it within a 10 minute time frame. My local Wal-Mart carries everything I need.
In my apron you will find: Sharpies in black, red, pink, brown, blue, green, purple and silver. All of which are medium point. Even though I have tested several paint markers, I only use one while working: Painters brand, white, medium point. The coverage is fine but the real advantage is it can be used to erase all sorts marker accidents. When the tip gets dirtied because of excessive erasing, I can take the tip out, turn it around, re-insert it, and use the other end. Once the first end is saturated with the white paint, the other colors disappear leaving a clean tip again. If your paint pen sometimes gushes with paint, and sometimes doesn't, try saturating the tip with paint then storing it tip up in your pocket. When you store it tip down the paint over saturates the tip which leads to glops. My third brand of markers is Rose Art Metallics. I use green, gold, blue, and purple with a medium point on one end and a fine point on the other... I've never used the fine point. These dry fast, cover great and can color over anything, including black Sharpie. These I use mainly for eye colors.
A regular Sharpie can give you, at the minimum, three different widths of lines to work with: A) fine lines for drawing delicate eyes, B) medium lines for most of your drawing, C) and thick lines for coloring in larger areas. To get fine lines, hold your marker straight up and down, at a right angle to the surface you are drawing on. The harder you push down, the thicker the line and as pointed out by my friend Twinkles, if you push too hard, the balloon pops. lol I should also mention here that if you really want to be able to make fine lines with your Sharpie, only use new markers. Just like a pencil, the tip of your marker gets dull with use. Save your older markers for making medium to thick lines. Medium lines are made by holding your marker just like you would a pencil while writing. Thick lines are achieved by using the entire side of the marker tip instead of just the pointy tip.
Photo 1A above shows how a Sharpie can leave streaks. However, with practice you can get complete coverage the first time like in photo 2. If you can make the second stroke before the ink begins to dry on the first one, you can get near seamless coverage. When streaks occur, It really doesn't do much good to try and keep coloring in the hope that you can fill in the gaps once the ink starts to dry. Marking over it usually just pulls the ink up and leaves an even larger gap. The best thing to do is let it dry completely, then carefully dab the marker over the gap or thin area. That's what I did in 1B. If you don't have time to wait for it to completely dry, use a dabbing stroke with light pressure. This usually will allow you to add a second layer of color without mixing immediately with the first layer. You can get decent results, but not the best.
These photos show how easily it is to erase with a Painters white paint pen. I used Sharpie and Rose Art Metallic to demonstrate with. Rub the paint pen over the area to be removed until the white ink picks up the other color. Do not scrub it as this will cause the tip of the paint pen to scratch the surface of the balloon. When that happens, paint and ink gets trapped in the scratches and then you can't remove it. Although not shown, you can erase unwanted white paint in the same manner. When erasing out of the center like I did here, it is nearly impossible to be exact. If you wipe firmly enough to remove all the white paint, then you also remove the gloss off the surrounding ink. You can however remove enough color to make a repair that is unnoticable after touch ups are made to the colored areas. You can even use the paint pen to remove the entire eye so that you could start over, but that is not really practical while doing line work or restaurant work.
The Before photo shows blue Sharpie that has been muddied when it picked up some of the black Sharpie. A quick fix to this is to press your thumb over the ink before it dries. This will pull up some of the color and lighten the look. Please note, that when you do this, you end up with ink on your thumb. ;-)
The third thing you need to know is how to draw some basic eye shapes. Eyes really do mean the difference between "Oh, that's cute" and "Awwwwwe, how cute!". Please don't underestimate the value of 'cute' even when making an animal for a boy. The boy may not care, the dad may not care, but the moms do and most of the time it's the moms that do the bookings for parties. I can't even begin to count the number of times I have heard mothers comment on my drawing, including the most simple stuff like I'm going to share below.
And then you need to know how to fix 'happy little accidents', which to me is THE MOST important thing, and when not to fix them. When working in the restaurant or doing line work, it does me no good at all to know how to draw well if I can't fix those times when things go wrong.
The first type of eye is the dot:
With this set of ovals there was a very noticable size difference. I did the same as for the first set, except for when I got to photo 2c. You can see that by thickening the line to match the size, it just left too much line. In photo 2d I show you what it looks like when you lightly rub a bit of Painters white marker over the portion of the line not needed. 2e shows where I have just wiped the paint away. As sometimes happens, I took a bit more black Sharpie off than I really wanted to, but that was easily fixed in the next step as shown in 2f.
And now for my favorite eye shape, the teardrop. Why is this my favorite shape? Because it is the easiest of all to fix!
For the best results, start by drawing a straight line down (this will be the inside line of the eye) then make the rounded bottom followed by the outside line of the eye. When you start the second eye the same way, you have room to determine eye placement. This allows you to make sure the eyes are centered in the face.
3a shows eyes that are nearly identical in size. 4a shows the right eye considerably larger than the left eye, but the tops are at the same level. 5a shows the eyes about the same size but the tops are not level. 4a was turned into 4b by placing the pupil at the bottom of the eye. That way I could add to the length and width of the overall eye without disturbing the top of the eye. 5a was turned into 5b by placing the pupil in the top section and adding to the height. As you can see by the red lines added to the photographs for comparison, the eyes now appear to be the same size. Rememer, you can always add to a section with less trouble than taking away from one. If by chance your eyes are neither level on the top nor the bottom as in photo 6a, even out the bottom of the eyes when you add the pupil (6b), then add the eyelashes to the top. By starting the eyelashes at the same height as the tallest eye, you can then level the top also (6c).
Eyelashes and a hint of eyebrows were added to the 'c' photos. You can stop here or add color. Like I said before the matallics, like in 4d and 5d, color over anything, but if you want to use Sharpie colors like in 3d you have to plan ahead to make sure the pupil isn't too large. I try to leave between 1/4 and 1/3 of the eye for the 'whites'. To avoid the mixing of colors, color all the area you can that doesn't touch the black, then make the final strokes that finish the eye. If your blue marker does pick up some of the black, just wipe it a couple of times on a paper towel to use up the black ink before continuing on. I did not show how I add the 'whites' of the eye here simply because I rarely add it while I work. I'm not real comforable with handing over a balloon with paint that has yet to set. Set as in: It looks dry...It feels dry...but still comes off if it's wiped against a child's shirt. If you want to add the white paint, add it just after you draw the outside of the eye. Then do the rest of the eye. It will almost be dry by the time you add the iris. You just have to be very careful not to let the iris color touch the white paint just in case the paint is not dry enough to color over.
NOTE: 3d is not the same set of eyes as used for 3a, 3b, and 3c.
One thing I have yet to touch on is eye size as compared to your sculpture. Following Walt Disney's lead, I go large. If you look at the size of Snow White's eyes as compared Cinderella's you can really tell the difference. Although both characters are drawn beautifully and Snow White's eyes are actually in correct porportion to her face, Cinderella's has a more appealing look. By the time Belle from Beauty and the Beast was drawn, the eyes were so huge that they covered nearly half her face. Barbie has this same oversized eye feature. When I hear little girls talking about Princess parties, they talk about Cinderella, Barbie and Belle. I have yet to hear one of them talking about dressing up like Snow White.
There are advantages to making larger eyes. The larger the eye, the easier it is to hide mistakes. Eyes that aren't exactly the same size are harder to spot when drawn large, but when drawn small the difference seems to glare at you. Slight bobbles in your lines become insignificant on the larger size.
You might have noticed that none of the eyes I have shown you have light reflection dots. For the most part I have find them unnecessary. The shiny ink of Sharpies and Rose Art Metallics does this natually. It is only for photos that I add the reflection dots anymore.
For more information on drawing faces on your balloons, check out the book: Faces, Faces, Balloon Faces by Dale Obrochta. http://secure.appse.com/mbd2/Products.asp?SubCatID=88 He shows how to achieve some amazing artwork with tips everyone can learn from.
Now for a quick but effective butterfly to practice your drawing on. I learned this wing design form Jeanine Von Esson.
Inflate a 315 balloon, leaving a 1.5" tail and tie off. Make a 3" pinch twist for the head, a 1.5" pinch twist for the belly, and a 1" pinch twist for the back.
(3) Now inflate 2- 260s leaving just enough tail to tie to the nozzle forming a circle. (4a) Line both 260s up side by side and twisting both at one time, form 4 loops with the nozzle section being twisted into the newly made joint. Refer to photo 4a for placement of twist. (4b)You should now have one set of small wings for the bottom and one much larger set for the top.
Attach wings at joint to the 1" pinch twist of the 315. Arrange the wings like in photo 5. To make the angles in the wings as pictured in photo 6b, double over both wing sections at once where you want the bend (6a), (here I have placed the bend about 2/5 of the way along the loop,) and give the bend of each balloon a good pinch and release. I find that if I give the balloon a twist while it's still pinched, I get a sharper angle. Do the same for the small set of wings. Even though you can't pinch both balloons at the same time, by bending both at the same time, while they are lined up, you have a better chance of getting the bends in identical sections of the wing.
Use a 3rd 260 to make antenna. Inflate the 260 about 3". Tie off. I also put a knot in the tail end so that the bubbles look the same once they have been twisted. Divide the 3" section of air into 2 sections and force the air of the second chamber all the way to the tail end, like puffing a poodle tail. Once the bubble has been 'puffed' make a knot in the center of the 260 to keep the air from moving back to its orginal position. Wrap the antenna around the joint behind the head bubble using the knot in the middle as your guide to center the antenna.
Now.... draw! :-)
Happy twisting and drawing!
