Human Figure

I have always steered away from drawing the human figure, although I know it is one of the best subjects to practice and improve skills. Here is my first shot at drawing from the live model. Who knew it would turn out decent!

2 minute gesture:

My favorite!

5 minutes:

8 minutes:

10 minutes:

15 minutes:

Yes I cropped her head out. It looked awful.

Feeling rusty

Here is a very fluffy dog

April dogs

Midtones Wanted

I really need to work on my midtones! At least I think thats why this one looks wrong. Or maybe I can work on a toned surface so that you wont be able to notice how I don’t put in enough midtones.. I'm working on redoing this guy. Yup, on a toned piece of paper!

9x12

Yes, I can draw non-dogs too

Here's a rough sketch, I think I will end up making a more polished version of this.

Red sketches

Some new things done with a red pencil.

This little guy is special because I drew whiskers on him which I almost never do!

Blacks

I haven’t been able to complete anything lately. So I figured I would write about an old color-mixing memory.

I am sure I mixed watercolors for fun when I was a kid many times. But I always remember this one time I was in art class painting a hamster. It is such a vivid memory that it feels like it was the first time I ever mixed colors. I was very happy with the hamster so far. Or maybe it was a guinea pig that I kept calling a hamster. It was pretty much complete except for the eyes and some details on the ears. I always finished the eyes last because it would bring the whole picture together and tempt me to stop working. Black was the missing color needed for the eyes and those few unfinished details. As I was reaching for the black tube of paint my art teacher gave me a look that could only mean: No. Fine, I put my hands down and waited for instruction. 

She told me how mixed blacks were richer than tube blacks, and explained something about which colors to mix and how the blacks would turn out and how the intensity would change with something else.. yeah, I don’t remember what she said. I was confused and figured that the tubes she was handing me were the ones I had to mix together. I remember becoming was very, very frustrated. I ended up getting browns, and more browns, and then muted, grayish browns. Maybe she handed me the “wrong” colors just to make me recognize the importance of choosing the right ones. Then in my anger I added a huge goop of blue, turning the color into a dark blue-ish gray. She gave me that look again every time I was tempted to load the brush already and put it on the paper. So instead, I would add more reds for her to stop telling me that such a blue-based black would not work with the colors of the hamster. It was hard! But when I finally got it I was so satisfied. However I did not feel so good when I realized all the color had been used up on the ears and there was none left for the eyes. I have no idea how that happened, since I felt like I had added more and more paint to that one puddle of color for hours. She looked at me and laughed, and told me that I had to mix it again. What?! 

The second batch must have gone well because I do not remember it. I really like that hamster, it’s still buried somewhere in a closet. Since that time I have never underestimated Black and his friends again. Weird, how I learned that lesson. One would think that after that frustrating experience I would want to cave in to the black paint tube when I had the chance. But no, I never use my black pastel and do not intend on buying a black paint tube any time soon. 

If I ever use a black pastel here and there in the future, I hope it won’t make me sound like a hypocrite.

Watercolors on Yupo

I was always reluctant to try watercolor. As I said before, it is just about the most unforgiving medium there is. But somehow, one day I came across Yupo.

It was less expensive than normal good watercolor paper so I looked it up. Most opinions I found online were along the lines of: Ew, this plastic thing gives you no control whatsoever, stuff takes forever to dry and it’s just not suited for watercolors at all. 

Ok. I still thought it was cool because I had read somewhere how it let you “erase” watercolor. That sounded much less intimidating that regular watercolor paper. I looked up the company, and apparently this paper-thin plastic was developed for sturdy brochures and menus. It almost looks like they sent it off in a packet that said “Watercolor Paper, synthetic paper, save trees!” just to see if it would sell. 

However I found Rachael Rossman, who actually said good things about it. I enjoy her work, probably because she mostly paints pets. She raves about the paper, in fact it seems it is the only thing she will ever paint on. So I decided to give it a try.

9x11 watercolor on Yupo

How long is 10 minutes?

I have always liked drawing flowers. They are still pretty even when proportions are a little off. 

How long is 10 minutes? Very long.  And very little at the same time. After reading good comments about the ten-minute challenge, I decided to try it, my own way. Here is how far I got in ten minutes.

Take 1

Take 2

I did stop exactly when time was up! plus some seconds! I might go back and add to the colored one.

Amazing, what you can do in ten minutes. I wish that I could be this productive during every ten-minute chunk of my day.

Sneak Peek

Maybe this will make me finish it some other day.

In progress!

I've never been too fond of watercolors just because they are so unforgiving. But, this is obviously not traditional watercolors. It's my attempt at what Rachael Rossman does so well.

Colorful

This time I can say I finished something packed with color, and it actually looks okay! I usually end up with psychedelic puppies when I have too much fun with colors. Or worse, I get a big pile of mud. I really should read up on color theory because there is still a long way to go..

9x11 pastel

Quickies

These are quick drawings from the past few days. The first one is a very quick pastel sketch of a greyhound. Second one is a cute, smiling pug done with charcoal. And the last doggie is done with watercolor pencils. These are all 5x7 or less.. which helps me practice placing my drawing! As you can see, I ran out of space for the front paw on the last one. Oops. I also made the mouth area too dark.

"I think that pug is way too happy"

Squirrel Sketch

Funny, but I like this one more when I see it on the screen than when I look at the paper version in front of me. Maybe because the orange looks a little acidic in real life. And again, I don't like the mouth very much.. I hope it is not a starting trend!

Pastel pencil

The Tablet

Some people do not consider digital art as “real art”. You can’t feel the texture of the paper, thin out the paint just right, or blend with your fingers. Then there’s those who get suspicious and cannot stop thinking:  Is that really drawn, or traced? Was that background a blurred photograph? 

For me, using a tablet is just very practical. It is a great way to get artistic without having to spend a few minutes arranging supplies. You do not have to worry about wasting materials, handling fumes and toxic solvents, or interruptions while your paints are quickly drying out. Getting your hands dirty is fun, too bad it’s inconvenient. 

 

Anyways, I did bother to dig out supplies today. I rediscovered my black canson paper, which I had abandoned after experiencing how ridiculously non-intuitive dark paper could be. 

Panpastel and pastel pencil on Canson

 I love this one! Although I’m unhappy with the mouth. I can’t figure out how to fix it..

Value

Today's drawing: playing around with value.

Done in photoshop with a tablet

Cute Doggy

I think was the first drawing/sketch of the year

Done with a tablet on photoshop

Can't tell if it's a border collie or black mongrel or something else.. but it's a cute doggy for sure.

So.. the less effort, the better?

I know myself, if I do not finish a drawing in one sitting or one day, there is a 1% chance I will ever get back to it. I’ve tried to get back to drawings I feel had great potential, but it just never works. As soon as I stand up from my desk I either forget my train of thought, become excited to draw something completely different, or lose my motivation altogether. Because of this I would try to set aside chunks of time to draw. Chunks of say.. 3 to 6 hours. Yes, I know, that never happened either. Maybe once every couple of months I would get myself to sit down and enjoy an uninterrupted morning/afternoon of drawing. And relaxing. After all this was on my free time! 

However, there were times where I was in the mood to draw but I only had a couple of minutes. I’d make a rough sketch. I noticed that the more careless and unexpecting I was, the more I liked the final result. Strange. I waved away this thought as much as I could. Disregarded it, told myself it wasn’t true. Until one day my rational, conscious thoughts took over. They told me: Just draw this as if you do not expect a nice final result, then it will turn out just the way you want. Of course, the thought itself made me put more effort into that particular drawing, making me more careful. Needless to say, the result would be acceptable, but not as great as I knew it could be. 

I am giong to try suppressing that thought to become looser and more spontaneous in my drawings, in a good way. Or better yet, practicing so much that my drawing will be good, regardless of what I am thinking.

The First Post

I wanted to name this something nice, something happy. And most of the time, it’s the simple little things that make your day. 

This will be about drawing. I like to draw, and unfortunately, I do not dedicate as much time as I’d like to it. This will help me keep track of my drawings and hopefully, progress. Maybe it can give me some motivation as well.

And of course, expect me to throw a few bits here and there of things completely unrelated to drawing .

Let’s just get this first post out of the way.