Noses

EDM challenge 65 - draw your nose. This challenge came at the perfect time for me. I have been struggling over the past couple of weeks trying to figure out noses and not having very much success. They always come out looking like pig noses. While I was at the dentist I found this magazine that had wonderful noses in it. I didn't have my sketchbook with me at the time but, I knew I would be back that afternoon since both girls had appointments. While Miss A got her teeth cleaned I did the first three. The one on the bottom right was done the next day from a different magazine.


Inspired by my little success with noses I proceeded to doodle while watching TV with the girls that evening. This is what came out of that - "look Ma, no pig nose". Tia come over to be petted so I held her face for a couple of minutes to try to do a quick sketch of her nose. These were done with my daughter's gel pen which doesn't flow very well. Miss V asked who I was drawing hence the comment "Who Nose" on the page.

Hands

EDM challenge 10 -Draw your hand. A couple of quick hand drawings. I find it very interesting as I look back through my sketchbooks from the past few months. I feel like I have taken 2 steps forward and 1 giant step back. Maybe it is because I am trying to get faster and looser. I have been trying not to agonize over every little detail. At the same time I am feeling more confident and comfortable with my drawing ability.

Feet

EDM challenge 23 - draw your foot. I have been trying to do more blind contour drawings. These were done very early the other morning. I was trying not to wake DH or the girls. All but one are BC. My feet may be strange looking but not this strange. As strange as they may appear these are some of the best blind contours I've ever done. At least you can tell these are feet of some type. Well, I will continue to practice and hopefully get better.

Carrots and Radishes

EDM challenge 12 - draw what you ate for dinner. I was not up to the challenge of drawing a complete salad so I just drew a couple of the vegetables that went into it. I added a little color with watercolor pencils. (once again this paper is not designed for any water and you can see shadows of the buckling). Miss V did and excellent job with dinner and the salad was wonderful.

Candles (a grouping)

EDM challenge 61 was to draw a grouping of 2 or more similar objects. I decided to draw these candles. This was also a personal challenge for me because I gave myself a time limit (no more than four hours). I know there are many people that are able to make beautiful drawing very quickly but I am very slow and can actually spend days on something like this trying to get it perfect. I know that drawing gets easier and faster (not that speed is the goal) the more you practice, but sometimes I think it is good to give yourself a limited amount of time to finish something. Well, it isn't perfect but I do feel pretty good about it. A couple of months ago I never would have attempted to do this.

Calla

I decided to spend a little time sitting outside and drawing one of the callas that the girls and I got at the store yesterday. I had intended to get iris' but there weren't any. Both of the girls thought these were the next best thing to get.

Drawing a car in public

While waiting on DH's car to have the oil changed and be detailed I sat outside the waiting room and drew. I decided when I got home to add a little color with watercolor pencils (this paper is not designed for any wet medium). No one seem to find it strange at all, one guy actually told me it was a great way to pass the time. He and I then proceeded to have a discussion on drawing and our favorite artists. So many people talk about drawing in public with fear and trembling, I have never really had any problem drawing around absolute strangers. I am much more afraid to draw around people that I know or will see again. (oh well, my daughters do tell me I am a bit strange)

Making Paper

A couple of weeks ago Ms. V and I went to a Japanese Paper Making class. During this we made about a dozen pieces of paper each.

These were actually made in the Japanese method but we used desert fibers such as hemp, palm, aloe, sunflower, agave, and bamboo. The one on the right is made with hemp and bamboo (dyed pink).


This paper, which is one of my favorites, is made with palm. Most of these papers have heavy fibers in them and are not good for writing. The instructor that we had was Lydia Miszuk. She is a fiber artist who uses these papers in sculptures.

The Sunburned Alien Aztec

Miss V, my daughter, made this in her art class at school. When she painted it it turned out redder than she thought it would and she said she messsed up the eye. Therefore, she now calls it The Sunburned Alien Aztec.

Having fun with perspective

During my last Drawing II class the instructor talked about formal perspective. This had not been discussed earlier since it is "not used" in botanical drawing. For the last part of class we were given the option of completing any drawings that we needed to complete or do whatever we wanted. I decided to work on perspective since I had someone there who could help me. This was fun. I think it appeals to my left brain. I tried to add some shapes to some of the buildings so that everything wasn't so square. Some of the proportions are off but that's ok (and that is why there is only one person and no cars, bikes, trolleys or anything else)
While dinner was cooking and I was waiting on DH to get home I decided to add a little color and detail. Miss A helped to pick colors. Living where almost all the buildings are natural colors it was fun to use pink, purple and peacock blue.

Self Portrait

The EDM challenge was a self portrait. Well at least I tried. There are some parts of it that turned out pretty well. I never seem to be able to draw myself. I can't quite get the subtle shading of the face. This was definitely a challenge and it did turn out much better than the first self portrait I did several months ago as I was reading "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain". (In that one I had a real pig nose) It is encouraging to see that I am improving. Maybe I will need to try this again in another six months or so and see the change.

Spines

Well I am not sure if it is finished but I am done. Overall I am pleased with the way that it turned out. It amazes me how much better it looks on the computer.

I did learn several things as I worked on this. (1) Bristol Board Plate is so smooth that it scratches easily which can lead to streaks, (2) It is possible to apply so much graphite that the paper won't take anymore - this became evident on the right hand side as I tried to darken it with a 4B and nothing happened. I had been told that this was possible but had never had anything that had gotten to that point, and (3) If the pencil keeps grabbing it is probably a good time to get a different pencil or in my case a different brand of pencils.

I really appreciate all the comments and suggestions on the WIP. Thanks so much.

Spines 1 - WIP

Graphite on Bristol Board Plate finish

If double click will see some spots to the upper right of the top spines. These are caused by my pencil grabbing. Also having this problem in some other spots. This seems to happen more with harder pencils. (2H vs. 2B). Using Derwent pencils. Any suggestions on how to fix?

EDM #34 Leaf

EDM challenge for week #34 was to draw a fall leaf. We don't really have fall here but this is my response. My youngest had picked this leaf to "feed her pet bug" but decided that I could have it after her "pet bug" ran away.

Drawing Class

Botanical Drawing II began this week. I have a different instructor than I did for BDI and I think I am really going to enjoy this. It is funny how different people feel about their art supplies. The first instructor didn't like any pencil softer than HB and hated tortillons. This instructor told us to grab that 6B and make it darker and tossed out tortillons to the entire class.
He gave us this basketweave exercise to practice blending and to see how the various pencils differed. On the vertical pieces I justed used my pencil for shading. On the horizontal pieces I used a tortillon. Using the tortillon was much faster but I lost the texture that you get with just pencil. I personnally like the texture. On the scan the it doesn't look as well blended as it does on the actual paper (especially the 6B)


Another exercise that he gave us was to roll a strip of paper about an inch wide by 4-5 inches long around a pencil and then tape it down in a spiral. This is how it came out. This was started in class and finished at home so the lighting changed dramatically so in trying to continue where I left off in class had to visualize to a certain extent different lighting. I still have a hard time with "imagined" light sources (this makes doing anything from memory difficult as I end up with crazy light from everywhere). Hopefully that will improve as I have more practice with real light sources. With both of these I had some problems with the brightest spots but with practice hopefully that will get easier.

Snowball

I purchased "The Creative License" by Danny Gregory this past week. I am really enjoying it, but using a pen and not erasing is a bit intimidating. One weird thing I have discovered though is that I actually relax a bit more than I do with pencil. Maybe it is because I have no idea how to go about shading with a pen so I know I don't have to worry about that part of it or maybe it is because I am doing it on scraps of paper and things like that and it is very easy just to throw it away (as opposed to being in a book). I was actually very pleased with this drawing of Snowball (the big fat guinea pig) that I did the other night - it really looks like him.

Mouths

EDM Week #53 - A collection of mouths drawn from life and photos. Is it just me or do mouths always appear feminine when in isolation? My oldest daughter was quick to point out that she didn't like the kiss because "it just looks weird".

Draw a Shoe

EDM challenge - Draw a shoe: This is one of my favorite pairs of shoes. Leather clogs with a wooden heel. I tried this in color pencil. I am not sure how to get the look of leather - all the little crinkles and wrinkles. I also have a hard time with the bright highlights. Since I can't listen to the inner critic all the time, overall I feel ok about it. I actually like the heel. Anyone have suggestions on how to get that leather look?

The Gargoyle

EDM Week 6 - Draw a favorite well loved object-- This gargoyle that one of my sisters gave to me years ago is one of my favorite well loved objects (previous post of Christopher is another). He has always sat where I could see him. This was one of my first attempts with colored pencil and I don't feel I really got the texture of him right, but overall I am pleased.

Artichoke

This drawing was for my Botanical Drawing class. I was really struggling with it due to the (self imposed) pressure of it being "for a class". I then remembered that there was an EDM challenge to draw a vegetable. So I decided that this was an EDM challenge instead of for class which made it much easier to handle (go figure). I didn't finish the stem because the artichoke gave out on me before I could finish. Overall I am pleased with the way it came out and am contemplating trying one in colored pencil.

Botanical Drawing

I have started taking Botanical Drawing I. This is a basic drawing class with the only subject matter being botanicals. The first day we did several 1 min. gesture drawings.


The instructor then brought in an aloe plant. We looked at it and discussed it for 5-10 min. Then, to my dismay, she took it out of the room and told us to draw it. Luckily for me, I am a little familiar with aloes, because the only thing I could really remember was the brown plastic pot and the dead leaves hanging down.