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?