Sept 27th: Finished Jedi in Acrylic

Well, this mono-chromatic neon wonder is finished.  I love it. But then again, it's Star Wars and I'm biased.  I honestly don't know if I'll want to sell this one... but being as poor as I am, I might!

I really wanted to get the lighting right.  Without the correct lighting, the passion would be missing.  If only one emotion gets through in this painting, I hope it's rage.  He's pissed.

By the way, if you ever endeavor to paint with neon acrylics some day, they are very opaque and I would highly recommend mixing them with white.  Otherwise, they may not show up.  Overall, I'm ok with everything but his face.  The toy I was painting from was... well... a toy and the facial features weren't exact.  So there was some fudging.  I'm assuming from his garb and the color of his lightsaber that people will be able to tell that it's Luke.

Fine.  No more time-wasting.  I'm on to the difficult oil painting of doom!  Bring it. 

Sept 26th: Skywalking in Acrylic

Oh blog, my long productive run with you may be over.  Once again I have a full time job.  Unfortunately,  my art doesn't bring enough money in to support me fully.  So a slave to the establishment I must be.

As the last bit of art as a free woman, I chose to work on my Jedi.  Something fun and non-commital.  I chose this because I wanted to prove to myself that I can draw from a 3d figure.  Primarily I can only draw from the static form of a 2D picture.   This helps me break free.
Setting up one particularly anguished looking Luke Skywalker figure and a desk lamp, I got some pretty dramatic lighting.   I chose only to paint the reflection the lightsaber would make on his body.  It's difficult to leave the painting for any amount of time because you must remember exactly how your head was positioned, exactly how you were sitting,  etc.   But acrylics are forgiving.

I sincerely hope that this job will be much less tiring than the last and I can still come home and paint.  Even if its only for an hour a day.

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.9

Sept 23rd (the sequel): My In-between Painting

Tonight I've begun my fun painting.  For those times when I'll be frustrated with this next oil painting to come.  And I know I will be.  So during those times, I'll be painting my dear friend Luke.  I love this toy.  I've always wanted to paint it in all its epicness.  So here's my in-between fun art :D

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.9

Sept 23rd: Finished Graphite Portrait

Oh glorious day blog!  The graphite drawings are done for awhile!   And I managed to make the youngest kid look cute and normal rather than creepy.  Adorable+horrifying=adorifying.
To solve my problem, I over-emphasized the roundness of his cheeks and widened his squinty eyes.  This worked well.  That and fleshing out the dark spots to make him look less like a vengeful ghost or something.   I'm happy with it for the most part.  On taking a second scrutinizing look, I think that the eyes on the older boy are off... Even though his head is tilted in the picture and his right eye appears to be higher than the left, it didn't translate entirely in this drawing.  So, if I had to change one thing, it would be lowering the right eye slightly.  But I don't think it's too off to be distracting... is it?  I think it'll be something their parents will be happy about. 

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.9

Sept 21st: Struggles with...Creepiness

I'm drawing the 2nd child and as he emerges from my pencil I notice that he looks quite unnerving.  Like he's about to murder his older brother.   And I laugh and keep drawing because all faces look creepy when they're incomplete.  

But now as I have all the features defined ...this kid might be doomed to creepiness.  The only photo I have of him is this one where he's looking at the camera through his hair and shadows have formed around his eyes.  Seeing as his older brother has no darkness around his eyes, the youngest appears sinister!

I may have to modify a few things because as it stands, I don't want to cast this kid in a negative light.  It's kind of a funny problem but may impede my work.  That can't stand. 

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.9

Sept 20th (the sequel)

Nothing blog.  Just how creepy this looks at the moment. Lol!

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.9

Sept 20th: Graphite and More Graphite

Yesterday I'm fairly sure I would have completed this kid.  But I spent yesterday lamenting my existence and how I have no job to speak of.  So instead of productive, self-bettering things like working on my craft, I wallowed in self-pity for 24 hours.  I'm happy to say I've come back with more resolve today.

Working on this shirt.  If I thought the other kids had a lot of clothing details, I take it back.  This kids shirt is covered in...stuff.  My job as an artist is to figure out what details need to be prominent and defined and what can be faded into the background.   Too much detail and it'll distract from the boys face.  Too little and you assume he's wearing a dirty, smudgy shirt. 

My best friends here are my tissues and kneaded eraser.  Strategic smudges with tissue and blotting with eraser looks like designs.  Quicker than attempting to draw everything going on with this shirt.  The shirt will be done in an hour or so and I can start the other boy.  Coffee scale so far: 5 cups.

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.9

Sept 18th: Graphite Kid

I think my time spent drawing can be measured by how many cups of coffee it takes to complete.   This one regesters a 3 on the coffee scale so far.
Today I made everything way darker.  Bringing the darkest shades from a 2B to a 6B.  And, horror of horrors, my 8B pencil has gone missing.   Which sucks!  So I tried to substitute charcoal.  Nope.  Very dark but too soft.  It came off as soon as I tried to blend it.  So I'll have to make do with layering on the 6B.  It's not bad looking. 
The kids eyes were the toughest challenge today.  At one point too Asian, at another, too Anglo.   I think perhaps I made his top lash line too dark...but I'm committed at this point.  The face is done.  Tomorrow I'll draw his shirt.

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.9

Sept 17th: More Graphite

I don't know if it's the ridiculously beautiful fall weather or what, but I had to force myself to draw today.  Too antsy.

Last in line for this round of drawings is 2 more kids.  I would like to remind everyone out there that to start a pencil drawing, start with a hard graphite.  This gives you the lightest preliminary sketch possible and erases completely.   I personally like F graphite for this.  Anything 2B or softer will be much too dark.

The pictures I have to go off of are not the best.  But I'll make do.  One of the hazards of being an artist is guesswork.

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.9

Sept 16th: Finished Graphite Infant Portrait

Oh blog.  My dear, dear blog.  It seems that I've met my match with this knitted hat.  I've finished the drawing and though the hat may be passing in appearance, I'm still not happy with it.  Regardless, I don't know what I would do differently if I had more time to work on it.  Was I wrong with not drawing every single hole in its correct spot?  I'm not sure. 

I did somehow manage to make the hat look better with suggestions from my husband.  As usual, when you're too close to the project, it tends to blind you.  All I saw was pencil marks and smudges everywhere.  He suggested making the holes darker and more blotchy.  There's just sooo much delicate shading all over that I probably could have dedicated a week to the hat if I were to do an extremely accurate portrayal.  This is one instant where it would have been easier to paint the hat.  Never thought I'd see the day when I'd say that. 

I gave the kid a belly button since the photo still displays a nub of umbilical cord attached and shaded the right side on a body part that I can only guess is a bit of foot.  Not sure.  Weird angle. 

Overall, I think that this is passable.  I really like how the wrinkly legs turned out but the hat just disappoints me :(  However, I think I've learned some valuable things from this drawing as far as knitting goes.  I'm more hopeful for future drawings that might have knitting in them.  Also today, I'm starting my last pencil drawing for a while.  Then I'll have many paintings to do!

Sept 15th: Graphite Struggles

Stupid hat!!!  Gah.  Basically today, all I did was work on this hat.  I made more holes.  More holes everywhere.   But holes weren't enough.  There's marks everywhere on this cursed hat.  So I put random marks.  Smudges.   More marks.  Smudges.  Darker marks.  Smudges. 

Then I got frustrated and drew the giant flower.  That gave me about 10 minutes of stalling.   I like the flower...and the hat looks better...but it's still not there.  Not sure what to do.  I think there needs to be more contrast.  Darks need to be darker.  I really wish this kid was wearing a Beanie!

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.9

Sept 11th: Graphite Infant Portrait

Last night, (well all of yesterday really) I drew and drew and drew.  Is it finished?  Not yet.  I got caught up on the very thing I thought would be easy, the knitting.

Generally,  the look of knitting can be achieved by making elliptical smudges equidistant from each other and making the smudges more pronounced in the center of the hat.  The closer you are to where the hat curves, the knit holes will be closer together.   This creates the illusion of depth and shape of the fabric.  However,  as I smudged my way around this drawing,  it was clear that this hat was destined to be a pain in the ass. 

I tried darkening the smudges, then highlighting.  Then adding more holes.  Then making less holes.  I essentially made it look like the kid had half a strawberry on her head.  That wasted the better part of an hour.  I certainly don't want to draw every single knit hole in this kids hat.  I erased the whole hat and will try to figure out the issue today.  Although it's my papa's birthday today and I may not get time.  I'm giving him his painting (after successfully varnishing it when I had no idea what I was doing) and sincerely hope he'll be pleased!

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.6

Sept 10th: Graphite Portrait

Babies.  They're soft, squishy and pretty much all look the same when you're drawing them.  I'm not complaining!  It just makes it that much easier to crank out a drawing!

I think that I'm going to be able to finish this one in 3 days.  Maybe 2.  It all depends on how distracted I get.  I'll be really surprised if I don't finish it on Tuesday.  There's not much complication to it.  The hat is knitted which in the past would scare me, but since I've developed a technique with tortillons for knitted hats, I'm not intimidated anymore.  There's also a large flower on the hat, but if I don't over-obsess with detail and just draw, I should be ok.  That's the trick though. 

I think that the lighting in the photo is slightly garish and the drawing actually gives a more peaceful feel to the kid.  Also, after working on all those older kids, it's messing with my sense of proportion.  I mean, if you tried to draw irises on an older person as big as they are for this baby, they'd look like an alien!  But babies have weird proportions all their own and that's helpful to remember. 

Sept 7th: Finished Graphite Portrait

I'm posting this later in the week because my phone's been glitchy and refusing to post my blogs!  Stupid technology.  

I'm done with the 3 kids and on time!  It's a new record for me and I can only hope that my improvement continues.

The few bits that were a challenge at the end were the ribbon in the girl's hair and her necklace.   The ribbon because it's crinkled and hard to draw.  But nothing a kneaded eraser and tortillon can't handle.  It does kind of look like she has Bacon in her hair though ... haha.  The only reason I had any problem with the necklace was because I couldn't tell from the picture whether it was a heart or oval or what.  So I kind of made it in between somewhere ...

The hand of the first boy was completely fudged and I must say it's impressive fudging.   I need a picture to draw anything that's not crap.  But I just kept drawing until it looked good.  I'm proud of that hand lol.  It sounds like a stupid thing to be excited about, but I really am.

This is the best drawing I've done to date.  I'm sad I won't be there to see the reaction of whoever this is for.

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.6

Sept 6th: Portrait in Graphite and Cartooning in Pen

Motivation level zero today.  I actually teamed up with a friend and his business and he wants me to do examples of my cartoons for him.  So I did some of that.  These goofy cartoons are the very few things I can do on my own without a picture reference.   I've been drawing them since I was 12 or so.

Anywho.  On my portrait I worked on her hair.  I love drawing female hair.  It's shiny and usually has highlights and things for me to add.  Highlights on hair much like highlights on anything are done with erasers.  Unless the highlights are on a very dark surface.  Then erasers aren't the best.  In that case, separate out the highlights before making everything dark around them.  You can only erase so much before compromising your paper. 

100% confidant that this drawing will be done Friday ;)

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.6

Sept 5th: Portrait in Graphite

Today I began work on the third and final kid.  I've found during this drawing that it was extremely helpful to keep a copy on my phone.  This way I was able to zoom when I needed and have both black and white and color copies.  In the past, I've only used photos that I've digitally made black and white to better see contrast.  But this only works if you're using a really high quality photo.  The ones that I'm using turned out looking grainy after I printed them out.  It was pretty hard to see details.  So it makes it a lot easier to have a copy on my phone that I can reference to see things more clearly.  Just random knowledge I guess.

So right away I noticed that my outline of the girls face is off.  Too narrow.  I had to widen her cheeks and change her hairline.  Usually what I do is measure everything from the eyes on.  So I have to make absolutely sure that the eyes are in the right place and the right size.  If they're off, then the rest of the face will be off.  It's kind of a wierd way to draw.  Most people just draw the shape of the face first.  Maybe that's my problem.  I think I may be going about drawing the face all backwards. 

Whatever works. 

So, once more I began with defining the major areas of her face and where the lightest and darkest areas are.  Right now, she just looks goofy because I don't have really any middle tones going on and all you can see is that crooked smile haha.  Tomorrow I'll  pretty much finish her face.  She's got a simple, straight on face like her brother (at least I think it's her brother... they have very similiar facial features) and shouldn't take long at all.  The only detail about her portrait will be from the ribbon in her hair.  Otherwise, I shouldn't have too many problems.  I plan on being completely done with this drawing on Friday! 

Sept 4th: Graphite Portrait

Finished the second kid today!  Well all minus the arm on his shoulder and the hand.

All my problems today came from freaking logos and brand names. I started the day with the hat, noticing that there's some kind of design I couldn't make out in the middle.  So I drew it as close as I could, but didn't draw it too dark.  Barely visible on the picture was a "fox" brand.  So I used my kneaded eraser and made sure I didn't make it too bright.   Just enough so you can see it.  I darkened his shirt and attempted to free hand the AERO lettering.   Yeah, that was a mistake.   I ended up erasing a huge chunk of the shirt and using my projector to make the letters far less embarrassing.   I still don't like them, I don't know what I'll do about them yet.

Tomorrow I'll fix little things with kid #2.  Finish the arm.  Then I'll move on to the girl. 

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.6

Sept 3rd: Graphite Portrait

Ok blog.  I lied.  I did a little drawing today before we left.  All I was able to accomplish was some work on the hat.  My proudest part is the stitching.  I didn't draw dashes for stitching like I would have in the past.  I took a stub and made elliptical smudges where the hem is and added highlights where the sun was hitting.   I like the effect and I'm happy that I'm getting better at drawing different textures.   It's not always easy. 

Tomorrow I'll have free time again and can get back to drawing in earnest.

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.6

Sept 1st: Graphite Portrait

Late last night I finished the wrinkles and lighting on the 1st kids shirt so that I could begin the kid in the middle today.  I realize early on that this face will be easier.   There's a lot less shadow.  Since he's looking at the camera straight on, it makes everything symmetrical and that much easier.  

Darkened the shadows.  Formed the eyes.  Drawing tip:  don't smudge anything with your finger.  Unless you literally just washed them.  Everyone has oils on their skin.  Oil+pencil=smudgy mess. 

The next couple of days I'm going to have to take off.  We're helping a friend move.  See you Tuesday blog!

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.6