May 2nd: Graphite Portrait

Ah! Finished! After work today I got to work smudging and darkening and lightening. I emphasized the shading around the baby by making it darker. He was fading into the background and that's no bueno. I smudged a whole bunch of knitting holes all around the drawing and added a wrinkle or two on his hand.

Honestly, I think I could have done better on the face. It's too wide I believe. But, because of time constraints, it's going to have to do. Plus, half the time when I see things that are wrong, no one else does. Sometimes it's better to leave things be instead of trying to fix them last minute and making a huge mess out of a perfectly fine drawing.

My quest for artistic perfection is just going to have to wait until I find more time somewhere, but I'll keep on it when I can. The next paid order I have is a Winnie the Pooh ornament. I don't know if that'll be the next post or maybe something else. We shall see!

Apr 26th: Graphite Portrait

Hello art blog. It's been awhile. I'm very sad about how much I work, but the paychecks aren't so bad. For now, as long as I have this job with its 10 to 11 hour days, I'm just going to post when I post. Once a month. Once every 2 months... I don't know. All I do know is that I'm meant to do art and I won't have this job forever. God has a plan. I prayed for a full time job and I got it. Be careful what you wish for I suppose.

Tonight I picked up on the graphite baby portrait. I really need to get on it! My fiance is gone for the week and the wedding stuff is almost done so I have spare time. I figured that I'd better start on the knitted part of the portrait, which is most of it. You know, I thought it was going to be hard and a huge pain in the ass, but as it happens, it's not so bad. Go figure.

I took one of my more ground down stubs and made smudges in a line. I alternated big smudges and little smudges along with making them lighter where the knitting curves. It gives the illusion of texture and softness without me having to draw every single little knit hole. It worked pretty well. I would like to add some more definition around the baby so he doesn't blend in so much with the surroundings but we'll see how much time I have. I'm glad the knitting isn't taking forever!

Mar 4th- Mar 11th: Graphite Portrait

Well, it's official. Until we move and get internet, this is going to be a weekly blog. So lame... so very, very lame. So this week, I haven't done much. Surprised? Yeah. Just to give you some kind of idea, last night I was so tired after work that I skipped karate and went to bed at 8:30. My fingers hurt and are throbbing as I type. I'm really not used to it! It's hard to explain the wear on my fingers except to say that medial tubing being crammed into tight sensors will give you callouses and cuts. Aaaaanyways, what I did do was more minor adjustments.

The only good thing about not being able to do art every day is that I have the benefit of coming back to it fresh. So the mistakes stick out better and I can fix them. I think I moved the entire nose up. I re-drew the eyes and then, for good measure, drew them again so that they're open a little. At least, I hope that's what it looks like... And I fixed the fingers. As of right now, I have to add some wrinkles on this kids hand and then start making holes EVERYWHERE so that he's surrounded by knitting. Should be a blast. I really miss being able to do art everyday. I hope that I can figure out some kind of way to start it up again. This weekly thing is kind of lame isn't it?

Feb 27th- Mar 3rd: Graphite Portrait

I might have to start posting by the week now because I'm so busy! Don't get me wrong, I love being busy now. It's a nice change. And it's not that I don't have time to do art anymore, it's just that getting to some place with wireless after I've been working all day isn't exactly easy. Especially when the wireless places everywhere close at like 9. I know, excuses, excuses. Anyways, I've been working on the graphite portrait for probably 20 minutes a night. Just doing little things. The grid, ultimately, didn't work for me. I ended up erasing the lines and removing the photo from the grid back. Once again, despite the grid I found issues and had to correct them. His face was too chubby and the eye on the right was too far up. Why, why, why do my grids not work? I need a new approach.

Babies are more simple to draw as far as I'm concerned. They're proportions are wierd, but somehow this doesn't bother me. Also, maybe it's because most babies look alike when they're first born and so no one can really tell how badly I screw up! Haha. Just kidding. Maybe.

The photo that I'm working from is black and white which really helps with determining value. So far, I've only worked this drawing in HB, seeing as I can't seem to locate my 2H pencil... I think I might have left it somewhere in my previous job's building. I know, fabulous right? Anywho, it's much easier to see shading values and such when a photo's black and white.

So I liposuctioned the cheeks and fixed the eye. Once I get the face where I need it, everything else will fall into place and then I can start on the knitted blanket of doom that this kid is lying on. Oh and bonus! The hat's knitted too... and so today I shall continue my endless string of corrections and keep wishing I could attend art school. Good news is that I got off early today and won't be too exhausted to draw.

Randomly, between training and reading until my eyes fall out at my new job, I've been sketching things around the office on my legal pad. It helps the time pass when I'm waiting for my boss to come back and tell me what to do next. I'll probably post these sometime when I'm lazy and have nothing to post. Haha. The library allows laptops to check out now so I'll have internet for a few days... so no excuses if I don't have regular posts. Oh my internet! Where have you gone?! Why must you make my blogging so very difficult?

Feb 26th: Paper Invitations

Don't look at me like that. Wedding invitations are art! Especially if you make them yourself. Which I am! They're also time consuming which is why I don't really have any real art to post at the moment. So I'm busy, give me a break! I printed out the script (because God knows my handwriting isn't nearly that good) and hand-cut all the paper. The clear stuff on top and the purple below... and that took almost two hours. Thanks to one of my bridesmaids, I have some pretty awesome silver ink that I'm using to stamp a tree in the middle. The tree, admittedly, has nothing to do with our wedding or the theme. I just think it's cool looking. Hmm, guess you can't really see it so well in this picture, but you'll just have to trust me.

Luckily, when you get married you have a dozen friends who are not only willing to help you with such projects but actually get offended when you do anything without them. Anything. So although I've gone the cheapskate route and made my own invites, at least I'll have some help assembling them. It's art, I swear. It counts!

Feb 25th: Graphite Newborn Portrait

Finally had some time to sit down and start to graph a portrait I need to do. Yup, it's another baby. A newborn actually, which probably explains why his hand is creepy and wrinkly... I've drawn a lot of babies, and I can honestly say that I've never seen a hand quite like it. Anyways, at the amazing art store that I drooled my way through the other day, I purchased a grid. I was hoping that it would be clear... because one would assume that clear would be the best way to go... but it's opaque white. I can see the portrait underneath it... I'm just afraid that the details don't show too well. I think what I'm going to do is use the grid for a general outline of main proportions and then remove the photo once I have that.

After some debate between my fiance and I as to the best way to convert the grid to the drawing paper (why is there always math everywhere?!) I drew an outline. Didn't get very far. I find the red lines to be distracting and my eyes didn't know which box to focus on to draw. So I'm not sure that buying a grid made my life any easier. I might just have to go back to drawing my own so my eyes don't fall out and it doesn't take me twice as long to draw a line.

Feb 24th: Random Pen Drawing

Life's insane this week. I'm in the middle of switching jobs, finding a new place to live and planning a wedding. It's crazy. I've been lucky to have any time to draw when I'm not cleaning house or something, so bear with me this week! All I have for this day is some more anime. Always the easiest fall back I know.
I realize that drawing anime isn't going to help me learn anything but anime proportion, which is unique to the style. I mean, if people really had eyes like anime characters, they'd look pretty freaky. Regardless, at least I drew something. Next time, I'll start working on another baby portrait for my aunt.