Beginning watercolor

Borrowed some chalky watercolors from my daughter and started watching tutorials and practicing. Doing a little every day. Also finding inspiration from others so also trying to copy their work as part of my practice.  Quickly got frustrated with the paints, so bought some nicer ones. Immediate improvement! All of these are done with the new paints. Phone cam put a bit of an orange cast on them.

Still here

Got into bleaching t shirts.

Boo

Source photo

Cumberhatching

My scanner is adding those "smudges" going off to the right! Pages are getting warpy after spraying fixative.
Source photo:

Rembrandt copy - ink pen. Trying to loosen up

Love his expression.  Sorry 'bout the wonky eye there, bud!

Ok, Maybe I Have a Thing for Bowie

I'm gonna just draw him until I get him right.  Source photo

BACK!

That was entirely too long a hiatus.  No construction responsibilities currently hanging over my head, so going to resurrect the bloggie.

Got back into the swing when I was photoshopping my face.  I decided to try a sketch.  My eye. Click for big pic:

I actually overlayed the image onto the photoshop photo so I could see where I made mistakes.  This is a "fixed" version.  The original had my cheekbone about 1/2" farther away and had a bit of my other eye showing.  So, erased the other eye corner, moved the hair in (I think it's still farther out than it should be), and re-positioned my old lady middle brow crease. Measuring is important!

Fast one of a shadowy Benedict Cumberbatch from a web pic. I'd link to it but I can't find again! It was high contrast.  No measuring again, nose is too short: Just wanted to play with shadows more.

Bald eagle from the interwebz.  I thought I could make those eyes look recessed, and I think I did pretty well.  I like this one!

Shading practice based on lessons from drawspace.com.  Lines, hatching, squirkles, gradations. 

Rather than grab random scraps of paper from the kitchen table, I should (I will!) do this in my sketchbook from now on.

Another Crack at Bowie

Used what I learned studying heads yesterday while doodling today.  This is a doodle, done during lunch, about 2" tall.  Though shading still leaves much to be desired, I think it is better than my earlier attempt in proportion and symmetry.  It was so much easier to place the features with the Loomis framework in place.  

Loomis heads

Finally brave enough to start drawing in a sketchbook.  Why was that so hard?  ;)

I took a look at Andrew Loomis's book, Drawing the Head and Hands but hadn't jumped into it until I watched some videos that showed an easier way to do it.  

Following along with the videos and taking notes

Practicing different positions from the book:  Once you do it a lot of times, it is easy to remember the method.

Art Class - Third and Last Project: Acrylic on Canvas 16x20

I won't be going back to this class.  I like some of the things I did in the class, but I'm not sure that I was "taught" anything by the teacher.  She basically allowed us the use of her studio and used negativity as her method to try to teach us something.  Three classes after my daughter did something wrong, the teacher was still yammering on about how she ruined her drawing due to doing it wrong. Would not let up. It was my daughter's first freaking art class.  The teacher should show the proper technique before turning a beginner student loose to do something wrong.  I had my own issues with her as well.  But enough ranting.  Here is the last thing I worked on:

I'd like to remove about 60% of the flowers and add more greenery to look more like the reference picture.

Might also remove the stupid birds that the teacher added "for me."  Maybe some day.  

The art teacher thought that the composition was terrible. AFTER I showed her the picture I wanted to work from, and after I was finished.  The flowers are too distracting, drawing the eye away from the beautiful distant seascape.  Well, being that the inspiration was a picture of flowers close-up with a distant seascape, it was the exact composition that I wanted.  I just wanted to learn to paint.  Guess I'll try it solo for awhile.

This picture was the inspiration:

Painting Course Lesson 7 - Line Variation

Lessons / activities here:  http://painting-course.com/the-painting-and-drawing-classes/

Doodling with the brush pen

Drawing #13:  Shoes

Drawing #14:  Abstract  (and more doodling - perspective practice)

Sketching / gesture

Pause the TV during the Olympics for tons of poses.

Family sits still long enough to sketch while playing Skyrim.

Life takes over

Home remodeling projects plus having a kid home from school have left me little time to dedicate to keeping up!  I may not post very frequently for a little while.  I am still taking a weekly art class, so I should at least be able to post what I do there.  Currently doing an acrylic painting of cliffs and seaside with flowers.  Should be done with it by next week.  Until then!

Art class - second project

Pastels

18x24"

They matted and wrapped it for me at the studio, so please forgive the wrapping glare.
~3.5 hours

Art class - first project

Colored pencil

Prismacolor black and grey pencils

~ 3.5 hours

Painting Course Lesson 6: Gesture Drawings and Observation

All about loose movement, quick gesture drawings

Drawing #10:  30 Drawings, 30 Minutes (30 Gesture Drawings)

Scotch tape, large bottle of eye drops, vacuum attachment, child's croc, pliers, small flashlight, clothespin, clip thingy, simple flute, dog toy, fork, spool of thread.

Camera, key chain, candy, screwdriver, hand mixer attachment, battery, rolling pin, soda can, strangely-shaped glass bottle.

Remote, paintbrush, phone, wooden cactus, gyroscope, measuring cup, hairspray, pill bottle, stapler.

Drawing #11:  Draw All the things!  (Observational Still Life: Small Objects), 1 hour
I ran out of room!  Maybe 26 things?  Ordering larger-size paper today.

Drawing #12:  Rembrandt Copy