Drawings--upside down and skewed

These are my drawing practice (I'd say "warm-up" if I continued on with something else) that I can do in the middle of the day to help myself stay sane.

These first two were drawn with the reference photo upside down--a most excellent right-brain exercise (even though the whole right/left brain thing has been scientifically debunked).

The next two were essentially blind contour drawings, with pencil, that were then rendered as realistically as possible.

Skewed Sketches

All I can say about these is that after nearly a year of not doing them, its really fun to do them again.   When I was last doing them, they had lost their "skews", which I am trying to put back in.

Skewed Sketch #25

I guess I'm back to doing these.  They're hard to resist, especially when you have a working technical pen.....

Veteran's Day

I have to say that it is a joy to become reacquainted with my technical pens.  I hadn't touched them in months (too busy doing all sorts of other things), and three out of the four of them were all dried up.  I soaked them all in warm water overnight and cleaned them well, and only refilled one of them.  But one is enough.  I can do these little sketches at school while the kids are working.

"Skewed" Sketch

It's been awhile, but I still think there is some value in doing these, although I'm reluctant to try to put it into words.  But since I have a little bit of time at work, I might as well be doing some of these, since they don't take very long.

What I really wish was that I was making progress on my bigger projects.....

Old and New Projects

So an old project....making fairly quick sketches from pictures in the newspaper.  "Skewed sketches", if you will, where the initial sketch is very quick and loose, and then you slow down to render it, as if those distortions were reality.  I haven't done any in awhile, but they feel like good practice to me.  I've noticed, though, that over time, they've gotten less and less "skewed."  I wonder what's up with that.  If you click on the "Skewed Sketches" tab on the right, you can see all of them, and see what I mean.....

And the new project--interiors--is something I've meant to tackle for a long time.  I just draw people, and I feel very limited in that I have no idea how to draw the space AROUND the people.  So I'm going to (I hope) practice drawing spaces.  Interiors,  in particular, since it's heading towards winter (though I won't believe that until I feel it).  

So here's the first one, at a meeting, where I would have much preferred to simply draw the people (the kind kind people who have never objected to me drawing them during these monthly meetings).  But no, I attempted the space, which is so much less interesting, but, I've decided, necessary.

29 Faces--#17 and #18

So--#17 and #18.  When I start a batch, I always finish the ones I like the best first, and then the dregs.  And this is the dregs.  I think there's another one or two around somewhere, but they must have gotten buried under some other stuff.  I AM going to finish these 29 faces, even though September is long-gone.

29 Faces--#16

At this rate, I won't get done with the 29 Faces in September until December.  Alas.  I like this one a lot.

29 Faces--#15

The 29 Faces in September challenge may be done, but I am not.  I had to take a couple weeks break from it, but here's the first of the next round.  I am learning some things about doing these.

29 Faces--#12 and #13

Frankly, I'm tired of these faces. Not faces in general, because faces are always interesting, but THESE faces. This perspective, this lighting, this technique (for these faces anyway). So this might be it for now. I have other projects in the works. I have seen other things that other people have done that I would like to try, so I think I will.

I'm still two days behind on the 29 faces challenge.

Why is the picture with the old woman with the hat smaller here than the one below it? The original is over twice as big. The file is over twice as big. The settings here are the same. I am at the mercy of these computer programs.....

29 Faces--#11

Too tired....no time. Work takes up way too much of my day, and then I have to go to bed.....

29 Faces--#9 and #10

Here are two that I'm not sure I want to do anything else to. Or, I guess I should say that I really like the way they are now, with the gouache and ink rinsed off. I have three others that I don't particularly like at this stage, so I will definitely be working them some more.

But if I work on these two some more, can I call them two new ones, or are they still #9 and #10? Yes, they're still definitely the same ones. But I honestly don't think I can do 29 different ones in one month.

29 Faces--#7 and #8

I really don't think I'm going to be able tokeep up with 29 faces. But here are the last two of the four I started a couple days ago. I'm going to have to do something different for the next ones, as I have run out of white gouache. For some reason, when I was ordering gouache, I forgot to order white, and just had a little tube left over from something.

But I think these have a lot of possibility. I'm trying to tell myself not to get too fussy with them. The gouache and ink part is pretty crude, and it wouldn't fit to be fussy with the lines.

29 Faces--#5 and #6

I can see already that this is going to be really hard to keep up with. 29 faces in 30 days. If I can include sketchbook faces, it would be a piece of cake, because I do those all the time. But these more deliberate things. We'll see.....

So there are things I like about each of these, but then other things that I don't. I see you can't really make "corrections" with the black ink, because it has a different sheen putting it on at this point.

So this makes me only two days behind (still). I have two more in the works, which if I could finish them today, I'd be caught up. But then what about tomorrow. This might be too much pressure....

29 Faces--Catching up with #3 and #4

Two more with the gouache resist andIndia ink. I was so skeptical at first, and not liking the crudeness, but I guess if one is going to experiment with something, then only making one isn't really enough. So I may do all 29 of these faces with this technique, and see what happens.

29 Faces--#2 The Bellow

Okay....here's the second one. I started four days late, so I'm going to have some catching up to do. This is altogether too many posts, so I may double up.

But this is another gouache resist and India ink. My son and I both agreed that I shouldn't adulterate this one with lines, so I won't. Or, at least I don't think I will.

29 Faces

I just ran across this cool challenge--29 Faces in September--to do 29 faces in 30 days, and since faces are my THING, I think I'll do it. Here's the link, to Ayala's Art site, with her challenge: http://ilove2paint.blogspot.com/p/29-faces-sept.html.

Illustration Friday: Vocal

So HERE is "vocal"--singing or shouting--these make me glad, and a very pleasant way to spend the evening indeed.

Skewed Sketch #21

So these are still a kind of warm-up. I think I might try this guy again, perhaps several different times, in several different ways.....

Second new sketchbook this year!

Way cool--to start two new sketchbooks in one year. I'm not drawing in it everyday, but mostly every week, and it makes me really happy.

So here's another "skewed" sketch, but there's something wrong with his nose (beyond the inevitable "skewing"). Alas.

But I really like this new sketchbook. It's really really sturdy, and the paper is really thick and really smooth--both very important. I don't know why they sell all these sketchbooks with cheap or rough paper, because I don't like touching them, much less drawing on them. Smooth is where it's at.....