Sketches/Art Journal
Welcome to my Sketch Dump. This will mainly be a page where I share what I am working on and what I am practicing. The stuff on this page may not be finished pictures so if you choose to leave a comment, please remember that they are sketches. Do not use any images without my permission.
6/12
This was a difficult angle for me to draw. The good thing is that I caught a lot of mistakes before I finished the sketch. Normally I don't catch mistakes until the next day. However, I am not saying that I caught all mistakes because there is still quite a few, but it looks a lot better than it did. Hopefully I learned something.
6/11
Here is sketch face number 2. Just as the first, I feel that there are real problems with the eye placement, but maybe I am just seeing things. Maybe it would look better if I actually tried to put more detail into the eyes, but I think I am still struggling with getting the angles correct.
6/10
I need to start studying and practicing way more than I have so far. I am getting to that point in the learning curve where things are naturally slowing down, so unless I want to just stop dead in my tracks soon and make no improvement, I need to seriously bump up the level of practice/study. I have a year before my friends and I attempt to attend an art show, and at the moment, I really don't have that much worth sharing. We have a quota now for my little group, and part of my quota is to produce a drawing a week. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean a finished product a week, but I have to at least show that I am working on something. I previously said that I was going to draw 100 of a certain thing, and I am still going to do that, but I am now working on faces as well as cats. I am going to try to do a face a day. My main focus is to learn to properly show the face in different angles and to get the placement of features correct. With my first sketch, I am sure that you can see that I have a lot of practice to do, but it is a start. References are used, but I try to only use the reference for the basic angles and placement. After that I deviate from the reference so that I am actually learning rather than just copying a picture. One of the main problems that I notice are the eyes, but if you have other critques feel free to leave them.
An art friend told me to google "japanese idols" to find a lot of reference picture for faces, so I did that today and found quite a few images that I plan to use for practice. Hopefully it will keep me busy for a while. The reference picture I used for the face below was an image of Mia Micheals. Hahahaha! I told you I deviate from the reference. By the way, I love Mia Micheals! I am such a dork when it comes to So You Think You Can Dance.
6/7
My cat sketches are coming along, but they are pretty bad. hahaha! I am going to start working on faces too. My weekend starts tomorrow so hopefully I will have a chance to scan some of these sketches in.
6/1
Wow! I went a whole month without posting any sketches. That is crap. Anyway, I am realizing more and more that I have a hard time sketching. I tend to draw only when I have an idea for a finished drawing, but that really isn't going to help me learn. I need to draw often to feed my memory and imagination. I can't expect to be able to easily draw a human face if I don't really understand how it looks, and I won't know how it looks if I don't study and practice. So, I have decided to pick a subject and draw it 100 times and then move on to another subject and draw it 100 times (obviously in different poses, forms and styles). The subjects can be anything like lips, eyes, noses, cats, flowers, legs, hands, trees, etc. Drawing the subject so many times will hopefully start to help develop my memory of how certain forms and shapes look. I am starting with cats because I am a dork. Some will be very sketchy and others may look more finished.
5/1
Drawing, Drawing, Drawing! I am tyring to get as much drawing done as possible, so I will either have lots of WIPs to post at the end of the week, or will have finished pictures to share.
4/25/08
So here are some WIPs. These are both gifts. Obviously the first one is Pennywise from Stephen King's IT, and it was a request from my sister. There is nothing done digitally on the face, but I had to clarify the lines on the body just so they would show up in the scan so you could see them a tiny bit. I am not so sure about the cat picture. It is a totally different style for me as I do not normally use oil pastels or paints, but it doesn't hurt to try new things and practice. If you have any advice, feel free to leave it.
4/24/08
I have a few portrait commissions that I need to finish, but I keep procrastinating. Ugh. I need to force myself to finish those this week so that is going to be my main focus. I have three portrait commissions, 2 portrait gifts, and one fanart request, so I guess I will be busy this week, but that is what I get for procrastinating. After I finish those I guess it will be practice, practice, practice for me. If you read my blog you may remember me saying that my friends and I are going to attempt to attend an art show next year to sell/show off some photography, artwork and jewelry. We all feel like little old ladies working on crafts together, and I must admit that it has been so much fun. And I am learning new things. I have made a few pieces of jewelry and I am even going to pull out the papier mache again. So, I am really excited to see what we create this year. I will try to upload sketches and WIPs soon.
4/9/08
So, I ruined the sketch again, so what you see below is as good as it will get. Sometimes I think the only medium I can effectively use is a pencil, and I find that frustrating. Anyway, I have moved on to other pictures so I will upload them here probably sometime this week. I am working on a few pictures.
4/6/08
Well, I ruined the sketch below. Somehow one of the girls looked like Sloth from the Goonies, and that wasn't exactly what I was going for, so back to the drawing board. Actually, I just printed out the sketch below and plan to start over. I used oil pastels the first time, but this time I may try crayons. Oil pastels are just too difficult for me still, at least when it comes to humans. I plan to draw a cat using the pastels so maybe that will turn out better.
4/4/08
I should be in bed, but I decided to scan this sketch in before I hit the sheets. This is a sketch that I plan to finish, although I don't really know the direction I am going to take it. These are characters that I have drawn before, although they look different each time. They are the girls from Child Lost and Red Tears, and will more than likely be characters for my story idea that I may use for nanowrimo this year. They have no names yet, but I think they are best friends. I guess I will just wait and see where it goes. I may eventually start an outline with concept ideas. References were loosely used.
3/27/08
I finally started this page and have my first sketch to share. My goal is to update this page as often as I do my normal journal, or at least once a week. I want to treat this kind of like an art journal and post sketches and WIPs. The main reason for this is to hopefully stay motivated to practice more often. Knowing I have a page that I need to update may be just what I need to keep me drawing.
I used pencil, crayon and pen, but then decided I didn't like the color choice so I just grayscaled the image when I scanned it in. For some reason, I kind of like this drawing and may either use the idea to create a larger, better picture or just keep this the way it is.
