The Male Form

Haven't been sketching as much, but am trying to get back into the grove.  Finished the antibiotics, rested, drank plenty of fluids and I am ready to sketch.  Today I worked on sketching the male torso and extremities.  I drew this one in my moleskin journal in graphite. The model is from  Figure & Gesture Drawing Tool .  I did 5 more on a yellow pad of paper also in graphie using a model from Croquis Cafe.  I liked the definition of the muscles and the shadow lines.

Sketching Faces Again

 Decided to try sketching people again.  I did the woman from Figure & Gesture Drawing Tool 
I liked her hair and distant look.  I need to go darker in my drawings to get more contrast. The drawing took about 10 minutes.  The drawing below is from a photo of a hockey player that was looking up.  I liked the angle and the intense look. It was hard to get his nose to show up as this angle the light had his nose lite up with very little shadow.  Both are in graphite in my moleskin sketch journal. 

Still Life Bottle with stopper

 I have been wanting to draw this olive oil bottle for awhile.  I like the old type of rubber stopper on top.  I haven't had much time lately and had been sick.  I decided to do a quick sketch in my moleskin journal with Cretacolor Monolith 4B pencil.  A few tomatoes entered the scene.
I plan on doing a more detailed sketch soon.

Nose

Decided to do a quick sketch of my nose since I hadn't had time to do a portrait.  Hope to get two more drawing of myself with different expressions this week.  This is done in graphite in my little moleskin journal I keep in my purse.

Attempted Smile

This self portrait didn't turn out well.  Trying to have a light smile and relaxed eyes, so I wouldn't look like I was in a staring match, didn't work too well.  I have googly eyes that are staring into the mirror.  My hair is behaving more today.  I think I need to take a picture and then try to draw it to see a natural smile.  Oh, it was worth a try.

Zucchini in the Garden

Zucchini blossoms and zucchini are growing like crazy in our garden. I decided to do a quick sketch and add color while I was in the garden.  The problem I had was getting blinded by the bright sunlight, and then a cloud covered the sun making it impossible for me to see the flowers well. I also realized that I didn't have a yellow on my one paint dot card so I had to grab my other one.  Won't make that mistake again. The only blossom I didn't get is an open one.  They open in the morning and I did this sketch in mid afternoon. so none were left. My moleskin sketch book really doesn't like getting wet as the orange color bled to the next page.

Groovy Portrait

Decided to play a colored background and painted some wavy vertical color lines in watercolor and drew my portrait with copper burst ink with my fountain pen.  I look almost angry or worried in this portrait.  It is very humid again today so my hair again is doing whatever it wants.  Parts of my hair are going straight, others curl in whatever direction they want which is usually in any other direction that the rest of my hair isn't going. Mouth is crooked in this portrait, but I did better making the eyes equal.  Have to think what I will do next.

Portrait Month

I have been following several artist on Facebook's Artists' Journal Site.  One artist, Jonas Ericson has been posting portrait sketches every day of himself with different backgrounds, emphasis on different parts of the face, and colors.  I have been so inspired my his postings that I decided I would give it a try during August.  I want to make the sketches loose with minimal line work.  I took a little too long and was too detailed in this sketch, but I hope by the end of the month to get more comfortable with drawing myself.  I feel I did fine in this sketch on the left side, but got carried away on the right elongating my face to the side.  I did the sketch lightly with a 2B pencil and then used watercolor to add color.

Sunflower

Artist Joanne Boon Thomas has a really nice video on U Tube on painting a sunflower in watercolor.  Mine didn't turn out 100 percent, but I am happy with my first attempt.  Watercolors are tricky.  They can dry out, run into an area you don't want, bloom in unexpected ways and make mud just to name a few.  It was scary and fun at the same time, but a good lesson on negative painting.  I am going to try again and see if I can improve on my technique.