Pencil portrait: finished!

Today I decided that one way or another, I was going to get this portrait finished. Now I can relax tonight.

Drawing like Da Vinci

We had a Draw like Da Vinci Day in class this week. I photocopied some of Da Vinci's sketches and put them up for the class to experiment with by drawing his work with their own interpretation. This was my result. I found myself loving the feel of the conté on textured colored paper, which I don't normally work with. I'd like to do more of these this week.

Working on a challenge

One of the most important things for a portrait artist is a good reference photo if she is an artist who works from photos. I prefer to take these myself, but sometimes this isn't possible. This was true in my most recent portrait.

After looking through the available images, which were few thanks to Hurricane Katrina, we settled on this one as having the best facial expression and having the most visual information. I scanned it into my computer and went to work with photoshop, lightening it to try and bring up more detail. With the face, I was fairly successful. With the tree bark, not so much.

Sometimes I don't put any background in at all, but I didn't feel that was a good choice for this image since she was leaning back against the tree. my solution was to go into my back yard and photograph one of my own trees with similar bark so I could get an idea of what the tree would look like if the photo was more detailed.

I placed it roughly with Photoshop. It didn't have to be seamless since it was only for visual reference. I could do all of my other work from the first photo. Tree bark, I discovered, takes a long time to draw, but I was happy with the finished product.

Drawing progression

Made a good beginning during Christmas.

It still needs quite a bit of deepening of darks, but it's coming along.

Ringing in the New Year (or drawing it in?)

This is my last finished project for 2012. All told, I completed around 22 pieces, which isn't so bad considering I had to squeeze them in here and there around a full-time schedule.

You can tell that the original photo was taken with a flash, which I encourage people to avoid if at all possible. In this case we couldn't get around it.

Unveiling the surprises

So I've been sitting on these images and not able to share them until they were delivered to the new owners, but now I can let you see them. Woo hoo! They were fun to do. I can't wait until my next drawing. Who will it be?

Someone hired me right before Thanksgiving to do this portrait. Normally I'm a slow painter, since I tend to build in thin layers of color, so I had to push myself out of my comfort zone to get it done in time. Also, there was the possibility of more last-minute work which could show up at any moment (and did), so I was glad that I kept pushing and made the deadline. 

I knew about this project months before we actually found the right photo to draw. It was hard because it was a secret, but it was so worth it when the right image came in. A good photo to work from makes all the difference in a portrait!

As soon as I saw the baby's expression, I thought, "That's Winston Churchill!" Of course it wasn't really, but he did look kind of imperious, all the same. It's as though he takes life far more seriously than his older sibling who is in the middle of a belly laugh! Children are fabulous to draw!

More secrets and art projects

Still more holiday secret projects which I cannot post in the works, 

so in the mean time, I'll post some of the images from our art class projects. 

We've been taking a lot of class ideas from Carla Sonheim's 'Drawing Lab' lately. For this project we enlarged quick marker sketches 250 percentand then used doodles of complementary colors to fill the shapes. (Also we used metallic markers. Kids LOVE metallic markers.)

One student working on her Picasso dog/cat
(also from Carla Sonheim's 'Drawing Lab').

This was my Picasso dog. It ended up looking more like
a Picasso pig, but I was okay with that.

My eldest daughter after two rigorous art class sessions.
We had to administer doses of chocolate to revive her. 

This class is almost entirely boys.
It makes for an interesting afternoon.

The later class has been making linocuts.
We're going to print this week.

This will be our project for the first group this week, partially courtesy of Carla Sonheim. (Her idea was to do a picture in the style of Dr. Seuss.) I like the idea of turning art into toys with moving parts, so I decided we could make it into a three dimensional pop-up scene with three layers of play potential. We'll see how it goes when they try it out on Friday. 

Celebration of leaves

I'm posting this drawing (a secret no longer) to celebrate the fact that we have finally cleared our yard of an estimated 23 to 24 million leaves. (We have a lot of large oak trees.) The yard looks beautiful!

Author Laura Hillenbrand to the rescue!

Thanks to the book club, of which I am a sporadic member, I've had opportunity to work lately accompanied by the fantastic writing of Laura Hillenbrand, author of Unbroken. Her book tells an amazing true World War II survival story that you won't find (unfortunately) in any of today's history books. Definitely a must-read.

The happy upshot is that while listening to Ms. Hillenbrand's book, I've been able to finish two portraits and start another. Although the first two are top secret, I can share some of my progress on the third, which shows a big brother tenderly cuddling his new little brother, recently arrived.

Final work

And it's done. I'm looking through photos to choose my next image while I work on a painting which was won at a black tie auction for the Valeo Academy.

Just draw it

I like the alien best so far.

When I was young, my dream was to be a cartoonist. I did not become a cartoonist, but I do like to play around with them every so often. Lately I've been experimenting with a strip that I'm creating to add to letters to my daughter while she's in basic training this fall.

I thought I'd share a few of the preliminary sketches. I love the alien, and the family members are okay, but I'm having real trouble coming up with a look for the main character that I actually like.

From the land before mom

Pen and ink: Hus

Lithography: The child

Watercolor: Mom and daughter

Pen and ink: Little mouse

Pen and ink: Rabbit in the snow

Pen and ink: Raccoon on the tree

Pen and ink: White wolves

Okay, technically these were all done before I was a mom. I found them in storage when our dehumidifier malfunctioned, spreading watery not-so-goodness across the basement carpeting. I'd forgotten all about them (twenty+ years will do that to you), and when I unpacked them because the corner of the storage box was wet, this is what I found. Fortunately, I had put them all in plastic, so they were fine.

Anyway, I enjoyed looking back at them. Hope you do, too.

Learning curve

Three siblings on the beach

I finished my first panoramic-style pencil drawing today. (Normally I only do portrait close-ups in pencil, which was why this was different.) This was a learning experience, but as I look back over the project, I should have seen some things coming.

I wasn't expecting it to take me that long. If you look at the image, it seems fairly simple at first glance. It's just three children standing on the beach. No big deal, right?

Wrong.

Just as in the picture I did of my nephew who was getting his first serious hair cut, I underestimated the portions of the picture which were loaded with details and texture. His face went quickly. Everything else took lots of time.

It turned out the same in this image. The three figures were fairly easy and went quickly. Even the water wasn't too bad. It was the sand that was trouble. At one point, my mom asked me if I was drawing the grains one at a time. Upon reflection, I decided that, although it was bad, it wasn't quite that bad.

I'm happy now that it's done. It's always a relief once it's finished and safe in its protective sleeve, probably because drawing a picture is like labor. Tons of work, not always fun, but always worth the end result. I hope my client thinks so, too!

Something new

Thought I'd post my recent work-in-progress. It's not my usual thing, and I don't know whether I'm happy with it yet or not. There's a lot left to do, and unfortunately most of the undone portions are water and beach, but I'm plugging away at it until it's finished.

This wasn't a very good photo of it (sorry) because the reflection from my desk lamp washed out the left side and cast a shadow on the right, but you get the idea.

The moral? It's good to try things (pencil landscape with three kids) that aren't what you do the rest of the time (close-up portraits).

If you could see the look on your face

What's the joke?

I love to draw people. I don't know why. In college it was a way to pick up a little extra cash by drawing portraits of girlfriends for guys. There was still a big learning curve there, and I wince at the thought of some of those efforts, but it was good practice. The only bad thing was that I had to use whatever picture might be on hand for a portrait. The poses were generally stilted and traditional. You know the kind: a smile directly for the camera.

Now that the mechanics of drawing comes more easily, I've discovered that much of the success of a portrait is due to the picture chosen for the project. I try to avoid traditional poses at all costs. I want something different: a moment caught rather than a pose. The best photos are like this, too. It takes time to catch a picture like that to work from, but it's always worth it. I ask myself, "Would Norman Rockwell want to paint this? Does it make me smile?" If the answer to these questions is yes, then I'm certain that I'll enjoy drawing the picture.

With that in mind, I hope you enjoy my latest portrait created from a moment caught.

Do you like to draw? What subjects do you enjoy the most? Are there images you'd like to draw but are afraid to try?

Recent drawing

My very cute nephew.

And the drawing in progress of my very cute nephew.
His expression reminds me of a mischievousness embodied.

Jenna's cat trio

Jenna's Cat Trio

Finished the cats today after getting the new (and finally correct) crow quill nib holder in the mail. : ) Great customer service with Dick Blick.

Pen and ink gallery

These pen and ink drawings were done with a quill. I find that I get a beautiful variance of line when I use a quill nib.