Portrait #11

Portrait #10

I finally broke down and bought a Molskine Watercolor Journal, and today I finally broke it in with another portrait. Practice, practice, practice...

Portrait 08 with Video

My husband saw the demo by Danny Gregory and started wondering whether we could do a timelapse video too. So he set up the camera and I started drawing. Here is our first attempt. It is very short - I think we need to take more frames next time. The actual drawing time was about 45 minutes. I am pretty pleased with it for our first try. Let me know what you think.

Click here to see the video.

Portrait #07

I did some more portrait practice today. I went back to the exercise of starting the drawing upside down to get the features in place. Definitely showing more improvement on this. I did lay everything in in pencil first before commiting to ink.

Portrait #06

I took a little more time with this one and tried to get the features right in pencil before inking it in. This was inked with black Pigma Micron waterproof pen and painted with black water color. I was having a little trouble controlling the water-paint mixture to get the right shades of gray. Once it goes down too dark it is hard to correct. Something to practice more of. Oh, yeah, and I didn't do this one upside down. I think my brain just keeps working too hard trying to turn it right side up again it gives me problems. Or maybe I am just wimping out because that exercise is too far outside my comfort zone. Anyway, I am a bit happier with this one than the last.

Portrait 03 Inspired by Danny Gregory's portraits

After seeing Danny Gregory's demo on drawing portraits upside down, I was inspired to try a few of my own. This is one that didn't turn out too bad. I don't think the drawing upside down is really helping me to get a better likeness of the person but it does seem to make it more interesting. The eyes seem somehow more piercing and intense. Also, by drawing in ink, I can't erase so that is a challenge for me. This was actually done from a picture of Andie McDowell, but it turned out looking more like Julia Roberts... interesting....

EDM #29 - Draw Something Architectural

We went down to the Riverwalk this evening to celebrate the 1st day of Daylight Savings Time. It was still light when I started drawing and full-on sundown by the time I finished. I was having a little trouble with perspective and drawing in ink where I cannot erase is still pretty challenging for me, but I do like the cartoonish character of it. Although the Bank of America building looks a bit like a rocket about to take off! LOL... The neatest thing about this was that a few different people came up and made nice comments about my drawing. I just said 'Thank You' and kept on drawing. A few months ago, I would have been so self-conscious I probably would have stopped and packed up my stuff, or I would have scoffed and said something really negative about my drawing. I am learning it is the process of drawing that is more important than the end result or what others think. That's progress!

EDM Challenge #10 - Draw Your Hand

This is an (almost) blind contour drawing of my hand. I do like the way the watercolors worked on this one. I have been pretty lazy by just shading in with the watercolor pencils and smearing it around with a waterbrush. But here I actually used some of my cake water colors and a real brush and water cup. It definitely makes a difference.

EDM Challenge #13- Draw your Telephone

Crackberry; Lifeline; Ball and Chain; glued to my hip or on my bedside table at night. It is my watch, my alarm clock, my really slow Internet connection, my email, my address book, my phone, my walkie-talkie, my night-light, my notepad, my grocery list, my entertainment when I am bored, an annoyance when I am trying to do something fun, my safety net anytime - anywhere. This is the object I probably look at and handle a thousand times a day. Love it or hate it, I think it (or it's descendants) is here to stay.