Day 9 Caricature tryout

Day 9 Caricature tryout

I was reading a brief article this morning about how to draw caricatures and also for last couple of days a book about drawing faces by Andrew Loomis and as result of this combined reading experience got inspired to try something in practice as well. So, I thought about giving it a go, even though drawing caricatures is even more out of my comfort zone than drawing plane portraits.

So this is an end result. Was fun interpreting facial characteristics of this famous Hollywood actor, twisting measurements a bit but trying to keep him recognizable. Almost an hour job on A4 and 5H-HB graphite pencils.

Day 9 portrait

Day 9 Portrait

Spent around 1 hr on this one. A4, Pencils: 5H-HB.

Day 8 Portraits: Guess Who

Day 8 portraits: Guess who?

Spent couple of hours on this one. A4, pencils H2-4B. Guess who this is?

Day 7 Portraits: Guess Who?

Did few attempts on the portrait of one well known celebrity. Can you guess who she is?

Day 6 Portraits: Tommy Lee Jones 3, Andrei 0.

So after several attempts and not being satisfied with any of sketches I did of Tommy, I gave it a rest and focused on other things: working on something else than portraits together with my 2 yrs old daughter.

Zero portraits for the day, but I guess it's worth it to do something else at the point when things don't seem to work out... I'll get you Tommy another day!

Day 5 Portraits: Drawing in "negative"

Wanted to try something new with white pencil on black background. Fast sketch, 30 min.

Day 5 Portraits - Guess Who?

Drew 2 portraits today, started out with the guy with suspenders and continued with the cowboy theme. You're free to guess who you think these are.

Suspender guy

Cowboy

Day 4 Portrait

Jimi

30 min. Color pencil on sketch paper (A4, 90 gm/m).

Day 4: Taking Mischief for a spin

Crow flyer

Felt like drawing something in digital format with my Intuos today. Why not testing new software at the same time?

Mischief

Took the mischief for a spin, as heard about this software long ago and was really interested in the "infinite canvas" feature.

The idea was to use it for the conceptual drawing of rather colorful skyline full of clouds as a background and with something dynamic, moving in front.

Setting up the background:

Finalized (for now):

After getting familiar and spending almost 3 hours on the software, the feeling is that this is rather capable software. The rotatable canvas is a huge plus and infinite canvas can be quite handy for bigger works, although didn't see the use in small works as this one. Cons? The amount of brushes is bit limited (didn't bother to see if there could be more to be downloaded etc) and the size of the brush jumps when using eye-dropping tool. Irritiating for me, but perhaps works better for someone else or needs different work-flow. But as a bottom line, worth to consider, especially with very affordable 25$ - price tag.

Day 3 Portrait drawing

Failed attempt

As this blog is about the learning process and making mistakes and publishing those anyways, here comes the failed attempt to draw the portrait of one of my most favorite actresses.

Lots of things gone wrong here, but getting the proportions right would have been a good basis for better outcome.

Day 2 Portrait drawing - Jack and Walt

Here comes Johnny!

Pencil on Paper (A4, 90 g/m). Can't say this ended up good or how I wanted it to be, but it does illustrate places for the improvement for the future. I might get back to this one at some point again.

Walt

An antihero from the one of the best TV-series.  Same technique as with Jack. As this was the second work today, it ended up better than the first one.

Day 1: Portrait - Audrey Hepburn

Portrait

The eye and hand coordination

One thing I wanted to focus on during the following 50 days is drawing portraits. This is one of the skills which I want to invest the time in and improve. In my personal experience, I have made few OK-ish portraits, but usually as a result of trial and error and countless iterations. So the goal is to make the portrait drawing process more straightforward with getting the technique right and to get some experience how to avoid mistakes. Something which comes only through practice I guess.  In the meanwhile as the drawing faces is one of most difficult tasks out there for myself, this would be the best way to practice eye and hand coordination.

One face per day

The goal is to draw one recognizable person every day I practice. I see this easily could be something which will bore me to the death but at the same time this is the task which will give me a way to measure my progress with.

Audrey

So meanwhile the day started really slowly by setting up the work space and focusing on irrelevant stuff, finally I had the chance to sit in front of my Mac with the reference of Audrey Hepburn on the screen and the A4-sketchbook in my lap. So. Audrey. One of my favorite actresses. As the base for the drawing I used A4-sized Fabriano's sketching paper, which was bit too thin (90 gm/m) as I used water color in addition to pencils (5H, 2HB, 6B). This was my second try and it ended up pretty close to how I wanted it to be, even though proportions are a bit off. Spent around 2 hours, which is ridiculously long, but no matter. This is learning process. 

50-day drawing project

1st day

This blog is my personal project, where I will practice drawing, illustration and art for the next 50 days, every day for 4-6 hours and will be posting something every day when I draw. A kind of really really short-term art-school, where I will produce, showcase and possibly get some feedback too. The idea is to track what happens during this period. The idea is to reflect and most of all to learn.

The grand idea behind all of this, of taking time just to draw emerged a while ago. Maybe a year or so. During that time I was working as a visual/graphic designer, working intensively on different digital service design client projects at the agency in Helsinki Finland. All that time I have been learning tons of new things. Good times, valuable lessons, interesting projects, yet something was missing. As if something was off balance. As if I was leaving something without the attention it needed and at some point I realized it was that I missed doing my own stuff - the projects of my own. Regardless how big or small, or extremely insignificant and meaningless to others - I wanted to do my stuff, art, illustration - I wanted to draw. The only problem at that point was the time.

The time of my own. Something I hardly have after work. For few reasons. Firstly, when working in a creative field, by the end of the day my creative tank is usually quite depleted. Taking a pen is usually the last thing on my mind by the end of the day. Second reason is my two-year old daughter and family life. I'd spend my time with my daughter everyday day after work till the moment she's off to bed and then it feels too late to start anything. Lastly, the third reason is the routine in terms of drawing. This is something I don't have and I think is something people can only get as a result of years long practice, either from art schools or by self-initiated work. Something which comes naturally, without forcing oneself. For me, taking a pen in the evening feels like an extra step usually. What if I worked on it, so that it would be easier?

So. For the reasons mentioned above I realized that I needed to arrange some time for myself. Time to practice. Time to try things, make mistakes, learn. Make new mistakes and learn again. Get inspired. How much time would be sufficient for all of that? The typical duration of art school programs is around three to four years with "express" year-long programs in some places.

Eventually, I got three months. Happy compromise really, an agreement between me and my employer. A good start to try how this works. Three months, before the client work continues again in April 2015. Three months, excluding weekends and leaving some margins for surprises. So, fifty days - 50 - it is. Solid number. And sounds good too.

Stay tuned. This is the 1st day of remaining 50.