Sleepy...

(03-31-2011.  A sleepy day.  I made a conscious effort to stop with the extra lines. I like upper right guy. Lower left guy's middle, while truly wrinkled, reads odd on the paper.  And after I was done I looked and his head appears a bit big.  At least he's not NEARLY as weird looking as the last goof...)

Zoning out....

This young lady was sitting on the train staring at her phone.  Let me rephrase that...staring THROUGH her phone on the way home from work.  Sometimes it happens... Okay.  A LOT of the time it happens.

(03-30-2011.  Trying to concentrate on leaving out the extra lines, but not make it too cartoonish.  And my favorite pen is starting to fade...ruh roh.)

....

Today I am at home with a headcold, out of respect for the coworkers who DON'T want to be mouth breathers either.  Along with watching movies and the occasional bout with SuperMario Bros., I got a good idea from another friend from the artworld, Hans.  Who said something that I should've really caught....but then when you're right on top of something you never get a good perspective.  I've been trying to draw everything (edging back into that trying to be perfect thing) correctly, and by focusing on the separate parts, and all the extraneous lines to make up those parts, well, it's keeping things separate....

(03-29-2011.  Before the conversation... I like the roughness in this one.  And the fact that he's actually got some personality showing (he feels animated).  Of course, he WAS smiling and laughing. Great character in the crinkles...)

 (03-29-2011.  Maybe, just maybe, it might have to do with the age, and the personality, how things "feel" like they need to be drawn. A younger gent, a horn player...  and a bunch of eyes that I was goofing around with.)

 (03-29-2011.  After reading Hans' statement about the disassociated way he was reading my sketches.  I decided to try to simplify things... and might have done it on this first one....)

 (03-29-2011. Still not too bad.  Simplified.  But the line feeling isn't really there.  And her features are off a bit...)

(03-29-2011. More simplified.  And the features are on, but I'm not too sure.  At what point does it change to cartoonish?  Hmmm...These..these, grasshopper, are questions that we must ask ourselves...)

A buncha different ones...and a thought...and another thought....

So tonight I THOUGHT I had a breakthrough (or maybe just a "duh!" thought).  While I was looking at all the sketches that I did today.  Granted they are all quite random in the way that they are drawn.  I'm still very much in the early stages of finding my sketching "voice" I'd guess you'd say.  Which is frustrating at times, because I'd really just like to be good.  Well, DUH.  It takes work.  And practice. And more practice. And maybe then I'll figure out what feels good to me.  Now HERE'S the "duh" thought...  I was getting a bit frustrated with the fact that when I try to sketch fast I make the features incorrect sizes... here's an ear dangling off a chin like it's 6 inches big, there's a nose that makes Jimmy Durante look petite.  So I thought Aha!  I'll have to practice both, drawing quickly to let the line be loose, and I'll have to practice drawing slowly to get the proportions correct.  And then I thought Dummy.  Stop thinking so much.  

 (03-28-2011.  More of a light vs. dark exercise and keeping the pen on the paper as much as possible.)

 (03-28-2011. Quick sketch on the train.  I like the lines, which seem to have a purpose in this one.)

 (03-28-2011.  I'd say a bit wonky on the perspective and sizes...but I'd be lying.  It's WAY off.  One of the things that frustrated me a bit today.  I DID like the way his face came out.  I should have stopped there.)

 (03-28-2011. Another good example of whoops.  The girl started out really quite good, but the nose and upper lip were drawn too small and in enlarging them it lost that nice petite line.  And I liked dude's face, but his nose was a bit big.  Meh.  On to the next one)

(03-28-2011.  Last sketch of the night, quick sketch, good proportions (for the most part)..hehe...it's always good to stop on a good note.)

So, kids, what did we learn today?  What's better, proportions, or lines?  Sides of me are still duking this one out.  Right brain/ left brain.

Maybe I should just leave the brain out of it.....

Awkward

(03-27-2011.  Today I was all about awkward.  I started out drawing the bottle, and, remembering yesterday's walk into awkward perspective I wanted to experiment further.  The lines are strong and stiff, the shadows seem a bit odd in there, admitted, but I like it.  The somewhat generic shapes, the 2-d thing. Not that this is something that I will stick with, but it's all about experimenting then, isn't it?)

57. And Now for Something Completely Different....

Today's lesson:  There aren't only people that you can draw.  And others might get a bit tired of seeing day after day of faces.  ;-P  Actually I was going to draw me, but changed my mind and started sketching the room for a change.

(03-26-2011. I started this off with the mirror and an idea that I'd draw it somewhat realistically.  But it quickly morphed when I started in on the bag of a flat 2-dimensional-ish nature.  And I really liked where it was going, so I let it go with what my subconscious was feeling and decided to not fight it.  Forget about "Accidentally" crossing other lines and blowing  any sort of believability...and I had fun.  Which was excellent.  And I like it.  Mistakes and all.  The only thing I'd do different if I were to do it again, would be to put some more balancing blocks of black down at the bottom, probably on the leg.  But This is done.  Off to the next adventure.)

Bubble Coat Lady

Bet you can't guess which one...  ;-)

(03-25-2011.  My thinnest and medium point pens.)

After the Museum

I went to the Chicago Art Institute today.  A very interesting experience.  It's much better if you go on a slower day so that you can really stop and look.  The worst thing you can do wandering in is taking your ego with you.  If you do that you forget to stop and LOOK to actually see it.  I'm guilty of this.  At least I figured it out and I can check it at the door.  How did I realize it?  Going in to see Pollock.  I've always thought of him as a bit of a hack, dribble dribble dribble paint.  Well, I went in and stood staring at his painting "Greyed Rainbow" and it actually is quite interesting...  I took lots of photos of details of it...

Art teaches us once again....

(03-24-2011.  A few people before the train started filling up and blocking views.  Yeah, I'm thinking not so hot either.  But we practice we practice.)

54.

Number 54 fell asleep on the train.  I like when they fall asleep.  It gives me a chance to draw them without them moving all around.  :)

(03-23-2011.  my favorite pen is losing its juice.)

New Friends...

Today I got on the train and sat next to a gent who was reading.  I pulled out my sketchbook and suddenly he was chatting with me.  He reminded me a bit of Happy from Snow White.  Or maybe Doc.  Either way he was charming and we wound up chatting all the way to downtown.  He told me that he'd passed retirement but that he loved his job so much that he stayed on at the Post Office.  That he wasn't "postal".  And he called me Mrs. Rembrandt.  Very sweet. It was quite a nice trip to work.  Probably one of the nicest I've had.

(03-22-2011.  medium point pen.  Quite a few get up and leavers.  Right above the gent behind the pole, the forehead...I thought he had great promise.  Unfortunately he decided to get up and go to work.)

A woman with a purse...

(03-21-2011.  Finally, a chin that I like.  Another artist said that he saw that I had trouble with chins from the front.  And I do.  It's the line, or lack thereof.  There are no real lines in a human, just folds and rounded edges and crevasses.  Some are defined enough that you can sort of find a delineation, but that darn soft, rounded chin...)


:)

Twofer

Today I decided to pick up the sketch pad again and go for it.  It's the unconscious choice to grab a pen and paper that makes you realize that you love what you do.

(03-20-2011.  Blind sketches are sometimes...scratch that...most of the time... more freeing than any other type of drawing, since you're free of the restraint of what you see that you're drawing.  And as I've said before, but can't emphasize enough, you get some pret-ty cool lines out of it when you take your conscience (and the need to do something perfect) out of it.)

Rain

(03-20-2011.  I decided to sit in and sketch Jay Leno's sister.  To shade, or not to shade....that is the question....)

Hrmmmm....

Stiff, stiff lines.  A few interesting lines, but I seem to have developed a habit which needs to be broken.  Either focusing TOO hard, which makes the line feel too stiff, or not focusing and not seeing what I want to...

 (03-19-2011.  Last sketch before posting, I used photos, which has become a feeling of cheating.  I suppose that it shouldn't matter, since sketching is sketching.  But I have developed an affinity for sketching on the fly, with all the problems that come with it.)

 (03-19-2011.  The second time at the coffee shop, and a few people there, chatting and looking at their computer.  Live and okay, but stiff.  Argh!)

(03-19-2011.  First time at the coffee shop.  Not liking this one at all.  Even though his pose amused me.)

I think tomorrow I'm going to go back to not looking.  For the day anyway.  :)

Faces

This morning I just couldn't catch a break with the drawing.  Either I was drawing too slow or the universal karma was against me but every time I tried to start sketching someone they'd either turn away or someone would inadvertently block my view. 

 (03-18-2011.  Mid-size pen clear piece of paper...and a bunch of St. Paddy revelers still going at it, standing in the way.  Hahaha!!!)

(03-18-2011.  All is finally settling right in my world.  Plenty of faces to pick from, so when one turned away there was a new one to find and start drawing.  I started speeding up, letting the lines fall instead of forcing them... I think I've got a few good ones here.)

Me.

(03-17-2011.  Happy St. Pat's from the Train.  :)  Although I rode it a few times today I didn't get out the sketchbook, instead opting for the camera.  Short trips.  So I did me.  Again.  Practice is practice is practice. A few different pens, a bit looser the second time.)

A few good men.

(03-16-2011.  A few of the train inhabitants that I ran into this morning and afternoon.  The gent at the top had two different colors in his hair.  Light brown short and long burgundy.  The start of the face next to him belonged to this little guy sporting those 1980's ish (probably before he was born) vented sunglasses.  I really wish he hadn't gotten off the train.  He was such a character.  As was the homeless guy in the bottom pic.)

A slow day on the train

Let this be a lesson to you.  Never let a chance pass you by.  This morning on the train I had plenty of faces to practice from.  Alas, I had a hot cuppa tea in my hand and I had to stand.  Thinking I'd have plenty of faces in the afternoon ride, I read.  And what happened....

(03-15-2011.  I had a nice model of this man, who sat there reading quietly.  But the young lady (who I didn't have as much luck on) had pretty much blocked out the rest of the train... but practice is practice!)

44.

44 days of official sketching every day and posting.  Yay, me.  (Well, unofficially more than 44, but we'll leave it at 44 for now)

(03-14-2011.  Today on the train I saw the woman on the top who had the fullest head of hair that I've ever seen on a person, a mouth breathing guy, and this gent on the bottom...who's face eluded me the entire ride.  fun!)

Sunday.

I wandered down to the coffee shop to do some sketching, and afterward came home to do that grown up cleaning thing and sketch some more.  Not up for sketching myself today again, I decided to open up the computer and do some of the people I had photos of.  While not drawing from life was a minus, new faces were a plus.  Kind of a give and take.  But at least they weren't all from photos...

(03-13-2011.  Faces of people from photographs.  Drawing 2-d is a bit different from sketching on the fly, so I'm leaving myself open to all possibilities.)

(03-13-2011.  At the coffee shop.  That hat amused me.)

Saturday on a train...

This Saturday I worked.  I don't often work on Saturdays... it's just the way it happens to fall.  I also had a headache.  Which I tried to sketch through, but I felt stiff and awkward and well...

(03-12-2011.  This is what you get when you have a headache.  Using the F pen [a bit thicker, but not a brush marker] drawing a chef-in-training.  Nope, he didn't have the hat, but he had the rest.  I was wondering if his rolled bag had a set of knives in it.  Then practicing a few noses.)

(03-12-2011.  After work I got home and practiced with a few different pens a few different ways.  Lost the headache.  Mostly.  Still a bit tight.  As was my drawing.)

Followed by a good day....

(03-11-2011.  fine tipped pen. )

Okay, so there were a few hits and a few misses.   But I was liking the lines a LOT better today than yesterday.  I kicked the "I wanna be perfect" back into the closet where it should be.  Stiffness sucks.

Followed by a Bad Day

Due to things on my mind that wouldn't stop zooming around, today became an exercise in patience.  I just couldn't let it go and relax.  And you can tell.

(03-10-2011.  On the way to work.  People weren't sitting still or I was drawing too slowly and concentrating too hard.  Tsk tsk.)

(03-10-2011. The ride home.  Worse.)

This too shall pass...

A good day

Two train rides with victims for me.  And they were smooth.  Sometimes the train rocks so hard as it barrels along you're lucky to keep the paper on your knee and the pen in your hand....

(03-09-2011.  I'm beginning to understand how the two pens can live harmoniously on the page.  Beginning.)

(03-09-2011. No one facing me, but still enough sides to practice that nose.)  :)

Surprisingly Crowded.

(03-08-2011.  The train was surprisingly crowded when I left work a few hours early.  And everyone seemed to be facing away from me.  I did get a few people... but the beginning of the face on the left got blocked by a lady who held onto the train post and blocked him from view.... Anyhoo, I'm thinking it's getting a tad better.  We shall see....)

On the rails

Armed once again with some excellent advice from two artist friends that I have absolutely nothing but respect for, I forged on once again.

(03-07-2011.  Those two suggestions?  Stephanie G http://www.stephg.org/index.html who said, when I mentioned that I'd love to keep the loose cool lines of the blind drawing but not have the face all squished together...that I should just constantly take sneak peeks at the paper just to keep the features in the correct spot, but not long enough to stare and get line conscious)....

(03-07-2011.  And the wise words of Tom B. http://www.tombennettart.com/ who told me to keep drawing from the wrist [it's not all about the fingers after all...] and keep practicing.)


Wiser words I have yet to run into....

Sunday Sunday....

Before I start painting with my pastels I like to loosen up a bit, sketching.  I got into this habit about the same time I started this blog.  And you know.... it helps.  Some of it has translated quite well from one to the other.

(03-06-2011. Now here's the rub. I'm trying to figure out how to take the fun lines (as in the top two blind sketches) and make it look more like me, or whoever I happen to be looking at... without losing the spontaneity.  But the more you think, the more slow your hand goes, the less fun it is.  Well, we shall see, we shall see.)

Oh, and the cable / internet going in and out?  It was a squirrel, of all things, nesting in the cable box.  And gnawing on my wires.  HA!