old painting

No new drawings today. I started a watercolor but I'm not feeling well and couldn't finish it - hopefully tomorrow. In the meantime, since I don't think I like that sketch of Asian-woman-David, I am going to post an old painting. This was like my "big deal" project in college - I won an award for Realism at an art show for it. It's 3' x 4' and took me for-ev-uh. I remember having an emotional breakdown halfway through it, and my painting teacher, Peter Gooch, totally didn't know how to handle a young, crying female. But, at that moment, he gave me some great advice: He told me my painting was in puberty, like an awkward 12 year old whose body is changing and adapting. It isn't fresh and new like a baby, but it also hasn't fully developed into the adult it will become. I think he mentioned acne and greasy hair. Sounds strange, I know, and it didn't stop the sobbing, but to this day when I feel stuck, I just tell myself it's in puberty and I just keep plugging away.

I like this painting because it's like a moment captured in time. I'm wearing my favorite outfit of senior year (what ever happened to those boots?) I'm in the drawing studio where I spent a LOT of my time. I'm on the couch that we relaxed on during break, and occasionally our models would recline on (eww). The all-too-familiar drapery is tacked up on the wall, and our old metal easels cast shadows in the background. The pages on the ground are little mini Umbrella drawings - they were my big project in my drawing class. Here, why don't I attach one of those too. I was playing with texture and just messing around with pastels and matte medium.

Oh, and I had short red hair, which was fun. Off to try to get some rest...

David

This is like the 113th time I have drawn David in my sketchbook and I still can't draw him accurately. He looks like an Asian woman in this drawing. I used a couple of Derwent design pencils I had laying around. I'll admit, I had had a cocktail or two before the drawing ensued... we have learned that I do not draw well under the influence. It doesn't help that he hates it when I draw him, so he likes to shift around and make faces to make it more difficult.

I sketched him a while back, pre-illustration academy, with a pencil and an eraser, and it looked much better (as in, it actually looks like him). But I'm trying to stick with the George Pratt philosophy of just "get it down" - it won't look right but what matters is that you are looking and drawing. Here's the old drawing:

Sailboat

"Transportation" was this week's theme for Girls Who Draw. This is a sailboat I spotted right off shore in Marigot, St. Maarten when we went on our cruise last month.

This is my 2nd sincere attempt at watercolor. I rather like the technique. Maybe one day I'll get good enough to upgrade to real watercolor paper and paints - right now I'm working in the unintimidating Moleskin watercolor sketchbook with my little travel watercolor set and some crappy paintbrushes that are probably meant for acrylic or oil or something. I painted this while Marie Antoinette played on my DVD player. Weird movie. Probably better if I paid attention to it.

a REALLY old drawing

Please don't think this is me showing off my awesomeness. This is a drawing from February of '99 (I know, because I wrote the date in huge capital letters on the figure's ASS.) I would have been nearing the end of my senior year of high school. I took these special Saturday morning art classes put on by the Louisville Visual Art Association. (Tangent: I wasn't allowed to take art classes until I got my humanity classes out of the way, so by Junior and Senior year I was trying to get as much art education as possible to try to catch up with the other art students at my high school). This is an example of some of my first figure drawing ever. I was a little heavy handed with the charcoal, but you can see that my interest in shapes, like the curve on her back, had already started to develop. I still think women are WAY more fun to draw then men. So many fun curves (well, on normal women anyway!)

More highlighter art.

My day job involves designing brochures for big properties like hotels and office buildings for a real estate investment banking company. While sketching layout thumbnails at work, this girl magically appeared. Then the highlighters joined in the fun.

Not much sketching going on tonight - I'm feeling a little under the weather and I'm running around tying up loose ends of various projects. But I have a lot of fun stuff planned for tomorrow night!

Dwight Final(ly)

For my Vuillardenkornlish assignment.... from April. I finally finished. This one is a lot different from some of my older illustrations, I feel as though my technique might be shifting. I am excited to see what direction it is going.

See original sketch here.

The Raven

My Girls Who Draw assignment for "Literature." This is for Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven".

chicken noodle soup

Post for my Girls Who Draw assignment, "What's for Dinner."

wine + pen

I didn't learn my lesson. The other night I stayed up late, watched some Grey's Anatomy (I'm just now jumping on that bandwagon), drank some wine.... then grabbed my sketchbook and put the DVD on pause for a minute.

Then I had another glass of wine and did it again.

an old drawing

I did this plein air drawing my junior year in college. I think it was one of my first attempts at drawing with pen. My line work isn't top notch, but I really kind of dig it anyway.