My pencil drawing can’t do justice to her bright red hair (see her photo on Sktchy here) but I’m still limiting myself to pencil to improve my portrait drawing skills.
I’m trying to work out how to address the distortion that is in almost every selfie because of the wide angle lens held close to the face. Perhaps the best solution is to just go with it and not worry about realism. Maybe everyone is used to seeing each other via selfies and that’s what we think people look like now anyway?
I’m not quite as relaxed as these two but now that competent grown-ups are in charge of the USA again I feel like I can relax a bit and focus on something other than the news.
It’s been rainy and windy in the SF Bay Area and it’s so cozy being home, with time to draw, bake bread and make soup.
I miss seeing my family but I’m lucky that I enjoy my own company and being alone. I’m hopeful that by this time next year we will be able to stop social distancing and start being social again.
This portrait of Pulcherie was so fun to sketch! According to her Sktchy profile, she is a French artist living in China. You can see the original photo reference on Sktchy here.
It’s always such a gift when a drawing just goes well! I was able to do this one in a couple of hours while listening to Barack Obama’s latest (audio) book that he narrates. I never noticed before that he had a slight lisp but I’m sure I’m hearing one on the S-sounds when he reads aloud from his book.
I’m finding myself attracted to sketching people who radiate peace and kindness which is calming in the midst of all the intensity in the news. This was a quick afternoon sketch from last month. You can see her reference photo on Sktchy here.
When I saw the reference photo on Sktchy for this drawing, I loved the happy smile on this guy’s face and the perplexed expression of the man in the car next to his. It expresses my feelings for the new year: grateful, happy optimism for better days ahead and the dismayed confusion and general WTF for last year.
Here’s to a joyful, healthy and less socially distanced 2021!
H. P. Lovecraft wrote supernatural horror fiction that expressed his view (and 2020’s) that humanity was an unimportant part of an uncaring cosmos that could be swept away at any moment. When I came across his photo, I thought sketching him would be a good way to close out the horror show that has been 2020. After my 5th and final attempt I’m ready to leave him–and 2020–behind!
Above is my final attempt, with corrections added to sketch #4. Below are the first four sketches and the original photo. Which one do you think came closest? I think #3 turned out to look like Mark Zuckerberg, LOL!
I watched artist and teacher Mike Creighton draw Zel K. during Sktchy’s free Saturday morning YouTube stream last week and decided to draw him myself. You can see the photo reference of Zel on Sktchy here.
Mike taught a great way to draw glasses at about 22 minutes in on the video.
First draw the rectangle into which they fit, getting the perspective and angles right, then just round off or embellish to match the shape of the glasses. What a game changer!
I’m really happy with this sketch of Ron McA from Sktchy. I tried to just keep it simple and it worked. I like the mood and the pencil work. If you’d like to see the original photo reference, you can click and swipe on Sktchy here.
Did you know that Jeff Bezos could give $105,000 to every Amazon employee and he would still have just as much money as he did before the pandemic, according to Robert Reich?
He has so much money he could change the world, but unlike his fellow tech gazillionaire Bill Gates, he just keeps trying to expand his empire and make more money.
I sketched these two round-headed evil guys as an experiment during the portrait drawing class I took back in August. I can see all the flaws in them now but I’m trying to get all the older stuff posted so I can get to the newer better ones.
I know I could just skip the old sketches and post the new ones I like better, but I try to document my journey as I learn and grow, so here they are.
The Belgian TV Series “The Twelve” is an interesting courtroom drama. The plot unfolds as told by the accused, the victim’s family and each of the twelve jurors. The show is moody and dark and the actors were all interesting to look at. I took photos from the TV since Netflix doesn’t allow screenshots and then sketched from them.
Below are the reference photos and the sketches. These are all around 11 x 14″. My goal was to capture the correct angle and structure of the head and hopefully a likeness. Once I got to “good enough” I moved on to the next. I wasn’t trying to do finished drawings.
The photo above captured the closed captioning from the show (“Were you drinking?”).
Jana Bouc, Artist 