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.
And that’s about all I have to say about 2021 so far! Yikes!
You can see the original photo reference on Sktchy here.
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 loved the photo of this adorable young man looking surprised, with his big wide eyeballs and even his hair seeming to stand on end with shock. It was really fun to draw!
You can see the photo reference of whatTina Wayne says is her “goofball son” on Sktchy here.
These are more of my portrait sketches from the Drawing the Head class I took last summer (doesn’t summer seem so long ago?!) I discovered that starting over is easier than correcting bad starts so I sketched most of them more than once. TJ Smith’s sketch took three tries until I felt like I captured what struck me as his very pleasant expression.
I always like to see how artists interpret their subjects. If you’re like me and want to see the reference photos, just click their names below their images to either go to my Sktchy page (if you have the Sktchy app) or to Sktchy on the web. Then click (PC) or swipe (mobile) my sketch to reveal the reference photo below it.
I’m continuing to work with the Loomis Method, which is really helping me. As you can see below, I got a little closer and her nose and jaw got little smaller each time I tried to draw her.
You can see the model I was working from on Sktchy here. I’ve been working on this project since August but got sidetracked by the election and now that I can concentrate again I’ll be catching up on posting my work over the next week or two.
Jana Bouc, Artist 