Lizzie, WIP part 5

This being the first day of May, I'm starting the annual Every Day in May challenge. Which means doing some sort of art work every day. Today's work was to continue with my portrait of my niece, Lizzie. I've made a few adjustments to the left eye and the mouth (I always find the mouth the hardest part to get right, for some reason) and done a bit more work on the hair. I'm still not completely satisfied with the likeness, but it's better than it was. I don't think I'll do much more work on the hair; I like portraits that are more and more "unfinished" the further away you get from the face. This time I've also posted my reference photograph in case anyone can spot any glaring problems that I could easily correct!

Lizzie, WIP part 4

I've done some more work on my portrait of my niece, Lizzie. It's coming along quite nicely, though I'm beginning to wish that she had shorter hair! There's something not quite right with the likeness, though I just don't seem to be able to put my finger on what it is. It's getting closer, though!

Meanwhile, I'm feeling rather stiff today. I foolishly allowed myself to be talked in to entering a 10km (6 mile) "fun run" that is raising money form Muscular Dystrophy. Given that the last time I ran in any sort of race was my school sports day when I ran the 800m (a distance that I remember thinking at the time was unreasonably long!), I thought I'd better get in some practice. My big fear (apart from doing something really silly like tripping over a kerb) is being overtaken by someone dressed as a slice of toast. So, I went for a five mile run this morning, which I did in 48 minutes 33 seconds. Since I've never run five miles before, I guess this counts as a personal best, or PB as my running friends all say! Three more weeks before the actual event...

Lizzie, WIP part 3

Another hour or so to work on this drawing this evening. I've only got about three weeks to get everything I need finished before the show, so I hope to make faster progress later in the week. But I think it is going to be OK...fingers crossed! I've done some more work on the face, trying to smooth the texture as well as adding some more details.

PS For some reason the scanner seems not to be working properly, so this looks much less smooth than it really is.

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Lizzie, WIP part 2

Just managed an hour or twos work on this tonight, but thought I would post the latest update anyway.



Technorati Tags: drawing, graphite, portraits, Lizzie, wip

Lizzie, WIP part 1

I've finally succeeded in getting a good reference photo of my niece, Lizzie, so I'm doing a drawing of her that I hope will be ready in time to include in the group show that I'm going to take part in during Oxford Artweeks. I say "group show" because that sounds like something a proper artist would take part in! Actually, it's a group of members of Medley Sailing Club who have decided to put on a show in our clubhouse, which is located right on the banks of the Thames in Port Meadow. I thought it would be fun to take part, because every year I go around and see as many artists' work as I can but I would never have thought of joining in myself until this idea came up.

As for the drawing, it's early days yet but I think the pose is a nice one, so it should make for a good drawing. Though as usual now that I come to post it I can see a problem with the right eye and there's something not quite right with the mouth...I always have problems with mouths! Still, plenty of time to put those things right...




Technorati Tags: drawing, portrait, Lizzie, wip, graphite