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.

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

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

Lifeclass 3

I went to my third life drawing class the other day. This time we had a different model, which was good, even though this lady was obviously a bit nervous about it. Not that I blame her; it's a weird thing to do, isn't it!

This first set were all five minute poses, drawing on A3 cartridge paper using charcoal.






The next two were fifteen minute poses, the first using charcoal again and the second one using a large, flat graphite pencil.



The last pose was 45 minutes and I used a wax pastel for this one, a medium that I've never used before. I'm quite pleased with how it came out (though less pleased with the rubbish photograph of it!).

I was pleased to find out that these classes are now being held twice per month, so I should be showing more drawings soon. This weekend I'm off to Cambridge (I'm examining some poor guy's PhD thesis tomorrow; hope he's not too nervous, I'm quite a gentle examiner really!!), so maybe I'll get some sketching done there. Who knows, I might bump into Anita!

Camellia

It's the time of year when the garden is starting to bloom again. We don't have a lot of bulbs, but we do have some trees that now are in blossom, and also a camellia that is now coming in to flower. It was actually warm enough to sit outside and do a quick sketch of one of the flowers this afternoon, before the rain came down.



drawing graphite camellia

EDM #143 -- draw a herb or spice

I haven't done an EDM challenge for ages, but thought doing a sketch of a nutmeg would be a real challenge! You'd need hours and hours to do something like this justice, but this was a fun quick sketch.



drawing graphite nutmeg EDM

Magdalen Tower, Stage 2

Here's an update on the Magdalen College tower drawing. It's been good to get back in touch with the pencils and paper again, and although I'm not particularly happy with the drawing, I think it's served its purpose, so I'm going to leave it at that and do something that I'm more excited about!



drawing graphite Magdelen+College

Magdalen Tower, Stage 1

Picking up the pencils after not having done much for a while fun, but I do feel a bit rusty! Here is a first stage of a drawing of a view of Magdalen College's bell tower. As you can see, the details on the tower itself are a bit shaky! But I'm enjoying doing the trees. I've foolishly committed myself to taking part in a group exhibition in May, and I had thought this might go in it, but I think now I'm just going to have to treat this as a sort of reacquainting myself with the pencils exercise.

Tech Tags: drawing graphite Magdelen+College

Brick Study

Thanks to everyone for your kind good wishes, and especially to Robyn who sent me some information about a dietary solution to the problem. I'm pleased to say that I am feeling a lot better, so Robyn's advice seems to be working! Thank you so much, Robyn!!

So, now to get creating! I'm easing my way back in with some graphite studies. This one is of bricks...which hopefully you didn't need telling!!


drawing graphite

Jonathan WIP, part 4

I've done a bit more work on the hair. It's still not quite as I would like it to be, but I think I might be making it worse by overworking it now. So, I'm going to leave it now and work on the portrait on my niece.



drawing graphite Jonathan portraits

Jonathan WIP, part 2

Here's an update on the drawing of my nephew, Jonathan, that I started ages ago. I'm still hoping to get this finished in time for Christmas!

Jonathan WIP, part 1

I haven't done a graphite portrait for a while, so here goes with one of my nephew, Jonathan. I liked the pose, though I'm still not sure if it will make a good drawing because you can't see his eyes. Worth a try, anyway! This is done on Bristol smooth, so far I've only used a mechanical 2B pencil. The hair is going to be a challenge!



Tomorrow I'm going to submit a pen and ink drawing I did a while ago to the Oxford Art Society open exhibition. I've never done anything like that before. It's very scary; it's a society for real, professional artists! But the secretary is a friend of mine, and she twisted my arm. Unfortunately, she's not on the selection committee! I'll let you know how I get on...

drawing graphite portraits mechanical+pencil Jonathan

Hawthorn

Time for a return to graphite. I like to use lots of different media -- watercolour, pen and ink, coloured pencil -- but I still find it hard to beat graphite. The control and subtlety of tone that one can get are unrivalled (at least, I can't rival it!). This is a bit of hawthorn, very common around here.

technorati tags: drawing, graphite, hawthorn

Tree study (again!)

I had the chance to go out and draw for a hour or so this evening as the sun was going down, and what better way to spend the time than draw one of my favourite subjects: a tree. I call it a "study" because that sounds like the sort of thing that proper artists do, but really, I just like drawing trees! I had to rush a bit at the end as it was getting dark, but it was a lovely evening to be out drawing.

technorati tags: drawing, graphite, trees

Liz, stage 5

I think I might declare this finished. At any rate, I'm going to to leave it for a few days and then come back to it. It didn't turn out too badly in the end, though I don't think I'll be using this type of paper for drawing on again. I had to resort to using my .3mm mechanical pencil to get into the small crevices in the paper!

technorati tags: drawing, graphite, portraits, WIP, Liz

Liz, stage 4

Here's another update of my portrait of Liz. Coming along quite nicely, I think. Slow progress, but I've no reason to hurry over this one.

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Liz, stage 3

Here's another update. At one point today I almost gave up and started again on different paper as I'm having so much trouble with this. It would be great for something that had lots of texture, but I don't really want my wife's skin to have lots of texture! In the end I thought I'd keep going; it will be good practice for another version, if nothing else. I've started work on the hair as well as changing the right eye yet again and doing a bit more work on the mouth.

technorati tags: drawing, graphite, Liz, EverDayinMay, WIP, portraits

Liz, stage 2

I've not had much drawing time this week, so I haven't made much progress on this drawing, but I thought I'd post what I've done so far. I've corrected the eyes, though I notice that in the process the irises are now not round. But that's easily fixed. The mouth needs more work, but as I said, that's the hardest part! And the hair...I might not have mentioned that Liz has curly hair...

technorati tags: drawing, graphite, WIP, Liz, portraits