More Exercises from "Keys to Drawing"

Well, first of all I hope that anyone is reading this had a Happy and Merry Christmas! I wish you a Happy New Year as well!  With the holidays in full swing and family visiting I haven't been able to draw every day, but I still been able to do some drawing. Here is a sample of some of the projects from my book I have been able to do. 

The first one is an attempt to use "masters" techniques. First to copy an original and then to emulate what a master has done in ones own art. I used a self portrait by Kathe Kollowitz done in charcoal. I think I chose this piece simply because it was done in charcoal. I have never really used this medium before and found it a quite enjoyable. Here is an image of the original followed by my copy:

The next image is the piece where I had to emulate this style in a piece of art done on my own. I did use a photo image from shutterstock.com for the model. Here is the outcome:

These last few pieces are just some of the additional projects from this same book. There are some short gesture drawings and then some studies in shading or tone. The last piece was a photo found in the book. The idea was to redraw it matching the tones found in the original photo with the recreated piece done in pencil. 

Original

                                                                       

                                                                  My Re-creation

BLAHHHHH!!!!

It's times like this I wish I could erase or better yet, tear out pages from my skecthbook....=/

Still Life

I attempted to work on some still life drawings last Friday. Trying to incorporate what I have been learning lately.

Peppers!

Worked on this exercise from my book today. The first pepper was drawn from memory, second I used a reference. Again, I did no erasing, used restating and some blind drawing. Let me know what you think.

Just some random sketches from earlier this month.

I have a new book!

I went and bought myself the book, "Keys to Drawing," by Bert Dodson, even after I said I would till after Christmas. However, I couldn't wait. I wanted to get started on these techniques ASAP! Things were a bit slower at work today and so I tried to draw my hands....didn't work out so well. Tonight I tried drawing my feet, things don't look so great.

In this book the author talks about restating your lines and drawing blind, both of which I tried to do in each of these sketches. All I have to say, is it's a lot harder that it would seem. I am definitely going to need some time to get use to these techniques and make sure I am asking myself the right questions as I draw. 

Here are the sketches, let me know what you think:

Digital Painting

Here is a WIP, something I started working on this weekend. Comments always appreciated. Again just trying to learn how to paint using my tablet. The original was taken from here.

Heading Back to School

I went and talked with an academic advisor at UVU last Friday. Exploring the possibility of going back to school to study Illustration! I have to admit I was about to cancel my appointment due to my lack of self confidence when it comes to art. However, I have to say I was sooooo glad I went. My questions were all answered and then in addition to meeting with an advisor I got to meet with Don Seegmiller (you can find a link to his website here on my blog, see below). Don is an amazing Illustrator and I have always been amazed by his work, my goal is to be that good one day.

I found out a couple of years ago he actually lives in Utah and he teaches at UVU! I ddin't think I would really ever take any classes with him, let alone meet him! Can't describe how excited and scared I was when I got to talk to him. That was quite the experience...especially when he asked to look at my most sketchbook. It was amazing. He gave me some compliments and some tips to get better.

First thing he told me to do was to never erase. Second thing never tear pages out of my sketchbook. Third keep drawing everyday. He even told me I should invest in this book and use it religiously, "Keys to Drawing." I think I will wait to buy it until after Christmas....maybe Santa will bring it to me, if I am good that is!

I will have to get some more images scanned and posted on the web site. Drawing at work is proving to be a challenge, things are getting really busy. I need to spend more time doing this at night while I am home anyway if I don't get another post about between now and the year end, Merry Christmas!