Block Color Subjects

Saw this picture on Instagram and I immediately wanted to draw it.



First….I made a grid for the blocks of color….Then I drew the contour of the subject.



I adjusted a few things, and played with the watercolor.  A good simple exercise to get me back in line to draw people in watercolor.



On another day…I didn’t want to think about drawing, but I wanted to paint.  So I made a bunch of random squares and rectangles, then proceeded to color them in.





Zoned out to Adele….



This quote has stuck with me.  I know there’s One that wants me at my best… 

Plein Air…. Drink and Draw

This is my favorite Adult Beverage….but I was not drinking it when I drew this pic off of an image on my ipad.  This drawing was for the July World Watercolor Monthly Challenge.



And this one was at Starbucks….where it’s White Chocolate Mocha’s that I digest!  Yum!



And another Starbucks setting, where I wanted to capture the subjects in a bigger mode, as in, the people take up all the space in my moleskine….Ran out of time ….again!



This one is hard…College football games can be quite distracting…lots of movement, lots of Energy!  Love that Energy, unless it’s being directed to me in the form of  “Why aren’t you paying any attention to the game?”!  Gotta love the honesty of loved ones (offspring), but you also gotta do what you gotta do to survive a 4 hour event   .



During this football game….less energy than the seats in the middle of the “student/band crowd”….where I could actually capture some details….And to my chagrin, enjoy the game.



With my schedule…I’m usually ready for dinner at 4pm…so on the days that I’m not responsible for dinner at home….I’ll head out to a local restaurant where hopefully people have bellied up to the bar and I can practice my art!  And by the time I’ve consumed a beer or two….I’ve made some new friends out of the staff or the patrons.



The absolute hardest part about drawing people in public….is them spotting me!  Cuz sometimes they’ll totally change stance, or they keep looking my way….hard to notice details when I have to keep averting my eyes!   I swear the guy in green was on to me!



Pubs are a really good place to practice brick-painting.  As in copying the look of brick in watercolor.



I learn the best from my pieces after posting them somewhere.  Here is no exception….those table angles look like the back wall was not even.   I now know I’ve got to get that perspective right early on. 



This piece was done last week….I really tried to use the lesson from the last piece and keep those table angles in line!  I could do this every day!  I’d learn something new everyday too!

The Human Figure In Motion

I recently bought this book The Human Figure in Motion by Eadweard Muybridge and proceeded to draw some of the figures portrayed in this large book.

The book contains 195 “plates/pictures” of a person taken in burst mode.  The book was published in 1955 so it took a sophisticated camera and lots of editing skills to create this wonderful aid for artists.



Here is Plate 5.  Much of the plate pictures are smaller than these here, and Yes….lots of the people are nude!   Oh My!

When I draw these people…a particular section of a plate….it forces me to pay attention to the angles of the knees, ankles, wrists, necks, elbows, etc.  Lots of things that would be hidden if they were fully clothed.



The other thing that it forces me to do….is to paint in the less-is-more technique.  To use white space.



First I contoured the lady’s figure.



And for some reason….I thought she’d look good in purple! 




This lady cracks me up…..her pose and her cigarette!  What a rebel!!



Going with the negative white space….I really wanted to try my hand at creating shapes with better shadows.



Painted these in a faster clip to get the jest of the movement.



And my handstand guy!  If people know me they will know that I too, like to get inverted when I can…haha!



Training the hand to imitate the eye ….Once done, that’s where I recognize my mistakes!
All in all, a very good exercise!  I will re-visit this soon

Caricature Drawings….New Etsy Shop Listing

I love to take group photos!! But what I like even more is to change them up a bit….colorize and whimsize them!  It’s just fun!



I’ve included a new listing in my Etsy Shop:

I can personalize them in just about any way you want….colors, gestures, hats, glasses, pattern…..done in markers, watercolors, black & white or any combination there of.



All I need is the jpeg file and I can draw a 8 x 11 Caricature piece on good watercolor paper.  I will include a digital jpeg along with the original drawing upon completion.



For my Bloggie-friends (that’s you), I am offering a discount….use DRAW5 at checkout to get $5 off the personalized piece.  Regular cost $27 (plus s/h)….your price $22.



Remember how you dress for Halloween!



I’ve got 6 varieties posted in the shop: 

1. Crazy
2. Wacky
3. Freaky
4. Sunglass
5. Incognito
6. Theatrical

Wouldn't this be a fun way to celebrate Family or an Event?
Just don’t forgot to enter DRAW5 coupon code at checkout.

Crazy Eight

Well….if I had my act together I would’ve posted this on Monday and then I could’ve called it “Mushy Monday”….but I was busy.



I morphed two pictures together for this one.  This is my mom’s side of the family and well….I have a crazy Aunt. 



Maybe she’s not the the only crazy one.  I think we all get a little “touched” when we are together.



I needed to do something different than the goofy pose drawings I’ve done before.

• Wacky Wednesday
• Theatrical Thursday
• Freaky Friday

I haven’t done any stripes yet and well….I’ve always been a big fan of stripes.



My kid sister in the background got an afro because well….I had a lot of white space to fill.  I think she wears it well.  Not too sure if I like the mouths here without lips.  It looks a little Munster-like.

Freaky Friday….Foto Fun

You’ve probably seen this picture on here before since it’s one of my favorite shots.  Many attempts were made to capture all these girls air-borne….let me tell you!



Drew them each out individually the template-way.



I really want to explore watercolor pencils more….but haven’t a clue what I’m doing.  Don’t know a thing about the boundaries of the pencils either.  I know I’ll be trying my hand at more than just “clothes & hair” in the w/c pencils, just gotta figure out what to draw.



It was discussed that the watercolor pencils play well with regular colored pencils, so I tried that here….but you can hardly tell!



I was almost going to finish this off the way I did the butterfly drawing, but I thought that might be too boring.



This turned out kinda cute.  I’m not sure if this is done yet…cuz there is a lot of white space up there.

I’m enjoying these Photo Phun pictures (Wacky, Theatrical)…there easy and mindless….meaning I don’t have to stress over line quality.  That Photo-Realism stuff sure uses that left side of my brain more.  It can get exhausting!! Haha

WIP….Desktops

I am such a digital pack-rat! 



Being of the more visual sort, I get a real kick out of seeing art in it’s “Work-In-Progress” mode. 



Possibly because it hasn’t defined itself totally yet.  The piece can be taken in so many directions.



I especially love it when a drawing surprises me!



What is there not to like about the colors in the pics here?  Anytime I get to use the whole color spectrum, I’m happy!



Graphite pencils….Ya gotta start somewhere!  I must admit, I miss the erasability of graphite.



Desktops!  I’m not the neatest person, that’s for sure.  I also tend to spread out!  If I don’t see it, I forget I have it! Haha



Art journaling in a whimsical way.



Photo-realism…my latest passion!



More graphite work.



More messy desktops.

So, now you can see what I see as I try to bring something into creation.  I love it when I have lots of ideas….all lined up in a row…in my head.  But that’s not always the case.  Art evolves with the person.   Something I may have wanted to do one day doesn’t always carry the same weight the next day.  What I find important is the doing!  The trying to learn new things, to challenge myself with a new picture or new technique.  For instance today…I have no interest in painting.  But that may change. 

I think it’s best to not force yourself to like something you don’t.  This is also the beauty of not being in a super-structured environment.  I have the freedom to choose what to spend my time learning.  With that being said….I can see the flip side of that super-structured environment too!  We can gather information/inspiration from other sources in unexpected ways.  So really either way…it’s a win-win, if I keep the right attitude.

A penny for your thoughts too!  I’d love to hear your take.