Blonde Beauty….woman

As is my habit….finished things up with my very fine nibbed micron marker.  Just cleans up those edges.



If I could take a private art lesson with a master…it would be in the hair category.  Mine always looks so plastic.  I opted-out drawing the mole on her upper cheek.

*Inspiration Image found HERE

Wow!  This woman is a beauty!  I’ll give that to her.  What a fun image to sketch.  As you can see I had to work with my tools and my skill level and make it fun for me.  Which means ….not to worry too much about the scarf colors…..not to worry too much about skin tone…..just play with the shapes.  That’s what I enjoy 


If you’d like to follow the sketch from start to finish…here goes:

1. Wash
2. Wrestling
3. Wingin'
4. Whittling
5. Woo'ing

Blonde Beauty….whittling

I’m running out of “w” adjectives or verbs to describe this drawing and I finally settled on whittling.  Because drawing is a bit like sculpting with color.  Can anyone relate?



About 90% done with the eyes.  I will need to go in and show some shininess with white in the pupil….but I’ll wait until the end to do that. (picture showing the wax build-up around the nose reflection, ugh!)



Worked whittled the nose today.  The thing most interesting about noses in these types of drawings is…..we really don’t have to “oversketch” it.  We have to let the shadows tell the story.  Kind of against my instincts!

Blonde Beauty….wingin’

Most of the pattern details and all were winged (made up).  Cuz a scarf, is a scarf, is a scarf….the specific details wouldn’t make her or break her.



I must say, working with all this color is fun.



Need to build up a lot more of that eye shadow.  I’ve erased twice already because things were getting muddy.



Very similar picture to the one above.  It helps me to see it on the monitor to judge just what needs to be done next.  Remember….I can’t trust my initial instincts.  Things are not always as I think they are when drawing.

Blonde Beauty….wrestling

Wrestling with contour coloring here.  Lots of little color changes in that scarf.



Colored everything in with watercolor.  It was like doing a paint-by-number.



I have zero-confidence in my ability to do a face strictly in watercolor.  Just did a wash base then brought in the colored pencils.  Way more control this way!



Now she’s looking more humanoid.  Those eyes were a bit freaky

Blonde Beauty….wash

Well, it’s been about a week since I sketched….and I was driving everyone around me crazy.  So, off I went into my “someday stash” of inspiration pictures.



Started this with a watercolor wash.  I think this helps to add dimension to the colored pencil portion.  Granted….it’s non-erasable so I have to go light.



I would’ve preferred not drawing a face since those are such a challenge.  But lots of the face is hidden here and since it’s not someone I know, the little variations aren’t going to bug me so much.



Every time I start a sketch, I get overwhelmed.  But…..it’s just a bunch of sections.  If I can keep that in mind…I will enjoy this.