I actually drew something halfway decent yesterday. No, not this drawing, but I have to catch up on the sketch book posts because I am a few behind. I actually did this quick sketch back on November sixth, so I am more than a month behind posting this. Obviously it’s just a quick sketch, and the photo was a snapshot I took with my cell phone, but I make it a point to post a photo of every page of my sketchbook, even the not-so-great ones.
As you can see, the focus here was mostly the fist and some of the forearm. I used a 5B pencil with rough, fast movement to create this. There isn’t a whole lot of detail, or really that great of contrast, but it’s a reasonable sketch as far as composition and consistent sizing (something I frequently struggle with when doing detailed drawings where I get lost focusing so much on a single section of a drawing).
Don’t worry, sketch book drawing #50 is a lot more interesting….
I haven’t been doing as much photography as I’d like, but I did get some great shots of my nephew Tyler, which I’ve added to my gallery. This one is an example of playing with color, emphasizing the color and texture of his overalls while softening his skin tones. I actually had to desaturate the overalls a little in order to keep them from taking all the focus of the viewer. Hopefully this allows your eyes to jump to the clothes and then drift up to his cheerful face. He was quite a champ on such a cold day!
I doubt if the coming rainy months are going to help me get out and do some photography, but perhaps I will actually draw something. We’ll see….
About a month ago I did a photoshoot, taking some outdoor portraits as well as some (indoor) artistic nudes. It was my first chance to play around with my PocketWizard FlexTT5s, and I found that when they work, they work very well. Unfortunately, they aren’t as reliable as I’d like. I still managed to get some great shots, which I put on my photography site, so take a look.
I have not been creating as much art as I’d like, particularly more traditional art. I happened to be unable to sleep last night and decided to play around with my favorite medium (charcoal). This is based on a small sketch by Giovanni Givardi in his book Drawing the Human Body: An Anatomical Guide
Anyway, This one turned out pretty well. I cut it short at the bottom to keep the focus above, though I should have done so in a more artistic way. The hands turned out relatively well, considering how difficult fine detail is with charcoal. Like any drawing, there are plenty of imperfections, but it certainly felt good to be creative again. All things considered, it’s a decent drawing considering how long it has been since the last one!
I was pulling papers out of an old binder to prepare for a class I am taking starting tomorrow night, and I came across this story that I started about two years ago. It’s just the start of a random story, so don’t expect too much, but at least it will brush off some of the dust that has settled on this blog. I haven’t done any proofreading, so it’s a bit rough as well.
Like most mornings, I had smacked the snooze button of my alarm clock a few times before forcing myself out of the warm bed. Zombie mode had taken over as I completed the ritualized morning routine. I ate my cereal, skimming through a car magazine, trying to imagine owning the latest supercar. I neglected thinking about the inability to drive the car to my apartment’s designated parking space due to the extra large speed bumps and instead focused on accelerating to three times the speed limit faster than my car could get onto the highway. Being a fantasy, the cops were actually pulling over drivers for cutting people off rather than speeding, and people actually stayed out of the fast lane instead of being three cars wide with only a one-mile-per-hour difference. Continue reading ‘Morning Keys’
