Drifting Embers - Studies

Portrait

nospam@example.com (Jean) — Thu, 27 Jun 2013 23:49:34 -0700

A portrait of my daughter.

Still Life 3

nospam@example.com (Jean) — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 20:42:19 -0700

My husband bought me a Samsung tablet a while back so I could paint away from my desk. Taking it outside causes a lot of glare on the screen, so he bought me a folding chair with a canopy cover. We threw an old quilt over it, and it seemed to work fine. I wonder if it will work at the beach with all the wind. My husband is so very sweet.

Studies 17

nospam@example.com (Jean) — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 13:41:28 -0700

What to say? I get frustrated with these.

Still Life 2

nospam@example.com (Jean) — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 13:23:58 -0700

More painting from life.

Still Life

nospam@example.com (Jean) — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 17:55:57 -0700

Painted a pony.

Concept

nospam@example.com (Jean) — Sat, 12 May 2012 12:51:22 -0700

I am not happy with this because it looks more polished than I wanted. I was just trying to design an outfit, but then I had no idea about the colours. So I tried choosing colours, but couldn't visualise it well without lighting. So I thought I'd try making it like a concept piece. I added lighting, and my brushwork was atrocious, since I have trouble with brushwork. Even though I'm using bigger brushes at higher opacities than I used to, I'm still having to repeatedly paint over areas to make it more "chunky" and defined with the right shapes as opposed to "splotchy" and messy. I tried very hard to think in terms of paint-by-number instead of constant blending, and I still don't think I'm doing it right. I'd like to get the earlier stages of a piece to read better.

Yuck: She's kind of a slumpy girl. I used a mirror and thought a lot about the underlying anatomy, but my attempts at it still made her look unnatural.
Yay: I learned a lot about leather boots, pants, and various facial expressions.

Studies 15

nospam@example.com (Jean) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 23:51:27 -0800

Studying the shoulder girdle and the muscles attached to the scapula. Couple more attempts at composition design.

Studies 14

nospam@example.com (Jean) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 02:46:08 -0800

I am a very slow and inefficient person in life. It grates on me all the time. It annoyed me enough the other day that I completely analysed my workspace in Photoshop and streamlined it. Remapped a bunch of my tablet's keys. Learned how to auto-hide panels. Figured out where to put my keyboard while I'm painting so I can actually use keyboard hotkeys. Was amazed at how much time it shaved off.

I painted the arm to my art mannequin to try out the shading techniques I learned in the workshop I took last year. I think it took around 20-30 minutes.

I started doing value studies of paintings I like, kind of like this (Sargeant) and this (Giancola). I was mostly concerned with composition and looking at value masses and hard vs. soft/lost edges. Then I decided after every one or two I finish I will throw something together of my own for composition practise. This time was a waterfall.

Still working on anatomy. Tried drawing figures from photographs while thinking in terms of spheres. Drew my husband's back. Had no idea what I was looking at. Except for the arm, I knew the muscles there! Looks like my sketch smeared there though. Hmmph. I think some technical studies of the scapula area are in order.

Studies 13

nospam@example.com (Jean) — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 23:27:42 -0800

I chose to study a photograph with a highly unnatural pose and fabric preventing me from discerning the back leg very well mainly because the arm and front leg were situated in a way that I did not have any muscle diagrams that matched. I wanted to try figuring out where they would be located.

When I drew the gesture, I drew the overlaps in the upper arms backwards because I didn't understand how the deltoid insertion moves with the arm. I also noticed one of my previous studies looks like I connected the iliotibial band to the femur instead of the tibia. Lots to learn.

Studies 12

nospam@example.com (Jean) — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 00:49:10 -0700

Trying to get faster at doing quick sketches.

Studies 11

nospam@example.com (Jean) — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 01:49:23 -0700

Gesture drawings and an attempt to visualise the muscles in a photograph of a male ballet dancer.

Studies 10

nospam@example.com (Jean) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 01:07:29 -0700

I have learned that a great way to get time for personal projects is to fall down the stairs and break your foot! I have been completely rewriting my webcomic script. I was also able to watch a Vilppu video on gesture. These are the most prodigiously counterintuitive drawings I have ever tried. You can tell me to "feel" the pull and "experience" the pose, and my brain is obliged to respond with complete blankness.

Studies 9

nospam@example.com (Jean) — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 15:25:01 -0700

Drawing my hand.

Studies 8

nospam@example.com (Jean) — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 17:21:34 -0700

I'm currently recovering from surgery. Feeling much better. It seems that my trick for ending up bed-ridden is to set any kind of drawing goals, as they've coincided for months.

Well, before all that I did a couple quick photograph studies. My husband had agreed to sit for me every night for half an hour or so and I drew him a few times. I think he's gorgeous, but his unusually large skull gives me a bit of trouble. I tried out Posemaniacs for gesture drawing, set to something around a minute per image. I did a Caravaggio study of a detail from The Calling of Saint Matthew.

Studies 7

nospam@example.com (Jean) — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 16:12:24 -0800

Studied Richer diagrams to learn the leg muscles and then attempted to identify leg muscles in a photograph.