Monday 27 May 2013

Various Drawings

Don't worry, I haven't given up on the 30-day challenge yet...just struggling to find a photo to work from. In the meantime, have some other drawings:

This is a zebra. I have some calligraphy pens that I use very rarely; turns out they are good for zebra stripes.

I was discussing opticians with some friends and someone came up with Optic Ian. Two things to note from the these photos: 1) I really must work on getting limbs in proportion 2) My figures would probably look better with shadows under their feet, rather than floating in mid-air.

Here is a rolly man. He is rolling off this page and telling you to come too, because it contains disaster dragons and a lame llama.

I met up with a friend in Boston Tea Party just now and I took my sketchbook along. After the aforementioned fail page of creatures, I decided to draw something I could actually see, so this is a little teapot that had Darjeeling tea in. Drawn only in 5B pencil, because changing pencils is too much effort, or something.

Finally, a creative-technical-type friend of mine discovered an interesting website that allows you to earn skill patches for real-life skills. While some of the challenges seem restrictive, I am tempted to try out a couple so I have a starting point to work from, but I really should finish the 30-day challenge first.

Friday 10 May 2013

30-Day Art Challenge - Day #2: Draw a figure from a reference

Challenge details

After about an hour crowdsourcing ideas for who to draw (no thanks to you, BUNCS - Spongebob Squarepants is NOT a person), I settled on Gendry from Game of Thrones, but I couldn't find a suitable photo. I ended up with this but he was doing something funny with his eyes and I was sick of looking for pictures so I decided to draw Arya Stark instead.

The figure itself wasn't too difficult, aside from the heavy jacket, but it was a real challenge making the face look like Arya. First it looked like some kind of teenage version of her, so I scrapped that and redrew it. I still don't think it's quite right, but it'll have to do. I think it was just difficult to draw a face so small, since I am used to drawing portraits of people that only include the face. In addition, I usually draw men so transitioning to drawing a girl was a bit odd. Anyway, here she is:


Arya Stark, Game of Thrones

Looking at it now, the shoulder is also a bit wonky, but her clothing pretty much covers her figure up so much that it is hard to distinguish what is going on.

Sunday 5 May 2013

Let's Get Down to Business

Business...busy-ness. Get it?

Ahem. I'll see myself out.

Back in London now to look after the small person while mum does jury service. I will resume the drawing challenge tomorrow. Yesterday was a bit hectic with packing and seeing people and today was mostly spent on trains reading Game of Thrones.

I've signed up for a couple of Coursera courses that start on Monday and the Monday after, so we'll see how those go.

Finally, I've booked my tickets to go to Belgium to see a friend who did an Erasmus year at Bristol when I was in first year, yay!

Thursday 2 May 2013

30-Day Art Challenge - Day #1: Self-portrait

Challenge details
First day, and I did this at silly am because who needs to go to bed early when you haven't got anything to get up for? I drew this from a photograph. Max is a giant cat that belongs to my cousins. I went for this mainly because I like kitties, so an actual cat in my self-portrait is perfect :D I got a bit bored after drawing the face and went scribbly, which has led to an inconsistency in detail - not the intended effect.




I'm not entirely sure how to approach this challenge. I mainly draw with pencil or a fine felt-tip pen, but the styles I use for each method of working are quite different. If I want to improve, I feel that I should use the same medium for all the challenges, but but but I want to draw with a pen as well! I could do both, but I'm far too lazy for that, so I think I'll stick with pencil for now and perhaps find a different challenge to do with pen at a later date.

Drawing

I need more inspiration, so I've decided to do a 30-day art challenge.