Life Drawing, Spring 2016

Life Drawing, May 22, 2016
Prismacolor Nu-pastels on toned paper, 18″ x 24″

I have mentioned my new life drawing adventure a few times, and finally here is some of it! I joined an open Sunday session (12:30-3:30) at the local art center. I only managed to make it to 7 of the first 10 sessions, but have just completed day one of the next 10.

The colorful fellow above was actually wearing a black hat and tuxedo jacket (with regular brown cigar), but I was trying out my Prismacolor Nu-pastels and wanted to use more colors. He’s a sort of naughty Willy Wonka I suppose (though not on purpose). :D

The next one is from my third 3-hour session with the Nu-pastels. This time it’s a bit of a Hindu goddess aesthetic rather than a Wonka one.

Life Drawing June 5, 2016
Prismacolor Nu-Pastels on toned paper, 18″ x 24″

The next is a portrait, so not exactly figure drawing. I probably spent more time on the hair than anything. This took three hours and I am pretty happy with it.

Life drawing June 12, 2016
18″ x 24″, graphite

And finally, this week’s figure using the full three hours. I didn’t show you all my attempts, but suffice it to say even a few weeks of practice can make a big difference!

LD June 12 2016

Hello to Paint Party Friday, and thanks for visiting!

Post #375, Further Pencil Adventures

Tree Bird, 9″ x 12″ pencils

A tree! A bird! An odd creature at the bottom of the tree, wondering how it got there and where it was going and whether it was supposed to meet someone or was in the midst of an errand? Sometimes it’s hard to know.

Many pencil works happened this month! And I am squeaking a post into May, as I try not to think about how quickly this year is moving. Here’s more!

Winfred, with a small contingent of her many admirers, 9″ x 12″ pencil

A Turtle Merchant, 9″ x 12″ pencil

Cosmo and Bess, 9″ x 12″ pencil

So there you have it! I may put some in my shop, rather than leave them neglected in piles around my office. I hope everyone is enjoying their (speedily passing) 2016! Hello to Paint Party Friday.

Thanks so much for visiting!

More imaginary creatures in pencil!

Dash and Philipa

The latest 9″ x 12″ pencil drawing, Dash and Philipa. Perhaps you are of the opinion that Philipa should have more of the letter L or more of the letter P. Look, she spelled it for me and she should know!

I haven’t posted in a while. So here’s lots more pencil critters, new since the last post.

Fiona and Ming, Jules and Willow

Hat with Birds, Dingo

Fifi and Juniper, Irina in her party dress

You should be able to click on these images and enlarge them. But WordPress has been tinkering, or something, and things are not working like they once did. Arrgh! However, I have added these to my pencil portfolio, and you can see em a bit bigger there!

Thanks for dropping in!

Daisy and Others, in Pencil

Daisy, 9″ x 12″ pencils

Daisy in Progress

Daisy started as a sketch I considered using for a (requested) coloring page. I’ve been trying to practice/add more botanical elements as a way of making these recent portrait type pencil works more interesting.

You may remember these guys before the flowers:

Two in Flowers, 9″ x 12″ pencils

And more from the past couple weeks:

Ernestine in Cloche, Niles
Each 9″ x 12″ pencils

I have started a gallery of recent pencil art and here is a link. You can also get there via the menu at the top of the page, on the far right. The gallery is a work in progress and not working perfectly quite yet. (I may try to find another portfolio-making widget.)

Some excitement at the blog this weekend! Apparently some Indian hackers were using my bandwidth for Indian porn. (Nothing any of my visitors would ever see. No, they prefer to be sneaky and use some behind-the-scenes BS! But my hosting peeps Dreamhost run a thing called Stop the Hacker! so they let me know there was a problem.) And I am SO lucky to live with an excellent computer programmer who can fix such things. And he did. The end. :D

Welcome visitors! Hello to Paint Party Friday!

Enid, Hamish, Peko, Bordeaux, Lindy. Pencils!

Enid, 9″ x 12″ Pencils

So, instead of one or two nights like most of these 9×12 pencils I’ve been doing, I put in an extra couple days on this one for added depth and detail. Frequent visitors to this blog may recall my love of snoods!

And here is some of the rest of the gallery from the past couple weeks (with bird friends!):

Hamish with New Friend, Peko & Midori (click to enlarge)

Midge & Bordeaux, Lindy and Margaret (click to enlarge)

A few notes. So much smudging! In some cases, I have tried to remove the smudging (in Adobe Elements where I do most of my brightness corrections and resizing), but some still show more smudging that others. Also, I have included my blog address because while lots of people re-post images, many of them do not mean to “steal” but to share. Those sorts of folks will leave an identifier so I have included the link.

Friends, I must confess – I have THREE ink projects I have put off. The bad excuse is that I am in pencil mode! But the truth is that procrastination and fear of bad outcomes continue to bedevil me. That much said, I may have some inky things (and procrastination recovery to report) next time!

Thanks so much for dropping in! Hello to Paint Party Friday!

Hattie, Jim, Miranda, Giles – More Friends in Pencil

Hattie
9″ x 12″ pencil

Hattie in progress, 9″ x 12″ pencil (click to enlarge)

Jim & Miranda
9″ x 12″ pencil

Giles with Bowtie
9″ x 12″ pencil

Still at it! 005 mechanical pencil with HB lead, and some 4B and new 8B Staedtler pencils.

Thanks to all for stopping by and leaving nice comments! Hello to Paint Party Friday!

Mechanical Pencil Works in Progress

Gump and Rosie, 9″ x 12″ pencil in progress

More pencils I have been working on. Now using the 005 HB mechanical pencil with a Staedtler 6B for extra dark bits (pupils, nostrils and a few other spots). They needed names, so they are Gump & Rosie.

9″ x 12″ pencil in progress (click to enlarge)

9″ x 12″ pencil in progress

Sometimes I get to a certain point and set it aside. This last one has been at this stage for a couple weeks and it’s not done but I haven’t decided what else to do with it. I think a background but I fear all the inevitable smudging.

Another good pencil video: How to Shade with a Pencil by LethalChris Drawing.

Hello to Paint Party Friday and thank you to all the recent visitors! It’s nice to be back in action. :D

And Now with Mechanical Pencil

Preston with Bowtie, 9″ x 12″ pencil

I’ll be honest, I don’t know why I keep drawing flowers on their noses and hair. I kind of dig it. This one I think is not quite as nice as my first very serious fur attempt, but he has some excellent qualities.

I picked up an 005 mechanical pencil with HB lead and I love it! I don’t have to sharpen it! But, sometimes you have to let more lead out instead of scratching stuff up and not realizing you have to let more lead out. Haha. I also got some of these tortillions but didn’t have them handy and the q-tip continued to be a fine alternative. (Don’t you love supplies with fancy names that don’t cost an arm and a leg!)

As a side note, it has sadly come to my attention that all of my old gallery slideshows of work in progress no longer work. When I first started in 2011 the whole process was SO TEDIOUS with the scanning and re-sizing and cleaning up and re-naming and posting holy cow. But I learned things and some people liked the things, and that’s great! And now, to new things! With mechanical pencils sometimes!

Thanks for dropping in! Hello to Paint Party Friday!

Fur & Hair, Adventures in Pencil

This was supposed to be the year of acrylic painting (and may yet be), but January has mostly been the month of the pencil! Most recently, in a break from watching Poirot reruns, I have been watching hair and fur tutorial and speed-drawing videos. Here is my first serious attempt! Took about four hours of layering, and is missing a bit of brightness.

Grady’s Coiffure, 9″ x 12″ pencil

I think Grady’s got a bit of a Seussian aspect, but with fancier hair!

Pencils: 2H, F, B, 2B (because that’s what I had handy) I did not get a blending stump (tortillon) but one of the videos suggested a q-tip and it worked pretty well. I also found a kneaded eraser but need more practice with it. I am going to pick up a couple mechanical pencils and try those, and I also need some darker pencils, maybe a 4B or 6B. Darker is better but I fear the smudging! I really need to be more conscious of the smudge guard I try to use.

Some related videos I found very helpful:

LethalChris Drawing:
How to Draw a Bear, How to Draw a Panda Bear, How to Draw Realistic Hair

Proko, How to Draw Hair (I’ve mentioned Proko before. He is charming and a great teacher.)

Daisy van den Berg, Drawing Fur (dog)

Mark Crilley, How to Draw a Kitten

Fine Art Tips, How to Draw a Mouse with a Mechanical Pencil

Do you have any favorite youtube art channels? Please share! Thanks for stopping by!

Fanciful Pencil Beasts!

Horace and Friends, 9″ x 12″ pencil

Lots of drawing in pencil continues! All 9″ x 12″ as I work through some Bristol board drawing pads. These are I think the better ones, each done in an evening or sometimes two. (I post more frequently on my Facebook page .)

: Hound with Tiny Hat

: Dulcibelle

: Percival in Bloom

: Wulfrid in Camouflage

I do have a new painting started though I have yet to work out a consistent painting schedule. Do I need a schedule? It seems like maybe I do. Thanks so much for dropping by!

Horace and Friends
9″ x 12″ pencil and 12″ x 12″ early painting stage

The Slumbering Herd Art Blog

Artist: Cindy Dauer