1 June 2001
Last year: Obviously, we need to buy more books.
Happy June!
And as a special surprise today, kiddies, its.... Picture Day!
(No, it's got nothing to do with the fact that my life is boring. It isn't. Shut up.)
First of all, my garden, as of this very morning. I went out to take a look, and holy cow was that an actual flower I saw on the tomato plant??? And when I pulled up a few of the carrot plants (you have to thin them from time to time) were they actually starting to look like carrots? (Little tiny two-inch-long miniscule carrots, but carrots nonetheless.)
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Now. I know I've told you my week at work is veryvery boring. So yesterday, I was surfing around, and I remembered hearing from multiple sources that a good way to learn to draw is to try to copy pictures from magazines. And I happened to have the May issue of Mode on my desk. And my sketchbook in my bag...
I tried two pictures, and they both turned out much better than I was expecting. Now, they look much better without having the originals next to them for comparison, but in the interest of full disclosure, I'll put each of my sketches next to the picture I was using as a reference. Along with notes.
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| I didn't make her jaw long enough, so the face looks a little squished. And the hair just looks weird - I'm only grateful I didn't try to copy that flyaway bit of hair in her face. Her eyes look a little flatter than they should; I didn't make the lids as low as they are in the model picture. But I'm pretty happy with it overall. I'm especially pleased with the nose, the ear, and the shadowing of the neck. | |
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| As you can see, I had to make up the whole top of the head. Given that the original model was wearing a hat and his eyes were almost too shadowed to see, I think I did pretty well. I'm less pleased with his ear, but the whole ear is much harder to do than the half-ear I did for the woman. I can't believe I forgot to put in that line from his nose to his lip. I tried to put in the beard growth, but he didn't look adorably unkempt like the guy in the photo; he looked like a ruffian who wanted to take my money. Oh, and I tried for about fifteen minutes, and it's completely useless to try to draw the top lip for a picture of a man. It just looks stupid. On the other hand, one of my attempts at copying the line of his lip made it look like the guy in the sketch was smiling with a slightly open mouth, and I thought it was cute, so that's the way I left it. I do like the way his jaw and neck turned out. And in case you're wondering what the word at the top is, it's "Stetson" - it was an ad for Stetson cologne. | |
Get used to it; I'll probably do more as I continue practicing. And I've got another boring day at work today...
Word of the Day:
kerfuffle - disturbance; fuss (primarily British)
Currently Reading:
- To Reign In Hell by Steven Brust
Current Projects:
- drawing
- Hall stuff
- garden