This sketch session was with the North Park Drawing Group. I’m glad that I found a community of awesome artists!
Author: Ryan
30-Day Sketches | Khaleesi Cosplayer
This was a fun one! This is Khaleesi in Game of Thrones and decided to give it a go. I liked the hair and lighting. It was good practice and still working plum lines and lips.
30-Day Sketches | at a Coffee Shop
While at a local coffee shop today, I found the opportunity to do a super quick sketch and challenge myself. (Coffee shops are good places, most folks are pretty much still mos of the time.) He was a distance away and I knew I had 3-4 minutes and that was it. It came out slightly…
Underpainting Studies
Following my studies from my online sessions about the human face anatomy, this is my first attempt at an oil painting…
Torso Sketches and Blind Contour
The session this evening at the art studio (The San Diego Art Loft) was a fun one! We drew from 2-minute torso poses and one blind contour pose. We also did 2, 20-minute sessions of the same pose. After the session, I went back into the full figure pose to fill in the darks…
Nose and Eyes Exercises
From the online courses, I continue to practice more eyes and noses. I’m excited to be testing different media and curious how dark of darks that I can get.
Mom and Me Painting Session, The Waning Crescent
A birthday present from my mom, lol. This was our “Mom and Me” moment doing a painting together hosted by Little Ant Art in Imperial Beach. Thank you mom, this was fun! It’s often really cool to paint in acrylics because the paint dries much more faster than oils. It’s also a great way to…
Portrait Sketch
I was inspired by my father-on-law taken from this photograph from my wedding. It’s a great photo of him and my wife dancing together, pre-health issues, that he later was to lose his battle with diabetes. Good thing that I had my sketchbook while at the DMV today. You know how that goes and long…
Color Proportions Piece
This was a fun one, although I’ll have to admit, not at first, lol. I’m having a tendency to lay out the initial drawing with a wide base. This made the model appear wider on paper. We were able to fix this and place the torso in a box frame. My challenges began with laying…
Graphite Exercises for Eyes, Noses, and Mouths
Over the first three weeks into the online course (through The Watts Atelier, San Diego), we’ve focused on these areas of the human portrait. I realize that shapes don’t have to be perfect and how much that perspective and depth has to be considered. It has been a fun and still a bit challenging so far.
Grid Drawing, 4 Sections
This was incredibly challenging. The exercise this week was to break down a drawing of our model into 4 sections. I decided to start with the model’s left hand (lower right) and go section by section. Vine charcoal is nice because it’s a very forgiving medium, and I can erase and fix the piece as…
Nose Charcoal Sketch
The assignment for week: nose sketches. I chose vine charcoal because of its texture and how I can smudge the medium into shapes. I’m starting to see how this relates to painting by including the background. The darker shade of the background creates a soft line to show the nose and brow ridge. I hate…
Skull Exercises
One of the many hardest things to draw in general is a skull. Yet it’s a good way to understand the face, proportions and where the eyes are in relation to the nose, brow ridge, mouth, and ears.
The Classical Shadows
This was from my first session at a nearby studio, San Diego Art Loft. This exercise is about finding the dark areas of the subject using the side of a charcoal stick. My “aha moment” came from squinting my eyes and focusing on the shapes formed by dark shadows. I think that when it comes…
Charcoal Exercise with Michelangelo
What better way than to learn from a classical master, Michelangelo. On tracing paper this exercise was to use charcoal sticks to widely cover dark areas. Then go into details with a charcoal pencil.
Session Warmup Action
A warm up session, the first of the year. It’s also from my first online session with the Watts Atelier. I’m discovering a different way of using my charcoal pencils and sticks. I still have a bit a ways to go in my technique in putting together composition and perspective. Along with my painting goals,…