Stevie on Braille

The basement in my old house was magical. So many people had come and gone before I lived there, that the basement had turned into a wondrous land of mystery. Sometimes it seemed that all you had to do was think of something you needed and go down to the basement; you would surely find it there. Of course the greatest treasures found down there were the things that you never knew you needed. Like a giant book of braille paper, for example. I've had this thing sitting in my closet for almost a year, waiting for the perfect opportunity to use it. So this weekend I pulled it out and did the only logical thing with it. Painted a picture of Stevie Wonder. I hope you enjoy.

Baby's first steps

This drawing marks the combination of two awesome thrift store finds. The paper is from a lined ledger book from the 60s that I found at the bins and the drawing is from an old photograph (1930s?) that I found at a thrift store in Rockaway, OR.

Old photographs are fascinating to me because they not only chronicle the aesthetics of a different time, but also a time when photography was relatively new and people weren't as self aware as they are now. I bought about 20 of these old family photos and as I was drawing this it occurred to me that I have no connection with these people; there is no deeper meaning beyond aesthetic pleasure and nostalgia. Driven by that, I'm hoping to dig up some photos from my own family's past and use them as subjects. More to come.

Long Pose #2

I'm definitely happier with this one than yesterday's drawing and as you can see I'm back on the scrapbook paper. Something about that tone really does it for me. I omitted the chair and most of the head in this one, which made it easier to focus on the shadows and tone of the figure, and I'm really happy with the way the left hand turned out. Definitely the best part of the drawing. The white colored pencil did a good job of bringing out the highlights in the figure.

Okay guys, I promise no more nudes for at least a week.

Long Pose #1

Last Sunday I went back to PNCA for a "long pose" session. One pose for three hours. The instructor had the model pose with high heels and black stockings, and couldn't say enough good things about the pose. I felt differently. I don't think this pose was dynamic enough for a three hour session, and I had trouble getting into a groove because of it. I found a pad of colored charcoal paper at the Bins and used that for this drawing, experimenting with pen and colored pencil. Obviously I was having a hard time with the face so just pretend that part isn't there. Tomorrow's drawing is a more traditional approach than this, but I think the color is a nice touch.

I've also noticed that I like the combination of yellow, turquoise blue, and pink/purple. I wonder when that started.

Another one

Normally I shy away from rendering a model's face because, well because faces are difficult. This model had a very intense stare, which made me want to take a stab at it. The trick is to look at the face as just another jumble of shapes in varying degrees of light and dark, rather than see the shapes as recognizable figures (nose, mouth, eyes). I feel like the main struggle with drawing anything is to overcome what you think the subject looks like and draw what you're actually seeing. This is probably one of the hurdles that keep so many people from starting to draw.

If you haven't already, make sure you preorder a copy of Dewclaw Issue 2 over at Lisp Service. It's only $8 and it features all of my animal portraits and stories, as well as the previously unpublished backstory of Arthur Giraffe. You don't want to miss out on this one.

More figure drawing

Here's another drawing from last week's figure drawing session. I like how the shading came out in this one, and how it weighs down the figure.

If you haven't already, make sure you check out the latest post at Chickens Don't Clap! which features the top 25 albums of 2009, as well as a heading drawn by yours truly. Enjoy!

Floppy Desk

So around a year or so ago I found this desk across the street from my house. It was a bit beat up, drawers missing, and paint chipped, but I thought there was still some life in it yet. For a long time it sat in our front entrance, gathering mail, scarves, keys, and providing much needed storage space underneath. As useful as it was, I felt it wasn't living up to it's potential so I decided to fix it up a bit and give it to my cousin's daughter for her fourth birthday.



I sanded the whole thing down and painted it purple, then outfitted it with new drawer knobs that I got from the rebuilding center. The most challenging thing was figuring out what to do about the two missing bottom drawers. But then I remembered how kids like cubby holes to put stuff in, and with the expert woodworking help (once again) of Michael Heumann we were able to turn them into just that. Below is a picture of Nora and her sister Lila sitting atop the finished product.



Oh yeah, and I drew a picture of it too.

New Nude

Here's another nude from last week's session. This also marks my first post on my new computer which will hopefully make posts tens times more abundant and transplendent. Happy Spring everyone.

Nude Scribble Shade

I attended another figure drawing session last night at PNCA and tried to go in a few different directions. Focusing on specific details and shading instead of drawing with no agenda. This is my first attempt at doing a scribble shade from life. It was only a five minute pose, so I didn't have the time to get in all the detail I would have liked, but I like the texture it brings out. I have a few more drawings from this session that I'll be posting in the next few days.

In other news a good friend is in town visiting from San Diego which is always a good excuse to go out on the town and hopefully do some karaokeing. I hope everyone is having a good time in SXSW this weekend. Wish I was there.

Scribble Shade + Watercolor

This was the drawing I referred to on Friday being part one of a three part series (part two being the self portrait). I decided to try and salvage it and I'm relatively happy with the way it came out. Been a while since I've worked with watercolor, but I really like it as a medium and I'm especially excited about all the ways in which one can use it with pen and ink. Portraits are so tricky, you mess one thing up and the whole thing looks off. I guess this is why I prefer drawing animals. They're just happy to be drawn at all.