X-Files

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I'm a water feature

Right now there are only two people in the entire world who understand this. If you're not one of them, feel free to add your own interpretation. For Em and Liv, thanks for making what could have been an awful, self-pitying Friday into an excellent friend-filled start to the Christmas break :)

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Kristin Kreuk

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Surprise

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Amy Acker

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Aishwarya Rai

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Ali Larter

Number 6 in my set of attempts to get one of my drawings to actually look like Ali Larter. I think I'm almost there...

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Katie Melua

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Alicia Silverstone

Now I wasn't absolutely sure that all the fundamental practice I'd been doing, to re-learn some key techniques for drawing (including my weakest area - patience), was going to pay off. But I could not be happier with how this turned out, and from my POV I think it now takes the mantle of my best ever picture :)

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More anime

Today's entry from my Drawspace.com exercises:

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Anime

I drew an Astroboy picture back in high school, but this is only the second anime style drawing I've done. Again, it's constructed using step-by-step instructions on Drawspace.com

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Koala

This one's mostly about symmetry and the technique of using many small curved lines to represent fur. Turned out well, I think.

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A horse walks into a bar...

This is simply an extension of the earlier exercise in identifying basic shapes and proportions, and then gradually building detail on them, including appropriate shading.

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Gremlin

If you can follow the steps to draw this face, you can probably draw every other portrait I've done, since all the framework and shading techniques I've used for earlier drawings are used right here.

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Optical illusion

Can you see the goblet? Can you see the faces? If this optical illusion is new to you I'd be stunned. However, I'd never drawn one before, and this is based on a real profile from my photo reference collection. It's surprisingly hard to get even as close to a proper reflection as I managed!

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Deer

One early exercise in seeing shapes and using these to build more complex sketches had me drawing from a duck-shaped candle (not shown here), and then prompting the search for another picture to try the technique on. Here's the result, which I'm happy with, evidence of more patience than usual, and a willingness to get the proportions right before rushing into any detail.

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Starting again

Dissatisfaction with these rough sketches, and a feeling that my drawing had plateaued, has prompted me to return back to basics with my drawing, so the next several posts are the results of exercises from Drawspace.com. If you're at all interested in learning to draw, that's a pretty good place to start, and even going through the basics has reminded me of plenty I'd forgotten since my last art class 18 years ago.

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Smile

Face

Bite

Smile

One morning drawing, and now I'm off to watch the final 4 episodes ever of Veronica Mars...

Face

I'd gone a whole day without drawing a face, so thought I'd close out with this. Unfortunately it doesn't capture the subtle amusement of the original, which was the reason I chose to try it in the first place.

Poses

More attempts at getting proportions right, in some line drawings with negligible shading. Since I drew these at A5 scale, any faces I drew didn't work, so I left just the guidelines.

Carillon

This didn't quite work as well as I'd hoped. Although it should at least be recognisable, I didn't get the dimensions right before I started filling in detail, and then got wedded to it, rather than starting again from scratch.

Ouch!

Pose

Michelle Trachtenberg

Heroes

Baseball fan

Tinny and Beardo

I don't, at this stage, know what these guys' story is, but I'm sure it's interesting...

A little more detail

Again, more focused on overall proportions, rather than tying myself to achieving photo-likeness.

Frame only

Just trying to get the proportions right, rather than any concern with detail. Doing more of this inures me to a target of perfection, and just focuses me on drawing, drawing and more drawing.

More faces

A couple of rougher sketches, on the way to seeing how simple I can make my portraits while still retaining key details.

Expressions

Experiments with different expressions, in a more cartoony style. No reference behind these, just purely imagination.

Smiles

None of these turned out exactly as I'd hoped, a side-effect of staying away from drawing too long I guess. At least they're all happy :)

Stupendo the Terrible!!!

I lost the drawing habit for a while there, so in my attempt to arrest the slide, I decided that when some image hit my brain I would quickly grab my sketchbook and put it on paper. Below are the results. I won't pretend to understand them, they just are.

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Kristen Bell

Ssssshhh!