Sitting

I hadn't drawn anything with pencil this year, so thought I'd go back old school:

Neve Campbell

Still not a great likeness, but shows more of what's capable with my tablet. It's one of 14 pics I've drawn the past 2 days, so using the tablet as a motivational tool continues to work.

Compilation

Before the heatwave I'd been doing lots of drawing, and was finally able to return to it yesterday. Here's a compilation of some pre- and post-summer efforts:

A taste

Some experimenting with using a "paintbrush" rather than a "pencil" for shading. Worked out quite while, I think.

Face

I've done a bunch of rough sketches via the tablet - I've spent about 15 hours using it since Friday - but this is definitely the best of them:

A new drawing tool

I've actually wanted a graphics tablet since before I ever had a computer (so for at least 20 years). I made a deal with myself that if I did enough drawing over the course of December I would buy myself one, and 50+ hours counted as "enough" so here is my latest gadget addition:



and the start of the first drawing I've attempted with it:



I was a bit nervous that it was going to end up a white elephant, taking up desk space, but it's been surprisingly easy to use, and I think will result in more, better and more varied artistic efforts from me in the coming year. Maybe even some colour!

Under the bridge

Pianist

Mirror image

Cartoon

I've also been returning to my comic-style roots, copying from a few originals before applying the approach to real faces:

Shading

I've been experimenting with some blended shading, as opposed to the exclusively hatching approach previously used. I think it worked well in this picture.

Looking up

This is where all the practice finally starts to pay off. There are all sorts of weird proportions because of the angle of the shot, plus hands in weird positions, so the fact that I love how this turned out is very satisfying.

Middling darkness

Wherever Fenforth roamed, the misery followed him. It cast a pall over his waking, and tormented his dreams. Horrible visions of cute puppies and sweet lollipops, smiling children and glorious sunrises! The fact that his suffering was deserved did little to ease his agony, nor dry the cold sweat from his brow. He trudged on.

THE END

Smattering

I've actually spent  around 30 hours drawing so far this month, working hard on various fundamentals as well as trying out different things. Most of the output isn't really postable, but I thought it was about time I showed a handful of what I've been up to.

A bunch of faces

My drawing was almost non-existent during November, largely due to ill health, but now I have no such excuse so here's a sample of my output from Sat and this evening.

A quick sketch to warm up:


A more detailed exercise from Drawspace.com to practice my shading and attention to detail:


A really rough sketch, aiming for simplicity:


and a more subtle expression:

Casual smile

Wolverine

Tin Man

Dorothy and Toto from the Tin Man miniseries.

Sword drawn

Fight

Girl with glasses

This is my attempt to restore some patience and detail to my drawings. While doing sketches is fine, and I think I've been getting some good results, I was getting frustrated with my output getting worse not better. Luckily, that seems to be purely a product of rushing, which I avoided with this.

Another perspective

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Alan Tudyk

Not a very good likeness, but an OK pic on its own.

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Charlize as Aeon

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Sketch

This is a scene I've had in my "to draw" folder for ages, as a good exercise in perspective giving the picture depth. I'm really happy with how it turned out, so felt no need to fill in the detail. Job done :)

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Delight

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Billie Piper

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Distracted

I've done very little drawing the past month (too distracted by my Wii I think), so I've returned to the familiar, and will hopefully get back into the flow.

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Maggie Q

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Zooey

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Sketchin'

A few more sketches at various levels of detail:

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Listening at the wall

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Blowing a bubble

Hard to convey the translucent properties of the bubblegum!



I also drew just one eye on its own, larger scale, to try to get the shading of the iris right:

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Another action sketch

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Matrix

A quick cartoony style pic:

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Wink

This didn't quite work, with the winking eye being out of alignment in a way I couldn't even correct by moving it around after scanning...

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Missing

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Rocking out

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