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.

Hide away

Kristen Bell

Ssssshhh!

Kicking

Eagle

Something different

Charlize Theron

A totally different expression to draw...

Heather Graham

Kate Beckinsale

Andrea Corr

Charisma Carpenter

I was disappointed with the face in my last effort, so thought I'd have another try at getting a decent likeness. This is actually the 4th pic I've drawn today, but the first one I like.

Charisma Carpenter

Holly Brisley

Kirsten Dunst