I'm Still Alive

Still drawing. Not as much as I'd like, but drawing.

The Artist at 14

While my mother was going through some boxes that have been cluttering the house, she pulled a few items for my brother and me to go through. As I went through the box set aside, I found a large yellow sketchpad, and I was pleased to see it was one of my old sketchbooks, specifically from when I was around fourteen years old. Then I looked through it and realized how bad my art was then. There are a few pieces in it that indicate promise, but I had not really learned how to loosen up with the pencil, nor things like proportion and applied perspective. Below is a sample of pages I decided to scan and share, mostly to show how far I actually have come.

End of April and Thoughts

And we have now come to the end of April, and the end of another theme month. Unfortunately, this was not quite so successful of a month when it came to the theme. Due to real life events, I lost steam for the animal theme and made mostly half-hearted attempts at drawing real or imaginary animals. I was, however, successful at drawing every day for the April Drawing challenge, which I'm rather pleased with.

And today begins a new month and a new theme. It will be a tricky one, but I hope that this month will be as enriching as March's plants. May is environments and buildings, which should cover landscapes, building exteriors and interiors, and maybe some stand-alone furnishings.

Here are the remaining April drawings.

April 25 & 26

Just sharing the results of the last couple days (so far).

First is a page of sketches, with some Minnie and Mickey Mouse sketches based on examples for a Walter Foster how-to book.

A pair of swing dance gestures, about 2 minutes each pose. I changed things up a little by referencing from video instead of static pictures (still paused, but catching it in the middle of the action adds some vibrancy to a pose). The source video can be found here.

A Gift Fanart

Earlier this month was my birthday. It also happened to be the birthday of an online friend of mine, and I wanted to give her a gift drawing. I asked if she would like anything, and she, like I, is still a big fan of Princess Tutu and especially semi-fanon pairing Ahiru and Fakir. Here's the abbreviated WIP of the picture.

Like always, I did a graphite sketch of drawing, and followed that up by inking with my Copic Multiliners.

After that, I actually went in with color pencils, something I should play with more often. There are flaws, such as how you can see the strokes more than I would have liked, but I'm pleased overall with it.

April 16 to 24

Mix of animals and humans, observation and imagination. Enjoy.

Oh, and I did miss a couple days of animals, but I'm on track for actually drawing something everyday for April. So there's that.

First half of April

Has it really been more than two weeks already? I could have sworn that I'd updated since the beginning of the month, at least.

Well, here's the results of the last two weeks. A mix of gestures, fanart, studies, and finished pieces.

Finishing Off March

Whoo! March is finished! Here are the last drawings of the month, and my thoughts about it.

March 24 Cyclamen

Today's drawings were a bit of an experiment. I've only drawn on toned or colored paper maybe a couple times in the past, and that was a while back. Toned paper is very useful because you aren't tricked by the white of the paper when it comes to values, and you can actually use the paper's value as the midtone.

Of the two, I think the first was better in the execution. Part of it is the paper itself. The green paper was a bit too soft for the harder pencil I used (a B), and may have been to dark to start with. Live and learn. They were both done with graphite, and the first was done with a white charcoal pencil.

March 21, 22, and 23

Violets, orchids, and fictional plants.