More bugs

More bug drawing practice! Tomorrow, cactus and succulents.

Faces Galore

One of the blogs I read today listed national magazine award winners, and the winner for the photo portfolio was The New Yorker's Portraits of Power. This is an impressive body of work for the photographer, as well as for history in general, since it is documenting current world leaders. However, my initial reaction was probably far different than most people's reaction. All I could think was, "Look at all the interesting face shapes I could draw!" I was itching to pick up a drawing tool and start drawing then and there.

I know nothing about the personality, motivation, mindsets, or emotions that drive all these leaders, but the shapes of their faces, noses, quirks of almost smiles, and the tilts of their heads all make me start creating some type of story for each of them, whether or not it is at all close to whothey are in reality.

Each photo is beautiful in and of itself, but it is the grouping of all these photos together that drives home the uniqueness of each face.

I don't know if I'll draw all these faces, but I'll most likely draw a few of the ones with the most character so I can practice different and interesting faces, since all the faces I draw from my head look the same.

Bugs!

The first of a couple of pages of bugs from my composition class that just ended. These were based on images found on the web, and we were practicing building the bugs from the inside out. I think the rendered one took me about 30-60 minutes. I really need to work more on sketching faster.

Illustration Friday: Ahead

The snail came out ahead of the pack.

This one came straight from the sketchbook. I'm limiting myself to pen and marker for a while to hone my drawing skills as well as my lighting/rendering skills. I have a number of sketches to post from my Drawing for Composition class and I'm also hoping to get into the summer Drawing for Composition class. We'll be going on location and starting with organic forms, then working up to mechanical forms. I also really need to get better at my quick sketching of entire forms. I start rendering, then I render things to death, losing a bit of the vitality of the original sketch.