Tag: pencil

Animals · drawings · paintings

Back again, Back again, Happy New Year!

J R Dunster2 Comments
“Fluffy Tuxedo Kitty” 6×6″ oil on cradled panel.

After a regrettably long hiatus, I am back with a new cat head painting! And for the New Year!

Circumstances in life prevented me from getting into my studio to paint for the past several months. I tried to compensate for that by doing some drawings at home. (More on that later.) But now I am back, and am working on some new paintings! This little cat head is the first to be completed. I especially was trying to capture the fluffiness of this kitty with soft brush strokes and lost edges. Also, warm and cool temperatures were used to show depth (I hope).

With this painting I also attempted to go looser! It was fun!

Words cannot express how much I missed painting, and how WONDERFUL it felt to be back to it!

But, I did do some fun pencil work, and below is my latest piece. It probably needs some more tweaking. It’s simple graphite pencil (0.05mm mechanical pencil, HB lead) on smooth paper.

“Untitled” (so far), pencil on paper, approximately 6×7″. Probably still needs some tweaks.

I’m a BIIIIIG fan of crosshatching. Continue reading “Back again, Back again, Happy New Year!” →

drawings · portraits

“Marisol” portrait from life

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I just started attending this art group that meets once a week (more or less) and draws or paints a volunteer model. It’s a wonderful group of people and allows us all to get some valuable practice from life!

I often harp on how important drawing from life is. Photos don’t capture things the way they really are—not quite. I don’t mind using photo references, I won’t be ashamed of using them, but at the same time I realize how important drawing from life is!

I hope to bring my paints to one of these sessions, as other artists have. We have an hour of model time (one pose) so that should be enough time to do something!

Very, very excited about this.

Last week’s model was “Marisol” who came with her adorable little dog, who was a rescue. The dog was nervous but at the same time, a great model! As was Marisol. I used the first two 20-minute pose sessions to draw Marisol, then used the last 20-minute pose to draw her and the dog. Here are the results:

“Marisol” drawn from life, 8″ x11-1/2″ in my sketchbook.

 

“Marisol” and her little dog. 20 minute pose.
drawings · figures & nudes

Recent sketches from life (NSFW, obviously)

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Time again to post some latest Life Drawing efforts.

I had two evenings of figure drawing (each night at a different place) this week. Both nights, I sucked. Oh well, it’s been a while since I was able to attend figure drawing. And next week I hopefully will be able to attend a portrait drawing group, where artists meet to do portraits only from life! I am looking forward to that.

Drawing from life is an ongoing thing. For many artists it is. We keep coming back to do it again, and again, and again. We don’t outgrow it, and we shouldn’t! Without that regular drawing practice, we get rusty (like I’ve been getting lately) and that’s bad. Don’t ever believe that you’ve had “enough” life drawing because you took a semester or two of it in college.

Anyway, here’s what I’ve got to show this time.

Small portrait, drawn from life

The one above was done a few months ago. I never got around to posting it, until now. And the one below, same thing. Done a few months ago, didn’t get around to scanning it or posting it.

Figure drawn from life. On 8-1/2″x11″ sketch pad.

Below is the only sketch produced this week. I cropped the drawing to just show her head. The rest of the sketch didn’t turn out so great.

“Amy” (but it doesn’t look ANYTHING like her!). Sketch from life.
drawings · figures & nudes · portraits

More figure drawings! (Some nudity, may be NSFW)

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Time for more figure drawings! For a very long time, ever since I took my first figure drawing class at age 18, I’ve kept returning to life drawing classes and sessions. This kind of drawing discipline helps keep skills sharp. You have to draw the model in front of you—no time for lots of erasing and fussing, as the model won’t stay still forever!

Portrait of Young Woman, from life. 8-1/2″x11″ graphite on sketch paper

And here are a few more sketches from a nude model. These sketches are usually done from 15-30-minute poses. Never longer than 30 minutes.

Approximately a 20-30 minute pose.

The above sketch is available for sale on DailyPaintworks.

Seated Nude, quick sketch, in pencil

And yet another!

 

drawings · portraits

Cowboy pencil sketch

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A cowboy drawing from my sketchbook. I was watching a TV show where this guy had this great black cowboy hat, and so I tried to draw it (the hat, and also the guy wearing the hat). The drawing doesn’t look anything like the guy on TV, but it was still a lot of fun to do such a sketch, and it’s my firm belief that such sketching keeps our skills sharp!

guy in big cowboy hat

Okay, so I didn’t make the cowboy hat black, like in the original. But I know that it’s supposed to be black, see? 😉

I think I might make this into a little oil painting someday.