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No 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40
It’s weird how some days I can pull from all my learning and put together a great portrait, and then the very next day it’s if I can’t do anything right. I think it is this fluctuation that marks an amateur.
35: I resort to pencil when I’m really crunched for time, but I’m still trying to reduce physical blending and work more with developing subtlty directly from the pencil. This time I was also exploring some cross-hatching with the eraser.
36: Back to pen and trying not to lose my patience. Since there’s no erasing it involves a lot more from the prefrontal cortex and planning ahead.
37: Can you tell when I rush? Yes.
38: Experimenting again. I wanted to explore completely straight lines for shading. . . no curving across the form. It’s a lot more playful and I thing that is conveyed in the drawing.
No 39. Expressive faces with lots of folds are so much easier for the pen. I find a cheap bic works best for controlling the strokes, to make them lighter or heavier as needed.
No 40. The muses graced me with their favor! I don’t know, I just like how this one turned out. I didn’t want to use a pen (pen seems to work on masculine forms better for me) but I also wanted a challenge so I worked the entire portrait with my mechanical pencil and almost no blending (plenty of erasing though).
Almost up to date with the post Natasha. And like I said your cross hatching improved by a lot.
@andrewli-5804 It’s a skill I didn’t even know I was lacking. Feels like I’ll never get caught up lol.
No 41. A collab with @andrewli-5804. . . this is one of those projects that I was leery of because I didn’t think it would work very well. But I was wrong! Turned out surprisingly well.
No 42 . . . Ah, I was forgetting about form again while I focused on getting the pen lines right.
NO 43. Ah, the muses smiled down upon me once more. I think the composition is stronger unfinished than if I had kept going.
NO44 and 45. I hope many of you got to attend lightbox expo a couple of weeks ago. Truly inspiring. I didn’t think I would be attending all that many classes, but it turns out I couldn’t get enough!
No 44: So I decided to try my hand at digital painting…my first one ever. Wow, talk about a learning curve, but it’s interesting to note how much traditional training applies and helps with the process.
No 45: Another try at it and I’m getting a little more comfortable with it. Still not as easy as oil painting.
NO 46, 47, 48
Moving along now, getting caught up (I’m only 20 behind in posting now) but also struggling to make a portrait every day. Some days are just more demanding than others. I’m also unable to make pen work well on female heads…seems to be much more suited to male coarseness whereas pencil can better express gentler features. May be just my lack of ability right now.
46: Fun to work on. The Russian drawing course is helping a lot with anatomy
47: Phoned it in.
48: Really tried to build the whole thing up. I started out with a blue pen which promptly ran dry.
No 49, 49.5, 50 I guess. Finally started Westermoe’s watercolor class and it’s been a lot of fun. This is my first class in watercolors and I’m learning more than I thought I would. Definitely a good one to paint along with.
Great work as usual Natasha! I like your color digital piece. You are a natural! I’ve been doing digital for a while, and I still suck at it. It is not my primary medium though, I mostly use it for composition because you can scale, move, and make other changes so quickly.
Hi Natasha, It’s really inspiring to look at your work. Your drawings and paintings are so cool!
@erikdennes thanks so much. I’d love to see some of your digital stuff…I find it so foreign and full of way too many options.
@simondi-scala I appreciate that.
Woo hoo! Finally made it to the watercolor pieces which I’m still practicing. To reiterate, this journey has been about trying new techniques and mediums. Pen was a huge leap, then digital, and now watercolor which is no less so. I’ve just begun Westermoe’s watercolor course and I was surprised by how much there was to learn. I’ve always been intimidated by watercolors. You have to be willing to let go and allow the paint to have its freedom which is very hard for me. Thankfully Westermoe’s tips and method made it a much easier medium to jump into.
No. 52, 53, 54
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