40 Minutes

I worked on this pair of eyes for 40 minutes. 

These are very much in the style of France Van Stone, a popular artist on Sktchy, since I am slowly working through her class on Sktchy Art School related to eyes. I did choose a different set of eyes to draw versus the ones she demonstrated.

I had a good “aha” moment yesterday both from the class video and and from this drawing, about translating from a 2-d picture to trying to suggest the 3-d-ness of how the eyes nest in the eye socket. It was a little like the nose “aha” moment from last month, although in truth I’ve gone back to struggling with noses again. One thing I keep learning is that this is not a straight path. Those “aha” moments are a big step forward, which are usually followed by several big steps back. Eventually, a bunch of things will coalesce. 

France’s finished portraits all have a high degree of shading and hatching, so eyes don’t like this don’t look so goofy and out of context. Her overall style is not for me, since I don’t have the patience, most of the time, to work at this level of detail. At the rate I work, it would take me days to finish one portrait. 

What is my style? What am I doing? What do I want to accomplish overall? No clue. I should put some more thought into this at some point. For now, it seems more like all learning is good learning. As I look ahead to my April project, it’s going to be a hodge podge, since there are a few loose ends from earlier projects and I also want to do some prep work for my May project. 

As March and my March project nears the end, I also completed the last of five Alun Armstrong portraits.

Just Watch This

This video (yes, it's from the UMN Medical School) is mesmerizing in the way it shows the beauty and importance of something made by hand.  While it's focused on pie, it also makes me think about all the  things I do or create with my hands.

It's worth the effort to get their pie. They make seriously good pie, but it can be hard to get since you either have to enter their lottery or go by the shop and stand in line to get it.  That's okay with me. Things made by hand with intention are special. 

It's Time

It's time to finish the granny square afghan that I started a long time ago. The squares, themselves, were finished 4 - 5 years ago. Several weeks ago, I went searching for them. I thought I had worked all the ends in, but discovered that 28 squares still needed to be done. Next up, I counted the squares that I had and was perplexed why there were 57 of them. I knew that I had finished all of the squares and that it would make a decent size cover for sitting around. I couldn't remember how many squares wide versus tall it would be, but 57 squares made no sense. After digging around a bit, I found the other zip lock bag which contained 23 squares. 80 squares, it is.  An afghan of 8 squares by 10 will work nicely.

I used Kristin's pattern for it and when it came time to sew it together, I went with her recommendation for that, as well. 

I started the final assembly last night while watching an episode of All Creatures Great and Small. I almost got the first strip sewn together and since I had a pretty great creature sitting on my lap at the time, I decided that he should model the first strip, since it looks like a scarf.

Hammett is enjoying a nap in the background, undisturbed on the foot stool behind Chandler.  Earlier in the evening, we  folded laundry and, of course, Hammett enjoys curling up on top of the nice, fresh, clean laundry.   

It's probably best that Chandler came into my life at this stage. If he was my cat when I was a child, I might have been tempted to try and dress him up for tea parties. When he's sitting on my lap at night, he's warm, cozy, and pretty tolerant, although it is clear that he is not smiling in either picture.  

You Would Think After Five Years I Would Remember

You would think after five years I would remember to stop mid-way through, step away, and view what I am working on from a distance, but I don't.  When I'm done, either with "the session" or on a piece, I will finally step away and take a look.  As a result, I get surprised by my own results.  

Up close, I thought the face and eyes were okay.  From a proper viewing distance, I am really pleased.

I keep saying it, but I love the Neocolor crayons and I also really enjoy layering. 

Practice, Practice, Practice

Today, I am practicing eyes.  For your viewing pleasure, here is one eye.  I bookmarked some photos in Sktchy where people had something interesting or distinctive about how their eye(s) appeared in the photo.

One, random, floating eye looks a bit goofy.  I haven’t completed my practice for the day, so I’m off to do more. 

It’s Absurd and Ridiculous

That’s what these drawings of cats in hats are.  Absurd and ridiculous.

Cat in Knitted Hat #4

They are also a lot of fun and they make me smile.  Nuff said.

It’s Alun Armstrong Month

Roz declared here that March is Sketch Alun Armstrong month.  I confess that I didn’t know who he was, however I decided to fit a few Alun Armstrong portraits into my general March project involving portraits and I am glad that I did.  First, the overall idea is just playful.  Second, he has a really fascinating face.  Third, I’m finding it easier to work on trying to sketch people I don’t know.  If I only get a partial resemblance, it doesn’t bother me.  

Here’s the portrait that I worked on yesterday and today.  The eye on the left is off as to placement and shape, but otherwise I’m very pleased with the result.  

The first one I did had less resemblance.

For both of these, it was such a good exercise to push myself to complete a piece. The one in pencil is more of a sketch, but it’s a complete one.  Honestly, I am kind of amazed that I can do this.

Last Month

In February, I worked on portraits as a project and mostly I worked through a Skchy Art School class about the Loomis method. It was taught by Mike Creighton.  He did a good job of showing and explaining this method in the videos.  I still need to watch the last one which is a beginning to end frontal view portrait and also to watch 3 of the live Q&As which were filmed when the class first dropped in August of 2020. 

I've found that I really don't like sitting and watching videos but I am coming to terms with the fact that it is a good way to learn, especially during a pandemic.  Most days, I split my project time about 50% watching/learning and 50% doing. 

Here is a portrait of a Sktchy muse (that's what they call them) at the beginning of the month before I started to watch the videos. 

Here is the same muse at the end of the month.  I didn't even remember the sketch from the beginning of the month until I started to document and do my month-end evaluation.  If I had planned, I would have waited and gone through the 3rd to last lesson, which was a full run through of the profile view.  Even so, I think the proportions improved a lot from the beginning of the month. 

Part of the resemblance issue is getting someone to look the right age.  In both of these, she looks older than she is. I'm not that hung up on resemblance at this point, especially since I am discovering that I really need to slow down to truly see actual facial features.  After that, it's the issue of trying to get the right shapes and angles and when you are trying to capture the exact shape of an eye or how lips some together in the corner it's a lot of tiny details.  

In March, I am going to continue to work on portraits.  I want to finish Mike's class and start to use some of the other resources that I found.

Speaking As Someone Who Uses Cats As Models

I find dogs hard to draw.  Since I don't draw them often, that should not be a surprise.  I enjoy working with the crayons, because I can layer and layer and layer.  In the end, there's more I like about this than I don't, so I will probably send it.  

My cousin had to put down his 8 year-old, beloved golden retriever, Sadie.  It was very sudden.  In two days, she went from being a seemingly, healthy dog, to having several neurological episodes, which led to discovering that she had an advanced condition which could not be treated.  

This is my best attempt at trying to capture Sadie.  In the past, I've tried to paint her. 

I spent a lot of time working on this one and decided yesterday that I just needed to be done.  

Now, I can get back to doing cats in hats.