'Grow'vember 2nd

Day 2 - topic Australian actors

So it's a double post today, as I posted day one of my daily drawing challenge earlier this morning.

Selfie drawing

Work in progress.. my version of a selfie.

Random character design

Exploring shapes for a random character design. She's a bit rough around the edges and scary when you first meet her but has a good heart.

Chance portrait

In need of a motivational boost I was going back over my old sketchbooks to see how much (if) my drawings have improved. The sketchbook my hand landed on happened to contain some cafe sketching from three years ago to the day. Here's a spontaneous portrait I found of a gentleman from Rockhampton who I got chatting with. I remember not liking this drawing very much at the time. But funnily, when I stumbled upon it a second time I felt it was one of the more inspired pieces amongst a lot of pretty bad drawings.

Gesture drawing practice

I'm nearing the end of a gesture drawing course with Alex Woo. Here's some of my homework practice from an earlier lesson on exaggeration. It has been a challenge and made me feel like a complete beginner, but I think I've found a few ingredients that have been missing in my past work.

Mall sketches

   Given the briefness of these opportunities I usually observe for as long as I can first, trying to draw in my mind before putting pen to paper. Usually once people notice they have become a subject I am done with the observation part, so I don't think it's too uncomfortable for anyone involved. It's much easier to look without being noticed, than to look-and-draw without being noticed, and I think it's good practice for the visual memory to divide drawing and observing in this way. In fact drawing in-your-mind only is something you can do anytime you want to make visual notes. Just look as if you really were drawing, following the contours and the forms. People get less mad this way, and it's amazing how much looking you can get away with!

Recent life drawing

   I've been trying a little technique in order to simplify my pen work, which I picked up from a tip on Wilhelm M. Busch's process. That is, using a light blue pen to rough out the drawing first. Of course, you could just use a light box, but this technique is useful on the run. It's easy to eliminate the coloured under-sketch after the drawing is scanned, but I've left it in here so you can see. 

Busch was an excellent draftsperson whom I only recently discovered thanks to some other bloggers. Observe the looseness of his lines, and yet the underlying design of composition, structure and gesture are all really solid.

The Ghosts of Nagasaki

Here's my final illustration for The Ghosts of Nagasaki. It depicts Inoue, one of the characters in the novel. Daniel has a real knack for interesting imagery.

Sketchbook

Just some snippets from my sketchbook. A mix of mall sketches and a caricature from memory. You could say 'compost' for future character designs.

Hand studies

Away, but not idle... not that there is anything wrong with idleness. Please remember to stop and smell the roses fellow creatives!

My recent house move is over, but things are still not set up. Nevertheless I've been enjoying working only with the simplest of tools, namely a pen and sketchbook.

Getting stuck on drawing a hand pose recently I thought I'd delve a little deeper into the problem. Study and visual research can be tedious, and stifling to the creative urge I find. But since I was doing it, I thought I'd do it 'good'.

You may notice I went to the trouble of studying fingers in and of themselves. It became apparent that my inability to draw the given hand posture was actually a problem with drawing fingers. This would make sense given they are 50% of our hands!

Mall sketching

 

Life drawing

 

Travel sketches

Cafe sketching

Cafe sketching

Good Witch character designs

You might notice a similarity between these character designs and the previous post. They were inspired by the same person. I couldn't decide what kind of character to make though. The one's with a broom are supposed to be some kind of 'good witch'.

Cuddles

 

Sketchbook intermission

Ipswich Festival of Children's Literature

Here are some photos and doodles from my first 2 days at a festival for children's literature. I don't generally like drawing in front of people, but the kids were very enthusiastic and made it unexpectedly enjoyable for me.

Her Ladyship Awaits

I sidled past the birdlike lady in the doorway. “I’ll set the table.” I looked over my shoulder, she was coming.

I made my way to the kitchen and put on the kettle. I could hear the shuffle of her feet as she made her way to the morning room. I smiled. Ma’am was waiting to be waited on.  

As you can see from the initial drawing below, she has had some radical weight loss. I had to modify the finished pencil rendering digitally to make her thinner and more frail looking. This illustration was done for a short story by Jennifer Poulter. Entitled 'Her Ladyship Awaits', you can find it in the anthology '100 stories for Queensland' (eMergent Press), and it's first American publication is in 'Tribute to the Stars' (Static Movement).