Plan B

Faces(fine liner, colored pencils)

One Orchid Left(fine liner, watercolor)

A Game of Chess(fine liner, colored pencils)

Before I show you some new material, here's a few sketches from spring. I hurt my shoulder doing sports and couldn't draw for a while. Then I had an idea to try to do some sketches with my left hand. I had already practiced my motor skills by doing basic things like cooking. At first it was difficult and my hand was shaking a lot when I tried to draw. Then I noticed that the shaky line was actually quite nice and very different from my usual line.

I added the color, also with my left hand, and was pretty happy with the result. It made me realize the importance of my sight. A very big part of drawing happens inside your head. Everybody can make lines on the paper, the hardest part is to understand how to make them work together. When your head knows what it's doing, your hand will quickly follow. No matter which hand it is.

Painting Horizons

Windmill (pencil, watercolor)

Here's something I made before my summer holiday. I wanted to do something with watercolors and ended up drawing houses with a small windmill. The sky was the most interesting part for me in this work. I decided to paint a sunset so I could use bold colors. I used a photo as a model for the sky, but unfortunately I don't remember where I found it.

Although I've been busy this summer with other art projects and gardening, I'll be back soon with some newer sketches.

Serious Work

Serious (fine liner, watercolor)

Someone Smiles (fine liner, watercolor)

One day I decided to practice drawing faces. This time I decided to do so without lifting my pen. It proved out to be difficult and I only managed to draw some weird, unhappy people. When I concentrated, I managed to make ONE guy look happy, but it was hard. I used a black fine liner for these sketches and I think that the watercolor I added on the background made the spread look much better.

This practice was fun to do although it may not seem that way. Using fine liner instead of a pencil and never lifting my pen made drawing a bit scary and that's why this was a good practice for me. I'm still thinking too much about the end result when I draw. That's why starting is sometimes hard for me. I'm getting better though. Practices like these help me a lot. I can enjoy the final spread even if most of the faces are far from perfect. Actually the most weird ones make me as happy as the good ones.

Bugsy's New Improved Spread

Bugsy's New wallpaper(pencil, black fine liner, watercolor)

Wallpaper(black fine liner)

This is a page I drew one night while watching TV. The spread looked a bit empty with just the bug so I decided to draw something simple on the other page. I started to draw with a black fine liner and tried not to be too strict with symmetry. First I meant to do just a small pattern but didn't know how to stop drawing until I reached the edges.

I think that the spread looks much better now. It almost looks like Bugsy went shopping for a nice wallpaper and chose this one to look at.

Sudden Sketches

Some Guy I Saw on TV(black fine liner, watercolor)

I was watching TV one day and saw this guy being interviewed. He looked so cool I had to start drawing him. I was afraid that the interview could end in any minute and took some photos to be sure I could also finish my sketch. I drew these two sketches pretty fast and added some watercolor to make the page look more interesting.

Pencils and Prejudice

Lemons and Oranges(colored pencils, black fine liner)

I have never been a big fan of colored pencils, because I like to use a lot of color and with colored pencils the result is often a bit dull. One day I decided that I don't want to be so prejudiced and as a teacher I want to encourage my students to try out as many different techniques as possible. In order to do so I had to get to know these pencils better myself. That is why I ended up ordering a nice, brand new package of colored pencils.

I happened to have some fruits in a basket and chose to draw those. I think this sketch took me for about 20-30 minutes. The colors seem a bit dirty because I didn't want to stop coloring when I should have. I noticed that I can create powerful colors with colored pencils if I want to. Maybe it was about time to give these pencils a change.

The Key Element

Faces(colored pencil, pencil)

Planes(ballpoint pen)

When I had practiced to draw the different parts of a face, I decided to sketch some complete faces. I drew some from pictures and then started to draw from my imagination. This turned out to be quite difficult, because it was hard for me to draw the "empty space" between these awesome body parts I had studied before. I managed to give my faces some shape, but I was hesitating and feeling a bit lost all the time. I realized that now I had found the key element of learning to draw the human face. This "empty space" between all the "important" parts is what connects it all together. Of course it is difficult to draw the parts that you usually don't even notice, but all the different planes on a face makes it recognizable as much as eyes or noses.

I had to take a step backwards and learn to draw the planes on a face. I drew them on pictures I found on magazines until I started to find some repetitive patterns. After that I started to sketch some faces, but now I did't think about the noses and lips or eyes and ears so much. I didn't want them to distract me. I made some mistakes, but I think I made some progress too.

I still need a lot of practice, but it's fine with me. Actually I'm really happy about it. I don't remember when I have been this excited about drawing. Maybe when I was four years old.