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.

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.