Eyes are the windows of the soul

 Now practising drawing eyes.  Using either graphite or pen.  I know, keep practising!  I’m quite pleased with my progress so far, but I’m a very impatient person and need to see results quickly.  I must learn to slow down and draw mindfully.

I invested in the Bargue book to help me with my practice.  So far so good.  I intend to practice daily this week and then maybe move on to other features.

When I draw or paint a portrait I adore adding the eyes, they really bring the drawing to life!

I always feel that to get a good likeness you really have to get the eyes right especially.

Any thoughts or advice is gratefully received.

Best wishes

Shari 💕

Drawing Course

 I have started a new online course which I’m hoping will kickstart my creative mojo again!

For too long I have neglected my drawing and I felt it was time to rectify this.  I have only just begun the course, but here is an example of what I’m doing.  It’s very intense, so I have t have lots of breaks, but I’m really enjoying it so far.

Still a long way to go as you can see, but slow and steady wins the race!  I’m just glad to be back drawing.

If you get stuck creatively what do you do to get out of the slump and regain your mojo?  I would love to know.

For me, starting a new course really helps and I’m hoping it will this time too.

Best wishes

Shari 💕

Good to be back!

 

Marker pens

Hello everyone, sorry I’ve been away too long.  For personal reasons I was unable to indulge in my painting for quite some time.  But now I’m back and experimenting with quick sketches.

I decided that I would face my fears as in try sketching buildings.  I like quirky and the wonkier the better.  Some have been quite successful and some not so, but it’s all been a learning curve.

I know what I want to achieve, but I’m not quite there yet.

Here are a few… the good, the bad and the ugly.  You choose which is which! lol 😂 

Pen and wash

Pen and ink

Ink

Marker pens

All completed in less than 60 minutes.  There are some bits I like, some I really dislike, but above all I have really enjoyed getting the sketchbook out again!

Pomeranian Pooch

Gel pen in sketchbook

Had 40 minutes to spare and chose the challenge of this pretty Pomeranian from a photo ref on WetCanvas.

Sometimes when we least expect it things turn out much better than planned and every now and then it turns out worse.  Such is life.  Pick yourself up, dust yourself down and start all over again.  At least the little pooch brought a smile.



More Anne Anderson

Inspired by Anne Anderson

Managed to get time during my lunch break to produce this little quickie in watercolour pencil.

Capturing Cary

Firstly, I apologise to Cary Grant for this abysmal rendering of him. He is my hero and represents for me a true gentleman. I adore his films (mostly because I like looking at him!) and among my favourites are of course An Affair to Remember, Arsenic & Old Lace and The Philadelphia Story. Of course that's just a few because I don't want to bore you with a huge list of my favourite Cary Grant films!

Anyway, back to art... I am trying again with portraits and as you can see by this one I really need to work on getting a likeness. I sure didn't get one this time! I will try again tomorrow and see what happens.

Alice in Wonderland

Pen and graphite

My interpretation of Alice, inspired by the illustrations of Sir John Tenniel. I love doing penwork and this was no exception, it's just so therapeutic. I added a little shading with graphite for the background.

Just watched the Disney Alice in Wonderland (with Johnny Depp) - it was brilliant, very entertaining.

Wouldn't it be great to take off to a Wonderland and figure everything out so that when we returned our problems would easily be solved?

I find painting works in a similar way for me. It's like escaping to my own magical land for a while and when I put down the paintbrush I am better able to work through my real life difficulties. Painting is just magic!

Self Portrait in Acrylics

14" x 10" acrylics on paper

This is the finished self portrait in acrylics. See below for the process of how I got here.

This was a challenge on WetCanvas to produce a self portrait in acrylics and not to display until 20th February, which is why I had to wait until now to reveal!



First the pencil drawing from which I have worked - made myself look chubbier than in real life, but who cares. I will chisel it down a little when I paint.

Transferred the image to watercolour paper 14" x 10" and I also printed the line drawing on a piece of acetate to help later when I need to check if my placements are still correct. When painting I often lose sight of what goes where and the acetate is a real boon when re-establishing the features. When placed over the painting you can see exactly where you went wrong and get back the likeness.

Then painted in acrylics, using the paint very dilute and building in thin transparent layers, which gives a very soft translucent effect very similar to watercolours. Had sooo much trouble with the area under the nose and the neck, but I have to post this image so you can see... it looks so funny. I feel I look like the poisoned dwarf with facial hair - not a good look! LOL. Oh it's good to laugh.



Then I worked more on it, darkened the background, fixed the mouth, lightened the neck and under nose area getting rid of the facial hair and produced the final painting, which I hope is a little better. :)