Head sketch - 4/20/10

Charcoal on newsprint

Quick sketch

Charcoal on newsprint

Catching some rays

Charcoal on newsprint

This woman was lying in the sun. (In case you thought the drawing was crooked.) Drawings that are light and ghosty like this one were done kind of quickly, and are not anywhere near finished. The most benefit in a practice drawing is gained in the first stage. Spacing and placing, laying in the proportions and shapes.

Claire's mother -- practice sketch

Top - Charcoal on newsprint
Bottom - Charcoal on bristol (heavy drawing paper)

This is a sketch (top) of the same subject I recently posted. It's kind of interesting to compare the two.

Charcoal sketch

Charcoal on newsprint

OK, so not all of my sketches are of women. It's a good idea to draw men once in a while. I saw some work by an artist who specialized in beautiful women. Among all the drawings was only one man, as I recall. He looked kind of feminine. The artist limited himself too much.

Practice drawing

Charcoal on newsprint

I practice from photos, and fashion photos are often good ones, in terms of size and lighting. So most of my practice drawings are of attractive women.

Sketch from a photo

Charcoal on newsprint

This sketch is a few years old, from a photo I took of a friend wearing a scarf. It appeared as a miniature painting in the early days of this blog (about three years ago). The likeness of the painting is good; this one is not. If you didn't know that, it probably wouldn't matter.

Cream Pitcher

Oil on panel -- 4 X 5 in.

I borrowed this from a friend because it looked so paintable. I will be posting mostly sketches for a while, but plan to graduate into more paintings.

Unfinished blog painting

I started this painting today, but it was interrupted by a situation that had to be taken care of. I told some people that I would post a painting today, so here is a painting in progress. I have another commitment tomorrow, so it might be a couple more days before this is finished. Such is life. The objects in the corners are clips holding the panel to the easel.

Mother and daughter portrait.

This is a portrait of Lolet (mother) and Joy, my neighbors and friends.

If you're wondering why I am posting so many charcoal portraits today, it's because these represent some of the work I have done recently, and also because I'm practicing uploading photos. I'm trying to learn the strange relationship (strange to me) among Blogger, Picasa, AOL, Google, Safari, Firefox, and my computer. I still can't figure out exactly what's going on.