Here are my drawings from today. Starting with some iPad drawing on the Paper app. Still need more practice!
Waiting for the shuttle to the Tennis Gardens
Waiting to get into Stadium 2 to see Kvitova and then Isner/Raonic vs Murray/Fleming
Sketching the spectators
Trying to capture fast moving tennis players
Waiting for the hotel shuttle before the rain comes
Back at the hotel after beating the rain
Todd and I are in Indian Wells for the big tennis tournament through the weekend. We love to watch hours and hours of tennis and come every year. This year, though, I plan to watch and draw all day! Here are some of my drawings from today.
On the flight to LAX
Here is another self portrait using my limited Lapin-style palette of prussian blue, alizarin crimson, yellow ochre, and a tiny bit of warm sepia.
My dear friend, Lynne, was the first to commission my artwork. She asked me to draw her youngest daughter, Megan. I did two watercolor paintings of her daughter with varying degrees of success (at least, in my mind).
Since then, I have (hopefully) improved and have wanted to give Lynne another (better) portrait of Megan. But, I've come to realize that capturing Megan's likeness is very difficult for me to do! I have probably sketched her close to 20 times by now. And am still not happy.
Here are some of my attempts.
It has become an art challenge for me! I hope I'm able to capture her at some point. She's such a beautiful girl!
Sketches of my dogs from my studio today.
I braved the cold today to attempt to draw my little electric Fiat in Lapin’s fish eye view. Although I thought I was being careful with my measurements and proportions – it seems I have drawn the car driving off my page! More practice is needed!
OK, I had to bribe Jade with a sleepover to get her to sit for this portrait -but, I have to do what I have to do to get my portrait practice. This was for homework for my Sketchbook Skool Stretching klass with Lapin.
I also drew a portrait of my teacher this week, Lapin.
I had a few minutes to spare today after getting my haircut and before picking up Chloe from school. So, I popped next door to The Coffee Shop in Walnut Creek and did a quick tiny urban sketch.
Another attempt at Lapin's Sketchbook Skool Stretching homework of doing a "big head" portrait where the face takes up most of the drawing. I used my most patient model - me.
I mostly used Lapin's palette of yellow ochre, alizarin crimson, and prussian blue - though I added payne's gray, warm sepia, and phthalo. green light.
What do you think? Do you like this style?
My Sketchbook Skool Stretching klass with Lapin started yesterday and I'm so excited to learn from him! I love his style and this week's homework is to draw a portrait of someone focusing largely on their head and then fitting in whatever else you can of their body smaller.
Todd reluctantly sat for me late last night.
What do you think?
Our assignment for this week was to draw random objects every day of this week and then to assemble whatever we want into a collage/drawing/composition that will likely surprise us.
this assignment really did call for stretching on my part ask normally draw from life without a lot of imagination involved.
What do you think? By the way, that is Jonathan in my piece.
My sister asked me to paint her cute Persian short hair cat, Nala. This is the final version.
Below are the preparatory sketches.
Final version
Trying out some new media today. I used my new woodless color pencils to draw my backyard view from my art studio and then expanded it to the left with my old watercolor pencils - using their shavings to add more texture (an idea from Felix Scheinberger's Urban Watercolor Sketching book.)
I think I like the watercolor pencils better. More practice is needed!
I did some urban sketching today at The Coffee Shop in Walnut Creek before taking Todd in for his shoulder surgery. It's a bit tricky sketching people who may or may not stay still long enough to properly draw them (like the girl with pink hair at the bar).
Have you tried urban sketching? How do you like it?
As you know, Jonathan Twingley assigned us 6 days of random drawings as part of our overall Sketchbook Skool Stretching homework for the week. I missed yesterday's homework (though I did do some sketches in my sketchbook).
Here are today's sketches for my Stretching homework.
I had previously read Felix Scheinberger's Urban Watercolor Sketching book from the library when I started sketching several months ago. Since then, I took Sketchbook Skool's Stretching klass largely because Felix was teaching a week of it and I loved it!
So, I decided that I NEEDED to own Felix's book to refer to over and over again. I ordered it from Amazon and it came yesterday. I'm in the middle of re-reading it, but decided to copy another one of his amazing sketches.
Copy of Felix Scheinberger's sketch from Tel Aviv
I really learn so much from doing this. I think it is only when I try to recreate a piece of art myself, that I can really SEE and hope to try to understand how to implement the techniques used by the artist.
Have you you tried copying the art of artists you love?
Drawing every day is not hard, but it does take some dedication. Here is some of my homework for Jonathan Twingley's Stretching klass at Sketchbook Skool.
My teacher, Jonathan Twingley
Sketching my inspiration
New pencil sharpener
Sketching my tools
Today, I got some new Koh-I-Noor woodless colored pencils. I haven't been able to really get into using colored pencils so far, but I thought I would give it a try with a drawing to celebrate LEAP YEAR! This was based on photograph in my New York City Ballet Workout book.
Did you know that every 100 years, we skip the leap year??
