Stars and Stripes

Just a simple small painting of the US Flag done in watercolor and white gouache.  5 inches by 7 inches.

Originally the white gouache was just used for the dots to represent the stars on the flag, but then there was an unfortunate accident with the background, so I used the opportunity to experiment and used a mix of white gouache and blue watercolor to redo the background to save this little flag.  

Graphite and Watercolor

So I was browsing Facebook and saw that a friend had posted a bevy of pictures of her garden in bloom.  There was a particular photo of a yellow lily that caught my eye so I asked id she would mind if I based a drawing on it.  She agreed and this became my lunch time sketch for Monday.  I was very happy with how it came out

Then when I got home form work my four year old son asked me to do watercolor painting with him.  I usually try to have some lineart on watercolor paper lying around for myself for such occasions but didn't have any ready today(he's content to just slosh colors onto a blank sheet while spending time with Daddy, so he doesn't really need lineart at this stage).

Sooooo, I decided to try an experiment!  I just did a simple color wash over the lunch time doodle.  The paper buckled a bit and the colors are a bit dull because of the toned paper, but overall it's pretty nice.

I might even look into doing some graphite work on Bristol board or watercolor paper just to further experiment with this particular medium combination.  

Male Torso (With a Twist)

Another torso, this one in mid twist.  This was based on a Google image search result.  The point wasn't to replicate it perfectly, but enough that it felt correct. 

Aside from the anatomy being tricky in this position, for some unknown reason I decided to do the highlights first. 

The only benefit of doing the highlights first was to remind myself that I prefer to save them for last these days, which is funny considering I have an old post saying I like to do them first....  There are several passages in this image that were nightmarish to shade because of the interplay with the immovable white colored pencil I had already put down. 

Oh well, lesson learned.

 

Male Torso (Again)

So if you haven't already figured it out, I'll let you in on a secret to improving your skill at pretty much anything.  Do it over and over and over again. 

By drawing the same or similar things in such a repetitive way you begin to have an ingrained sense of the forms. 

While I am happy with this one from a reinforcing perspective, it ended up being a good deal 'thicker' than intended.  I was in too much of a rush to get to the shading and didn't pay close enough attention to the forms themselves...

Say It with Your Eyes

I recently did this drawing of the upper portion of a face based on a selfie.  I really like the overall look it has to it. 

I'm toying with the idea of doing some additional pieces with the purpose of putting together a mock page from a comic book, all in this style.  I'd probably not try to do it all on one page, I'd scan them and then assemble the page in Photoshop. 

The hard part is figuring out what kind of story I want to tell.  The eyes are intense, perhaps angry, but they leave the scene pretty wide open. 

Male Torso

Another quick lunch time drawing based on a Google Image search result.  Still on the subject of the male torso.  My four year old son didn't like that yesterday's drawing had no head, so I told him today's would have a head.  *Kick!*

Male Torso Study

Working on my anatomy.  Graphite on toned paper.  I managed to loose my blending stump so I had to use my fingers and a scrap of napkin.  Also, his hips are not as wide set as this angle would have you believe.