Doodle 048 - Figure drawing (Some artistic tasteful nudity)

Today was a good day, sure, it is Monday, it is raining cats and dogs and there is a raging storm outside which is threatening to leave us without power momentarily... haha! I hope I finish this post before that happens, but today I did something I have been struggling to do for months.

Yes, today, I went out and interacted with a bunch of people I have never met in order to attend a figure drawing session with a live model.

There is a cool art community here in town, the epicenter of that community is a small complex of studios and galleries next to the railroad tracks, it is called Railroad Square because of the location. It is a funky, quirky place filled with odd and fun shops and cafes. I go there on time to time to visit the second hand shops etc.

One of the gallery owners started having figure drawing sessions a while back, I often tried to make it out there, but work or my own fear of meeting strangers, plus my painful shyness made it an uphill battle. Finally, over the weekend, I made it a personal goal to get out there and draw.

I had a long day between the doctor's office and work today, so by the time I got home I had forgotten, I went ahead, changed into house clothes, and I was about to start fighting with myself over working out or not (it is always a fight... "Get on the elliptical!" "Hmmm... I dunnooo" "DO EET!" "NEVERRR!"), when I remembered about the session. I changed right back up, grabbed my largest sketchpad, portable easel, my little pony bag and got on the road right on time.

When I got to the art studio there were several people setting up and getting ready. I sorta walked in and said a very shy "hi" and started to set up my own stuff. Everybody was sort of introverted as well, so that was kind of cool, after a while people started to come over and say hi and ask what my name was and to see my drawings, so I felt more comfortable as the session went on.

Our model was awesome and did a great job even though it was her first time, I always have a lot of respect for models, overall when the session is on the nude, like today's, plus she was very sweet.

All in all, I had a blast and I am very happy I made it out there and didn't let my fears keep me away again.

So, to begin with, I found some old doodles I made with my brush pen when I first got it on the front of my pad, I took a couple of quick pics:

Random doodles - brush pen on plain sketchbook.

Random doodles - brush pen on plain sketchbook.

And now, a word of warning: the following drawings will have artistic nudity, it is, after all, the only way to really get better at anatomy.

First we started with quick warm up sketches, these poses were 5 minutes long and they were perfect for me to get my feet wet again. This page is an example of what my drawings looked like at the start of the session:

5 minute figure drawings - graphite on plain sketchbook. Aprox 5 mins. each

As you can see it is mostly structure. We then moved onto longer poses of 20 mins each:

20 min. pose - graphite and brush pen on plain sketchbook.

This was my first long pose. I decided to be bold and tried my brush pen to define the figure. I was struggling with the hands and face, but I didn't give up.

20 min pose - graphite and charcoal pencil on plain sketchbook.

I changed my approach for the next pose and pulled out my charcoal, my lines were getting a bit looser and I was feeling a bit more confident.

20 min pose - graphite and mechanical pencil on plain sketchbook.

After a break the model did the same pose, so I switched my angle a bit to get a different perspective.

20 min. pose - graphite and black prismacolor pencil on plain sketchbook.

The final pose was more relaxed (my arm was starting to kill me). I accidentally grabbed a black prismacolor pencil instead of my charcoal one and that didn't allow me to make as many corrections as I would have liked, but I forged on ahead and continued with the drawing.

I feel rather proud of myself, I haven't done any figure drawing since college and I really need to study anatomy in order to get back into real drawing shape. The sketches weren't as bad as I thought they would be, the atmosphere at the studio was great and I will definitely be back to work on my artwork next week.

Doodle 025 - Let me fall

I spent most of today outside... I needed a haircut and once I was roaming the streets like the crazy person I am I decided I should get some sun, so I forced myself to be out in the world longer than usual.

After returning home I decided it would be nice to show you guys how I draw. At first I thought of doing a video of the whole process from me sitting down to draw to a finished doodle... well... I tried and the video ended up being nearly 30 mins, that is, with me going back and forth between lines/doodles etc, and quite frankly, it isn't very exciting to see me try to figure things out.

So I tried again and made this video (don't worry, it has no sound, I was too rushed to add anything lol):

It is just me, drawing a quick doodle.

I refined it a bit more after that:

Kitteh! - Graphite and mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 10 mins

I started the next sketch while listening to the song "Let me fall" from the Cirque du Soleil's Quidam soundtrack, so it makes sense that this is what I came up with. I must point out, this was done without any reference, I managed to figure out the basics of the foreshortening, so I was glad I didn't mess it up too badly.

Let Me Fall - Graphite and mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 20 mins.

Doodle 022 - Testing the Waters

Working on structure I ended up drawing this small sketch. You can see I was mostly trying to figure out the pose, then added some clothing.

She is just dipping her toes in a very shallow pond or pool.

Testing the Waters - Drawing from memory. Graphite and mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 35 mins.

I was feeling rather tired and uninspired this evening. Some days all I want to do is watch TV and fall asleep after a long day at work, but my drive to get better and keep this project going, along with all of you guys, really motivates me to not call it a day.

I once heard a quote by Jack London: "You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club." Whenever I feel like giving up, I remember that and chase it around the empty pages of my notebook until I manage to get something out.

Doodle 010 - Sorceress

Fridays are good days for me, I don't have to rush my drawings as much, I can think about them a bit more, and not having the stress of an impending day at the office frees up some space on my brain.

Today I used SenshiStock's stock image as a pose reference. devianArt can be an awesome place for finding inspiration and ogle at incredible artwork, I will caution that there is a whole lot of nudity out there that might make some audiences very uncomfortable, but one can adjust personal filters to navigate the galleries.

Sorceress - 20 mins aprox, graphite and mechanical pencil on plain moleskine.

I first laid the base for this drawing by drawing a quick wire frame using a photo as a reference, then I played around with the costume design, expression, props, etc. I was surprised at how incredibly easy it came to me and it sorta looks like a collection of different steampunk cosplays I have seen over time mixed all together in one place.

Not gonna lie, I would love to wear something like this.

Doodle 009 - Out in real life

One exercise I have been told to do over and over and over again by teachers and professional artists is to always carry a notebook and draw anywhere.

I have said this before, and it bears repeating, I am actually shy. When forced to interact I put up a very friendly confident persona, but when I am allowed to retreat I melt into a nervous puddle feeling my heart race like a bunny's who has been chased around an open field by a falcon.

This can hamper the whole: "Get out there and draw people!" because well... I sorta feel a bit creepy at times LOL, just think about it, a strange woman is sitting several tables away from you at a restaurant during lunch, there you are, minding your own business, enjoying your meal and she seems to be paying you way too much attention. At first you just think you have a funny feeling, like you are being watched, then, suddenly you look up, and there she is, like the deer caught on the headlights, she hurriedly looks away and nonchalantly scribbles something on a teensy tiny notebook.

Creeeeepeeeeer LOL. Most people don't seem to mind or notice, but I still feel a bit uncomfortable about it... sooo if you ever happen to find yourself in this situation, well, take it as a compliment, maybe your posture is interesting, maybe you are just interesting yourself in some way and we (because there are a bunch of us out there who draw like this), just had to sketch you real fast, or maybe we are looking at the funny looking tree behind you, hey we are weird people.

To illustrate how tiny the notebook I carry around in my everyday purse is I took a photo or my larger plain moleskine (most of my drawings so far have been done in one of this, it is smaller than a normal piece of paper, but not by much), the purple notebook is just a bit larger than an iPhone, I placed my mechanical pencil next to it for scale.

See? Rather small.

And now for today's doodles:

First a couple of "field doodles" (done on the purple notebook above). It is hard to draw people, they, like we all do, move and fidget a lot, so I have to be very quick and sometimes all I get is a basic idea, but that's what it is about.

Excited toddler at lunch, drawing from life. Mechanical pencil on plain notebook. Aprox 1-2 mins.

Girl eating lunch, drawing from life. Mechanical pencil on plain moleskine notebook. Aprox 3 mins.

Then an at-home doodle

"Oh, hai!", drawing from photo reference and stylized. Graphite and mechanical pencil on plain moleskine notebook.

And finally an Adventure Time Fiona doodle. I actually drafted this earlier in the week, but I had forgotten to upload it. Bonus! 

Fiona fan art, drawing from memory. Graphite and mechanical pencil on plain moleskine notebook.

Doodle 001 - back to basic structures

After years spent away from drawing I realized I had lost my ability to sketch.

Basic human figures I had spent years studying had become stiff, flat and one dimensional.

This basic flaw became apparent when I decided to push the envelope and take online classes with Bobby Chiu and Stephen Silver.

My lines of action were lifeless and uninspired, my hand was way out of sorts and I had/have a major creative block.

To help me with this, I have started doodling the human figure again. Sometimes I use photos of models, other times I just start drawing whatever I can gather from memory.

To loosen myself I only spend limited amounts of time developing the sketches.

Here is today doodle. I am also throwing in some extras I have done through July.

(Click on drawings to view them at higher quality)

Today's doodle, 5 minute sketch from photo of model

5 Minute sketch from memory

Doodle from photo, 10 minutes. Emphasis on lines of action and fleshing out a body from them.

3 minute sketch from memory plus ink brush from memory

I can't remember the name of this animal, drawn last week at Animal Kingdom Lodge. 8 minutes aprox from live animal. Edit: Disney Jeff knows what animal this is "The animal from the Animal Kingdom Lodge is a scimitar-horned oryx."

Zebra, 2 minute sketch. This one kept moving around so all I could do is catch a basic structure.

Zebra butt drawn from live zebra, 10 minutes. I was lucky and it stayed put for a while. It decided to not look at me at all though.