Fun Faces, Faces #670-#680

With all the back to school sales going on, the other day I grabbed up a sketch book to fill up fast with faces. The quality of the paper isn't great, and I intend to just work mostly with number 2 pencil in the book. These below, while "studies" in some sense, are mostly just for fun. The first one is ink and colored pencil, the rest just pencil. The two different sketches with the mermaids swinging on a fishing hook are rough drafts for the boat decal I was commissioned to design. My favorite of this whole batch is the last one shown below. I'd like to do a larger piece in color with a group of people laughing such as this man in the last sketch. 

Enjoy your day! Take care, until next time!

Just A Wet Mess

I had a bunch of sketches to post, but got caught up in storm preparations so don't have the sketches ready to post. The bands of rain and wind from Tropical Storm Isaac are passing over Florida right now, and it's just a heaping mess. Daytona is pretty fortunate in comparison to other areas of Florida that are seeing tornado activity, and much worse conditions from this storm. In fact, so far, we've had daily afternoon storms that dumped more wind and rain on Daytona than this system has. But it's still early, so just patiently waiting for it to pass. 

I will have some faces to post here next time! Take care!

"The Commuter", And Faces #665-#669

The first piece below that I want to share today, is called "The Commuter" 11" by 14", pastel and ink. The commuter is a man with mixed emotions. Though he has a slight smile upon his face, his brow is furrowed as he sits jammed between the seat he is in and the one in front of him. From a design point of view, though the visible sliver of the seat in front of him balances the piece, it lies on a pressure point. This placement is deliberate, as is the fact that the seat is too close to the man, all to lend a feeling of unease and tension. Though the commuter has a window seat, the window is somewhat dingy and gray. There is a lot of gray in the piece, and even the man's hair is gray. Perhaps he has commuted his way through life such as this; in cramped, uncomfortable spaces but still forcing a smile. In the portion of the window closest to his face, the sky is a brighter blue.

The rest of the faces I want to share today, are all pastel pencil studies. I wasn't going to include the last face pictured, because I was too tired when I drew it. But I decided to include it just the same.

I was commissioned yesterday to draw/design a mermaid by someone who saw some of my paintings. They are wanting to use it for conversion into a large decal for their boat. I will be sure to share the resulting artwork here.

I hope everyone has been having a good week, and I will post again over the weekend! Take care!

Faces From The Weekend, Faces #661-#664

Even though it was relatively quiet here, I wasn't feeling entirely well over the weekend. Instead of breaking into a bigger project in full "pastel mode", I stuck to just sketching out studies with pastel pencils. These pieces below are done with basically four pastel pencils, a blending stump, and a kneaded eraser. 

The first piece, in addition to the other materials, I also used some marker (the teal portion). I was looking at this piece from a placement/proximity point of view: using transparency to combine the two individuals so they seemed to flow together yet without diminishing any integrity to either face. It was also a study in drawing more mature faces.

This next one, below, took longer than the others. It didn't get overworked, but I kept revising her face more for capturing a certain expression than for structure. When you don't work from a model or photograph, the result that you are striving for is not right in front of you or always as obvious.

Lastly, as I was working on this one last night, I decided to throw in some features to make this fictitious man look more like a young Johnny Depp focusing from memory on the mouth, cheek bones, and jaw line to that end. While I don't usually try to make my faces resemble anyone in particular and tend to keep it more generic; I can definitely see not an exactness, but the likeness I was after in this case. In some ways I think this attempt from memory looks more like him than the portrait of him I did using a photograph. When I did the portrait of my sister, the same could be said that the painting looked more like her than the photo I worked from. If a person wonders "how that can be", I have one word to explain the discrepancy from a camera: distortions. Because I have covered that in another post, I won't blather about it here! But I will also add that perception also plays its part.

Although I have a busy week ahead, I am hoping to get a lot done creatively, too. Until next time, take care!

"Proximity", And Faces - #660

The first piece I have to share today (above), "Proximity" 11" by 14" pastel pencil, is a study involving depth...and proximity. There are many devices employed by artists to show depth. To name a few; perspective, vertical placement, foreshortening, value, overlapping, scale. In this study, I have used value, overlapping, and to a limited degree, foreshortening in the fairer woman's shoulder which seems to be the closest thing to the front of all that appears in the piece. While the darker values seem to push the other people back in the image, the lighter value serves not only to put the one woman closer to the forefront but also creates an emphasis on her. One of the things I enjoy most about drawing, is deliberate manipulations such as this one. Fun to do.

If a person does not think that strong drawing skills will be any benefit to their painting ability, they would be mistaken. Since painting involves a lot of adjustments (or what some people call corrections), strong draftsmanship may be needed in the process of making revisions while painting. Below is a piece that underwent many adjustments that involved drawing skills in its conversion to color. The "before" image appears directly below the revised color one. After all is said and done with a comparison between the color and the sepia pastel pencil versions shown here, as a matter of taste I still prefer the sepia version in spite of all its flaws. But that is a matter of my own taste toward something more raw and visceral at times.

Two more faces to add to today's mix follow, below.
I really wish I had photographed the first one head on, and not lying on a pile at an angle. Distortions...

That's what I have today! Hope everyone has a good weekend!

"The Working Man", And Drawings

 I managed some time to sneak in these few pieces/drawings. The first one I have titled "The Working Man", and it is 11" by 14", pastel. In spite of its compositional flaws that could have been avoided by better planning, I still like the piece.

Then, I also did these drawings, bringing me up to 654 faces...

I keep thinking that some of these drawings could be "finished pieces" with just a little more time and effort of adding in a background of some sort. 

I hope to get a lot of work done in the next week or so, so come back soon! Until then, take care!

Making The Time; Faces #647- #651

It takes me about twenty minutes to go online in these "days of upheaval" where I have a teenager residing at home again. I have to disconnect the cable from my son's laptop, plug it back into my computer, restart the modem, then wait for my computer to detect the connection. I don't always have the twenty minutes to spare, because he keeps me so busy with other things. I am trying to be patient with the temporary squalor, and my son has found a new apartment. It just won't be ready for him to move into for a few more days. In spite of my minimal time online, I have been doing a lot of drawing. I make time for it, because it is important to me. More and more I realize that even if there is never any other profit from my art, it brings me great satisfaction just in creating it. These pieces below were a joy for me to make amidst the current chaos. I hope you will enjoy them, too.

Until next time, take care!

Update, And Faces #638-#646

Things are still in upheaval around here. But I did finish this mermaid piece, and manage to get a lot of drawing time in along the rocky way...

Wish I had more time to post, but only had a little while here. I am really hoping things calm down around here! Until next time, take care!

Stolen Painting

This painting (below) that I had loaned my son was stolen from his last apartment while we were in the process of moving him out of there. It has been a long week of brutal heat, expensive car repairs for me, unsuccessful apartment hunting, and not so smooth moving. Having had this painting stolen did nothing to improve the week, to say the least.


I did this acrylic painting back in 2000, and it has always been among my favorites. At least I still have some photographs of it.

I will have some new work to post soon. Until next time, take care!

A Blog About Faces

So far, I've changed this mermaid's face about four times. I think I finally have it the way I want. A little picky, but nonetheless...it's a blog about faces. I added some other things to the composition today, too, since I was actually able to squeeze in some creative time.

I'm still on the fence over two different approaches to the background and not sure when I'll get to it, but at least wanted to post this update. Until next time, take care!

Face #637, Continued

Although I am no longer convinced that I will finish this piece by Friday as I had hoped, I have made some progress with it that I thought I would post. I have layered over the mermaid's body in places, smoothing the flesh tones. I have made some adjustments to her face and hair. Finally, I have started on her lower body and chest covering. With so many other things going on, this has been slow going. But I'm happy I have had the chance to work on it at all with the distractions and upheaval.

I hope to post with more on Friday or Saturday! Until next time, take care!