Daily - November 3-4, 2015

This is one of, if not the, last non-school related drawing I did for 2015. It is the last finished non-school related drawing though, the others are just doodles that I may or may not post. I drew this for my Granny in early November. It's in a nice frame where she hangs out now so everyone who visits can see it. :D

I had forgotten the actual date and didn't write it down, but luckily I posted about it in one of my classes so I just went and found the post. I used colored pencils and a blender marker, along with some black and white pen for some details on the squirrel. The flower (some kind of lily, I believe) and the squirrel are based on separate references in my own photos.

I'm pretty proud of how it turned out. I think it might be the most realistic animal I've drawn so far and I'm proud of how I actually combined references for once. I almost didn't draw it, because even though I really liked the idea, when I started, I was having issues with the proportions and was thinking that I wouldn't be able to do it. I considered drawing something simpler, easier, but I decided to just continue with it. I fixed the proportion issues (not perfect but pretty close) and then I was almost overwhelmed by the amount of detail I would have to do. I forced myself to ignore how it would look in the end and just focused on each bit as I went. I think it ended up better than I ever expected and I enjoyed the process once I got into it without all the worrying.

Fall 2015 - Still Life Painting, Week 14

Last painting from Still Life Painting. Flowers. Or one flower in my case. I decided to do only one flower because it was really big and had a ton of petals. (or is and has, it's a silk flower) Fun fact, that jar is the same one from my large high key assignment.

Fall 2015 - Charcoal Heads, Week 14

 Last assignments from Heads and Hands. My final self-portrait, which I enjoyed, and a portrait of someone making a face other than just staring blankly. :P I figured I'd post the reference photo of myself with my self-portrait, because why not. The self-portrait seems elongated, looking at it now, I could guess that the main cause might be in the neck/chest area.

Fall 2015 - Still Life Painting, Week 13, pt. 2

This is the final major painting assignment of the semester. We could choose either high key or casual composition. I decided to try high key again. Some of the proportions are off (mostly the different objects sizes in relation to each other), but I like how it turned out overall.

Fall 2015 - Still Life Painting, Week 13, pt. 1

Low key painting. This one was a bit weird and I'm not sure how to feel about it. I think I tried to work without using any black (because I wanted to), but I could be wrong. I like the thick paint on the little orange (it's like a clementine or something) and I realized how nice really dark color mixes could be.

Fall 2015 - Charcoal Heads, Week 13

 Only one or two weeks left of work after this. :O I think this module was portraits involving hands, as evidenced by all the hands. Also, my next version of my self-portrait there.

Fall 2015 - Still Life Painting, Week 12

High key painting. I tried to go with a bathroom theme because I often think of that as being light and pastel-y. My proportions with this were really off, just look at how tiny and cute the green conditioner bottle looks. It's adorable.

Fall 2015 - Charcoal Heads, Week 12

 First is on gray paper in black and white charcoal. Second is the first sketch of my self-portrait assignment. Third and fourth are portrait exercises on white paper.

Fall 2015 - Still Life Painting, Week 11

Casual still life. I'm pretty happy with the cup and the napkin. I struggled with getting the book to fit and look right. It might have been better if I cropped it out more, maybe? Not sure.

Fall 2015 - Charcoal Hair, Week 11

 Quick hair studies.

Fall 2015 - Still Life Painting, Week 10, pt. 2

This is my favorite of the four major painting assignments. It might even be my favorite painting of the semester. After the shells and light bulb painting, I really wanted to paint more shells and glass. I actually had a different still life planned for this assignment, but I realized last minute that I really, really did not want to spend two weeks painting it, so I changed my set-up to this shell one, which ended up a lot better.

I had the most issue with the light bulb in this, from the proportions to the reflections. Colored glass is not easy. I loved painting this overall though. I felt kind of free during it and had a ton of fun figuring out the shapes, colors, and details of the shells.

Fall 2015 - Still Life Painting, Week 10, pt. 1

Folds painting. With another squash! Better this time. I like this squash. Some of the folds themselves are too sharp instead of soft turns and the color isn't as creamy yellow as it should have been but it's okay.

Fall 2015 - Charcoal Ears, Week 10

 Eeeears. <--That looks weird. I also practiced ellipses a bit on the left and I like the two heads on the right as being a good example of how I can't assume I will or won't be able to draw something based on whether I could or couldn't draw something else.

I confused myself a bit with that sentence, but my meaning is, I drew the head on the top left of the third image really quickly and easily with time to spare whereas, with the bottom right head, I used up all my time with most of it spent on just trying to get the main head proportion and was still unhappy with it. So I can't assume that my next drawing would be good based on the first or assume that it would be bad based on the second.

It's something to remind myself of because I often get discouraged when I paint or draw and the painting/drawing doesn't end up how I hoped it would.

Fall 2015 - Still Life Painting, Week 9

Birds-eye view painting. I used a light bulb shell and sea shells. :O I didn't actually realize until now that the light bulb is just a shell of it's former self. So deep...Hahaha.

Fall 2015 - Charcoal Mouths, Week 9

 (*)<

Fall 2015 - Still Life Painting, Week 8

Pattern week. There are issues with this painting in things like proportions and such. I really like it though.

Fall 2015 - Charcoal Noses, Week 8

 Week of noses. Noses are weird and I feel like I often have more difficulties getting nose proportions right, but they're still fun to draw.

Fall 2015 - Still Life Painting, Week 7, pt. 2

Second major painting of the semester, based on metal and glass. I struggled a lot with this one (not that that says much because I struggled with a lot of paintings, haha), but I like painting glass.

Fall 2015 - Still Life Painting, Week 7, pt. 1

This week was about painting metal such as tin and steel. The ground in this one is a bit weird looking, primarily in the top left area. I was happiest with the toy bird out of everything.

Fall 2015 - Charcoal Eyes, Week 7

 Wow, it's been longer than I thought. Nothing posted since October? My, my. The Fall semester ended around mid-December and now it's breaktime until the Spring semester. I'll post the rest of last semester's drawing assignments each day until all of them are up and I only have one non-assignment drawing to post. I intend to get back to drawing every day again and now I can start painting too! :D