Upside-down Nightmare

One thing that really helped when I started learning to draw was turning the subject upside-down. The less you are able to associate objects with their proper names, the less likely you will be to draw their simplified, symbolic representation. It's a valuable tool to the beginner, and still a useful exercise to the advanced artist. Today, though, it produced a nightmare creature.

I can't imagine what people were thinking as they walked by my quiet table - with an upside-down magazine, a pencil and this monstrosity looking back at them. Not that I mind what they think. Portraits and figures and my weak spots - I know that if I want to get better I have to keep challenging myself.

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Ice Skating Characters

A Competent Profile

As I start to become more familiar with proportions and measurements for the various faces I attempt to draw, I am starting to wonder how to make a more complete portrait with my limited time. Do I stick to lines? Do I bring a brush and some ink? Which lines should I include? Which shapes are important to represent? Maybe this is a good time to look at the work other artists have done and try to work out some of their methods.

Coat and Hat

Warm, grey marker and flair tip pen. I thought I would try combining these too together, but they seem to interact in weird ways. The hard, black edges seem to really point out the proportional problems here. Tomorrow, I would like to try working in reverse - adding the grey marker after the hard lines. It doesn't seem like it would make much of a difference, but it just might be the key to making this combination a success.

Rainbow Bisque

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