Rainbow Bisque

I was unsatisfied with the face and neck on this one, so I went back and made something a little more accurate. The head is still a little more skinny than I would have liked, but the features are much closer to the reference.

As I continue to work on color mixing and trying to incorporate new tools into my sketching, I've been hitting a couple creative roadblocks. Too much time gets spent trying to come up with the perfect colors - and I never seem to mix enough of those colors anyway. Somewhere, there is another step I have yet to find. I can't wait to get back out there and find it.

My daily drawings continue on. I haven't skipped out on any drawing opportunities at work - and I feel like I've had more confidence to experiment with more gestural pieces. The theory behind these drawings is I can keep adding lines and color until I arrive at something that captures the spirit and energy of the reference material. The resulting sketch is chaotic and crazy in a way that really reflects the scene. Thinking about the process and the result, I can see why it's incredibly difficult to emulate some artist's styles.

Watercolor, water-soluble pencil and watercolor pencils on multimedia paper. It looks chaotic because the process was chaotic. I almost backed off a dozen times. Instead of giving up, I layered on more media and tried to make something that looked finished. I'm glad I kept going.

A handful crumpled leaves that had fallen off a poinsettia in the kitchen (the flowers weren't long for this world either). I used modified contour drawing techniques with a micron pen to get the outlines (it's like blind contour drawing, but you are allowed to look at your paper whenever you start to get lost). Finally, I hastily mixed some paint and applied it wet-into-wet. The leaves were a fun subject, and the process I used will definitely be one to try again.

I tried using more water than usual this time. I think the results are some really great lines interacting with color washes. The curls of the hair are my favorite part of this sketch - I really enjoyed the way the marks bled into one another.