Tag: drawing

Wednesday Sketching

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"Elf Cat" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.2, 1/125 sec, ISO5000
 “Elf Cat” Cedar Park, 2017

こんばんは。How’s it going?

Last night before sleeping, I made a quick sketch (above) which turned out looking like an elf. I guess it’s because Koa and I recently have had conversations about The Hobbit, which he is reading over the summer. The sketch was fun to do and I tried to make it kind of exaggerated, with big eyes and a short triangular face shape. Then the mouth looks cat-like and reminds me of the main character in The Cat Returns after she enters the Cat Kingdom.

Tonight I made two more small sketches on the same page to try drawing a face at an angle. It’s pretty difficult, but the sketches are good to do because I can identify the parts I really need to work on. In this instance, I realize that I have no idea how to draw the more distant eye. Also, the edge of the face is something I don’t know how to draw. I was pretty much just winging it here!

"Needs" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/125 sec, ISO2500
 “Needs” Cedar Park, 2017

For my last sketch, I drew it larger and looked at a couple reference drawings to try to get the more distant eye shape correct. I think it turned out okay, although I had to erase a lot. In the photo below, I saw that something looked a bit off, and I realized the eyebrow on the left is too thin. So I erased it and re-drew it with the same thickness as the closer brow. I think it looks a lot better!

"Almost OK" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/125 sec, ISO3200
 “Almost OK” Cedar Park, 2017

I enjoyed working on this one and learned a bit more about eye shape. I also like line-drawings but I also like watercolor shading and it’s something I’d like to do later on when I get better at drawing faces. My goal is to be able to draw faces that look natural, even if they aren’t very realistic. I have a long way to go still, because my drawings so far don’t look very natural.

To see all the sketches I’ve been working on, you can check out the Flickr album “My Sketching Journey”, or my Instagram account barron.sketches which I created just for posting sketches, watercolors, and stationery items.

I hope you had a nice Wednesday!

おやすみ

Memory Box

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"Round" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.2, 1/100 sec, ISO2500
 “Round” Cedar Park, 2017

こんばんは。How’s it going?

The other day I was searching for a palette knife for my son, and I checked an old wicker storage chest that I’ve had for as long as I can remember. I keep a lot of old things in there, including some art supplies. I didn’t find the palette knife in there, but I did get lost for a half hour looking through the contents of the chest.

I have used this chest to keep a bunch of personal “memorabilia” safe for so many years. It holds my high school diploma, achievement awards, old photos, maps, plane and train tickets, old baseball and concert tickets, and letters.

The letters were what interested me most, specifically letters from a pen pal that I had in high school. For maybe a year, I exchanged letters with another high school student who lived in Paris. It was so much fun to receive letters from Sophie! I remember every day wondering if I’d get a nice surprise in the mailbox. And I would dream of someday traveling to Paris to meet my pen pal.

I eventually did travel to Paris, but by that time, I was no longer in contact with my pen pal. I wonder what kind of life she is living now… I think I’d rather not know, but be happy keeping it a mystery.

Anyways, tonight’s photo is of a drawing I worked on. I tried to shorten the face but I think it may be too round? I actually like the shape, though. I also tried to blacken the hair using pencil, and I thought that it wouldn’t come out looking nice, but I’d give it a go anyways just to know for sure. やっぱり。。。I don’t think I’ll do that again.   But I am glad I found out.

To see all the sketches I’ve been working on, you can check out the Flickr album “My Sketching Journey”, or my Instagram account barron.sketches which I created just for posting sketches, watercolors, and stationery items.

I hope you had a nice Wednesday!

おやすみ

Evening Routine

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"Three Amigos" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.5, 1/125 sec, ISO5000
 “Three Amigos” Cedar Park, 2017

こんばんは。How’s it going?

I’ve settled into a nice evening routine, which I am enjoying quite a bit. It’s funny, but the things I used to think of as “chores” are now part of a routine that I don’t give too much thought to, and they don’t really cause any stress.

Each night I will clean the cat litter box, which only takes a minute, but I would visualize how awful a job it is and fill my mind with negative thoughts like, “why am I the one who has to do this?”. 🐱 But these days, I just do it and my mind is thinking about things other than the cat poop. Does that make sense? It’s like I am on auto-pilot and since I don’t think about the chore that I am doing, it doesn’t affect my frame of mind negatively. My body might be scooping poop, but my mind is enjoying talking with my family, thinking about drawing, or listening to the baseball game that’s on the tv in the living room.

Another task that I do almost every night is washing the dishes. This is less of an “auto-pilot activity”, but I look at it as an opportunity to chat with the family in a relaxed environment (just after dinner, everyone is usually in a good mood). Or, if everyone has left the kitchen area, I can catch up on some podcasts. So, it’s a productive time of my day.

The same goes for brushing my teeth in the evening. I admit I used to often skip the nighttime brushing 😇. But for the past couple years this important task also has become an “auto-pilot activity” and I will listen to a podcast while I do it.

So those are my “tasks” that I do every evening. I also have a few other routines that are on the fun side, but I’ll save that for another blog post.

Tonight’s photo at the top of this post is of my three watches that I like to wear. My Seiko SKX007 (on the right) is what I wear every day, my Timex weekender is a watch I sometimes wear to bed. It’s so light and the band is so soft that I don’t even realize I am wearing it. But I find the audible ticking noise to be relaxing and helps me sleep. The watch in the center is my Seiko 5 SNK809, which I don’t wear as often, but once in a while, I will throw it on. What’s nice about the automatic watches like the Seikos I own is that they don’t use batteries. Just a few shakes to get them going and then they will power up by just regular body movement. I love that!

Lastly, the photo below is my latest practice sketch. I tried drawing it without referencing the proportions video that I needed to watch for the previous sketch. I guess it turned out OK, but I’m still not very happy with it. It’s a little “off”. Still, it’s good to practice.

"Practice Sketch" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.2, 1/100 sec, ISO2500
 “Practice Sketch” Cedar Park, 2017

To see all the sketches I’ve been working on, you can check out the Flickr album “My Sketching Journey”, or my Instagram account barron.sketches which I created just for posting sketches, watercolors, and stationery items.

I hope you had a nice Tuesday!

おやすみ

A Monday

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"August 7 Practice" Cedar Park, 2017
“August 7 Practice” Cedar Park, 2017

こんばんは。How’s it going? Did you survive another Monday? 😀

I don’t have much to say tonight. Actually, I do want to write about my frustrations with setting up our Windows network, but I’ll save that for another time. I’m pretty tired and I want to read before I fall asleep.

But I did want to share another drawing I did a few minutes ago. I think I should keep drawing faces from straight on for a while so I can memorize the proportions I like. I like tonight’s drawing, but it might be a little long? I don’t know. Anyways, I am learning to erase quickly instead of trying to draw more to fix mistakes. And I am getting better at controlling the pencil. Sounds funny to say that, but I can feel that I am slowly gaining a little more skill.

To see all the sketches I’ve been working on, you can check out the Flickr album “My Sketching Journey”, or my Instagram account barron.sketches which I created just for posting sketches, watercolors, and stationery items.

Ok, enough for tonight. See you tomorrow!

おやすみ

Trees, and a Face

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"Shading Practice" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/125 sec, ISO2000
 “Shading Practice” Cedar Park, 2017

こんばんは。Good evening!

Today I practiced a bit with my watercolors. As you can see from these photos, it was all about trees! 🌲🌳 I watched a couple Youtube tutorials on adding dark shading to wet areas of the painting and decided to give it a go. The photo above is my second sketch after I watched the tutorial, and the photo below is before I watched the video. I think the photo below is pretty fun, but the one above is a little more tree-like. I really need to work on the trunks, though!

For the color in the top painting, I used mainly Sap Green for the lighter color, then a mix of Sap Green and Pthalo Green for the dark color.

"Lollipop Trees" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/125 sec, ISO2000
 “Lollipop Trees” Cedar Park, 2017

Later in the evening I practiced drawing a face, which I find is quite a challenge. I may have mentioned that one of the big problems I have is getting the facial feature more or less symmetrical. I watched another tutorial (isn’t Youtube amazingly useful?) and it explained a good way to divide up the face so that it is easier to match the size of the eyes. I think it helped my drawing quite a bit!

The technique of dividing up geometric shapes is easy to follow, but difficult for me to memorize, so more practice is needed. And of course, this is just a straight ahead angle. I think a three-quarter angle will be a lot more challenging!

Onward and upward!

"Face Practice" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/125 sec, ISO2500
 “Face Practice” Cedar Park, 2017

To see all the sketches I’ve been working on, you can check out the Flickr album “My Sketching Journey”, or my Instagram account barron.sketches which I created just for posting sketches, watercolors, and stationery items.

I hope you had a nice Sunday!

またね～