Posts tagged as “Drawing Every Day”

[drawing every day 2024 post twelve]: two legs

Published January 12, 2024 by centaur

More from the Goldman book. I have a tremor in my hand which you can most readily see on the lower left; I traditionally have attributed it to the RSI that I picked up back in the late 90's during grad school (a combination of an internship with a bad ergonomic setup at work and at my apartment, during which I was also writing a proposal for the PEPE robot pet project and playing Dungeon Keeper at night; I woke up one day with a throbbing wrist and couldn't type for nine months).

But my wife pointed out I'm drawing in my wrist, not with my arm, and that can also cause wobbly lines. So I'm going to try the next drawing with a slightly further notebook position and more arm movement. Perhaps the tremors aren't something I have to accept after all. We shall see.

-the Centaur

[drawing every day post eleven]: a hand and a knee

Published January 11, 2024 by centaur

Moar Goldman studies. Now far into the book enough to start reading his section on tools, which normally I ignore as I have my own preferred methods; but this time, I felt I could see what he was saying. Who knows, maybe I'll actually try some of his pencil methods this time, and not just ink.

-the Centaur

[drawing every day 2024 post ten]: moar hands

Published January 10, 2024 by centaur

Still working through the Goldman book, which has the inspirational quote: "I hope you wear this book out from overuse!" And that's what you need when you're practicing!

-the Centaur

P.S. My wife and I were talking about learning skills, and she complained that she hadn't quite gotten what she wanted to out of a recent set of books. It occurred to me that there are two situations in which reading books about a skill doesn't help you:

It can be you haven't yet found the right book, course or teacher that breaks it down in the right way (for me in music, for example, it was "Understanding the Fundamentals of Music" which finally helped me understand the harmonic progression, the circle of fifths, and scales, and even then I had to read it twice).
It can be because you're not doing enough of the thing to know the right questions to ask, which means you may not recognize the answers when they're given to you.

Both of these are related to Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development - you can most easily learn things that are related to what you already know. Without a body of practice at a skill, reading up on it can sometimes turn into armchair quarterbacking and doesn't help you (and can sometimes even hurt you); with a body of practice, it turns into something closer to an athlete watching game footage to improve their own game.

So! Onward with the drawing. Hopefully some of the drawing theory will stick this time.

[drawing every day post nine]: more hands and feet

Published January 9, 2024 by centaur

More sketches after Ken Goldman's "Drawing Hands and Feet". Generally, when I do construction lines in pencil, then ink it, then erase the lines, it usually comes out much better than when I draw freehand ink. This should not be surprising, but it is something that I need to come back to again and again, given that I am trying to squeeze a new drawing practice into an already packed day.

-the Centaur

[drawing every day 2024 post eight]: more hands and feet

Published January 9, 2024 by centaur

Again from the Goldman book, this time the frontispiece.

-the Centaur

[drawing every day post seven]: gotta hand it to you

Published January 7, 2024 by centaur

If you want to get better at drawing, you really need to treat it like any other skill, and practice ahead of your performance. We may learn by doing, but you don't get enough learning time or variety just from actually performing the task. Basketball players need to cross-train in addition to shooting hoops - not just play games. Chess masters practice with coaches. Writers scribble in their notebooks. And artists sketch.

My horse drawing book was too big to fit in my bookbag, so today's exercise is from the cover of Drawing Hands and Feet by Ken Goldman.

-the Centaur

[drawing every day 2024 post six]: a distorted pony

Published January 6, 2024 by taidoka

More practice from Foster's book. I was shy on time, so I didn't start with the proportions diagram, but with the parts diagram, and therefore the proportions of my parts are a bit off. But, it's a step.

-the Centaur

[drawing every day 2024 post five]: a third pony trick

Published January 6, 2024 by centaur

Well, logically speaking, if I want to "plan for success" in my art, and I've drawn a centauress with some hooves that I don't like, I should focus on getting better at drawing hooves. From Foster's "Drawing Horses" book, sketched in my little "One Trick Pony" sketchbook.

-the Centaur

P.S. I am totes going back and renaming the last art post "a second pony trick".

[drawing every day 2024 post four]: tricking the pony again

Published January 5, 2024 by centaur

Let's see you do that, ChatGPT / DALL-E! Wait, what happens if we try it?

Ha-ha! Three strikes, you're out! (ChatGPT tried and failed three times to generate this image). DALL-E may be a better renderer than me, but it isn't better at imagining the things that I want to imagine.

No plans on giving up drawing soon.

-the Centaur

P.S. This is Porsche the Centaur again, this time with construction lines drawn in pencil, later erased. The upside-down nature made it hard to get the hooves right, and I didn't want to re-draw it, so it could have come out better. But! It went much faster practicing in the smaller "One Trick Pony" notebook. Onward!

[drawing every day 2024 post three]: not a one-trick pony

Published January 4, 2024 by centaur

Porsche the Centaur. The joke is, I spent some time organizing my drawing materials, collecting books of exercises to work through, and finding appropriate materials - and she's drawn in a sketchbook which was made from a children's graphic novel called "One Trick Pony".

[drawing every day 2024 post two]: ruby sunday

Published January 2, 2024 by centaur

Quick sketch of Ruby Sunday from "The Church on Ruby Road".

Extra challenging as I am just freehanding this and not using construction lines. Bleh.

-the Centaur

[drawing every day 2024 day one]: the doctor above ruby road

Published January 1, 2024 by centaur

Drawn from a paused frame of "The Church on Ruby Road", the first full episode of the 15th Doctor.

-the Centaur

P.S. I apparently was wrong: I thought I had kept up Drawing Every Day for 103 days in 2021, but actually it was 205 days that started in late, late 2020, with a brief spurt in 2023. So this is the third time I've tried it! Best of luck Dr. Francis on beating your past winning streak.

New Year’s Aspirations

Published January 2, 2023 by centaur

Wow! 2023. What the hell? Seems like Blade Runner was just yesterday. But it was actually pre-pandemic! But in the real world, it's a "new year", as most Americans mark it, so it's time for New Year's Resolutions.

Or is it? As far as I recall, the science of New Year's Resolutions - whether it works or not to set new goals at the start of the new year - is decidedly mixed, and a brief check seems to confirm that.

But New Year's Aspirations, yes, I have those. For one, I'd like to start blogging every day. For another, it would be great to resume drawing every day. And Wednesday, my wife and I are going to buy bicycles.

For this year, though, I plan to edit my fourth Dakota Frost novel, SPECTRAL IRON, in the hope it breaks the logjam of the eight (8!) unedited novel drafts sitting on my hard drive, and to make progress on several other creative projects, at work and in life. To get started on that ... I'm now going to get back to work.

Onward!

-the Centaur

Pictured: an aspiration made real: the hand-me-down "comfy chair" from Francis Produce, which I have kept for 25+ years, now turned into a reading nook in my new library. That nook is filled with artwork and standees and books and novels and comic books, and in that comfy space there I have actually, like, started to read books again and stuff after years of and years of stunted fiction reading, post-grad-school.

Days 206-209

Published August 8, 2021 by centaur

Day 206, a sketch of Montgomery Scott from Star Trek: scotty headshot

How ddid I do? Still can't seem to draw a correctly tilted head, and face to hair proportions continue to be off: scotty comparison

Day 207, Nyota Uhura: uhura sketch

Umn, well, it is the same person, sort of, but she's looking down, and the original, up: uhura headshot

So, no real way to make these line up, but it isn't totally terrible: uhura comparison

Day 208, Hikaru Sulu: sulu sketch

Again, more or less the same person, but I made him look down, and what happened to his chin? sulu headshot

Overall comparison cannot be made to line up: sulu comparison

Day 209, Pavel Chekhov. I don't have the original reference on this computer, but I'm sure a comparison would be equally terrible to all the others, if not worsee. chekhov headshot

Drawing every day, posting when i get to it. -the Centaur

Day 205

Published August 8, 2021 by centaur

The back of Cinnamon Frost, after a painting by my wife. Drawing every day, even if I wasn't posting. -the Centaur

Days 203-204

Published August 3, 2021 by centaur

Day 203: Damnit, Jim, I'm a sketch, not a headshot!

Let's see how I did:

Huh ... not entirely terrible, though it needed stretching horizontally.

What about Day 204? A quick sketch of Dakota Frost:

Day 205 apparently hasn't been cleaned up, so we'll return to that.

Drawing every day, posting when I get to it.

-the Centaur

Days 200-202

Published August 3, 2021 by centaur

Day 200 - Khaaan! Let's see how I did: khaaan original

Meh. Head not wide enough. khaaan comparison

Day 201 - Khan, the man himself: khan the sketch

Day 202 - Spooock! spock sketch

Let's see how I did: spock headshot

As I recall, there was no good way to line up the face and the hair. spock comparison

Drawing every day. -the Centaur

Days 196 to 199

Published July 13, 2021 by centaur

Day 196: Quick sharpie sketch of Janeway, from the below image. janeway headshot

The comparison is not great - the face is way too long compared to the original: sharpie comparison

Day 197, Sharpie over non-repro blue roughs, from the same image: janeway better sketch

Slightly better comparison this time, though still not perfect: with roughs comparison

Day 198 was Richard Branson ... in spaaace: branson in spaaace

That's from this fisheye lens image ... while it isn't perfect, it captures a lot of energy. I particularly like the smile in the reflection (in both my drawing, and in Branson's window - he's having fun!). No comparison this time; this exercise was in capturing the feel more than the precise lineup. branson in spaaace image

Day 199 was Martin Sheen from The West Wing: sheen sketch

Not an entirely terrible likeness ... sheen headshot

... but my perennial problem of having a face out of proportion to the head continues. sheen comparison

Look at that hair, man. You can make the eyes and mouth line up, but that hair, man. Still, drawing every day. -the Centaur

Congratulations Richard Branson (and/or Jeff Bezos)

Published July 12, 2021 by centaur

Congratulations, Sir Richard Branson, on your successful space flight! (Yes, yes, I *know* it's technically just upper atmosphere, I *know* there's no path to orbit (yet) but can we give the man some credit for an awesome achievement?) And I look forward to Jeff Bezos making a similar flight later this month.

Now, I stand by my earlier statement: the way you guys are doing this, a race, is going to get someone killed, perhaps one of you guys. A rocketship is not a racecar, and moves into realms of physics where we do not have good human intuition. Please, all y'all, take it easy, and get it right.

That being said, congratulations on being the first human being to put themselves into space as part of a rocket program that they themselves set in motion. That's an amazing achievement, no-one can ever take that away from you, and maybe that's why you look so damn happy. Enjoy it!

-the Centaur

P.S. And day 198, though I'll do an analysis of the drawing at a later time.

Day 195

Published July 9, 2021 by centaur

"No, sir. All thirteen!" Sketch of the iconic shot of Peter Capaldi's eyes from The Day of the Doctor, roughed with non-repro blue and sketched with Pigma Micron and Graphic pens. I've included the roughs below, color-enhanced, to show that process:

This one isn't a quick sketch, so, let's see how I did:

The eye shape is not terrible, though the one on the left of the drawing has a misshapen iris, and that weird tilt of the eyes with respect to the head is back, as you can see when the eyes and hair are lined up (below) - if those features line up, the cheeks are tilted, and v. v.:

It's instructive to compare this with the Sharpie sketch I did a while back:

Not bad, certainly bolder with the dark lines, but how does it compare? I worked from a brighter, if smaller picture last time, but did that help? I can already see the eyes are just the wrong darn shape:

The eyebrows are insufficiently Capaldi in both of them, not as exaggerated as his real-life eyebrows, and the older sketch shares the property that you can line up the cheeks (black, below) or eyes (white, below), but not both at the same time: