Tag Archives: woman

Blur

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FINALLY got another set of non-photo pencils. Thanks Blicks, you guys are a life saver.

It’s been an interesting week. I’ve been so busy! And I’ve been asked to do a piece based on another amazing female bodybuilder (what else).

I have to admit, I wish prismacolor had more lighter shades of brown that were warm. It’s as if the idea of them being skin tones never occurred to them, hahaha.

Still, they have light peach and peach, so I make do. Maybe next time I’ll show myself making a pallet. I usually throw those away; I’ll try to do better. In the meantime, I hope you stay healthy and have a great week on your personal island.

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You can’t isolate a hermit

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Meet #maudecharron. She’s a pretty cool powerlifter. After watching her at an international meet, I felt the urge to draw her. Her expression tells a story. She was about to go for her second clean and jerk and while chalking up she shot the weights a defiant look. Now you have to understand; up until this point she had been a ray of sunshine. She almost danced with glee on the platform for her first lift. She was so energetic and upbeat that I was happy for her. But her demeanor changed here. You could tell that she felt that this would be a challenge, but her confidence in herself was unwavering. I love that about athletes. It’s a confidence borne of achievement. “I can because I have”. Of course she made the lift. And her playful excitement returned, but I CV had seen the steel and conviction behind her grace. So I drew her. Right at that moment when she decided that she would succeed, no matter what. Look at that expression. You almost feel sorry for those weights.

Prep

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Well, #inktober is a week away, so i should slow down, conserve my arm right?

Hahaha, you’re funny!

No, I’m trying to finish off another sketchpad which is a VERY tall order. I have a pad for the inktober stuff.

Despite the aggravation, I do enjoy drawing for lunch. Just going for it, seeing what I can get done. This one surprised me because that facial expression?

That’s EXACTLY what I was going for.

Maintaining an expression over layers is tricky. Anything in fleshing it out can change your intent and unlike other mediums, once you put marker to paper, what you’ve got is, well, what you’ve got.

Plus I’m still learning the limits of my vision loss. Hopefully my upcoming surgery will help.

Anyway, having things turn out well shows improvement. So yay for me!

Sorry if I seemed a little silly. It’s been a pretty bad week for me and I think I may have overcompensated on the good vibes. See you guys next week!

Hootenanny

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I drew this to prove a point. I was accused of not really arting and of stealing my own work! At first I thought that it was a joke, but it turns out that someone else had posted one of my pictures as theirs!

So I told the loudmouth to pick an image and I would draw it the same day. This is what he chose.

So I began to work on it immediately. I didn’t like being accused of crap. And others were online defending me, but I didn’t care. I was out to prove a point.

When I finished I asked if he believed me now. He then apologized and asked if he could have the drawing for proof. I said no. And this is where it gets bizarre!

He began ranting about what a crappy artist I was and how I hadn’t wanted to draw it anyway, so I should just be “cool” and give it to him. Finally the lightbulb went off. I’d been scammed!

There was never “another artist”. He simply wanted me to draw this image and tricked me into doing so. I felt really dumb. I just stopped engaging him in conversation.

Lesson learned.

Void

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Well, it’s that time of year when people approach me to draw really buff women. I don’t mind ❤️

Believe it or not, the whole thing is something that flowed from a lifelong love of weightlifting for me. I have absolutely no problem with a woman trying to be as strong as she wants.

Of course my first show as a spectator made me want to draw these superhuman physiques. And the ladies were more amiable and less guarded than the guys when asked. So I naturally started there.

Having someone willing to pose for dramatic effect was a turning point for me. I’d never had an opportunity to do still life drawing; so I relished having access to people so willing. I guess you can say that I gained a new artistic appreciation for bodybuilders.

I try not to over sexualize the people I draw. That component is there of course, but it’s not the point.

If you’re trying to get the same effect in your work, you have to understand that the people you’re drawing ARE PEOPLE. I do the same thing with cosplay. I find it brings out the best in them.

Sometimes it’s good to just draw an emotion. It keeps things simple, but gives a clean look. I actually like those best.

So that’s that! Now you have an answer for my drawings of women being mostly muscular.

Oddly enough, no one wants an off-season image of themselves, lol.

There are a few exceptions. And honestly, if you’re one, let me know, because I’d love to do more pictures like this one.

Specific

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Okay… I’m going to try something for the first time.

I’ll tell you WHY I drew something. If you guys like that I may share more stuff like it. WARNING!! It may suck, lol. Anyway…

I drew this picture of my son’s mother, my ex-wife. We talked for mother’s day and afterwards I felt physically ill. She was the love of my life and I still miss her everyday. So I was hit with this certainty that I didn’t exist anymore. I wanted to scream and I wanted to ugly cry.

I started drawing instead.

I did it as fast as I could. I just drew her like she was in the shower, except the water is mine. My tears. And NO ONE would know that. Unless I told them.

…

So as I went along, creating this little slice of my psyche, I began to feel better. So now you know.

All of time at its end

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I’m trying to draw away a dark cloud that is trying to settle over me. I might succeed; it’s worked in the past.

There’s no guarantee that it will though. But motivation is motivation,and even though I try not to tap into negative emotions for my art anymore, sometimes it helps.

But you can’t stay there. It’s a loop and the only real way to break it is to do the things that you don’t feel like doing. Upbeat music. Time spent outside. Go online and listen to jokes or comedy clips…

….get out of your head.

Consumer

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Red is getting to be a popular color for me. My whole life I always hated it, but now it’s everywhere around me.

Ha.

I know a lot of people start off drawing the shapes and then finesse that into images. For more complex images I do so as well, but I’ve drawing since I was about three years old. So certain things I tend to do from long held instincts.

The tape is something I started a few years ago. Believe it or not, I used to just use a ruler and paint to the edges! This is sooo much simpler.

I don’t really have a particular pattern to how I get started. Lately the subject is where I start but it could be anywhere. Maybe I should think about it more diligently? Meh.

Never start with your darkest color! I used to do that when I started learning to mix them and it was a horrible period for me. It gave me nowhere to go, artwise.

There’s no worry of bleed over; it’s a LOT of red, lol. As usual, I try to work from light to dark.

Thank goodness for gel pens! Adding details to the earrings help give you the sensation of having them in front of the hair. A brush pen for the black gives the hair some depth.

I gave the blindfold/scarf a darker red to start to create separation from everything else. When all of your colours are so similar a little light tan can have a big impact.

And that’s it! This image took me about two hours, give or take. I’m about due to create an inanimate object. What’s red that I can draw?…

Red

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If you’ve been following my blog for awhile, you know that I often draw people that I see on my ride into work on the commuter train. The responses I get vary, but it usually works out for everyone. Usually.

The above picture is one that almost got me in trouble. A lady called the conductor and accused me of drawing her. I wasn’t. Worse, she didn’t ask me, she just assumed. I was drawing my friend, Rebekah. Ugh.

On to happier thoughts. I did this one for a Facebook group. Everyday they post a new photo for members to draw. You have until the next post to finish it. I check in when I’m bored or need to draw, but can’t come up with anything. So there’s the pencil work. Not bad…

Then I started to color in the easiest and obvious parts. I find that if I do this it brings all the other layers forward.

Throwing in that much poppy red was a little daunting. It was either going to make the image or make it a mess! I knew some of it would leach into the subject; but if you’re in a room THAT red, that would happen from saturation.

Skin tone is being determined by values. I had to be careful not to over shade or add too much detail on one side of her. She’s supposed to seem a little washed out.

The buckles on her boots were made easier by leaving a accent line in the black of the boot. Then a slightly darker red was added to give a sense of balance. After all, if there’s a bright light on her, why would her background be flat?

Someday prismacolor is going to make a subdued red and I won’t have to blend to get this look! *sigh* It was so bright in the image so I had to go there. I removed the tape(I’ve gotten much better at it) and there you have it.

Keep in mind, while they give you 24 hours to get this done, I try to work it in about 2, tops. It’s really fun and if you draw, give it a shot!