Monday, December 31, 2012

There and Back Again: Days 178-184

Day 178: It doesn't especially feel like an hour's worth of work, but it was Christmas and I was with friends. My gift to myself is to be happy with how it looks and not focus on whether or not I 'cheated'.

Day 179: As much as I like this overall, I love how her hair came out. I need to figure out how to bring gestural pencilwork like that into my paintings.

Day 180: I can blame a lot of this on Anne Hathaway's Fantine, but the rest is... just itself, really.

Day 181: I'd put about 15 minutes into this when my friend's nephews showed up at her apartment and I went to help their parents; when I came back, the toddler had added his artistic statement. Instead of getting angry [at myself] or starting over, I turned the scribbles into some ribbons; the resulting jagged flow of them is... honestly really fascinating, and nothing I'd have done on my own!

Day 182: You can't see in this scan, but a lot of time went into lowering that left shoulder again and again, and turning her from some humpback creeping monster into this. The angle of her head, the drape of her hair, that left hand - this is a page I really do love.

Day 183: This was going in a stronger direction than the result really shows, but it's not really disappointing - just fine instead of great.

Day 184: This seemed to be heading to the same end as the day before, and while I would have accepted that on any other day, to end the project on an okay note was not acceptable. So while this isn't one of the pages that I stop at and know that I got something, it's definitely more than a 'fine' drawing.

...and that's all, folks: six months of a drawing a day. I'll be writing up a postmortem of sorts for the project for tomorrow. In the meantime - thanks for sticking around!

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Riverdaughter Drawing

Because Holding the Pass is still fighting me, I have the drawing for my next painting ready to go:


The values are actually almost perfectly flipped there - it's going to be a fairly dark painting, with the flesh portion of the nymph being almost white against a deep green tail. Observe:


Here's the study, drawn doublesize of the final because drawing a back is hard enough by itself:


Friday, December 28, 2012

There and Back Again: Days 171-177

Day 171: The anatomy is, mm, strange, and I actually hate the way her hair turned out, but I love her feet of all things, and the hand curled by them.

Day 172: Apart from the fact that her head is far too big for her body, I really like this. Flowey, sad-looking ladies!

Day 173: And then there's this. This really, really catches me - I want to do something more with it, figure out how to turn it into a painting. I love halos, but have never really been able to figure out how to include one in a painting 'naturally' - but if I'm to paint this, the halo is important. (I think.) It's something to think on.

 Day 174: Sad lady with flowey hair: we know the drill.

Day 175: This was me trying to draw someone specific, and it's just a boring result.

Day 176: The broken neck aside, I'm fond of what happened here. Tiny pearls and delicate lines make me happy.

Day 177: Not really sure about this, apart from the fact that I like all of her delicacy vs. the grip on the chain.

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

There and Back Again: Days 160-170

Day 160: There is no such thing as 'gratuitously flowey' in my world.

Day 161: I liked this more before I tore and tattered the curtains, but I still like it.

Day 162: As is written on the page, this is a tired drawing. It's not very good on pretty much any scale of judgement.

Day 163: Sabriel. This was one of the first books to catch me and hold; its cover was the first art to do the same. I... have been really remiss in my response to such important foundational forces in my creative life. So: Sabriel, the Abhorsen. Apart from the position of her bell-hand/arm, I'm really quite pleased with this.

Day 164: A siren, apparently. I like the gesture of her upper body but I'm not sold on the tail's positioning.

Day 165: We won't speak of this.

Day 166: It was cold in my apartment. The page as a composition would have been much more effective if I hadn't tried to shoehorn in those trees on the left.

Day 167: The Newtown shooting happened, and I was just so sad. I don't usually 'draw my feelings', but it's comforting to have the outlet. There is very real comfort to be had in the familiar.

Day 168: A strong woman, ready for action and... staking some vampires? Inspired by a friend, who has a lot of good things to say about the portrayal of women in fantasy art.

Day 169: ...I'm honestly not sure.

Day 170: There is no shame to be had in drawing the same thing over and over again, because it informs the conscious mind that there's something in the unconscious mind that is working itself out.

Saturday, December 22, 2012

There and Back Again: Days 152-159

Day 152: A masked lady, and some simple celtic knots. I really do like this one, though there's not much to say about it.

Day 153: I was thinking about Janus, and 'the hornéd god', and flowey ladies (though that last isn't new or different). The way her (their?) faces turned out intrigues me.

Day 154: The face and the arms and hands were drawn first: and then I went to my friends' place and got drunk. I wasn't going to let something so simple as inebriation get between me and finishing the day's hour of drawing, though! You can track my blood alcohol content around the drawing by how harmonious the flowey lines are.

Day 155: Oh do I love this one. Apart from the fact that legs don't work like that...

Day 156: Playing with drapery is really fun and surprisingly meditative.

Day 157: I've pretty much decided that this is Morgan le Fey; also, that tucked-up skirt thing is me really specifically and really deliberately nabbing an element I've always loved in Kinuko Craft's costumes. Again with drapery being fun!

Day 158: Nothing much to say about this one - it's a dud.

Day 159: This is a drawing where I tried to take a specific character from a specific medium and make the result look like something that belonged in my sketchbook. I think I succeeded!

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

There and Back Again: Days 143-151

Day 143: Flowey and strong. There's a directness to her gaze that I'm quite pleased with, especially since I very rarely draw anyone directly facing the viewer. (I have friends who posit this says something about me; I maintain there's a power in an averted gaze.)

Day 144: And then I drew a centaur lady, absolutely making up every single bit of horse 'anatomy' because I was not near reference (read as: on the train). Her outstretched arm and hair are personal favorites.

Day 145: Thanksgiving, and a Harvest deity, who is either neuter or transgender: I do not know.

Day 146: While a part of me knows that every artist of a certain temperament and genre has done this image or nearabout, I cannot be moved to care because I find it lovely.

Day 147: Not really sure here; I know that the anatomy of her legs falls apart under anything more substantial than a glance (which is why I hid the back leg behind drapery, hoo hoo hoo) but the off-balance pose lends it a sense of dance, which is an awesome break from the very still figures I usually produce.

Day 148: And even more onto the realm of 'I don't really draw this, but I'm really glad I did'. I was very peaceful on the day I drew this, actually; I remember being bemused by the emotion it suggests as I was drawing.

Day 149: All I really have to say is that this was much better in my head than it came out on paper.

Day 150: I was thinking of feathers, and woodgrain.

Day 151: Shapes directed this one: I followed the way the curving lines led. It was an abject disappointment until I added in those wings, because triangle compositions are the answer.

Friday, December 14, 2012

There and Back Again: Days 134-142

Day 134: I did this on the last day of/ride home from/homecoming from Illuxcon. It is something of a departure for me - this lady is about hardness, about sharpness and power and danger. About deadness! Which is fascinating to watch come from my pencil, lemme tell you.

Day 135: I have a lot of devotional art and random symbolism floating around in my head, and it takes really no push at all to make it come out in these sketches.

Day 136: Just a pretty lady with really rather flowey hair, because I'm a simple soul.

Day 137: This would be a pretty useless page if not for the pretty interesting... thing going on in the back. I don't know, I really like patterns.

Day 138: Not really sure about this one. It's... inoffensive?

Day 139: I don't do creepy very well, but an easy shortcut is making the eyes indistinct shadowed pits.

Day 140: I sort of already drew this pose, but I really love the shape a back makes, and the gestuere overall is something I'm fond of.

Day 141: This is one of my favorite pages so far. This is just... really pleasing to me. It's very simple and if I were to paint this I'd have to be more thoughtful with the environment (not just because the current one is lazy but because this piece needs some meat to not be an absurdly shallow picture) but oh do I love looking at it.

Day 142: Almost, but not quite. Any knowledge of animal anatomy would have helped.