Sketchbook Drawings

This pose was surprisingly difficult, so I stopped at the arms. 

The lips came out especially well on the above drawing.  I used brown color pencil for this one.  I usually draw with a red hue. 

Poster Created by Ai Student

Ai student Jalessa McClain created this poster for a series on Art Institute faculty.  I love what she did with the quote from my biography. 

Drawing 9 Step 2

I have been working on the hair and face and realized I needed to work on the feet and legs.  I like to have the drawing develop as a whole and not let one part get too far ahead of another. 

Above I am beginning to put the shadows around the feet and legs.  I did not like the shadow under the closest foot.  So I erased it. 

Above that shadow on the close up foot is gone.  Then I put in the shadows on the soles of the feet.  The shadow cast by the hand is looking great!  I like that part of the drawing. 

Here is my studio with the drawing up on the desk so I could work on the feet and legs. 

Sketchbook figures

I worked in my figure sketchbooks recently.  Three of the drawings are yoga poses and one is not.  People ask why my models have short hair.  The reason is that I find the physiology of the figure more interesting than hair. 

Drawing 9 Begun!

I have a process for each drawing or painting I begin.  I do a small drawing or value study in one of my sketch books first.  This allows me to catch problems in the composition before I waste too much time on a larger drawing.  In the sketch of this drawing, I changed the slant of the rock a lot.  At this point in the drawings above, I have worked on the outline or contour of the entire figure.  During this stage I had to make a lot of changes to the face.  When the contour is at a certain point I put in the first white highlights with white charcoal.  Looking at the drawing now, it  looks like her hands are cut off, oh no!  I will have to work on that.  Her toes look cut off as well.  I have a long way to go on this one. 

Figure Sketches

Here are a few sketches from my figure sketch book that I have completed recently.  I zoomed in on the one above.  There are some problems with this drawing that I did not notice until I was finished.  The right eye is too big.  I need to go back and fix that, maybe by making the left one larger. 

This one is different from my usual short hair models. 

This is only about an hour of work on the drawing above.  This pose is from a pose book.  I'll work on this one tomorrow.

In the studio in spite of the heat!

I worked on this and two other sketches today in my studio.  I like how the neck and the hair fade into one another in this sketch.  The ear may be a little large.