Second week of new habit

hey!

happy to say i sketched for the most part of the week. i skipped three days because i was physically exhausted for yes, those three days. day 1, i was cooking all day. day 2, i was hosting a party. day 3, regular chores day (laundry and grocery).

by the way, i decided to start using reference photos this week, and take at least 30 minutes to do more details. i also started using mostly HB pencils as I noticed the bold ones stain the sketch themselves. i'll probably find a way to seal sketches if I need to use those dusty bold pencils in the future.

okay, so let's start with sept 13 sketch.

i like what I did here. she pretty much resembled the tiny reference photo i clipped from a magazine ad. i think she's a teenager who is a bit chubby on the cheeks.

in this sketch, i liked two things, her eyes and the delicate teeth. but generally, she looks pleasing to my senses.

her hair is made up of lazy strokes.
her brows could have been more aligned.
her nose, just okay.
her mouth needs proper shading.
her dimples, total mess.

but I like this one a lot, really.

i enjoyed using only HB here, but was too lazy to sharpen when necessary.






next up, sept. 14 sketch.

the reference photo was a chubby-cheek girl from a fitness magazine - thus her determined gesture. she was lifting weights.

again, I was lazy with the hair. brows and eyes, I'm not too crazy about. in the photo, she was wearing makeup and her eyes were lined, i didn't like it.
i love the nose and her mouth, too. so happy to not put too much shading on her mouth. it looks way better than yesterday's.
i kinda hate the ears. waaaay too dark.
i love how I loosely shaded the neck muscles.

generally, i felt happy when I finished this.

sept 15 sketch. ahhh, the sole man this week.

he was from a travel magazine cover, albeit, in the background. i find him more interesting than the main model.

he's a dark skinned man who looks like he's coming from Central Asia, However, i couldn't just bring it on paper. Also, since I'm too chicken to darken him up with my lousy shading skills, he looks like a more of brown asian man in this sketch.

things I love about this sketch - hi nose and mouth and ears. his hair is done lazily, eyes are platypus-y and his jawline not too balanced. I hate his eyebrows. i wasn't able to render light on the right side enough to justify the shortened brow (to our view) . the shirt collar is just okay.

still, I am proud of what I did here. I usually don't sketch non-models, but here I am braving it. i guess that's the reason why I'm happy despite it all.

Up next is my sept 16 sketch, from a perfume ad.

i just thought i'd need it to be bigger here haha!

i love her brows, her eyes looked as if they really belong to one person, i like how i did the nose - minimalist and elegant, and then i enjoyed putting in hairs!

the mouth could have looked more put together if i paid attention to it after adding details. it looked like she smeared something on the lower lip LOL!

the hair needs more darkening on the areas near the scalp.

and the neck, totally shows that i was in a hurry.

haha! look what i tried with putting hair highlights on the left side. i know i should have given enough shadows on them after.

but still i love this sketch. for something i did in around 30min, i think i would like to feel proud about it.

awww, i like this sep 17 sketch a lot.. the reference photo was a little girl in a japanese DIY hairstyling book. i made her into a young woman because i realized i liked drawing non-existent things. it's okay to be inspired from a reference photo, but i think it makes me happier to change course, as i always do.
i know it sounds like i'm trying to avoid failing to perfectly copy the reference photo but it's really not.. i know i can make a replica of a photo, if given the ample time but it wouldn't be a result that i will be happy about. yes, i'll be proud because it's a display of skill but, i'd be happier if i could display a vision, an image of something that didn't exist but only in my mind. if you know what i mean.. i'm just babbling here while it's raining on a September afternoon, LOL!

i like everything about this photo, maybe because i gave myself the freedom to dream up some features, invent strokes that i felt suits the intention, i gave enough time for the hair, which i think is the best looking hair i've ever sketched so far, LOL! Love it!

so on sept 18, 19 and 20th - i didn't produce any sketch, but i am planning to make up for it. we'll see what fancies me then, no? for now, i'm gonna go cut up some potatoes and soak 'em in water and salt, ready for frying 10 minutes before my son comes home from school.

alrytie!

Yay for a new habit...

starting with small goals really is effective when building something new.

i had seen that in my sewing, in being a good tutor to my son, in my fitness and diet (they lasted well enough that i did see great results, but right now i'm back to loser-ville again), and in probably other aspects of my life that i don't give focus at the moment.

okay, so on to the habit i was talking about.

i resolved last tuesday to sketch everyday to improve my sketching and drawing. i have done one each day since and it felt so good. 

i gave them less than 5 min each, of which most were very quick three-minute or so ones.. however, among these five i'd sketched from tuesday to saturday, i used photo references for two, which took about almost 5min each with more erasures than the three quick ones.

so here are the sketches, with each i will be noting some important points:

okay, so first one is the tuesday gal who started it all. i like how i made her face heart-shaped, and the hair formed to a bun, albeit messy. i like that i put some straying baby hairs on the hairline and nape. i always loved either hair is gathered to the back, or running through the sides of the face.. i like her facial bone structure, fierce yet still feminine, i guess. among her facial features, i love the nose most. i liked the jawline and cheekbone. i think i'm okay with her brows.

i'm not so crazy about her ears which i placed at the wrong quarter. i didn't have a reference for this sketch so i invented the ears, and just quickly sketched it. 

second that i think needs help is the eyes, which probably are horrific to look at in real life. since the camera is angled such that it is looking down on her, her lids should have covered at least a quarter of it horizontally. i also think her right eye, which was shown in partial due to angle, needs the covering eyelid as well. 

the lips are way too pouty and overworked. I love pouty lips because they express so much, but this one was just too much.

happiness rate to this quick sketch (from 1 to 10): 5

next up is the wednesday sketch.

since i liked the bun, and the strong facial frame, i applied these features again to this new gal. i added the actual bun, and made more hair strands, i loved how her do turned out. i love her nose, and again i'm okay with her brows. i like her jaws and cheekbone and her chin a lot. 

i was the hard-headed one at not looking for an ear reference so i messed that up again (wrong placement). i kind of tilted her head up so the need for covering eyelids wasn't there, but still her eyes were like really open it needs some bit of covering up for sure. so again her lips were pouting, but i like this one more than the tuesday gal. needs some polishing still. 

happiness rate to this quick sketch (from 1 to 10): 7

for thursday, i did something different. i know i shouldn't have left the issues in tuesday unattended. but, oh well, i guess, i can go back to the problem some other time. 

this time it's a dude, or something i have hoped for it to be:

i intended to draw a filipino guy and i think i kind of succeeded in that aspect. =P I like his lips the most, which didn't look overworked but i did gave it my focus and longest sketch time. i like his nose next, which i know is quite feminine haha! i love his eyes, they resemble those of a teenage dude. the brows to me are still okay.. i don't mind the neck much..

now to the problematic parts, to me at least. the ears! me and my stubbornness - i still didn't have photo reference here. maybe because i almost always sketch when i just remembered it. i just quickly grab my sketchbook, my 5B pencil and an eraser. i just draw away and run my timer to 5min. despite all those excuses i made, i think these ears look better compared to my previous two.

i'm not really feeling too bad with his forehead.because i enjoyed too much putting some hair, i almost forgot about the hairline. the angle we see in the left side was way too indented.  if you know what i mean. his hair has some really long strands that don't fit with the bunch, rightmost part..

lastly, his jawlines were too feminine.. i should've dropped the angle deeper to make his face more square-ish.

happiness rate to this quick sketch (from 1 to 10): 7.5

on to the friday dude.. yes, dude again as i wanted to correct some things but... i instead took out my 2009 or something vogue copy and looked for male models. i found one in a michael kors ad and he was wearing sunglasses! 

so i invented some eyes.. maybe because i wanted to correct those lid-lacking ones in the previous sketches. i think i'm liking what i did... i like his face angle because it's very mascular despite it being quite lanky. i like his hair because despite not receiving enough work, it looked suggestive enough. the lips look okay to me as it was not forced, thanks to my utmost, now developed, control LOL. 

one of those that are not too problematic for me here are his nose, which turned out fine despite looking overworked. i guess the eyebrows, especially the right one (to our view), need to follow some angular bone structure, should not look this round-y or something. 

on to things i should've been more careful with: ears, again. i did try to follow the reference but it instead looked overworked. i should be sketching more ears, just ears next week. also, i'm not so crazy about the facial hairs. i liked how it helped shape his face but i felt that i betrayed the entire sketch with giving it a cross-hatching effect. if i only gave it some light twirls to match that of his hair, it probably will look cohesive and given enough care.

but my happiness rate to this quick sketch (from 1 to 10): 8

then on to saturday's sketch.. another one with a reference.

what i love about this sketch:

firstly, her eyebrows - minimalist and just the way i want them to be. i also like her mouth, although i did spend longer time on this. the eyes are not too awesome, but i'm happy that they looked half-closed and almost perfect for the tilt of her head. the nose gives the entire picture a little something to think about, whether it's right or not, and i like it like that. i like her facial frame too - a relief from my strong-boned ladies in the previous sketches. despite the hair looking under-worked, i wouldn't want it any other way. i also like how it was parted.

what i don't like about what i did here? none... this sketch really just makes me super happy! and thus, a 10! Yay!

but i think what's really getting a 10 is my being able to give time for each daily sketch.. i'll continue doing so, and hopefully, make weekly ones to kind of try to apply what i have learned from the quick sketches of the week. 

'til next time!

Was that Joan Smalls?

i'm trying out something new... but i can only tell about it maybe when it's already important or something...

okay, on to my quick sketch today..

it took less than 5min to sketch, nothing fancy thus the ears! I had been cutting and nipping all day for my sewing tasks tomorrow so a nice change of hand and finger maneuvers would be nice, I thought? Double nice, yo!

i think what's important is i'm starting a new habit, which is oooops the "something new" that i was talking about earlier. i don't know what i would sketch tomorrow so, hopefully I do and would sketch tomorrow.

yup! til my next sketch!