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!