The first is a warm up with colored  pencil, graphite, ink, and charcoal.

the second is a warm up/study for Mr. 11.

Some days are just harder than others. It isn’t bad or good. Learning and practice still happen. The first sketches were just observing the photo in different ways: looking for lights and darks and rough proportions, drawing without looking at the page (eyes just on photo), drawing while the photo was upside down, and one playing with what changes with a slight chin tilt up. I ended up thinking that in the photo, most of the guy’s personality was in his left eye area.

I used graphite instead of charcoal.  I am not used to working with it and found it harder for erasing and shading! So I “cheated” (yay!) by using a touch of color where I couldn’t get the shades to differentiate like I wanted!

Worked on the eyes more . . .

Not enough time this week! But after a drawing warm up, I switched to another in the mom/Emily Dickinson series.

It’s been too long between sessions! And you can’t get eyebrows high enough!

BECU 6: This woman has a smooth textured face without a lot of “architecture” to work with. And I tend to want to make “perfect” faces perfectly. Which is not the art I want to make. I want to observe closely, learn and respond to what I’m seeing. When I draw from traditionally beautiful faces I seem to change my intentions and only want to get it “right “. I must have an interesting relationship with beautiful people. Hmmm.

Anyway, to trick myself into “seeing” her, I turned the photo upside down. I saw new things! Like a lovely shaped shadow under her chin.

We spent time in yoga class observing a tree outside the class. So – still thinking about trees.

And then playing with paint. I started out very careful and controlled. Fortunately I gave that up!

The challenge was his pursed lips and that expressive brow/forehead.