I’ve been really enjoying drawing my Bird Presidents the last couple of weeks, as much as anything because it’s reminded me that I actually like to draw, something I used to do all the time but haven’t done a whole lot of lately. And so I’ve been trying to make a point of sitting down and doing a little bit of non-bird drawing every day, and so I’ve got a small pile of non-bird sketches that I like, so, here, yes: a sketchbook dump. Maybe it’ll turn into a regular thing.
I didn’t stop drawing for any particular reason (and I didn’t even really think of it as “stopping drawing”, so I was surprised to realize that’s essentially what I must’ve done since lately I feel like I’ve started drawing again); I think it’s a combination of not tromping around town with a backpack full of notebooks and pens, not having a deskjob where I’m denied other distractions and so forced to keep my brain busy with my hands, and maybe just getting a bit discouraged by lack of progress in my skillset and spending my creative energy on other things like music and writing and so on.
But yes: drawing! It’s fun! And the birds and the sketching lately have made me remember that I can kind of do something with this, that years and years of drawing growing up actually sticks around. If anything, I’m feeling like daily sketching has gotten me into a better, more careful, more happy-with-what-I’m-producing place than I had been previously.
So! Here’s some stuff!
This lady was from an archive of I think historical Canadian photographs that I tripped across on Flickr. Which got me thinking about sketching random people I have no knowledge of, because that could be interesting and also a little less stressful than trying and failing to capture someone I really have a sense of. And that lead to a new excuse to sketch:
Wikisketch! Go to wikipedia and load random articles until a headshot comes up. Like Holden Synder! I feel like this went pretty poorly; that nose is a mess, and really I’m not feeling super confident about marrying stark black pen lines with shading yet. I’ve mostly been drawing with fine (or super-fine) tipped Micron pens lately, which I enjoy for the bird president stuff but doesn’t feel like it’s serving me well here.
I also have been playing around with a set of “big brush” grey ink markers, in four color grades from light grey on through a heavy black. I like the look of Dr. Prasad here, the thick sketchy lines and two-tone shading with the lighter grey, even if I sort of bollocksed up his mouth and didn’t get the real core of his scrunchy smile.
But trying to marry the Micron with the brush pens worked out pretty okay for Ulrich Schiefer, so that was nice. Though I feel like this has a sense of pallor to it that’s a little too John Waters On Halloween — filling in everything with the light grey feels like it would be a bit much but the contrast using white as the base skin tone is also sort of weird.
Wife suggested that I try drawing Kirk, which has that whole “but people know what he LOOKS like!” stress silliness tied up in it but bosh and flimshaw to that, so: yes. Same issue with the light-grey-isn’t-light-enough thing, here — I ended up plying on some extra layers of dark to try and fix what felt like a pretty bad first pass with it, but still I’m not really happy with how dark my light shading comes out here. I may just need to find a lighter grade fill-in pen to add to the toolkit?
I might want to try cracking into some watercolors. I never really did that much before but it seems like it might give me exactly the sort of subtle wash I’m not getting with these pens, with the bonus of no obvious lines where strokes overlap. I think I’ve got some paints in a box somewhere.
Also, I have trouble with fabric. I’ve mostly avoided ever trying to get good at rendering the natural folds and stitches and resulting topography and highlighting of clothing, which is paying direct dividends these days with me still feeling like I have no idea what I’m doing.
Of all the above, see also the self-portrait at the top of the page, which I did before Ulrich or Kirk. Also, I’m doing these all pretty small — 3.5″ x 5″ notebook — so that’s probably not helping me feel like I have room to move on the shading. But the small canvas size is a little easier on me in a lot of ways because it’s less space to feel like I need to fill, and less room to screw up one little conspicuous terrible thing in.
But in any case I feel like I’m limbering up.
Trying to get my head around a bird in a hat with a beard, before doing the proper Albatross Lincoln drawing the other day.
Sketchy notion for an X-Files valentine. Maybe I’ll try and knock out a nice proper version of this tomorrow. Another thing watercolors would be nice for. I did trip across a nice little line drawing version of this same idea about a week after I scribbled it into my sketchbook, but I probably shouldn’t let that stop me — I think if you decide to come up with a jokey Valentine that’s X-Files related, the iconic poster’s one of the first things you’re going to think of, and “BELIEVE” -> “BE YOURS” seems like the most plausible replacement. Great minds, etc, etc.
The one I saw making the rounds kept the UFO though and had little hearts coming out of it, which was adorable and maybe a better visual than a giant floating heart. Touche, other person.