If you ever hear me say...

If you ever hear me say that I want to be an actress or work in Hollywood (It would actually never happen...I hate being in the public eye.), quickly tell me NOT to quit my day job!  My idea for this was instant and I was so enthusiastic that when I got the book I set to work immediately.  My idea was to seem like a mad-scientist-sort-of-person creating a diorama...not that that is what I think mad scientists do.  For this I needed reference photos of myself looking crazed.  Which is where the actress thing comes in because after about twenty or so shots I resigned myself to the notion that I am not capable of making a mad scientist expression.    Here look...all I get are silly faces:

(Did you see the giant nose to the left of the pictures?  Yes, Rex was doing his best to hog the camera.)

I was going for up-lighting but shadows from my glasses were getting too dominant.

So I settled on a picture and got to work.  The drawing went quickly.  I painted the background and the sweater first.  Then I decided I didn't like the lighting, so I put it down to 'think' about for a while.  A while turned into two weeks.  So I decided to just go with it, maybe not go as strong on the shadows, and picked it back up yesterday.  Things were looking fantastic; I was ecstatic, elated!  And then I made the bad decision to change the color of the sweater.  Followed that with a few more bad decisions.  It suddenly looked hideous.  No really.  It did.  I just couldn't send it back to Dan like that, so I kept at it.  I struggled.  I sweated.  I finally ended up with something I liked.  But then I started fiddling and I could see it going back the other direction.  Really, I could have used someone standing next to me, screaming to STOP already!

I did stop eventually.  And even though I don't think I did anything USEFUL that last half hour...I am still pleased.  I do think that my skills aren't quite up to my imagination just yet.  This was still fun...and I don't think I've ever been pushed this far.  If it hadn't been in Dan's sketchbook, I probably would have given up.  That is probably one of the best lessons I have learned yet with this.--To keep pushing and not give up too soon.

So there...it is now on it's way back to Dan.  Or, it will be tomorrow.

Page 2, Part 1

So, one of our goals in the moleskine exchange is to push each other out of our comfort zones. My idea here was to force us to work with preexisting conditions. The background was applied first, before I even knew what I would be drawing. I had used this technique on several drawings as of late and everything had turned out just fine. Then I drew in the picture with a bic ballpoint pen, with no pencil lines first. I think her raised arm looks like it doesn't attach to her body. I'll leave this for Dan to fix! The girl is based on this morguefile photo. Loosely based, since I was drawing in ink!

Recently, I ordered a L&C 7020 brush, size 14. So, I procrastinated getting on with the drawing because I knew I would have this larger brush coming soon and I had hoped it would force a looseness. Well, let me tell you! This is indeed a fine brush which holds lots of water. But, it also keeps a very fine point allowing me to get all fussy with this! (still, I recommend the brush!)