Category: Sketching

Sunday and a Sketch

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"Morning Sunshine" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/60 sec, ISO640
 “Morning Sunshine” Cedar Park, 2017

こんばんは。How’s it going?

Today was super-busy, even for a Sunday! I woke up at a good time, 7:30 AM, which was first in the house, and made coffee, then got to work on the day’s activities:

  • Update our friends’ restaurant website with new menu items
  • Cook breakfast for the kids
  • Yard work
  • Splatoon break!
  • Update Mariko’s website header image
  • Drop off Koa at the movies
  • Take Bay to get his haircut
  • Stop by the bookstore to sell some books
  • Buy canned goods at the market for school donation
  • Pick up Koa from the movies
  • Work on Mariko’s website some more

And that was the day!

Well, almost… I did spend some time finishing a sketch I started the other day. Basically, I cleaned up the lines, and figured out how to draw the hair where it meets the scalp, and also after a bunch of trial and error, I drew the part in the hair. I think it looks pretty good!

By the way, today is the first day of October, so Inktober is starting. I will not be taking part in it, but I hope to see some cool artwork.

To see all the sketches I’ve been working on, you can check out the Flickr album “My Sketching Journey”, or my Instagram account barron.sketches which I created just for posting sketches, watercolors, and stationery items.

I hope you had a nice weekend!

またね～

A Fun Sketch

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こんばんは。How’s it going?

Here’s the digital paint version of the pencil sketch I did a couple days ago. In the previous digital painting, I used the pen tool in Photoshop to create smooth lines for filling and erasing, which I found super-convenient (and fun). So for this latest sketch, I decided to use Illustrator to create the line art, then copied and pasted as Smart Objects into Photoshop.

I also found out about the Width Tool (Shift+W) to vary the width of a stroke. This blew my mind! I loved creating the line-art in this way. Check out the Smart Objects that I created using Illustrator and the Width Tool:

I think this version looks really cool. Maybe even better than the finished drawing. I guess that just means I need to practice more. 😀

Anyways, for the final version, I had a little fun by putting a Nyan cat on the shirt and giving the character a more goth look. Both my kids said she looks like one of the Splatoon girls, which I don’t really see, but I’ll take as a compliment. 😅

To see all the sketches I’ve been working on, you can check out the Flickr album “My Sketching Journey”, or my Instagram account barron.sketches which I created just for posting sketches, watercolors, and stationery items.

I hope you had a nice Monday!

おやすみなさい！

Pencil to Digital

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"Digital Paint" Cedar Park, 2017
“Digital Paint” Cedar Park, 2017

こんばんは。Tonight’s post if of a digital painting I did, which started out from a pencil sketch. I wanted to practice drawing portraits from a 3/4 view angle, so I watched a few video tutorials and then gave it a go. The first sketch (see bottom photo) was okay, but had my typical “mannequin” style. And I was not thrilled about the hairstyle either, even though my favorite is short hair “bob” cuts.

My second attempt at a 3/4 pose turned out better. I’m still trying to figure out how my process was different, but I guess when I drew the second one, I was a little freer drawing the underlining structure, I drew the features larger and gave the face a little more shape. And I really like the long hairstyle with bangs.

After I did the pencil sketch, I scanned it and did some coloring in Photoshop. I wanted to do it quickly, but got into it and took a few hours. I guess I could work on it more, but I’ll leave it at this.

I’m not so great at drawing smooth curves in Photoshop, but I love using the pen tool and create vector paths to fill and erase. It’s really fun, and I kind of get the look I want. I’m excited to do more of this. In fact, I am going to go even more vector and work in Illustrator to create the shapes for the next one.

"Pencil Sketch" Cedar Park, 2017
“Pencil Sketch” Cedar Park, 2017
"3/4" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/125 sec, ISO1600
 “3/4” Cedar Park, 2017

To see all the sketches I’ve been working on, you can check out the Flickr album “My Sketching Journey”, or my Instagram account barron.sketches which I created just for posting sketches, watercolors, and stationery items.

I hope you had a great day!

おやすみ

Mannequin Tonight?

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"Different Angle" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.2, 1/125 sec, ISO2000
 “Different Angle” Cedar Park, 2017

こんばんは。How’s it going? Tonight’s sketch (above) is one I am happy with, and got me back on track! Last night, I sketched a portrait (below) in which I went full mechanical, and measured out each element… but wow, it looks so wrong:

"Not Working" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4.5, 1/125 sec, ISO5000
 “Not Working” Cedar Park, 2017

I mean, it looks extremely unnatural, doesn’t it? This is actually how most of my old drawings looked. Vaguely mannequin-like. In fact, I was thinking that my portraits could be rated on how mannequin-like they look. I don’t know… maybe it’s the plastic hair, or the glassy eyes, or the weird eyebrows, or the shape of the face which reminds me of an upside-down onigiri. 🍙

Well, tonight I decided to draw another portrait, but from a slightly different angle. I didn’t measure as much as last night, and I think it turned out pretty good! I used the compass to draw a circle, divided it into quarters, then a couple more horizontal lines so I could keep things level, and voila!

It’s weird, but in drawing these basic portraits, I sometimes revert to my old style (the mannequin) and sometimes sketch with the new style. Happily, the more I practice, the fewer times the mannequins come out to play. 😆

To see all the sketches I’ve been working on, you can check out the Flickr album “My Sketching Journey”, or my Instagram account barron.sketches which I created just for posting sketches, watercolors, and stationery items.

I hope you had a nice Thursday!

おやすみ

Erasing and Re-Drawing

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"Sketch Practice" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.5, 1/125 sec, ISO2000
 “Sketch Practice” Cedar Park, 2017

Last night I made a sketch using the same technique as the night before: create a perfect circle using the compass, divide it using a straight-edge, and then add the features. It’s funny because I measured out pretty accurately where the eyes, nose, and mouth sit within the circle, and also measured the chin, but the ensuing sketch was way off! It looked very compressed. So I erased the nose, mouth, and chin, and lowered those by a millimeter or two, and redrew them. I think it turned out a lot better!

I thought the face shape was still a little too short, so I brought the sketch into Photoshop and lengthened the face even more. However, when I did that, although it looked perhaps more proportionately ideal, the face lost a lot of its character. At least that’s how it seemed to me.

Anyways, I was thinking about how I sketched out the nose and mouth the first time, and while those two features looked good to me, the position was off. I used to be hesitant to erase elements that I put some effort into thinking that it was a shame and a waste. But now, I am getting faster at re-drawing, so it’s not such a big deal to erase.

I watch a lot of speed drawing videos, and used to be surprised that an artist could spend a lot of time working on one portion of their drawing, and then later, just totally change or erase it! I was like “dang, but that was good!” But now I think I understand. I mean, they have probably drawn/painted these things hundreds of times, so the little elements that I find so precious are not anything special to them. They could re-draw it in less than a minute, after all, whereas I would spend a half an hour drawing, tweaking, erasing a bit, re-drawing, until I think it is good enough. (and many times, the next day I look at the drawing and think it is horrible!)

So I think I am making progress in my sketching in that I don’t feel any regrets about erasing. It’s part of the process, isn’t it?

To see all the sketches I’ve been working on, you can check out the Flickr album “My Sketching Journey”, or my Instagram account barron.sketches which I created just for posting sketches, watercolors, and stationery items.

Happy sketching! 😀