Watercolor Portrait

"Watercolor Portrait" Cedar Park, 2018
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/100 sec, ISO1250
“Watercolor Portrait” Cedar Park, 2018

こんばんは。

Tonight I did a watercolor version of a sketch I did a few days ago. It’s so much fun to play with color! I used my Prima “The Classics” watercolors, plus a couple other Windsor & Newton colors that Bay got me for my birthday.

"2017.12.05 Sketch" Cedar Park, 2018
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/125 sec, ISO4000
“2017.12.05 Sketch” Cedar Park, 2018

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 good day!

またね~

A Fun Sketch

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!

Digital Adjustments

Hello! I worked on the drawing that I blogged about the other night. The first photo is the one from last night.

In the second photo, I worked on the eyebrows and mouth a little bit.

The third photo is the final version of the sketch, adjusted digitally to what I think looks good. As is my pattern, the eyes were moved closer together, and the nose and mouth moved up. I also adjusted the position and angle of the eyebrows.

"Eraser Collection" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4.5, 1/100 sec, ISO800
“Eraser Collection” Cedar Park, 2017

Now that it is clearer which adjustments I always seem to make on the computer, maybe I can create the original sketch with those adjustments in mind, and draw the eyes closer together, not put the nose and mouth so low, and also pay more attention to the eyebrows.

We’ll see! It’s like teaching an old dog new tricks I guess. Woof! 🐶

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.

またね~

Evening Routine

"Three Amigos" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.5, 1/125 sec, ISO5000
“Three Amigos” Cedar Park, 2017

こんばんは。How’s it going?

I’ve settled into a nice evening routine, which I am enjoying quite a bit. It’s funny, but the things I used to think of as “chores” are now part of a routine that I don’t give too much thought to, and they don’t really cause any stress.

Each night I will clean the cat litter box, which only takes a minute, but I would visualize how awful a job it is and fill my mind with negative thoughts like, “why am I the one who has to do this?”. 🐱 But these days, I just do it and my mind is thinking about things other than the cat poop. Does that make sense? It’s like I am on auto-pilot and since I don’t think about the chore that I am doing, it doesn’t affect my frame of mind negatively. My body might be scooping poop, but my mind is enjoying talking with my family, thinking about drawing, or listening to the baseball game that’s on the tv in the living room.

Another task that I do almost every night is washing the dishes. This is less of an “auto-pilot activity”, but I look at it as an opportunity to chat with the family in a relaxed environment (just after dinner, everyone is usually in a good mood). Or, if everyone has left the kitchen area, I can catch up on some podcasts. So, it’s a productive time of my day.

The same goes for brushing my teeth in the evening. I admit I used to often skip the nighttime brushing 😇. But for the past couple years this important task also has become an “auto-pilot activity” and I will listen to a podcast while I do it.

So those are my “tasks” that I do every evening. I also have a few other routines that are on the fun side, but I’ll save that for another blog post.

Tonight’s photo at the top of this post is of my three watches that I like to wear. My Seiko SKX007 (on the right) is what I wear every day, my Timex weekender is a watch I sometimes wear to bed. It’s so light and the band is so soft that I don’t even realize I am wearing it. But I find the audible ticking noise to be relaxing and helps me sleep. The watch in the center is my Seiko 5 SNK809, which I don’t wear as often, but once in a while, I will throw it on. What’s nice about the automatic watches like the Seikos I own is that they don’t use batteries. Just a few shakes to get them going and then they will power up by just regular body movement. I love that!

Lastly, the photo below is my latest practice sketch. I tried drawing it without referencing the proportions video that I needed to watch for the previous sketch. I guess it turned out OK, but I’m still not very happy with it. It’s a little “off”. Still, it’s good to practice.

"Practice Sketch" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.2, 1/100 sec, ISO2500
“Practice Sketch” 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 nice Tuesday!

おやすみ

A Monday

"August 7 Practice" Cedar Park, 2017
“August 7 Practice” Cedar Park, 2017

こんばんは。How’s it going? Did you survive another Monday? 😀

I don’t have much to say tonight. Actually, I do want to write about my frustrations with setting up our Windows network, but I’ll save that for another time. I’m pretty tired and I want to read before I fall asleep.

But I did want to share another drawing I did a few minutes ago. I think I should keep drawing faces from straight on for a while so I can memorize the proportions I like. I like tonight’s drawing, but it might be a little long? I don’t know. Anyways, I am learning to erase quickly instead of trying to draw more to fix mistakes. And I am getting better at controlling the pencil. Sounds funny to say that, but I can feel that I am slowly gaining a little more skill.

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.

Ok, enough for tonight. See you tomorrow!

おやすみ