Finally!
I have been wanting to draw my daughters for a long time now.
Just when I think it's time to organise getting some good photos for reference, I get a request for a commission piece.
Yesterday we visited my brother who was very gracious in lending his photographic expertise in taking the above photos.
Looking at each of the photos I know there will be challenges with each one: skin tones, patterns on clothing, hair, etc.
It's been a couple months since I last did some serious drawing and I'm more than ready to sink my teeth into something.
Now I've just got to decide which girl to start with...
Stay tuned for some progress shots.
I drew these portraits of my brother and I for my mother's 60th birthday.
Both had very similar frustrations. Once again I battled with being afraid of the dark and having my drawing too light.
The night before I was going to give it to mum I presented the finished portrait of me to my wife. "I think it could be darker," she says. *Groan!* I've just spent 15 hours or so on this thing and the whole thing needs to be darkened.
I have learnt to appreciate my wife's set of eyes. She refers to the reference photo and finds every single inaccuracy in my drawing! At the start it was a little hard to take.
It's funny that the more complicated the clothing is to draw, the better it looks. It's frustrating and monotonous at the time, but the finished product is impressive. I do think, however, that the diagonal lines in my brother's shirt could have been a bit darker.
Mum has these pictures framed in her house and it's rewarding to see them there.
I thought it would be weird drawing a self portrait, but it wasn't. Each detail was lost amongst the others, and it wasn't until the shading that I could step back and recognise it was me. But then I'd zoom in again and get lost in the shapes and lines and shadows. Fun stuff.
This is my cousin and his dog Otto.
I drew this as a Christmas present without him knowing about it.
My cousin lives overseas and I haven't seen him for probably 13 years or so. With things like Skype it seems silly that there hasn't been any contact. Must change that.
Thinking of trying something different here:
Click here to see a slideshow of various stages of progress.
