the girl who waited

College apps are all done! Now, I get to wait till April...

Jensen

Jensen Ackles as Dean Winchester from Supernatural.

yeahhh... I don't watch this show. but he has a nice face. and that's the only reason I need ahaha. It's for drawjensen.tumblr.com, so just a bit a fun. I left it rough because I kind of like the look of the cross-hatching.

So close with being done with my summerwork. One and a half weeks left until school starts ahhhhh when did that happen.

lines

So far, every drawing in my moleskine is fairly quick, freehand sketch of a fashion photography reference. Different from what I usually draw (close-up facial portraits of male celebrities ahahah), but they're good practice.

This was practice with strong, clean lines, so I didn't go into much detail with shading and whatnot. A little minimalist, but it suits its purpose.

School is starting so soon. Aughhh summer where did you go.

Misha

Misha Collins from Supernatural

This is for a fun thing that euclase has put together called Draw Misha Day. You can submit drawings of Misha, and she'll post them all on August 21, I believe. Should be fun to see all the submissions! To be honest, I've never watched Supernatural or seen Misha Collins in anything else ahahah but he has a nice face. And that's all the reason I need to draw someone (:

So, this is my first graphite portrait in a while, and man does it feel good to draw again. Tried a new technique for his skin, which is drawing in tiny little circular patterns before blending with a tissue. I like the result, so I'll most likely be keeping to that in the future as well. Yeah. His proportions are slightly off, but this was mainly an excuse to get back into practice anyway.

Planning on doing some acrylic painting next, but I probably won't have much to show for it, since college apps are now upon me. annnd I need to finish my summerwork. I can't believe it's August already. Summer's going by so fast.

Third drawing in my moleskine! Reference was a fashion post on tumblr that showed up on my dashboard. I liked her hair and pose, so tried a quick sketch. Played around with lines a bit, since I really do love strong linework. I should sketch more.

Went to SDCC on Saturday. It was awesome. So tiring though. I slept until past 1 the next day ahaha

what I did in calculus

Ellen.

She's on her phone haha.

didn't do anything in class because we took our AP test last week.

one more exam! and then I paint.

mrawww

lol I haven't done one of these since 2009.

I think I've gotten worse. I should do more.

also:

Karen Gillan (from Doctor Who)

some quick and small sketches. good practice.

One more day of Spring Break left. Ridiculous.

drapes

Don't think I managed to capture that seductive look in her eyes quite right, but to be honest, it was the draping of her dress that attracted me to the photo in the first place.

Danielle and the Doctor

drew my friend Danielle with the tenth Doctor (played by David Tennant, from Doctor Who) for her birthday. I think she's seen this by now. If not, why the crap haven't you opened your presents yet, Danielle.

first time kind of compiling photo references to produce one drawing. I should probably thank all of her orchestra friends for taking tons and tons of random photos of her because I pulled like at least five different ones to reference for this one drawing. Sorry if your arms/elbows look funky, Danielle. I didn't have a ref for them ahaha

PS: This is what I imagine your main outfit as traveling companion to a time lord would be.

inception:

n. The beginning of something, such as an undertaking; a commencement.

First drawing in my moleskine, which Danielle gave me for my birthday back in October. hahah took me a while to draw in it. I was a bit intimidated by all the blank pages and the nice paper they were made of, but I think I've conquered that fear now. But still, the paper is possibly the nicest I have ever drawn on.

Drawn without gridding or tracing or anything but looking at a reference, so I'm pretty happy with this sketch. It probably took an hour or two. I found the reference image somewhere on tumblr months ago and saved it because I liked her haircut ahahha. I really wonder what she's looking at in the photograph though...

but yeah, hair is way easier to do with graphite pencils. I smudged this drawing a bit... meh. hopefully it isn't that noticeable. I haven't drawn with my pencils in a long time, so I wasn't as careful.

As for what I'll decide to draw on the blank page, who knows?

title comes from the fact that I've started drawing in my moleskine. Also, I definitely had a two-level dream last night upon which I woke up with an idea...

Also, visit Danielle! -->her blog | her dA

Without her, this drawing would not have been possible because she gave me the moleskine and the pencils ahahah (:

Ellen

Ellen!

Portrait of a friend for her 16th birthday. First thing I've freehanded in over a year. It doesn't look exactly like her, but she likes it. So I'm pretty pleased with the overall result.

off to study for my calc test! ahh wish me luck!

Ben

Ben Moss

Spring Awakening Alum, Harvard class of 2013

This boy is ridiculously talented. Look him up on youtube and check out his original songs. So good. I'm a big fan.

I'm not going to lie. I really really really like how this turned out. This is the best reference I've ever used. Photo credit goes to Emily Xie. You can see the photo HERE and HERE.

It was actually pretty fun doing the freckles. Facial hair, not so much.

My ridiculously messy desk.

Jude

Jude Law.

Drawn for a friend's birthday even though it's now a month late.

aaaand an earthquake just occurred. lovely.

Random/I don't think anyone reads this anyways:

I performed a piano solo on Saturday at my school's Showcase event and it was not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. I think I've conquered my stage fright at last! Which is really a relief to me and should take a lot of stress away when I perform now. But for the first time actually playing on a stage with a tech crew and lights and everything in front of a couple hundred of people (in a floor length dress which I have certainly never done before), I didn't even feel my heart start to pound. Just went on, played my lovely Chopin etude which I still can't do justice after 15 months of learning/practicing, and left. I'm quite pleased that I now know that I can do that without getting physically nervous. It used to be that my pedal foot would shake uncontrollably (as would my hands and my heart would thump like crazy). But it's all gone now! (:

Seven more days of school = why am I still in school?

Lastly, I'm not sure how not posting for a couple of months equates two new followers, but thank you! I really do appreciate it. And it's not like i'll clog up your dashboards since I don't post very frequently anyways(:

Oh and I don't have a link to the ref. Sorry I keep on forgetting to save the URLs.

(He's in a towel, btw. That's what that giant blank space is)

THIS MARKS THE END OF BIRTHDAY GIFT ART. I'm now going to spend at least the next year being selfish and drawing the crapload of references I have queued up in my REFS folder on my desktop. Who's ready to see some major freckle fail?

carpe diem

Drawn for an illustrated quotation competition at Latin Convention, which was loads of fun. It was a nice break from all this stress going in my district... teachers are on strike, and AP testing is coming up reaaally soon... ugh.

Yeah. Back to studying chem and euro.

here's a link to my tumblr if you're interested in looking around there: shaynuh.tumblr.com

We Could Be Heroes (Ewan)

Mr. Ewan McGregor

(post title comes from Moulin Rouge!)

Pretty happy with this, considering I got lazy in the end like I always do. There are aspects I don't like... but I'm kinda over it by now. I've noticed I tend to like a drawing less and less the more I look at it. Which is why most of mine get stuffed in some drawer after I finish them, haha. My mom always asks me why I give my drawings away... I feel that they're better appreciated when I give them to other people. Plus, I find it as motivation to draw just as well next time, so that if I keep it, I'll like it. I'm going to be kinda sad to see Ewan here go though... Now that I've taken another look at him, I'm quite fond of him... although I'm not sure whether that stems from my adoration for him as an actor or the work I put into drawing his face ahaha. Both, probably.

I'm giving Mr. McGregor here to my friend Danielle who was extremely generous in giving me these LOVELY, LOVELY supplies:

She's amazing. It's pretty ridiculous how excited I got when she told me I could have these (plus a nice pad of drawing paper which is what I drew Ewan on and a little Faber-Castell carrying case) . She claims she's had them for forever but she's never used them because she's primarily a digital artist. You can check out her stuff at her dA: http://songst3r.deviantart.com/. Ewan is partially a thank-you gift and partially a HAPPY BIRTHDAY gift! (:

But yeah. I lied. I said I wasn't going to work on this for a while (because technically I wasn't supposed to). But since school is starting again on Monday, and thus I was not feeling like doing anything academically productive, I decided to finish him up. So here he is. With sucky beard and background and all. Still looking not-so-bad though, if I say so myself.

I need to get an eraser-pen so I can do details like scruff and stubble...

Also, fun-fact, I did his hair TWICE. Because the first time it looked like crap so I erased the entire thing and started over. And I still don't really like it.

Reference HERE! Absolutely beautiful photograph.

So, AP testing coming up, as I mentioned in my last post. meaning I am not drawing until basically, halfway through May.

That is, if these tests don't kill me first.

-S.

All The Stars Bend Over Sideways

This is nowhere near done, but I probably won't be able to work on it for a while because of testing coming up. Ignore his random bald spot. I've been having trouble with getting his hair right. Also ignore the completely off shadows/shading. And his unfinished suit.

I am absolutely dreading drawing his stubble. But I'm going to do it. Good practice, yeah?

(I've got a really nice reference lined up including freckles AND stubble! Probably saving it for summertime when I can really give it my all :D )

The beautiful reference photo I used is HERE.

I believe I'm allowed to draw it, after reading through the CC license...

Hopefully you can tell that this is Ewan McGregor, whom I absolutely adore. At one point in time, I was convinced that I had made him look like Aaron Eckhart. But I've fixed that now, I think.

Right, so. Improvement, I think, since last time I drew him back in August of 2009. (HERE)

When I have time, I'm changing my header and my side-panel link.

Ugh, I hate testing.

Stick around to see the finished product!

-S.

PS. Post title comes from one of my favorite songs, "A Comet On Its Way" by Duncan Sheik & Steven Sater. Sadly it got cut from Spring Awakening... ):

Camilla

Quick drawing of Camilla from Into the Fold.

I have a very nice reference picked out for my next drawing...

It includes scruff. So we'll see how that goes hahaha.

- S.

2010 portrait count: 4

Rupert

Rupert Grint

(Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter movies)

Technically done for a friend's birthday... after her birthday had already passed hahaha. I only do birthday art for motivation. Which I really needed. Finally finished this portrait today after it had been sitting on my desk until a pile of crap for three weeks.

But really, I wanted to finish this so I could start new art! I will be drawing a header for Camilla's blog (http://intothefoldfashion.blogspot.com/) and I will also be doing some "thank-you" gift art for my friend Danielle (http://songst3r.deviantart.com/), who was nice enough to give me some Faber-Castell and Prismacolor pencils she didn't want!

To be honest, I only started working on this Rupert portrait again yesterday because I wanted to test out my pencils. They are very, very, very nice. Way better than my old crappy cheap ones.

I am very happy with how Rupert turned out. I kinda rushed through the shirt though, because I'm not really a fan of drawing folds. The "he's a keeper" thing is something I saw online. Because Ron Weasley's a keeper in Quidditch... and because keepers are boys that you shouldn't let go!

Ahaha I thought it was cute so I included it in some extra space I had on the bottom.

2010 completed portrait count: 3!

I need to draw more.

Zooey, take 2

Zooey Deschanel, take two.

Take one: here

The reference was a really gorgeous shot - link

Ehh, I kinda rushed this one. Wanted to get it done with. I'm not too happy with the face):

But I like the hair. And the bow.

I don't plan on drawing lace ever again.

I don't particularly like drawing full-body shots, now that I think about it. After the failed Matt attempt, and now this, I think I'm going to revert back to full-face detailed shots(:

Small faces are really hard to do well.

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!

2010 completed portrait count: 2!

Matt attempt

Matt Doyle

Broadway's Bye Bye Birdie, Spring Awakening

He also sang the role of Peter in the album version of Bare

I am not really motivated to finish this because:

1. I don't think it really looks like him.
2. I really really suck at doing dark tones. And fabrics. And dark toned fabrics. (I probably need to buy a better 8B...and I need a 9B...)

but mainly because of 1.

Because I don't really want to invest a lot of time in something when I know I won't be happy with the result. So for now, I'm leaving this one like this. Expect to see his face on here again though, because I'm definitely not giving up on drawing him. I just need a better/easier ref... hahah. This one didn't really have a lot of shadows.

If you don't know who he is watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TC5zMkvZpg0

He's pretty much amazing(: