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 (:

scribbles

mehh just a sketch I did of a friend during class.

I guess this is me easing myself into drawing from life?

you can see the drawings regarding the immune system I did on the back ahaha

Jean-Baptiste

Jean-Baptiste Maunier.

singer & actor.

Love love love his voice.

Doing this portrait helped me realize some things:

1) I'm far too dependent on lines, meaning that I'm not comfortable actually painting. I absolutely need a lineart. I think this is because I'm still used to drawing with pencils, where lines are everything... which is kind of weird because I honestly haven't drawn anything with graphite for ages. But I can't just lay down colors and create a face from there, and I really want to be able to. Maybe I'll start painting traditionally again... the art teacher at school sells cheap canvases apparently and I have a ton of paint in my garage that I haven't touched since freshman year ahaha

2) I'm really not comfortable sketching faces without cheating and using a bit of layered help... this, I think I can change by drawing more with pencils (without gridding... haha). I'm really too reliant on whatever's going to make my life easier and make the subject look more like who it's supposed to be... that's the problem with realism for me, I guess. So yeah. More drawing with graphite, charcoal, pen... whatever it takes. I should probably start drawing from life, but that's harder because of lack of people who will sit still for hours...

3) which brings me to my next weakness: speed. This was supposed to be a speedpaint (that's why it's rough). I was basically thinking of limiting myself to two hours for this portrait.... definitely took at least five or six... maybe even up to seven or eight... which is wayyyy too long... yeahhh I need more practice with that...

4) I have absolutely no idea how to draw/paint hair. None. Whatsoever. At all. One of the reasons why I mainly draw guys is because they have less hair. Seriously. Girls=long hair=no thank you. at least not until I figure out how to draw it correctly. which probably won't be anytime soon.

5) Painting in black and white/greyscale is just as hard as painting in color.

6) I'm far too reliant on the just-add-water blur tool. I need to start experimenting with opacities and wean off the blurring a bit...

Hope everyone's doing well! Thanks for following!

-S.