Squash

I went through a squash period for a while. I like painting squash because they keep for a while and they're usually interesting shapes and have neat, nubbly textures.

Illustration Friday - Poem

This was a really difficult illustration for me. I had a hard time coming up with an idea, and then I had to research everything I drew because I wasn't familiar with any of the items. I actually had a lot of trouble with the fountain pen, trying to get it in the right position so it didn't look like it was floating. By the time I got all the logistics figured out, I had very little time to actually practice rendering the picture. I tried going for a more painterly look this time.

Figure

Illustration Friday - Discovery

Figure

Sitting Woman

I think this is the last of my figure drawings from my college days. I don't think this one was very successful, too soft and too many vertical lines. My instructor constantly told me to include the background in my drawings. I did that while I was in school, but frankly I like the negative space surrounding the figure and so I like to draw my figures against a blank background nowadays.

Woman

This is an OLD drawing I did while still in college. I had a great figure drawing class; of course it was mostly nudes but occasionally the instructor brought a clothed model in and this was one of the drawings I did. I still remember the day I drew it, even though it was 16 years ago. We talked the instructor into hosting our final critiques at his loft in Chicago, and I brought this picture to show. It was great fun.

Illustration Friday - Geeky

Cat

Rutabagas

Here's an example of a painting that went wrong and me trying to make it right in my mind. The top picture shows the first version of this painting. I liked the rutabagas, but somehow I tightened up when doing the fabric and ended up fussing over the pattern and getting too detailed. I didn't like it at all, so I tried smearing the pattern around so it wouldn't stand out as much, but I still didn't like it.

I ended up scraping it off and repainting the whole thing. I like the final painting much better. I hate it when a painting doesn't go smoothly, but it usually does end up better in the end.

Illustration Friday - Twist

Thankfully, this has never happened to me while running.