Afro

Quick portrait again, in a similar vein to my others (take a reference picture, grab some charcoal, sketch fast, ignore the details). I did this one because the afro is spiffy:

(charcoal on paper, A3)

The proportions are off (the face should be bigger and turned much more to the side) but that wasn't really my concern. I just wanted to draw fast. If I tried to draw it picture perfect then there's really no point in drawing it (/self disclaimer). Again, about 20 minutes on this, maybe 25 with colouring the afro.

The reference I used was of Marsha Hunt. She used to rock a cool afro in the '60s and '70s. Pretty too.

And finally a closeup photo, the full shot doesn't really pick out the different shades of black and grey too well.

 

I might get an A2 pad, A3 feels a little small to do these kind of drawings...

New banner

This blog has been bannerless since it's creation. I've just been using a simple text dealy, and it's only now that I decided to make one. Long, I know. I wanted to draw something today but I had a bit of a creative block. I ended up playing around with photoshop instead.

Look at my awesome handwriting!

The background is a photo that I took of some Staedtler Triplus fineliners, tweaked to death in Lightroom and Photoshop. I haven't even used these pens yet, they're still fresh!

Colourful!

I may end up changing it as looks a little bit sombre, as if this blog is about death poetry or something equally dark. But for now it stays because I'm tired and I can't be bothered to change it. Using PS was fun though, even if half of the time I didn't really know exactly what I wanted.

Also the "My world is blue" bit is from the song that I referenced in the very first post of this blog.

Dope song.

Oh hey, a doodle...

Wow, I actually found one that doesn't look horrible!

 

Having said that, it doesn't look too much like a doodle either.

And in case you are wondering (you aren't) where you've seen these two before this is Bait meeting Proverb.

Illustration Friday: warning

Be alert!:

(soft pastel on paper, A3)

Here's the thought process I went through to arrive at this idea for this week's theme:

WARNING, okay...

danger,

dangerous,

dangerous animal,

poisonous animal,

toads? frogs?

poison dart frog!

ugh, I don't really want to draw animals again...

puffer fish?

snakes?

king cobra!

dude, those are still animals...

ok fine, warning and people...

warning colours,

displays,

masks?

war mask,

sounds interesting...

war paint...

tribal paint?

tribal costumes?

now that's more like it.

I've been on a bit of a pastel/charcoal trip as of late, so it wasn't really any surprise that I would choose pastels again. I used a couple of reference pics for the body shape and for some ideas for the headdress but other than that this was completely made up.

menacing...

More adventures in charcoal (20 mins, #2)

Another portrait!
Like my last portrait I spent about 20 minutes drawing it, focusing again on the shape and form of the face and hair rather than detail. The charcoal helps enormously with that. It's a pretty good exercise in restraint:

 

(charcoal on paper, A3)

Thanks to the unknown girl who put her picture on the net and ended up on my computer as a reference. I probably should look for some male faces to draw just to mix things up a little, but girls are just nicer to look at.

An A3 scanner would be great for these. Taking photos of a bigger than A4 piece just isn't the same, even after adjusting the tone and colour levels.

(I promise to try my best to not make certain people look fat in their pictures when they aren't at all...)