Pink

No reference but my daydreams. This girl has been bouncing around in my head for the past couple of days, bugging me to let her out. Had no choice but to oblige. It feels great to draw in a more cartoony style - too much realism can sometimes give you the blues.

Doodle Before Sleep #2

Two hours on and off. Used reference for the hair. I wonder how long I can keep this up.

Doodle Before Sleep #1

45 minutes. No ref. I should do quick doodles like these before I head to bed every night to exercise and strengthen my imagination. As vital as drawing from life is, it is also equally important to devote time to draw from memory as well. The two will build upon each other.

Speed #5

Two hours. No reference. I just needed to get this out of my system.

Speed #4

Two hours plus from imagination. Just wanted to get a quick doodle in tonight so I won't be rusty later on in the week. It's always better to practice even a little bit every day, rather than binge on marathon drawing and painting sessions all at once.

I've been poring over the Malcolm Liepke book I bought the other day. Wanted to try his impasto style for a spin. He has such expressive brushstrokes!

http://sexualityinart.wordpress.com/2007/09/24/malcolm-liepke-figurative-sexuality-paint-as-elixirs-for-melancholy-and-want-part-1-of-x/

Speed #3

1.5 hours from reference. Colors are not even close to the original, which was my intention, because I wanted to see how much I could push temperature relationships while keeping the underlying value structure intact.

Speed #2

Two hours from reference. Backlighting is pretty tough to paint since the values get compressed in such a narrow range and saturation goes out the door. I'm not really all that used to painting a full figure either. People tell me it's easier than painting a head, but I don't believe them!

Speed #1

Two hours from reference. One thing I realized after doing that last illustration is how terribly slow I am with painting digitally. My current rate of production is totally unacceptable for professional work. I need to make a concerted effort to change that.

I also am trying to let go of the tendency to work so tightly and just enjoy the feel of a carefree sketch. I picked up Sargent's Figures and Landscapes the other day and I was pretty amazed at how loosely the guy worked. Seeing his art, as well as those of Chinese artists like Benjamin and Zhuzhu convinced me that I need to start doing speed paints from reference as a way to get used to the digital process, understand color relationships, and experiment with how efficient I can be with the default hard round brush in Photoshop.

I'll try to do at least one a day, and aim to spend no more than two hours on a study. It won't be that hard to fit in the time for these actually; I usually have a couple of hours to kill before heading to bed, so I'll dedicate that block of time for these exercises. Gotta get my hours in whenever I can.