Sakura.... maybe

A warmup sketch this morning to get my blood going.

Warm-Up

Some warm-up sketches while relaxing at home last Monday.

Sketch Reboot

Apologies again for such a long lul in between posts (5 months, sheesh) I'm going to make a point of posting here more often with some of the sketches I do in the books I keep with me everywhere (and maybe encourage me to be drawing more often in general, heh).

Here's the starter set, a few doodles I did while visiting my grandfather in Pennsylvania last week, it was a good time to relax and unwind, so my mind wandered at random.  A few of these are related to a new contest I'm planning to participate in (more on that later, I hope!):

One of the most interesting parts of my visit to my grandfather was someone I met on my return flight.  I met a Tim Shuman (whose sketches you can find at his Blogger account, Unstringing the Bow ), who surprised me with his level of perspective knowledge and realism.  His full time job is as a director of services for international schools, but it amazed me that someone in that field could also be a knowledgable artist.  It reaffirmed my belief that good artistry can come from anyone with time, and you do not have to give up such a dream just because of where one works today.  I hope this encourages you to pick up a pencil and put some of your own thoughts down in the near future!

Warmup Sketches

A few warmup sketches from yesterday using posemaniacs.com .  They're 30 second drawing pracice models (modified to 60 seconds for me because I'm slow ^^;) is excellent for getting into the swing of things.

Back!

I ripped off a practice that someone I watch on Deviantart does; taking stock images and doing a warm-up based on them. Here was my attempt from the original image found here.  Half an hour with a pencil and a little PS cleanup afterwards.

Positivity

I've been drawing for nearly 10 years. In all of that time, I have never been published, never done more than 10 sketchcards, only rarely have I been recruited to participate in any major art events (the most recent being RobinRones'Project Minotaur OCT, and have never earned more than $100 in my lifetime of drawing.

I'm currently taking a weeks vacation so that I can relax, catch up on a few things, and visit family. And what have I done so far with this time? This:



A contribution to a group that, aside from a little more new knowledge about body positioning and expressions, I have gained little.

So why do I continue to do it?

Partially for the personal enjoyment. It is a nice break from my day job, and gives me something to contribute, however few people may see it. It also is mentally stimulating for me, as it is something outside of my normal field of knowledge (that being computer networking).

Foremost though, is because in some small corner of my mind I still hold on to the dream that I might some day be able to make some semblance of a living off of doing art.

Will I ever reach that point? It seems more and more remote as days pass. The field is super competitive despite the low pay, long hours, and seeming thanklessness received by a majority of the public. I could certainly have a much more comfortable living if I kept up my current career track. So why keep going?

Not sure even I know at this point. Only that I don't want to quit.

Not yet.

Warm-up sketch + Sketch Cards

Warm-up sketches from this morning:


Also, my first ever sketch cards are up for auction at the Blue Line Pro Sketch Card Event for Cancer. Take a perusal through all of the cards at their eBay page. There's a long list of cards by amazing artists both professional and just plain people with good hearts.

The cards I have available for auction are here, all of Street Fighter ladies:
Sakura

Ibuki

Chun-Li

Crimson Viper

Life Drawing, May 1

From a session we had on Saturday. This one was more interesting because I had accidentally forgotten all of my "normal" art supplies at home that day; the only items I had on me were a moleskine sketchbook and my favorite .5mm mechanical pencil (a Pentel 120, very comfortable for people like me with smallish hands). This actually turned out to be a good thing because it forced me to ignore switching between a set of different tools and just DRAW. It was very liberating and helped me to focus a lot. I should try to do stuff like that more often. The only problem with it was I had no way of laying in large swaths of graphite. I'll have to bring a regular pencil next time.

Starbucks sketches

Free coffee and the opportunity to sketch some folks? A perfect way to spend a morning.

The lady at the bottom noticed me sketching her and kept glancing at me while waiting for a drink. It made me feel a little self-conscious about sketching her, but she held her pose pretty well which made it easy to get something halfway decent down.

Pay no attention to the random anime dude in the center.

Life drawings

Some of my sketches (well, all of them actually) from life drawing sessions this Saturday.

Done in HB and 2B pencil, 1 minute at the top to 20 minutes at the bottom.