Figure Drawings Part 2

Yesterday, I showed you my early pencil figure drawings. They were mostly from how to draw books or comics or my own imagination. I always think that my interest in manga allowed me to practice drawing people, both faces and figures. These next figure drawings are more recent (about 5 months ago from school to be exact) and are a little more engaging. Just so you know, the figure drawing lesson in my art class was indeed my favorite lesson.

My favorite one. Of course, it just so happens to be
a drawing of one of my best friends.

You'll see a lot of similarities in the poses and sketches. That's because we made a few sketches of the same pose before we moved on to a more finished drawing. Something that I thought was cool was that  I can still recognize who I was drawing simply because of how I drew their hair, figure, or clothes. It was fun doing these figures and I hope to draw more in the future.

Figure Drawings Part 1

So you've seen lots of my portraits and it's obvious that I love drawing people. There's just something about people that makes them so fun and interesting to draw. Maybe because everyone is different in some and yet we all have the same basic structure. It's especially cool (to me anyways) that you can draw a regular face - eyes, nose, mouth, etc. - and if you just add some tell-tale trait, the face automatically looks like the one you're trying to draw. For example, thick, short, blond hair and a beauty mark equals Marylin Monroe. Or big ears make most of our recent US presidents.

But I digress.

This is supposed to be about figure drawings. I will say this: it's difficult to get the proportions just right so it doesn't look weird. But anyways, here are some early figure drawing sketches back from my manga-phase. Manga is actually the reason I became so interested in drawing people, and it's how I learned how to draw people.

Hopefully you can see them all and they're not too faint.

Random Portraits!!

I meant to post something yesterday but I was too busy watching Captain America (no movie series is better than the Avengers, just a random plug). But I of course can post today. Throughout my sketchbook and portfolio, I have quite a few portraits and self-portraits. Most of them tend to be self-portraits (again, I'm not vain) simply because I'm readily available to draw. Some of them are school assignments or sketches for the school assignments. Some of them I did on my own time (there are very few of those).

This was a sketch in preparation for #3

This was also a sketch in preparation for #3

This piece is HUGE, about 5'x3'. Maybe more.

This is a charcoal portrait sketch.

A portrait collaged with charcoal paper.

A "dynamic" portrait done in pencil.

A portrait of a man with only the lights and darks drawn.

Another "dynamic" portrait. It's me tangled up in a scarf.

A watercolor self-portrait.

Girl with the pearl earring painting sketch.

Mixed media girl with the pearl earring.

One of my absolute favorite self-portraits. Done with weighted pencils.

So, there are different types of portraits with different types of media but all are pretty cool, at least I think so. I tend to like sketching portraits more than drawing them for a finished piece. For one thing, it's quicker, and there's more energy in a sketch. You're able to see the process more clearly in a sketch than in a finished piece. On a totally unrelated note, the book Girl with the Pearl Earring is pretty good, you should read it.

Next up, figures!

Eyes

Another favorite subject of mine to paint/draw is eyes. There's just something about them that's mysterious and beautiful. Everyone's eyes are different whether it be in color, shape, skin tone, or age. I find then to be a beautiful and complex subject to draw. Many people think that the eye is the most difficult to draw but I think it's one of the easiest (mostly because I draw them so much). And just for your information, the nose is the hardest for me to draw. I have so much fun drawing eyes that they permeate most of my random doodles when I'm bored in school. Here are just a few sketches, drawings, and paintings of eyes. And I apologize in advance if you are slightly creeped out by the eyes staring at you.

I know the you've already seen the digital eye on a previous post but I still think it should be included with the other eyes. 

Portrait Sketches

I hope everyone had an awesome 4th of July. I watched the Boston Pops on TV since I hate crowds but love love LOVE Jennifer Hudson. She's my favorite actor/singer/role model. But anyways, I decided to post some sketches. Everything that I draw isn't always a finished piece of art. Sometimes it's  a plan that I never did, an experiment, or just some random drawings. These sketches are all experimental self-portraits using different (and slightly unusual) media.

Done with collaged paper, charcoal, and nail polish.

Done with ink, white acrylic paint, and tea (yes tea).

Done with collaged charcoal paper, charcoal, wax paper, tooth picks,
and watercolors.

Done with acrylic paint and aluminum foil. 

Both the first one and the last one inspired two of my concentration pieces seen in the first post here. I would recommend doing experimental sketches simply because they are very fun and they make you explore different ways of doing art.