koukla carolyn

This is a very simple colored pencil sketch that I did a few days ago and I thought that it was perfect for this week’s Illustration Friday topic: spring. I used my Derwent’s for this and it was more of an experiment than anything else. Unfortunately, the flowers wilted before I got to do another, more detailed drawing.

Faces are hard to see. They’re visually complicated. They are three-dimensional forms that catch and reflect light at all kinds of different angles. They are constantly changing expression, and expression itself is a complicated and subtle thing. Faces hold things back so that you have to look carefully to see what a face is revealing and what it may be concealing. They are immensly challenging things to draw. -Peter Steinhart in The Undressed Art

We were sitting in Barnes and Noble and Jeet was reading my assignment for my class on Mongolian and Turkish history—very confusing stuff. Apparently, he didn’t realize I was drawing him because he was moving around and scrunching his face into strange contortions. If he had known that I was drawing him, I think he would have been perfectly still and this would have been less of a challenge. This was very good practice for me, even though I see many mistakes in it. I used olive green, yellow ochre and sienna brown Prismacolors for this sketch.

I did this that one Tuesday that I was stuck at school all day. I remember I had just gotten a cup of tea and I was sitting in the Cape Cod Lounge feeling hot because I the only seat left was right under a big window. So I slouched down the seat, sat on my spine and looked at the ceiling. But instead of seeing a plain ceiling, I saw these leaves from the indoor tree next to me, which I proceeded to draw. I got bored with this sketch quickly because I only bothered to draw the contours, but I think I could color this and come up with a really nice effect. I would also like to see what kind of tree this is, but there was no one to ask at the time and I’m not the best at plant identification. It’s some kind of tropical plant because it has a trunk that looks like a palm tree.

This is more of a rough sketch than anything else really. Jeet gave me this teapot a few weeks ago as a surprise and I’ve been itching to draw it, but I just never got the chance. I thought it was so cute of him to surprise me and I think he has really good taste.

I used my Derwent colored pencils for this, but I’m not crazy about them because I can’t get as much detail as I can with Prismacolors. On the top half of the teapot there are little bumps but I didn’t add them in because I didn’t think it would come out well with these particular pencils. I think I’m going to try drawing this again with ink.

I’ve been fascinated with self portraits ever since I learned about Rembrandt when I was in grade school. I have actually done quite a bit of them in the past (see the bottom of this post for links). These two drawings were for Everyday Matters challenge #56/57, but I usually draw self portraits when I don’t have anything better to draw. I pulled a chair up to the dresser mirror and sat there to draw these. It was kind of uncomfortable, but the best I had at the time. I look very different in each one though—I think my mood changed or something. Since I didn’t have a lot of art supplies with me, I did these sketches in ballpoint with no pencil whatsoever which is why my proportions are a little off. Truthfully, I am happy with how they came out considering that it’s damn hard to draw self portraits in the mirror. I can feel myself improving with each drawing I make though. For the past few weeks I have been making a huge effort to draw every chance I get. I am happy that this effort is paying off.

Here are some more examples of my self portraits: my first decent sp, drawn in 2001, nose and lips, from a different angle, drawn in shadow, just my mouth, just my eyes, just my feet, with eyes closed, sideways.

This teapot has double walled construction so the tea stays hot and the outside is cool. It also has a basket inside for brewing loose tea. My aunt gave it to me for Christmas two years ago and I think it looks very “professional.”

I had a splitting headache this morning and in spite of that I got out my watercolors and painted this. It was good practice because I have not been doing a lot of watercolor lately. I actually really like watercolor, but I am a lazy person and I don’t like cleaning up after myself. I think I need to get over that…

I ended up doing quite a lot of sketching on Friday, like these drawings of my dirty laundry, for Everyday Matters Challenge #40: folds. This was actually very relaxing and I think I could do a lot more for this topic if I wanted to. Ordinarily I would tackle this challenge with graphite or charcoal or pastel—something I could make very soft and blended. It was interesting to do this with line though, and good practice because I want to improve my pen and ink technique. I would like to try this again only with patterned fabric.

The upcoming week is very busy for me because I’m going to be working a lot in addition to getting my teapot series done. I’m hoping to finish it this week and maybe use some dip pen and watercolor. I can’t wait.

worship, graphite and marker

I’m goofing off today. I skipped my classes and I don’t have to go to work. In fact, I don’t have to do anything that I don’t want to do today. I haven’t had a day like this in a long time. Granted, there are some things that I should do if I want to be a proactive, good student. There is a book that I should read for school (Frankenstein) and I should do some reading in my economics textbook. But why should I do that when I can spend the day drawing? In all my years in college, I’ve always utilized Spring Break for something constructive—working extra hours, writing papers, getting my taxes done, organizing my bedroom. I have never traveled anywhere or done anything fun. Now that this is my last Spring Break, I regret that decision. I could have afforded to be more of a slacker and I should have been.

I went to the library so I could study, but I looked out the window instead…

I was stranded at school for 8 hours last Tuesday and I was lazy and decided to do more sketching than studying. I have never done this before—kept drawing picture after picture for hours on end. I have to say it felt nice and it was good practice at building up my stamina. Here is one of the sketches I did of the view outside the Student Union building. The sun was beginning to set here and I got to do a lot of cool shadows. This sketch was done without making any kind of pencil sketch underneath which is a real accomplishment for me. Even though I didn’t get a lot of schoolwork done, I think my day was productive.