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Monday 5 September 2016

Drawing diary: August


August has been a very busy month for me. Unfortunately, this means I don't have much to show you drawing wise. On the upside, it also means you won't have to dig through so much text for a change. If you find yourself thinking "more pictures, less talking, Rav", this post is for you!

I basically did two things this month:


Project "try to draw a decent face" continues

I've written about my struggle to draw people before, and I decided to try to improve the only way I know: by drawing more. While doodling, I ended up with the girl with the braid in the top right that I really liked. I tried to repeat the result, but without much luck. The other girls don't do it for me: they miss something of the spontaneity of the first, is my best guess. They are very stylized and don't feel like "me".


Help, my blog post needs an illustration

I don't like the sketch above (it's a lot smaller in reality, by the way!), but it was necessary step to transform a vague idea into something tangible to work with. I'm posting it because it's something I would be interested in: to see the process behind an image. Drawings don't just "are there" all of a sudden: they are the result of a continuous exchange between thought, physical movement and material. What I want to achieve is only one of those three inputs, so the final drawing always ends up being different than imagined beforehand.

Luckily I am pretty happy with the final result:


I used this drawing for my post Studying and keeping a blogging schedule. It depicts me and the things that are on my mind. If you look carefully, you'll see that everything is connected, and indeed this was one of my post's main points. It's pretty obvious, perhaps, but blogging doesn't happen in a vacuum. There are a lot of things going on 'behind the scenes' and I wanted to show how blogging fits in with my life, as well as giving an update regarding my (back then) low post frequency.

At first I regretted my choice of paper for the illustration, as it isn't very smooth and that makes the yellow not dissolve as well into white as I would have liked. What I do like, though, is how the paper's fibres show on places where I used darker tones of coloured pencils, for instance on the hair and face. It gives a bit of character to the drawing, and I can imagine the effect could look great on drawings with larger surfaces like it.

I'd like to say I'll try to draw more in September, but I think it's unlikely, as I'm working towards a very important deadline. However, I tell myself that as long as I draw something each month, I will improve eventually.

11 comments :

  1. Wish I could even begin to draw like that. I think I will stick to writing.

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    1. Same here. I'm much better at writing than trying to draw.

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    2. Or people like me that are bad at drawing ánd writing ;)

      You should keep posting your monthly drawing blog!

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    3. Stop it, you guys almost make me feel bad for making you feel bad. Not my intention! It's motivating to hear you guys like my stuff, though. :)

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    4. I'm pretty sure I don't feel bad, just really impressed.

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  2. Hey nice drawings :). For me your "studying and keeping a blogging schedule" post, does not show a picture, probably the same bug as you had previously. I just thought the stop sign was part of the blog post, but I assume it is not, annoying bug.

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    1. Lol, I'm so glad I'm not the only one who interpreted the "stop sign" that way. I miss the days of unambiguous red Xs...

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    2. I must admit I thought the "stop sign" was part of the blog post too... I only realized it wasn't when other people asked in the other post that had the issue but then I thought it was a little too late to talk about it.

      And just to not be completely off-topic, I like the last picture. (Which is pretty much the best comment I can come up with. I was trying to be more verbose then this but failed.)

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    3. Oh no... The Stop Sign Strikes Back. I can't believe it just looked like that for weeks after I worked so hard on making that illustration! *facepalm*

      I offer you all a repeatable quest to track down pictures with a stop sign on this blog. For each you report to me, you'll get +500 reputation with the Ravalation faction, plus my eternal gratitude.

      ... honestly, though, that drawing was the first one I did with the new Google Photos, so older posts shouldn't be affected. *knocks on wood*

      Thanks again for your sharp eyes, guys! For me they look fine, so it's impossible to tell whether something went wrong.

      PS The last drawing is also the one I like most, Rakuno. *high five*

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  3. Wow...despite thinking that you're not very good at drawing faces, I can see emotion in all of the faces. Of course, this is coming from a non-drawer.

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