A book of many portraitures...

I wanted to work on my drawing skills more, and obviously trying to make a habit of posting a sketch every week just wasnt' working out for me - if you're not in the mood to draw, I just can't do it. Oh well, C'est la vie!

I do know that I most definitely wanted to work on portraits (of people and animals)...so I bought a sketchbook dedicated to those things...enter my title page...:My first portraiture is of my dear feline, Oreo. Here he is looking all fierce and mighty:
So here I begin, hopefully the first portraits of many!

Sketching Starfish

I've had an unusual attracting to ocean fauna and flora lately.

I think it has a little part to do that I was watching the Planet Earth series, and the ocean / water ones were my favorite. It might also have a little to do with a commission I'm doing for a friend, where she wants an ocean-like theme, so I'm constantly looking at pictures, another sketch seen here.

I'm not a sketcher, I'm more a painter - so a lot of my sketches, once the 'general idea' has been made, go unfinished. Blushes. It's nothing against sketching, I'm just more in tune with a paint brush :)

Ocean Sketches

I've started sketching some ocean scenes. A friend of mine was wanting a painting that went around the whole ocean-thing, so I thought I'd best get started since it's summer and I have a bit more time on my hand.


Now, these are the very very first sketches. So I doubt that the painting will involve either of them, but they are getting me in the ocean-mood. I added some watercolor to them, since they just looked like a big mess of pencil. The colour gives a bit of definition / idea to what exactly is there.

Despite these being the first; I'm liking the second sketch the most so far. The little fishes are so cute!

New Sketchbook!

I got myself a new sketchbook. My other ones were either full, or the paper was not the quality I like dabbling on (still good for super quick sketches that will inevitably end up in the trash - yes, bad artist practice I know). It's just a plain black one, but I hope to maybe decorate it or jazz it up a bit in the future. I just need to know what to do it up with!

Anyhow, I completed my first sketch in it just-just now (scanning as we speak!) It's of bluebells! I haven't seen these flowers since I was little and lived near Strathroy, Ontario (in Denfield to be more specific).


I think I have to figure out a better scanning system. I can't get the background nice and white on these :(

Sketch 3

Still not at a sketch a day...but at least I'm at a sketch a once in a while...I saw a blog post tonight by another blogger, Mary - and sketching is so important. Especially for me, because I want to practice gaining some skills in realism - or something close to that. Personal development as an artist, I believe, is very important. Especially when you are teaching yourself.

I came across a beautiful, juicy raspberry picture. I decided that I would draw that. I didn't finish it - I know you can see that. I wanted to focus more on the leaves. And I'm posting it, unfinished, because I know that I will probably never go back to it and finish it. That's the joy about sketches - they don't' have to be finished or complete. Sketches are happy sometimes just sitting in limbo.

Sketch 2

Waterlilies are so pretty...

Sketch 1

I've decided that I'm going to try and do a sketch a day. I might not be able to post them all right away, but they will be posted. This idea purely sprung from procrastination from studying, but all artists need to practice their skills, and drawing is not necessarily my strongest point. So it can only help me. :)


This drawing is from a card that my friend, Anita, sent me :) It said on the card, "The key to any successful disguise is to blend into your surroundings", and then the inside said, "I wish your surroundings were closer to my surroundings". We went to university together, but now we're not even in the same country anymore :( This card lives on my monitor (I have an old school one hehe). And so, I thought that it would make the perfect first drawing :)

And thus, I claim really no creative procession to this 'idea' / piece. But part of learning art is coping - old masters would copy to get feels of technique and ideas. So it's not wrong, especially since I'm not claiming it as my own. But, I'm not going to start 'copying' works of other artists...only the big ones - who mostly are dead - or from pictures that I randomly find. If you see anything you don't like, please let me know :)

The nose is a little wonky - I was never good at them anyways lol. And the cute little boy on the card looks a lot cuter and younger than he does here. Oh well. It's only sketch no. 1. It can only go up from here :)