Sketchbook: Sketches On A Shaky Sunday Afternoon.

Ram Skull (Ball-point pen and marker in Moleskine sketchbook, 8x4").

Tamara and Small Andrew Loomis Study (Pencil and marker in Moleskine sketchbook, 4.5x8").

Fortunately I finished my pen work before we got hit by a few 5+ earthquakes.

Art School: Summer Term, Tori.

Tori (Conte 1710B charcoal on newsprint, 16x20"). Drawn from live model in ~2 hours.

Close-up...

I wish I had more time on this one.  I would have liked to have spent more time on the face and hands but wanted to practice rendering the body.

Many thanks to my instructor, Stan Prokopenko, for his help.  Stan has started a series of videos on YouTube on how to draw the portrait.  They're really well done and fun to watch.  Check them out....
http://www.youtube.com/user/ProkoTV

Sketchbook: Belly Dancers.

Belly Dancer I (Pencil and watercolor in Moleskine sketchbook, 4x6").

Belly Dancer II (Pencil in Moleskine sketchbook, 3x6.5").

At the Escondido Renaissance Fair, I took reference photos of belly dancers and knights in armor, among other things.  They've been fun subjects to draw.

Sketchbook: Elephant Seals.

Elephant Seal I (Pencil in Moleskine sketchbook, 6x5").

Elephant Seal II (Pencil in Moleskine sketchbook, 6.5x5").

Elephant Seal III (Ink in Moleskine sketchbook, 7x5"). I applied the ink with a W&N Series 7 #2 brush.

As mentioned in a previous post, I don't particularly care for the overly blended pencil look.  Perhaps it's an over-reaction on my part, but I've been experimenting with other methods to create values.  I opted for a more pen/ink/etching based rendering composed of cross-hatching and emphasizing the form by rendering in the direction of the shape.

This past January, Juliana and I went on a road trip up the California coast.  We started in San Diego and ended in Bodega Bay with several stops along the way.  When taking road trips, it's easy to focus on the destination, so we tried to let whimsy be a guide, and stopped at anything that piqued our interest.  One of those stop brought us to an elephant seal colony near San Simeon.  It was amazing to watch them interact and move.  They are such strange and awkward creatures.  Mating season had begun which made them territorial and caused frequent confrontations.  The drawings above were based on my photos.

Art School: Summer Term, Elan.

Elan (Conte 1710B charcoal on newsprint, 16x20).  Drawn in ~2 hours from a live model.  Many thanks to my instructor, Stan, for his help.