Carolyn A Pappas › art inspired by nature

Rendering Practice: Graphite Michelangelo Study

Sunday, January 4, 2009

After Michelangelo, graphite in 9 x 12 sketchbook, 1/4/2009

Lately I’ve been feeling a desire to practice my rendering skills in general, and faces in particular, hence all the plain jane graphite drawings. I’m not yet off my graphite kick so prepare yourselves for some more, at least for the time being. I feel like I still have so much to learn. I have been noticing a bit of an improvement however. For example, I have not been using my eraser as much. I take this as a good sign.

For this drawing, I copied from a Michelangelo sculpture, Madonna and Child. This afternoon I was feeling rather uninspired but I still wanted to get some drawing in. Copying the masters seems to be a good way to practice, and it is a well accepted training method. Recently when reading through my blogroll, I came across some other interesting examples:

Here are some examples of interpretations of Vermeer and da Vinci at Skating at the Edge of Infinity.

Here is Ester Wilson’s Bargue study of a man’s arm at her blog Daily Drawings.

Filed in Drawing | Tagged graphite, portrait | Comments (5)

Watercolor Landscape on Aquabord

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Stormy Morning, watercolor on Aquabord (9 x 12), December 2008

Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”
Lamentations 3:22-24

When feeling a little depressed, it is easy to waste away the day feeling sorry for yourself. Today I am not going to do that.

This was a something I painted for my father for Christmas using a reference from my trip to the Blue Ridge Parkway in 2006. The grey colors go well with his office and he was happy with it so that is great. I’m not too much of a fan of Aquabord though, as multiple bubbles kept appearing when I was trying to paint the sky and I had a real hard time blending when trying to do the washes. I think I need to use a lighter touch or something. I also had some trouble while photographing this as I have only ever scanned my artwork before. If I intend to work larger than I normally do in the future, I definitely need to learn how to take a better photo.

Filed in Painting | Tagged landscape, watercolor | Comments (1)

Challenging Myself with Portraits

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Tommy, graphite and colored pencil in 9 x 12 kraft paper sketchbook, 12/28/2008

This is my cousin Tommy. Drawing this was a challenge as his head in the photo was only about an inch high. Also, I’m not too great with drawing children (or smiling faces either). My mother was able to instantly recognize him though which I took as a good sign!

Self Portrait, graphite in 9 x 12 kraft paper sketchbook, 12/31/2008

This is a self portrait that I drew from a photo that I took of myself in the mirror. Years ago I had a tradition of ringing in the New Year by drawing a self portrait and I decided to resurrect it this year. This drawing was also a huge challenge because of the unusual angle. I had a real hard time on the nose.

Leah, graphite in 6.5″ x 9″ sketchbook, 1/1/2009

This is my first CAP 2009 and I chose to draw a portrait of my second cousin Leah. The big smile was the biggest challenge here. I’m don’t think it really looks much like her, but it was good practice regardless.

I drew this in one of those old sketchbooks that I had left unfinished. It is the small Holbein Multi Drawing Book. I really like it as it is thin and small (around 6.5″ x 9″). Also, the paper is on the thick side and it has a really nice toothy surface. What I don’t like about it is the little ribbon tie that is too short so it comes undone and gets in the way. A rubber band like moleskines have would be a better idea.

Filed in Drawing, Mixed Media, Sketchbook | Tagged colored pencil, graphite, mixed media, portrait, self portrait | Comments (2)

Year End Review and 2009 Art Goals

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

2008 Art Tracker (I got this idea last year from someone on the EDM list, but I can’t remember who it was. Thank you, as I found it very helpful for tracking my progress!)

Wow, 2008 is finally almost over! This was a tie for the worst year of my life thus far, so I can honestly say, “Good Riddance!” I hope that 2009 has better things in store for me.

In terms of art, 2008 was a good year for me. I did a lot more than I thought I would, considering my circumstances, so I’m happy to say that I kept up my progress. I didn’t really get serious about drawing daily until November, but the last two months of the year have been incredibly productive, even with Christmas busyness and all. My ’08 goals were to practice daily sketching, continue working in watercolor and take some sort of art class. I didn’t do daily sketching until the end of the year but I still count that as a success. I didn’t do much in watercolor at all, mainly because I just didn’t feel like it. I did take an art class which I wrote about here. So even though the year didn’t go as I thought it would, I still count it as a good art year. I really challenged myself in terms of subject matter and I feel that my skills have improved.

Looking ahead to 2009, these are my art goals:

1) I would like to continue with daily sketching. Five days off a month are okay for me as things do come up and I need to lounge around and watch TV/browse once in awhile.

2) Relating to #1, I have nine sketchbooks that are currently in progress. If I do my daily sketching as intended, I should be able to get these done in 2009.

3) I would like to make more finished pieces (things not in a sketchbook that I can frame). I will be happy if I do 20.

4) I want to work in a series. I have a few ideas, but I am keeping them secret for now.

5) I want to get all my art related Christmas presents done by July. I am a huge procrastinator and I want to enjoy Christmas next year and not have a mountain of work.

6) I need to organize my flickr account. I have almost 350 images there and I need to figure out some sort of system. Any ideas?

With all the goals I have for 2009, I have a lot of work to do. But I am certainly looking forward to it!

Filed in Art Goals | | Comments (5)

Revisiting Memories in Old Sketchbooks

Monday, December 29, 2008

9/2/04 sketchbook (candles), graphite and colored pencil

10/22/04 sketchbook (woman), graphite

In the past few years, I have moved around a lot and I still have a lot of stuff stored in my old bedroom at my parent’s house. While doing some organizing after my most recent move, I found some sketchbooks that I started and then put on a shelf for a couple of years. Now I have nine sketchbooks that are partially complete. (Finishing these up is definitely going on my 2009 art goals list!)

I wish I had been more serious about my artwork during this era. At the time, I had my mind on other things.

Filed in Memories, Sketchbook | Tagged graphite, portrait, still life | Comments (0)

Finishing a Sketchbook, and getting over Christmas

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Gift Bag, graphite in 9 x 12 sketchbook, 12/26/2008

12/25 sketchbook (Christmas breakfast), graphite and pitt pens in 9 x 12 sketchbook, 12/25/2008

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I had a very nice one, and it was relaxing. On Christmas morning, I made my mother leave my plate on the table after breakfast so I could sketch it. She made blueberry pancakes, which were delicious. I had to work yesterday and I spent a few hours afterwards drawing this gift bag. I tried to capture the shiny, silvery bag and all the wrinkles in the tissue paper. I could have spent more time on it, but that would have been too much!

With these two drawings, I finished my sketchbook. I can’t help but feeling excited about it because this sketchbook has been dragging on since 2006. Granted, I wasn’t doing much drawing at all during 2007 as I had that hand issue. I have completed half the pages since August because I have been drawing so much! I know that if I continue at the same rate that I have been for the last few months, I will finish my future sketchbooks a lot faster. I also don’t draw on both sides of the page because I don’t want to have a problem with graphite or colored pencil rubbing onto another drawing, or ink bleeding through the page. If someone decides to disassemble my sketchbooks in the future to frame the pages, I don’t want another drawing to be on the other side. I want my sketchbooks to remain in one piece though, much to the chagrin of my family members who want me to rip out a page and give it to them.

This weekend I plan to do some more sketching and work on writing my 2009 art goals. I am glad that Christmas is over because now I have some time to do some artwork for me, without all the pressure to get things done for other people.

Filed in Drawing, Sketchbook | Tagged graphite, marker, still life | Comments (7)

Two New Self Portraits, and trying something new

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Self Portrait, conte crayon in kraft paper sketchbook, 12/14/2008

I was digging around through some art supplies left to me by a relative. There were some dip pens, some pencils and a little box of black conte crayons–they must be over twenty years old but they don’t go bad or anything. I never did anything with them before so it was kind of fun to try them out. They are not as messy as pastels and that is a huge plus for me. By the way, this is not what I really look like, but I wasn’t really focusing on getting my likeness.

Self Portrait (profile), graphite in 9 x 12 sketchbook, 12/14/2008

On the other hand, I do actually look like this–I drew it from a photo as it would have been too difficult to do my profile in the mirror. I honestly hate my profile and I don’t know why I’m even posting this, or why I bothered to draw it in the first place!

Filed in Drawing | Tagged conte, graphite, self portrait | Comments (1)

Procrastination and Being Overwhelmed

Friday, December 19, 2008

I feel like I have sort of dropped off the face of the earth lately as I have been so overwhelmed by all the work I have to do. Next year I am going to get my handmade Christmas presents done months ahead of time because I will never be able to do this again! But after Christmas I should have a lot of nice things to post…

Filed in Uncategorized | | Comments (0)

Salad in my Sketchbook, and being dependent on technology

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Salad, sepia pitt pens and colored pencil in kraft paper sketchbook, 12/13/2008

I’ve been without an internet connection for the past few days and it has been frustrating. My wireless internet still does not work and I have to plug myself into the wall to get on right now. I’ve been thinking a lot about how dependent I’ve become on the internet, and modern conveniences in general. I’m thinking of trying to stay off the computer for a few days, or as long as I can manage, as I don’t like to be dependent on anything. I’ll probably still go on once a day to check my email but I want to try to get away from spending hours reading all kinds of blogs. I don’t want to read about others living exciting lives while I’m sitting on my carpet not living an exciting life of my own! I’ve practically given up tv which is a good thing because there is not really anything good on anyway and it is a huge time waster. It is so passive–even the internet is better as it requires more active participation than changing the channel.

Interestingly, a lot of us New Englanders are realizing how dependent we’ve become on technology as there are thousands without electricity after the ice storm. Luckily, it didn’t hit me personally, but my parents have refugees at their house for the weekend as a lot of our friends don’t have any heat–very scary.

This sketch would fit in for EDM 135, draw a salad. I strongly dislike salad and will only eat it if there is nothing else available. In this case, I made the salad just so I could draw it. I screwed up the plate, but it was fun in any case.

Filed in Pen and Colored Pencil, Sketchbook | Tagged colored pencil, pen and ink, still life | Comments (2)

Pups Cuddling: Graphite sketch of German Shepherd Puppies

Monday, December 8, 2008

Pups Cuddling, graphite in 9 x 12 sketchbook, 12/8/08

I’ve been trying to crank it up a notch these past few days and put more emotion into my artwork. Is it evident? I don’t know.

This a sketch of Katie (on the bottom) and Cody (on the top), brother and sister German Shepherd puppies — some of the best dogs I have ever met. They are older now and they look a lot different, but they were so cute at this age (about 4 months). I had to get down on the floor on my belly to take the photo but it was so worth it. I am intending on making a painting from this and will post it if it comes out okay. This was a lot of fun to draw and I could have spent a lot more time drawing this. I would have if I didn’t have to go to work tomorrow!

Filed in Drawing | Tagged animals, graphite | Comments (4)