Kittys Drawings

Hiiiiiiiiii!

Drawing time!

Woo! This one took me quite a while. I lost count of how many hours. Up to 8? I’m guessing though. I ought to keep track of these things shouldn’t I?

And some detail – since I’m making an effort to create bigger drawings…

This I am very happy with. Feel like I’m making some semblance of progress with my techniques.

Where to from now? Should I concentrate on some drawing from life? Inanimate objects on my desk?

Not sure if I’ll get much done over the Easter break. I have friends visiting

Other news: I organised my fabric stash. It has it’s own place now and it’s all neat and ordered by colour. Makes me happy to look at it. Though it also makes me want more time to sew. Also – I tried a machined zipper technique I found online. Used some scrap to test it out – and it was so easy!  A really nice, faced and bound zipper. Woo! Now to apply the same steps to an actual garment. I hope I can pull it off as it’s a proper professional finish. But I will show you later.

Time to gooooo.

Hiii!

Since I’m stuffing around with a drawing at the moment – and it’s been about a week since I last posted….I thought I’d show you my most recent working space. Much better than my last one. I have my precious beastie Erebus – no more squinting at a laptop screen. I’ve also cleared the majority of crap away so it’s kind of calming to work here now.

This is the left hand side – Those brown boxes are where I hide all sorts of crap that I need on hand but its all so small that they should be hidden away. One day I will find a nice little set of drawers that can go on the floor under my desk and free up that space for other knick-knacks.
Also – an assortment of random books, sketchbooks and diaries. That rainbow Moleskine was/is my 2010 diary but ended up being pretty sucky cos I couldn’t be bothered changing it every month. I think I’ll just stick to my iPhone from now on even though I love paper.  The Syd Mead DVD is something I’ve been meaning to give back to Dwardo for ages now – I haven’t stolen it I promise!
The book titled Rage is written by Julie Mac – who works in the department next to mine – she wrote about her teen years as a Sharpie – a subculture I knew nothing about til she wrote the book. Very cool read
Perfume box is there cos it’s pretty. And the little mug is something my grandma gave to me when I was last in Europe – apparently that was mine as a baby. Only found it the other day so I thought I’d put it out.
Aaaand – that’s my Wacom pen (the big silver pen thingy in the stand) and a sketchbook buried under the boxes. Neglected these days since I’ve been working straight from the computer…it does get scrawled on occasionally but I usually have a bit of a hissy-fit about what I’ve drawn and it’s full of crud. Heh.

This is the right side (drawing preview in there).
Check it out! The drawing Audrey did for me on my napkin is framed – woo! A Thank You card from my friend Sal….the scanner – A cactus I bought for Jonny in the background.
I hate cables. This is as tidy as they get – I shoved the long Wacom cable down behind my desk for the photo but I can’t leave it there for long because Boofy (my enormous, fluffy cat) has a penchant for gnawing on them. He’s already taken  a few chomps at the Wacom cable. Also chewed right through the battery cord for Jonny’s laptop. Anyone would think he’s a rabbit! Naughty Boof!
I think, thankfully, my actual computer cables are too thick and not “tender” enough for good chomping material so he hasn’t had a go at those.
Does anyone else have pets with expensive habits??

And this is what I see sittin’ at my chair. Sneaky preview of what’s coming up If you haven’t already seen on Facebook. Sal’s painting is in the background. It’s not hung higher cos there’s an air conditioner up there hehe
Think I need more cute, quirky things. And more cacti. Or a bonsai. Want to get rid of those boxes cos they really don’t “fit”.
Otherwise, it’s a comfortable place to work. My chair is comfy and my shiny LED screen is shiny. Shiny shine shine!  And big.  Yay!
When I ordered my Mac, I specifically asked for a full sized keyboard. No number pad shits me.

And now I can attempt to finish that drawing on screen. Considering whether I can be bothered doing any today, or go read my book instead.
I always feel a bit “meh” about starting something…but once I pick up the pen and start it’s hard to stop. It’s just that starting thing that’s tough. Like exercise haha! Does anyone else get that?

Seeyas!

Hi All,

The last life drawing class for quite some time – busy in the coming weeks and who knows when I’ll get to go next. We were learning about light this time so some of these were drawn in the dark!

This weekend was spent cleaning in preparation for my parents coming to visit soon. I scored some free tickets to the Taste of Melbourne and we’re going to go see the European Masters exhibtion at the NGV – It’s going to be a big weekend! In the meantime, the cleanup meant we rearranged our office area. Its always good when my desk gets a tidy as I feel that much more motivated to draw stuff  We put up some art we’ve had for a while but never displayed and my bf is in the process of getting some frames for a couple of his photo prints. I think I’ll print up some of my own drawings and get those framed too – believe it or not, I only have one of my paintings on display in our home!

And now that life drawing is finished for the time being, I’ve been pushing myself to get started on the digital again. I do have something in the works which is just a practice but I’m liking it. No previews until it’s finished as I have a terrible habit of never finishing those drawings that I show previews of.

Other exciting news -  I shall be taking part in a Melbourne Spring Fashion Week event as an assistant to a well known blogger. I won’t spill the secret just yet as I haven’t even had a fitting yet (!!) so I don’t want to babble too much. All I’ll say now is that it ties in very nicely to my insatiable obsession with vintage threads….

So in the next few weeks you’ll probably get some different posts that aren’t ALL about drawing. Til then, seeya!

Hello

Down to the second last life drawing class (I think). Drapery was the subject this time and how we see the figure differently with clothes on. Drawing clothing can disguise the true form and it can be more difficult to draw ‘across the body’ like you would with a nude. Instead, you can fall into the trap of only drawing the outline which leaves things looking flat.

Warm ups….I think all the ones I scanned are about 30 seconds. Funnily enough, it feels better to use 30 seconds instead of 1 minute per pose for the warm up – gets you loosened up quicker. Our teacher likens these to stretching before going for a jog

The contour and the tone drawing. I did a blind contour this time – not looking at the page while you draw and not lifting your charcoal.

I did two drawings again for the final 20/20mins. The first one without any drapery and the second one with. Kinda stuffed up the arm on the first one….

So after tomorrow I think I have no more classes. I’ll need to get back into the self-direction. Get back into this digital stuff. I have a whole bunch of inspiration pics – and lots of ideas ready to go. Need to get off my ass and DO IT.

Bya!

Hii!

Bit late this week huh?

Not much to say about life drawing for this week – we focused on linework which I’m never that comfortable with.

Warm-ups:

Then some longer poses…

Then the final – I did 2 different ones in the 2 lots of 20mins we had this time. Only because I wasn’t too pleased with where the first one was going. Boo. And still not too sure about the last one either.

For the first time in ages, I’ve attempted to do some drawing outside of my classes. Yeh, I’m that slack. Funny thing I noticed is that I draw VERY differently when I’m muckin’ about at home. I think it’s that I don’t have as much room – drawing with my hand instead of my arm….and having a model is much different to using a photograph for reference. The photograph flattens everything and I can’t ‘feel’ the shape of the form in the same way. If only I could use a real model for reference ALL the time. Wouldn’t that be nice?

Til next week, seeeeeya!

Hiii!

More life drawing for everyone Colour this time! I had heaps of fun with this lesson and it was good to dig out the pastels – haven’t used them since my uni days! Did LOTS of drawings – the majority of them dreadful – but I have to put the really shit ones up so the half decent ones look a bit better ehehehee.

The quality of photos is absolutely terrible and I apologise in advance – I can’t nuke the levels out of them like I would with a B&W. They look a bit more vibrant in real life – winter sun and all that, crappy camera – hard to take a good pic. But enough of the EXCUSES, time for drawings

The worst first – 1 min and 2 min warm ups:

Contours – the first was meant to be 7 mins one colour and 7 mins the next but I finished early (always going too fast!) and did the next one quickly. Then 10 mins doing a drawing based on shading and using 3 colours. My third was the background colour heh.

Then the final pose – two lots of 20mins. I did the first sketch and realised it was way too big for the page so I scrapped it and started again. Really pleased with the end result – using blue really grounded the whole thing I think. Shame the pics are so craaaaaaaap argh sorry!!

Some close ups

K, that’s enough nekkid man-bum for a day Until next time!

Howdy!

Some life drawing for this week. New model – new techniques. Getting better at getting form out quicker but don’t think I did so well on the last pose this time.

This week we were learning about scale and space…how the size of your drawing on the page affects how the viewer reacts to it. We did an initial drawing of the figure, then “zoomed in” on a particular area. This area we drew small first, and then on the final 10 minute drawing, it was to be as big as we could fit on the page.

Small:

Then as big as we could do it. It doesn’t quite have the same impact on a screen

Then, the final pose…which is meh…We did this in two 20min blocks…but then model changed angle ever so slightly the second time round and I just couldn’t resolve the difference. Not the model’s fault either, it was his first time and he did a good job.

That’s all for this week folks!