babies & puppies

To get better at drawing, I have to continually push myself to learn new skills and expand myvisual library. I'm working on drawing kids, which is a whole different skill set than drawing adults-and one I haven't practiced as much in the past. While I was looking for reference, I also found this puppy picture and I took the opportunity to work on some animal drawing skills as well. So here's a daily dose of cuteness for you!

I try to understand the forms and simplify them so the drawing reads well, and I think about the forms in 3D space-Glen Keane always talks about "drawing sculpturally", and that's a helpful though for me to keep in mind as I draw. 

new frontiers

I've been testing out various digital sketching apps on my phone, and I did this sketch in Autodesk Sketchbook (the best free drawing app I've found so far). Unfortunately, it's not super hi-res, but I like the ability to customize the brushes and the different tools they have available. It's also the only free app I've seen with layer capabilities, a major plus.(Although you're limited to three, which is a bummer. I did a loose sketch on the first, a cleanup on the second after moving the opacity on Layer 1 down so I could see what I was doing. Then a coloring later in between the two, and since I was out of layers, I went back to the scribbly layer and turned it into a simple background. Now that I think of it, I'll put process pics at the end for anyone who's curious.) I'll definitely be playing around with this app more in the future.

I'm not really sure who this sketch is supposed to be-I was playing around with exaggerated, caricatured facial features (hence the nose! heh) and trying to do some lighting, and I this is where I ended up.

I've also been thinking a bit about changing the blog name, but I'm struggling to come up with ideas. I want to play around with the look and name to get a bit more of a professional feel, so suggestions would really be appreciated! :) 

Here are some process pictures. 

The super-loose-and-messy scribble

Cleaned up (scribbly version is hiding underneath at 25% opacity)

Colored in and cleaned up a little more

Thanks for reading, friends. Til next week! 

soccer

Some sketches from my little brother's soccer game.