Koi.

I don’t have my own “style”. I suppose(and hope) this style I am in search of will come with practice but then there is the issue of inspiration. I want to be truly inspired but it doesn’t seem likely to happen in the near future. Between the new Jackass film and my neighbors to the left, life is becoming an episode of  ‘Ow my balls’ (Idiocracy film)..

Okay, enough of my rant.. I have practiced my first Koi… To be honest, I feel i did a terrible job picking a color scheme. The koi look best in the second picture.

For this work, I used sharpies, watercolor and pencil.

Here is a glimpse of what my process looks like(for now).. Basically, sketch the idea, mark in the outline and add color. This one was done with graphite, sharpies, ink and watercolor.

To be honest, I am not happy with the finished product. I don’t like the way her face turned out and her tattoos suck..  I am planning on redoing it but I may just move on.

P.S. I know the pictures are crummy. I am a terrible photographer and there’s nothing I can do about it.

Below: The one on the left is a portrait(second attempt) of a friend who is a really amazing musician and doesn’t believe that she is but she should because she is… and she frustrates me very much .. a lot.  The one in the right is referenced from a random picture with a sexy gal. They are freehand drawings: graphite, sharpies and watercolor.. Oh, and some whiteout 😉

Tip.

A new addition to my learning process: tracing paper.

In the past, I have always been against using  tracing paper because it made me feel like I was ‘cheating’ myself but I was recently advised by a professional tattoo artist to use it for practice. He said that by tracing I would learn the lines and curvature of any given subject and he was completely right. Since Ive began using  it my work has been more consistent. I trace a picture over and over until I get bored(about three times) then I draw it freehand.

I highly recommend this method. Try it, you’ll see. 🙂

Below is some freehand work after having practiced by tracing the original.

I’ve been doing quite a bit of drawing from reference for practice. Sometimes it’s just nice to use my imagination.

I crave color.

I find that I am often discouraged from my urges to add color to my sketches and I really don’t understand it.  Don’t get me wrong, I love graphite or charcoal work but in my opinion as far as my own is concerned, color always comes to the rescue.

The late French artist Fernand Leger said it best:

“The craving for colour is a natural necessity just as for water and fire. Colour is a raw material indispensable to life. At every era of his existence and his history, the human being has associated colour with his joys, his actions and his pleasures.”

I have gone back to add color to to some of my past sketches. For the most part, I used Sharpies(love em!) but I have also used color pencils, inks and acrylics. The second one below was a disaster at first (I should have taken a picture of the mess I had made) but somehow I managed to make it work, well, sort of. I had to completely chance her face with layers and layers of poster paint.

… a month later.

It has taken me almost an entire month to work up the courage to post my work and to fight my arch nemesis, Laziness…

Dear World,

Today I have won.

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The sketches I am posting today are a small part of the collection I’ve created over the past month. Most are based off pictures I found online on random sites, some more loosely than others.  My drawings seem to always end up looking “cartoony”(not really a word) but I like that.. I think.

In case you are asking yourself  “Why only naked ladies?”.. . Two reasons- 1) A nude figure art competition I am thinking about entering. 2) I am infatuated with the beauty that women posses.