Sketchbook - extra gum

Sketchbook - painting sketch

One of the few paintings I own not painted by myself is a watercolor streetscene by my mom. While relying on the original drawing, still visible in the finished painting, her version is of course much more colorful than my pencil sketch [shown above]. But this is the part I liked about the watercolor: the visible sketch.

Sketchbook - dogs

Our dogs, Blue and Molly. These were quick sketches of live subject matter [as opposed to using reference photos] so it was hard getting much detail. Trick is to do a quick gesture drawing which gets the basic layout down and then work on refining the sketch, adding darker lines along more important contours. I then added shadows by hatching.

Sketchbook - keys

My wife never puts the keys in the same place when she gets home. I'm not sure if this is a personality difference between us or just a male/female thing, but I tend to do the opposite - the keys go on the key hook near the door, the wallet goes on the same shelf when it's not in the same back pocket of my pants. If I don't know where my wallet is at any given time it grates on my nerves [although the only important thing in there is my license]. The wife on the other hand is never quite sure where she left her purse.

Sketchbook - plastic army men

How great are those little plastic combatants, frozen in heroic moments of victory . . . or fallen in [familiar] rigid defeat. I didn't have tons of these growing up, I remember playing mostly with wooden blocks [they call that "old school"], before jumping directly to GI-Joes.

Sketchbook

I've decided to sharpen my "skillz" a little with some daily work in my sketchbook. I don't expect to post online everyday, but I'll be sure to post the highlights once or twice a week at least. Enjoy! [or else post your complaints below]