40 Before 40 - #22 Complete!

 I'm writing this on a cell phone so please forgive any mistakes. I can't believe I haven't posted in a year!! If anyone is still here I'm so sorry for the unexplained absence. I guess it's probably understandable. This year has been nuts. I don't want to dwell on the stressful stuff so let's get right to it.

I have wanted to draw humans for a long time, but was always intimidated by it. Many of you have probably seen my first attempt.

It turned out pretty good for a first try, although there are issues with proportions. Eventually I got brave and went for a second try.

I drew Billie Eilish and was really happy with the result. This was my first time drawing long hair. There are obviously mistakes and room for a lot of improvement, but art is always a process. That's the fun of it. This drawing really motivated me to keep going.

Sorry these are blurry. I don't have access to my computer so I took screenshots from my Instagram. Next was Keanu Reeves from The Matrix. This was difficult, but fun! The reference image was lower quality with less details, so I went for a more blocky shading style. I really like how it turned out.

The next one I took requests on Instagram and drew Cara Delevingne. I love how I was able to capture the shine on her skin. This was a great learning experience, although not my favorite drawing.

The next one was a special project that I did for my Dad. I spent days (weeks?) on this. It was insane and this is officially my favorite drawing I've ever done.

I'm so proud of this one. The legendary John Wayne. Dad said he's going to frame it, but first I have to get the guts up to spray fixative on it. I'm going to get some better photos in better lighting first. Anyway, I kind of burned myself out on this one and took a break from drawing humans, but there are some more random ones below.

One last thing before I go to sleep. I know that I still have a lot to learn. I want to study anatomy and learn to draw figures from imagination, but these drawings from reference were a good starting point for me to conquer my fear.  I hope you all are well. I miss you guys!! Enjoy the rest of the random human/humanoid drawings below.

Fan art of a Gundam Wing character. Loved that show when I was a kid.

Practicing with markers with a fun Spiderman.

My Christmas drawing from last year. In pen!!!!! I had never drawn anything like this in ink before. I'll probably do a post with all of my ink drawings too eventually. It's scary not being able to erase.

A fun zombie I did a long time ago.

A simple drawing I did to relax one night.

Getting back into my art + new art Instagram account!

I drew this kangaroo today.  I'm not thrilled with how it turned out because I'm a beginner at drawing fur, but it's a huge step in the right direction.  Practice makes perfect!  I feel like I need to just wipe over the whole thing with a cloth because the contrast is too much.  It looks too busy or something.  Oh well, I'm still learning.

I'm planning on doing a modified Inktober challenge where I follow the prompts, but at my own pace and not in October.  I've always wanted to join in the real challenge, but I don't have time to draw every day in October and I've never done anything in ink so learning at the same time would be too stressful.  I've always wanted to learn inking though, so I'm doing this as a way to learn at my own speed to hopefully keep from getting overwhelmed.  Mediums that can't be erased or reworked (ink, watercolor, etc.) have always stressed me out because I'm a perfectionist.  I want to work on that.

To keep from cluttering up Chrome's Instagram with art photos I made a new account.  You can follow me at @farmerlifeart.  I've been posting all of my older stuff and the account is already way more popular than I thought it would be, which is exciting and encouraging.  I'm hoping it will motivate me to stick to the Inktober thing.  Maybe in 2020 I'll be ready to do the actual challenge.

For the Inktober challenge I am working in a gray toned sketchbook (it looks tan in the pictures because of indoor lighting ick).  I've never used a toned sketchbook, but I'm really excited to learn to use it.  The first prompt of 2016 was fast, so I drew a cheetah.  It was the first thing that came to mind.

I'm keeping them fairly small so I don't feel so overwhelmed.  It's about the size of an index card (where the kangaroo above is an 8" by 10" page), so I can fit four to a page.  I still need to learn more about crosshatching.  I hated the cheetah at first, but after walking away and coming back to it I love it now.  I think it's just because I'm not used to ink which feels so minimalist.  If you want to follow along with me on the rest of the prompts please considering following my new IG page @farmerlifeart.  I'll be posting all of them there.  I may post them here once I've finished the 2016 prompts.  It could be a while though.

After drawing the cheetah I wanted to practice with a brush pen because I've never used them (except on a Winnie the Pooh drawing you can see on IG).  Brush pens are SO difficult!! My hand is not at all steady I've realized.  After practicing drawing lines and some calligraphy I decided to do a Zentangle with nothing but the brush pen.  I love Zentangle and normally find it very relaxing.  It helps a lot with my anxiety.  The drawing below with a brush pen though.... was SO tedious!!!!!!

My first mistake was drawing this on a full size page in my sketchbook!  I normally keep Zentangle small because there is so much detail and it can be very time consuming.  This turtle took me HOURS!  Even though the perfectionist in me hates the inconsistency in the lines I love how this turned out.  With a little more practice I can see it being fun again.  All of those teeny tiny circles were an absolute nightmare with a brush pen!  I was missing my micron fineliners lol.  I'm definitely going to have to do more Zentangle though.  For right now though I'm going to take a break from the tedious fur on that kangaroo, then I will get started on the second prompt.... NOISY!  Anybody have a guess on what I chose to draw for that prompt??

Art! Attempting to draw humans.... scary!

I have drawn animals my entire life.  When I was younger I never had any interest in drawing humans, but as my art improved I started wanting to branch out.  I have loved experimenting with different mediums (charcoal, colored pencils, chalk pastels, oil paints, etc.) and I've enjoyed branching out with landscapes, but I was always too afraid to try drawing humans because I'm awful at proportions.  Today I was feeling brave so I decided to just go for it.  The result is above.

This is completely free hand drawn with a reference photo (no tracing).  I'm extremely critical of my work, so all I see are the faults, but my family has praised the result so I decided to call it done and stop trying to "fix" it.  After stepping away for a bit I'm pleased with the result aside from the glaring proportion issues.  It will get better with more practice.  I really like the pose, the face shape and the hair.  I also like the individual features, but I do wish they were the correct size.  Oh well.  Please let me know what you guys think!  Feedback (good or bad) is helpful.  :)  Thanks guys! 

Finally getting back to drawing...

Construction is almost finished on my new office at work.  In preparation I decided to make some drawings to decorate the new cubicles for me and my coworkers who are moving to the new office.  I have MISSED my artwork so much!  I can't even describe how relaxing it was.  The stress just melts off.

For my office best friend I drew a cartoon zombie (she is the one who got me hooked on the Walking Dead hehe).

I'm not good at taking pictures of drawings... there is another shot of if below in better lighting.

For myself I drew an angry tiger because I was angry about something that happened at work.  It was a great way to let go of the anger and stress.  Now any time I get irritated about something at work I just look over at my angry tiger and I can't help but smile.  :)  I actually remembered to get some in progress shots of this one...

 I was halfway through before I remembered to take pictures.

The finished drawing in one type of lighting.

 Same drawing in different lighting... so crazy the difference.

 Both drawings together.

A shot of it hanging in my cubicle at work (the old one, we haven't moved yet).  My cubicle is covered in photos.  I can't wait to cover it in art too.

Close up of it under fluorescent lighting at work.

Last but not least.... I asked my coworker what she wanted.  I told her animals and objects are the best.  That I'm okay at landscapes and that I'm horrible at drawing humans.  She chose a.... pineapple....  All of these drawings were done freehand with no tracing or anything.  I just had reference pictures.  The pineapple I actually used several photo references.  It was SO difficult!  I had no idea how hard fruit could be to draw... check out the in progress photos below.

 At this point I was stressing out so much and thought it looked awful!!  I was ready to scrap the whole thing.  So I texted a picture of it to my friend (the one who taught me to draw and recently moved away) and she texted back some suggestions.  That's what I needed to get going again.

Below is the final result in two different settings and lighting.

Anyway that's all for now.  Hopefully I'll have time to do some more soon, but with bottle feeding the kids (see previous posts) it might be a little while.

30 Before 30 - #16 Complete

Number 16 on my 30 Before 30 list is experiment in different mediums.  I have tried graphite, charcoal, oil, watercolor, soft pastels, markers, micron pens and colored pencils so I'm going to call this goal complete.  :D  This has been one of the most fun goals!!  I have so enjoyed exploring all of these different mediums.  I'm going to share my favorites from each category.  To see art I've posted before check out my art tag.  If you have any other suggestions for fun mediums to try, let me know.  I'm game to try anything if it isn't extremely expensive.  :)

Charcoal

I LOVE charcoal!  I think it is my favorite!  It's a little messy compared to graphite, but I just love it.  These are in the order that I drew them.

Using a friend's reference photo of the Tetons.

 Reference found on Google.

 Reference found on Pinterest.

  Reference found on Pinterest.

  Reference found on Pinterest.

 Reference was friend's pictures.

The last one is a drawing I did of a friend's dogs.  All of the dogs are gone now so I couldn't get new pictures.  I had to use her photos (there was a photo for each dog, they were not all in the same picture) and they were not ideal for drawing from.  It was a challenge and although my drawing isn't great I feel it truly caught the personality of each dog.  I framed it and gave it to her for her birthday.

Colored Pencil

Colored pencil is not my favorite.  It's way too tedious!!  I think with some more practice and patience I might learn to like it more as I get beyond the elementary stage.  These are my three best.

 This is tiny... not 8" by 10" lol. That's just a photo cropper around the edges.

The reference for this one was a real apple.

Reference picture was several images from Google that I borrowed aspects from.  Since it's a dragon (I LOVE dragons!) I had leeway to modify to my heart's content hehe.  It's nice to get away from realistic art sometimes.  I think this was the first time I'd ever used burnishing.

 I forget what reference I used.

Graphite

Graphite is my second favorite medium (charcoal is first).  This is the one I'm most comfortable with because I've been drawing with pencil since I was a little kid.  Learning to draw with charcoal really helped me figure out the values for graphite.  I especially love it since getting my new Tombow Mono Erasers!  I love them!

 I don't remember where I got the reference for this one.  

I drew this one a year ago when I first got back into 

drawing after taking a break for years and years.

 Reference found on Google.

I loved the fine details on this one.

This is actually graphite and charcoal.  

My first attempt at mixing mediums.

Reference was found on Pinterest.

 My absolute favorite!!

This one took MONTHS to finish because I would spend a whole day working on one big cat and cub, totally burning myself out because of how tedious it was, then I would take a break (months long lol) before doing the next one.  I did the black leopard and cub today and it's not really finished, but I wanted to include it.  I still need to do some blending and I really need to fix the cub's leg, but I'll get to it eventually.  :)  Once I'm done editing all of them, I'm totally framing this and hanging it up. :D  I got all the reference pictures from Pinterest.  The layout and quote are from my own imagination.  The size is 11" by 14".

Markers

I forget what markers I used.  This is the only one I've done (I think) and it was a lot of fun.  I drew the butterfly  and flower outlines in micron pens.  You can see more about those below in the Zentangle category.  I looked through a bunch of butterflies on Pinterest, but this was mostly made just from my imagination.

Oil

I actually really enjoy oil (I wish it wasn't so expensive!).  This is probably my third favorite medium. It is a steep learning curve for me because I haven't done much in color.  Most of the art I do (graphite, charcoal, zentangle, etc.) has no color.  Learning to use color has been a huge challenge for me!  I had a lot of help from a friend on these.  It will be a while before I can do oil independently I think.

 Reference is a friend's picture.

Sorry it's tilted.

 Reference was actually from my very own photo of the lake where we used to live.  :D

 Reference was a friend's photo.  I love this one!

Sketchbook

Learning to use a sketchbook was harder than I ever imagined!  I am such a perfectionist that I have a hard time loosening up and just sketching.  I have finally learned to just go with the flow and not overthink it.  If you're an artist and have never used a sketchbook I highly recommend getting one!  Also I am brand new at drawing humans... You can see my beginning sketches at the bottom of this picture.  Humans are hard!!  My favorite is totally the little cartoon animals.  They are so fun! I even named them hehe.  You might have to click on the image to read them.

Soft Pastel

Soft (or chalk) pastel feels a lot like charcoal, but with color (color is a challenge for me lol).  I LOVE it for sunsets, but the fruit was very difficult and I had a lot of help from my friend (when I say help I mean pointers, I did all of the actual drawing).  This is extremely messy and some are toxic to breathe so I don't think it's something I'll use a lot, but it sure is fun doing sunsets with silhouettes.

 This was my first time drawing on tinted (pink) paper!

LOVE this!  This was only the third one I ever did.  I used charcoal on the trees and branches.  This was so much fun.  I don't remember where I got the reference picture.  Probably from a Google search.

 The reference from this was an actual pear.

Let me tell you I HATE drawing fruit.... but it really is good for learning... but I hate it haha.  Also these are hard to store... using the spray fixatives is risky with pastel...  anyone have suggestions for storing or displaying these without ruining the drawing?

Watercolor

Watercolor is HARD!  It's probably my least favorite.  Mistakes can't be fixed like with oil, graphite and charcoal and I'm too much of a perfectionist for that!!  This is the one and only watercolor I've done haha.  I got the reference from Instagram.  I really love this style of watercolor painting, but I can't figure out what it's called...  is there a name for this style?  It's so fun.  Mine didn't turn out as three dimensional as the reference was.  There was also some color muddying... ugh.  I love pure, bright colors!  My friend helped me with this too.  She says if I stick with it I would probably love watercolor....

LOVE this style, but it's so hard!!  At least the dorsal fin looks 3D.

Zentangle

I LOVE Zentangle!!  If you've never heard of it, click here for an explanation.  It's a lot of fun to just zone out and draw these.  I use micron pens for drawing (no erasing!) and graphite for shading.  I sometimes find images for the main design (i.e. butterfly), but the patterns are all from my imagination (I mean how I used them was from my imagination.. I learned the actual patterns from here).  I think one reason I enjoy this so much is because there is no right or wrong way and you don't have to be constantly checking a reference picture so it's really relaxing.  Some people find it too tedious, but I thrive on it.  Love it!

 I used a reference picture for the birds and limb, but I added a bird, drew the leaves, did all of the pattern and did the word from my own imagination. This was one of my favorite.  A lot of fun.

 Jackal!!  Reference was my own photo.

 This is a mech I drew for my hubby.  It's from the game Mechwarrior Online.

 A rabbit I drew for my mom.  Sorry it's blurry.  

I gave it to her so I couldn't take another picture.

 Siberian Husky in memory of Storm.  

That's my wedding favor crystal rose sitting beside it.

 It says Tangent.  I did this one completely from my own imagination with no reference picture.

I found the tiger on Google, but the rest was from my imagination.

This was my very first Zentangle lol.  I don't start off easy hehe.

The background was done with color pencil.

For people not familiar with art I want to mention that I mostly draw from reference pictures.  I don't enter art shows so it's okay that I'm not using my own photos (I hope the people who took them don't mind being my inspiration...).  Learning to draw purely from imagination is VERY difficult (for most people, especially me), but someday I do plan to be able to draw without reference pictures.  I may not be able to for the realistic art, but illustration would be a lot of fun. I've always wanted to be able to illustrate my own novels.  That's a future goal.  Maybe it can go on my 40 Before 40 list!  :)

Now for anyone interested in the process of drawing, I want to share some pictures.  I almost always take pictures of the process of my drawings.  The pictures are awful, cell phone pictures, but they are good enough to show you the process.  I would love to do those speed drawing videos like you can find on YouTube (if you haven't yet you really should watch them... so cool!!  Here's one of my favorites (in oil and acrylic) if you want to see it (link), but that's just too much work haha, so I'll stick to photos.

This is my Marlin charcoal drawing.

 Start out by laying down the background.

 Draw out the outline. As you can see there's lots of erasing 

and redrawing to get the proportion right in this stage.

 Start drawing in the picture.

 I tend to focus on the darkest darks starting out.

 Drawing in more details.

 Getting close, just have to finish the belly.

 This is the stage I am so bad about stopping on...

 ... but with a little more work...

 ... darkening the darks and using the eraser (your best friend) for highlights...

 ...oh and bubbles, lots of bubbles...

...you get a really awesome final drawings.  It's all in the details! 

I took this picture today so the lighting is better hehe. 

I hope you've enjoyed seeing my artwork.  I've had so much fun over the last year learning to use all of these mediums.  Every single new medium I used taught me techniques that improved my graphite drawings.  I feel like every time I pick up a pencil/pen/brush I learn something new.  Nothing would make me happier than sitting around creating art all day (well with breaks for riding horses hehe).  Too bad about that thing called a job lol.

P.S.  Happy Fourth of July!!!!