Cay Denise

Sunday's practice is based on a painting of Princess de Broglie by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres dated 1851-53. This drawing was done primarily with mechanical pencil (HB lead) with Muji pen to fill in the iris/pupils, watercolor for the hair/ribbons, and Posca pens for a couple embellishments.

Today's practice uses, as reference, an El Greco painting titled 'Nobleman with his Hand on his Chest' dated 1583-85.  Muji pen and mechanical pencil (HB lead) was used for face, and black watercolor was applied for the garment.

Today's effort has been a drawing of Botticelli's 'Portrait of a Young Woman' from 1480.  The woman was done with mechanical pencil while the background was done with watercolor.  I wonder if women models really wore there hair this way in the 1400s.  It would be a stunning hairstyle now, don't you think?

This is yesterday's effort that I've done some major tweaking to this morning.  It is a self-portrait based on a selfie.  There is a good resemblance though some issues.  The eye on the left side of the page is good while the shape of the one on the right needs revision (based on where the high point is supposed to be).  The mouth needs more work, even after changing it numerous times. That said, sometimes you just have to call a project done and move on.  Maybe I'll do another version some day.        

Below are two versions of one reference photo from my Let's Face It 2022 class - Week 4 module.  The first one (bottom) was a fairly quick drawing.  The eye on the right looks a bit too large and the nose shading isn't right.  I spray set it without making any alterations.     The top drawing was done today of the same reference photo.  The now definitely looks better.  The eyed look for realistic to me, and shading has been added to help the hair look more distinct.  Both images were done with mechanical pencil (HB lead).  Only the bottom involved the use of white Posca pen for the dots on the pupils.

This is yesterday's effort--a mechanical pencil drawing based on Botticelli's "Fortitude" from 1470.  I've used echo lines to render the hair style plus added a watercolor wash for background and slight white Posca pen lines around the pupils as highlights.  I thought the angle of the face in the painting would make it hard to draw.  But it came out pretty well without much adjustment to the face shape.  Most adjustments were made to the eyes.

The latest practice piece is based on El Greco's 'A Lady in a Fur Wrap' dated 1577-80.  From the classical portraits I've seen so far, it seems unusual for a woman to have modeled for an artist wearing a fur wrap.  His is a painting that looks more contemporary than from the 16th century.  This was done with my black pen (Muji), shading with mechanical pencil, black watercolor for hair and background, plus a selection of brown, sepia, gray and white pens for the fur.

Revision done 1/23/2022 (top photo) because the cleavage shading was off in terms of alignment with the garment. ___________________________________________________________________ This practice piece has been done differently than prior drawings in that I'm working dark to light rather than the other way around. It started with a blue watercolor background that had dried overnight. The image was sketched in pen and more watercolor was added for highlights and shading plus a layer of grey was added to the area outside the figure -- to better differentiate it from the figure.

This drawing (using mechanical pencil and some pen) is based on a painting of a woman by Pietro Rotari from the 1700s.  I think the scarf and skin areas are a bit unclear, though I like the pose (with forearms in the front) and the facial expression.  Of course, the 1700s never had circles in fabric.  That was an add on my part to differentiate one area from another.

Today's work is a drawing based on an image of Princess Alice as she attended the Coronation of George V.  She looks beautiful in her stunning gown with cape and incredible jewelry.  The gown has different textures e.g. brocade, silk organza (or something similar) with beads and some unbeaded areas.  I loved working with this image and am especially satisfied with the hair -- having achieved the realistic waves of her hairstyle worn on that grand day.

Yesterday's effort was to draw Da Vinci's 'La Scapigliati' (1508).  It looked better without the color.  (The color was added to see if the face would 'pop' a bit more.)  The eyes and nose are fine.  In the first version, there was something about the mouth that wasn't right.  So, I've re-worked it today.  It actually looks a bit like a smirk now - not intentionally.   The nice thing was after finishing the first version last night, I listened to an organ concert from Stanford's Memorial Church.  It was a Bach program performed by Dr. Morgan.  It was so apropos for the very classical mood that is permeating my practice imagery lately!

This is today's sketch practice based on Sandro Botticelli's 'Portrait of a Young Woman' dated 1480-1485.  It was drawn with a mechanical pencil.  The hair is the most challenging because of how decorative it is in the painting and the depth it has.  Overall, I'm satisfied with the effort.  Wonder what it would have looked like had I done the sketch with pen.  Maybe I'll try that too down-the-road.

Another sketch based on an Arcimboldo portrait of Archduchess Anna.  It is a little too long instead of wide compared with the painted image, but I'm ok with that.  It has its own kind of charm.

Today, I've worked on video lessons through Let's Face It 2022 doing sketches as part of the learning process.   In addition, I did a sketch of another Arcimboldo painting -- this time of Archduchess Johanna completed between 1562-65.  This is done in black pen (a Muji pen that I like).  Part way through, I found my focus change from sketching using diagonal lines for shadow -- to incorporating as many variations of marks as possible to emphasize direction, texture or value.  It doesn't look exactly like the painted image, but I really enjoyed doing this and learned some things along the way!

This is work from the first week's lesson with Lauren Rudolph--out of a full year of art classes as part of Let's Face It 2022 through the Kara Bullock Art School.  Lauren taught the pre-class session on drawing an eye which was great, and she is extremely talented! Rather than working through all of her videos in which the reference photo was hard to see (for values), I used the digital version of the reference photo to work from.  There are differences between this drawing and the photo such that you probably wouldn't see them as related.  Some of those differences include the nose being a bit too long at the base, lips are in a slight smile rather than a melancholy look, the darks aren't dark enough, etc.  The piece below is reasonably good, but it just doesn't have the 'essence' of the young woman in the photo.    That said, I worked on a larger substrate than is normal for me and that meant blowing up the image size and trying to keep things in proporti

This is a pencil sketch with a quick watercolor wash for the background.  I like the texture in the head scarf (still done in pencil, but with a very light application), and my ability to see the ear shapes is improving.  Overall, one eye is a bit too big and the ear should be a bit lower, but that's ok...this is practice, and I'm learning.

In the Push Past Ordinary Society, our January challenge was to develop goals for this new year and work on a vision board or self-portrait while thinking of the word(s) that represent what we want to draw in to 2022.   I didn't identify any words first.  Once the piece below was completed, though, I listed assorted words and looked up their definitions to find the one(s) that felt like  aligned with the painting.  The one word that seems a best fit is audacious meaning daring, spirited, and adventurous.  Whether that is energy that emerges during this year or simply captures the essence of this piece, time will tell.   Onward!

In this New Year, I've begun a sketch practice in a new-to-me sketchbook that has been in storage for many years. I've started with black and white imagery using pencil or black pen as my drawing tool.  Sometimes marks don't come out as you want them to.  Remember, when pen is used--once a mark is made--you're committed.  There is no correcting a mistake or undesired mark.  Either you camouflage them or live with and learn from them. Here are some of the results so far. 15-minute timed sketch (pen)                            Took the time it took (pen) Took the time it took (mechanical pencil)