Daily Sketch #7: My Dog’s Life

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Today’s sketch is one of my dogs, Boom, curled into his comfy dream ball position. Always amazes me that a 60 pound dog can curl up like this. This is a 20 minute sketch done from the couch. I had to go fast because despite how soundly he sleeps, mind you he’s deaf, he has a creepy sixth sense that tells him when he’s being stared at. Invariably, when I try to draw him, he always moves before I have enough on he paper to improvise. Tonight, however, he waited long enough for me to get the outline down, after which he only moved his head a few times.

Boom is all black, so the use of hair direction and basic values was important to make this work. I’m happy with it as a quick sketch b/c it really captures the essence of Boom curled in a ball. I tried this a year ago and it didn’t go well, which reminded me that it can be rewarding to go back to an old subject and see if it’s easier the second time around.

The outline was done with an HB pencil; everything else was 2B.

Sketch… a day? : #1 – Vase wrapped in saran wrap.

Toying with the idea of trying to do a sketch a day for 30 days. Some might be really remedial, namely what can I sketch in 10 minutes while fighting off sleep. While others might be a full hour of practicing a new composition that will ultimately turn into a painting later. Either way, I’ll give it a try and see if I can do it. Actually, one exception to the “per day” rule – painting sessions count towards the sketch-a-day commit.

Here’s sketch #1 – the vase wrapped in cellophane, which is the very same subject I’ve been painting. Thought a sketch working through the values in the cellophane with graphite might help tackle the actual painting, which I hope to work on this weekend. This sketch was done in about 45 minutes. The photo sucks, but the lighting effect is kinda cool, with the light source over stated from the left side. For the drawing artists out there, this was done with a 2B mostly, but I used an HB for some of the lighter cellophane areas. I used a gummy eraser to pull off some of the cast shadow shading to get a transparent effect of the vase. Working the value ranges of the cellophane was insanity. It will probably be easier to manipulate with oil paint.

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