At It Again

One of these days I am going to get a routine going in my life in which I am capable of posting new blogs on a more frequent basis... until then bare with me. Hahah. A lot has taken place in the past few months. I am not going to go into much detail because I only have one good working arm so it takes me time to type out a long message or blog in this case. I have still been drawing and in this blog I have attached two of my most recent finished drawings. It seems as though I excel when I am in a complete emotional roller coaster that cannot be stopped. Not only that but this past Monday I had surgery on my right shoulder to repair several tears. Much more stuff has happened but those are the main two that have been going on. If you have any comments, critiques, etc about the drawings please let me know. I only see it from one side.

Fascination with Reapers

I'm not sure what it is about drawing the Grim Reaper, but I enjoy it for some reason. I wanted to get back into the drawing mode and I had a couple unfinished drawings that I wanted to work on and make some noticeable progress. The first one, as displayed, is a reaper that has been sitting around not even half drawn. Granted there is still work to be done on this, but I did manage to give this reaper a full cloak today as well as make progress on the shading. I still have a background to throw in to complete the picture but I am not worried about that as much right now. The second drawing is one the I have been working on for my for some time now. I do not have any pictures on tap for that drawing. That is a little more top secret. Once it is complete and the final product is here I'll take a snapshot and post. Enjoy... comments regarding drawings are encouraged.

Packers/Panthers

So I attended the Carolina Panthers/Green Bay Packers game last Sunday. I had an amazing time, however just when everything about the trip seems to be going perfectly, and more conviced we would have planned a perfectly executed trip. Absolutely flawless. Say it ain't so... It was so. Until a misguided car added an hour and a half on to the drive home. Yes you heard that right, my A-Driver either did not want to go back to Camp Lejeune or he had too much to drink throughout the day. Probably a little of both. Regardless it was a good time and I may share a story or two about the trip if I have anyone that would like to hear some. Check out this video below... "It's uh-me Mario." Yeah I am the random Mario... we had a great time.

Surgery Complete

Roughly three weeks ago I had surgery on my elbow. Everything with the recovery has been going smoothly as far as I can tell. The pain from the surgery has been more irritating than anything from the position of the incision and the length. As of now the stitches are out and, for the most part, its just a scar now... for the most part! It still hurts and I do not have complete movement of it. If I use it too much throughout the day, it will be stiff the following day. I have started another drawing, if you have a bad habit of stopping in the middle of one drawing and starting another. At some point in time I eventually complete them. More pictures to come soon.

Things That Make You Say.... Hmmm.

So Hurricane Irene was by no means horrible, but it was not a walk in the park either. Usually here in the Eastern Carolina  we do not get hit by many hurricanes if any. While I have been stationed here; I have been around for 3 projected hurricanes... the first hurricane turned out to be a little rain and wind for about an hour and then clear skies, the second hurricane... well... didn't happen, and the third hurricane, Irene, a Category 1 storm when it ran through Jacksonville. It did enough damage to frustrate and make me as uncomfortable as I think I can be. My power was knocked out from the onset storms of Irene on Friday night and just came back on this afternoon. I know a lot of people have it worse than I do and I do appreciate the luxuries that I have, however I was very aggravated, irritated, and "insert word here" not having ac or any form of electronic entertainment. I did get some sleep while without electricity, but I kept waking every hour or so because I would get too sweaty hot. Food was also an issue that added to the descriptive words above. Of course the food that I had wanted to eat all required either the over, microwave, or toaster oven. None of which I could use. Yesterday the neighbor stopped by and mentioned that he might be able to get us a generator, which just to mention would have been amazing, but that was just a tease and we never heard back. My roommates and I called the power company and got redirected for what seemed like an hour and then finally was told "fortunately" our power would be back on by Thursday. I was in utter disbelief and I didn't think I could go another night, but I did and it was just as uncomfortable as the first. Today I woke up with high hopes that the power would already be on and then later on in the day we were told it would be on this evening and moments after we were told power trucks and tree service trucks came rolling up. I do have my power on and it is such a relief. I can not wait to sleep in a cozy bed in a cozy room.

On the drawing end of the road, has been lifeless. I have not been able to get myself in the past  three days to sit down for an extended period of time and focus on one thing. The heat and lifeless of the house made me kind of feel the same way. The house is back, so I am too.... gonna sleep peacefully tonight *fingers crossed*. 

Irene... Irene

It almost seems natural to post something regarding the upcoming hurricane. I am fortunate enough to be stationed in one of the states it is expected to hit. I know, right? One of my friend yesterday brought up a very good point... in one year North Carolina has had, what seems like, every kind of weather storm each season. Here in North Carolina we have been through an earthquake, snow flurries, ridiculous rain storms, wild fires, unbelievable humidity, and hurricanes. You would think this state would be prepared for all these major weather events, right? Well the answer is, no. This county might own its on dump truck, if you get my drift.

Sometime Saturday Hurricane Irene is projected to come through the area I live in. It has been unknown the past few hurricanes that were projected to hit here if we need to take any extra preventative measures in order to ensure our own safety, but it ended up being clear and sunny the day we were suppose to be hit with the last hurricane. The weather is weird here and definitely not what I grew up back with in Illinois.  It is best to expect the worst and hope for the best.

I did not do any drawing yesterday. My elbow and forearm felt a little rough and banged up throughout the day, as expected. I was really close to starting it up last night, but my exhaustion overcame me and I fell asleep. I did ice my arm throughout the day yesterday and I think as a result my arm is feeling a ton better today. Time to go back and lay down.

Red Barn

I started this drawing about two weeks ago. I had a lot of progress the first few days working on it, but then I ran into a road block... I did not have my sticky-tak eraser. I took a few days away from it and got my eraser, then proceeded to finish the drawing.  Unfortunately with my inexperience in drawing these larger drawings I tend to lose interest in finishing, for one reason or another. This photo that I have titled "Red Barn" is not complete just yet, but I have made leaps and bounds so far.

On another note, it is day two post surgery. My arm is throbbing in pain, as expected.  This, however, will not effect my drawing capabilities due to my ability to write/draw left handed. It has effected my ability to do most other things. I am very limited to what I can do until my right elbow is healed. 

As always please comment, critique, criticize, bitch, moan, or complain about my drawing. All are welcome.

Surgery Complete

After months of going through pain and stress dealing with my right arm... I finally have some sort of resolution. This morning I went in for surgery on my ulnar nerve in my elbow. Obviously things went well or else I may still be under the knife. Haha. Unfortunately this surgery is more of a prevention of injuring the ulnar nerve worse than it already is... however some of the feeling in my pinky and ring finger have come back. On another bright note, the recovery process should be pretty quick. I recently, as in this past Saturday, I checked in from leave.  It was not much of a vacation, all I did was watch a friends house/dogs. Now I am back on leave due to my injury for a few weeks. On my time off, of course, I am going to do some rest and recovery, but I am also going to catch up on some drawing and down time alone.

As for the drawing I promised yesterday... it is coming, at least previews of it. Hopefully this will take place tomorrow, but no later than Friday. Hope everyone had just as good of a Monday as I did ; ).

Remodeling

Remodeling... well; in a way I guess. Monday I will be getting surgery on my elbow. Back a few months ago I broke my hand and since then my arm has been numb, weak, and just a pain in the ass. I will finally have some sort of resolution to my problem. The feeling in my last two fingers may not come back, but it will not get any worse after the surgery. I could bitch and whine all day about this, but I am not... it is not my dominant hand.

As far as drawing goes, I have been working on one drawing. I will give a sneak preview of the drawing tomorrow. For now it is time for movie and bed. Have a good night.

Fall is Coming Soon

Leaves are always fun to draw. Last night in my frustration, I started and finished this leaf. I am pretty happy with the outcome. I am trying to learn some of my new drawing book and it was going well but I have ran into a wall. I do not have all my art supplies with me so in the mean time I will continue to draw small little side pieces to help improve other techniques. Enjoy...

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External Morphology of the Hand... that's what she said!?

I am still drawing, I have included a few below as proof. I have simply been slacking on updating this darn thing. I have bought another drawing book on landscapes, I hope its a good one. More drawings to come, I am working on several as I write this post. Stay tuned.

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Back to Drawing

It has been a minute since my last activity on blogger,but I am back for some more. I have done some drawings that I have yet to post here, however I will show you those later. Even though my most recent drawing is not finished I am posting it now. I have come to the portion of the book dealing with Anatomy... specifically Osteology. This picture is of the hand, if you can't tell. Critiques are always welcome, let me know what you think.

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A Little Bit About Myself

Its been a minute since I have posted a drawing on my blog, trust me though. I am still drawing, however I will not be putting another drawing today. I would like to take the time to tell all of you who visit a little bit about myself.


I am 24 years old and I reside in the wonderful town of Jacksonville, North Carolina. I was born July 4, 1986 in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Depsite being born and living in North Carolina now I spent most of my childhood growing up in Illinois. I am a Corporal in the United States Marine Corps. I have served in the Marines for roughly 3 1/2 years, to include a 11 month deployment to Iraq in 2009. To the left, I have included several recent pictures of myself recieving a Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal from the Battery Commanding Officer and my Battery 1st Sgt. If you have questions, please, don't hesitate to ask. OOOORAH, Semper Fi!

Back To The Drawing Books... Literally!

I have decided it is time to take a break from drawing portraits and visit sections of my drawing book that I have not gone through. The next section I encountered was drawing the hand... sounds easy to me. Well it was not easy at all. I have never really had many problems drawing hands, but I have never drawn them in great detail or studied the structure.

Below I have included my results from the first page of tips and tricks of drawing the hand. I can say right now, the tips and tricks were not much help. I ended up trying to mirror the images the visually showed these "helpful" hints. As far as I am concerned, the results are mediocre at best, however it was a good learning experience. Now that I have a little more guidance and focus on what I need to do in order to accomplish my end product I am going to move on to the second page of teach me how to draw the hand. Wish me luck!

Catching On... Slowly

After numerous attempts at drawing a portrait that looks like a real person, yes just a real person, I think I have accomplished my mission. With the thanks of a friend's (Beth ;) ) picture as my object to draw I was able to draw a portrait and get some constructive criciticism. I found out in the end that I am the most critical of my drawings or atleast that is the what my subject conveyed to me. I hope you all enjoy the drawing. Once again... constructive criticism is encouraged and/or any comments. Thanks!

And The Beat Keeps Running...

So... I'm inspired. I have been extremely happy with the results of my drawings and I only expect for them to get better. The two drawings that I have posted, I drew over the past 2-3 days. I was wondering where the drawing book was going by drawing every facial feature by itselt, but now the book has encooperated all of them into a portrait. By drawing and viewing the objects the way the drawing book has advised has really helped my art vision to encompass the important aspects of each drawing I do.


However, I can say that no matter how a drawing turns out in the end, it is a rollercoaster drawing the picture along the way; nothing is ever smooth or easy, along the way it sometimes is frustrating (you would like to kick the person running the ride in the face and stop completely!), and ultimately as good as everyone else thinks it is, I am always double guessing it. Please leave critiques on anything you think I can improve myself on. Thanks, come again!

Tear Drop



Tear Drop

This pictures is very simple but it came to mind. It did not take me very long to draw this picture, and I definitely could do more to it to improve it... BUT I do not want to destroy what I have by doing to much. I will settle for this right now and possibly revisit this piece in the future. I am returning to the Drawing Book that I have; Next topic: Drawing the Hand. Stay tuned.



Angel Of Death



Angel of Death

As you can see, I have got a bit off topic with the portraits... but I had a vision and I went with it. Alot of the pictures that I draw, from a topic of my choice, are usually in some way, shape, or form related to my emotions at that specific point in time. Obviously my most recent drawing that I have titled "Angel of Death" (I hope you can figure out why!?) was drawn throughout a very stressful point of my life. I will be revisiting the drawing book very shortly, this break from the book is needed. Please post comments and criticisms of drawings and blogs. Until next time...

Portrait - Rough Attempt (Part Duece)

It took a couple days, but I have finally made time to post what picture I was drawing from.  The recent traffic and comments (Thanks Jess and Mom) has inspired me to post again... here we go. As you see, I have reposted my drawing, followed by the original picture I was drawing from. This should be a good indicator of how well the drawing book has helped thus far. Constructive criticism is encouraged.
I am currently working on another drawing, it is off topic however it is turning out really well. I will post more tomorrow and if I am not complete... you may even get a preview.

 

Portrait - Rough Attempt

Okay... I made an attempt at drawing a face, tell me if you can guess who it is? Will post the picture of the person I was drawing next post. Let me know what you think of my drawing. Thanks!

Teaching Myself to Draw: The Ear

Once I think I have ran out of facial body parts to draw, I turn the page and there is another one. This time the task was to draw the ear.  Doesn't seem so hard initially thinking about it, but the ear is a very abnormal shape.  Once again with the assistance of the drawing book I was able to get a pretty good grasp on the ear. Which body part will come next?

Teaching Myself to Draw: The Nose

I have continued my journey through this never ending art book and I began working on the structure of the nose. Like always, comment on my drawings... good or bad. I don't have too much to say about the nose, other than I had no direction drawing the nose up until now. This book has been very helpful in enhancing my skills and I look forward to the future sections. 

Teaching Myself to Draw: The Mouth

Next topic on the agenda of drawing portraits is drawing the mouth. If you have noticed, each one of these sections focuses on a general structure that every body part has in common with each other. The mouth is a fairly simply body part for me to draw by itself, but when I draw a portrait I have a difficult time drawing the structure of the mouth on a face and having all the other facial features be in the same proportion with the mouth. To the right is my work that I did while reading the section on the mouth. The real test will be when I put it all together in a portrait. More to come in the near future... stay tuned. 

Teaching Myself to Draw: The Head

As promised... the HEAD!       I became extremely motivated and immediately began working on the following section which was the anatomy as well as the the general layout that may help in order to improve abilities drawing portraits. If you reference this post, which was two blogs ago, you can see while I was jumping around I touched on this section I am discussing now as well as the section on the eye before I decided where to start. 

This section was far more complicated than the eye and rightfully so. However I do not understand why this section was placed second in this drawing book vice after teaching every facial feature and I hope at some point it will all come full circle. More to come... once again, feel free to comment.  

The Eye - Section Complete

After getting started in the drawing book, I locked on the section regarding drawing the eye. I have found it very helpful breaking down parts of the body one by one and teaching myself the general structure of that body part. At first I did not think this would work for me but as I worked through the steps, the final product began to show more and more. The picture on the left is the final step of the section on the eye. Following the completion of each section I am going to focus a piece on that body part, trying to piece everything I learned into a completed piece. 

 I will continue to reiterate that comments, critiques, bitches, moans, and complaints are welcome. No one will go ignored! I now will be shifting my focus to the general layout of the head. Stay tuned for drawing results of the structure and layout of the head.  

Above: Picture I drew, so that I was able to see improvements if any.

Teaching Myself To Draw

Recently I received a Complete Guide to Drawing book as a gift.  I really enjoy to draw, but I have never had guidance to improve my abilities.  So far this book has been everything that I have never had. As I learn new skills and enhance my current abilities I will post my so called homework pieces, feel free to critique or comment. 


I jumped around in the drawing book when I first received it. Below is my pencil work regarding face proportions as well as the beginning of teaching myself to draw "the eye."