Sunday, April 30, 2017

Daily Sketch Day 23 - Figaro

Figaro
It's always fun to know the names of other people's pets.  Today, it's Figaro, a 15-year old Beagle, who is like a child riding his first rocking horse. People just love treating their dogs like children, especially when they had them since puppyhood. 

Every Daily Sketch that I've drawn so far had their own unique drawing challenges. Today's sketch is not an exception, because this sketch almost didn't happen.  I was having laptop issues, and lost a lot of time resolving it. And so I just sketched this in a more loose and painterly-style due to lack of time.










Saturday, April 29, 2017

Daily Sketch Day 22 - Miaka

Miaka

This is Miaka, my friend's beloved pet mongrel of 13 years. Her shaggy fur fits her rambunctious personality.   I imagined her in dog's paradise poised for a chase any moment. 

When I first looked at her photo, I thought I'll be having a hard time drawing Miaka's long furs  because it's hard to see what's underneath all those furry mess.  But then I realized as I was drawing, that her long hair served as great visual cues for drawing solid construction of her.  It wasn't as scary as I originally thought.   I feel good about the result.











Friday, April 28, 2017

Daily Sketch Day 21 - Jammin

Jammin

My friend's first dog, Jammin was a cute Mini Dachshund that had passed away 4 years  ago.  Her phone which contained most of the dog's photos was lost, and only a couple of shots remained in her other phone. Jammin had this soulful look in his eyes, so I tried to capture that here. As my friend said, Jammin's  now in dog heaven. And so I sketched it that way here.  This Daily Sketch project of mine suddenly had a meaningful purpose. I'm pleased to have given some consolation even only through my drawing.  As an artist, that's the most I can hope for.






Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Daily Sketch Day 20 - Pringles

Pringles


Today, I have again asked some friends to lend me their pet dog's photos, so I can draw them. So for today, it's Pringles - a smiling Pug-Pitbull mix. Her big wide smile is so cute I just have to draw her. She can be a good inspiration and reference for a character design  of a dog character in an animated film.
As for the background, I added a Stucco Deco design using the art clippings brush preset in Artrage 4, for the floor, and added some spot lighting effect to the whole image. Coz she's a star!












Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Daily Sketch Day 19 - Mellon

Mellon

It's my friend's pet dog, a Jack Russell mix. I kept it simple with just black and white pencil and added some noise filter for the overall look.  Just trying out a different style... and finish it on time. Yay!












Daily Sketch Day 18 - Golden Retriever Puppy

Golden Retriever Puppy

After drawing horses for a week, it's drawing canine week starting today.  I'm starting off with a cute Golden Retriever puppy. This sketch is very loose and painterly-looking.  The fur still needs a lot of work but I ran out of time.  Just have to let it go and start anew tomorrow. Sleepy now.


















Monday, April 24, 2017

Daily Sketch Day 17 - Three Donkeys

Three Donkeys

As part of the equine family, I just have to draw donkeys as well. They're just basically the smaller version with longer ears.  I think they're a really cute.




Sunday, April 23, 2017

Daily Sketch Day 16 - Horseplaying Zebras

Horseplaying Zebras
Still on my drawing horse week, I decided to vary things up a bit by drawing zebras, which are also of the equine species.  I don't remember having drawn much zebras before or it must have been when I was still very young and can't draw animals properly,  But now that I can, I just realized how helpful those zebra stripes are in indicating their three dimensional form.  One benefit of drawing is you're force to take a closer look at your subject as if for the first time and notice things you wouldn't normally have.  And I'm amazed at how those stripes really conforms to the zebras' body like construction lines.  Great visual cues for drawing.













Saturday, April 22, 2017

Daily Sketch Day 15 - Horse Call

Horse Call

 Instead of my usual three horses I added one more, because the composition calls for it. As a result, this sketch took me longer to finish.  This time it's a sketch study of horses in recline plus a horse neighing.  So I drew them lying around while one horse calling them out for their laziness.  Such fun!










Thursday, April 20, 2017

Daily Sketch Day 14 - Grazing Horses

Grazing Horses
Learning to draw any animal must involve learning to draw them in different poses. Thus the three horses,   I'm also experimenting with the rendering style, by keeping it loose and keeping the pencil lines visible.








Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Daily Sketch Day 13 - Gossiping Horses

Gossiping Horses

Continuing with the horse theme for this week, I drew three of them focusing on the head in different views.  And because of the way they are grouped together, I titled this drawing as Gossiping Horses.
Haha...








Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Daily Sketch Day 12 - Running Horses

Running Horses




For today's sketch, it's running horses. I kept the pencil outline visible on top of the colors, and placed the horses on a grassy background which gave this sketch a more illustration-style look.  My style is still evolving at this point, so it's fun playing around with this look,












Monday, April 17, 2017

Daily Sketch Day 11 - Horse

Horse
Now that I've gotten into a daily sketch routine, I'd like to focus more on the learning part of this challenge. For this week, I'll be drawing horses. See how it goes....













Friday, April 14, 2017

Daily Sketch Day 8 - Lamb

Lamb

Today's Good Friday, so I chose to draw a lamb, to commemorate Christ's death on the cross as the Lamb Of God. 










Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Daily Sketch Day 5 - Goldfish


Drawing of the day --- a goldfish. I sketched it in ArtRage4, then finished coloring it in Photoshop.  I haven't sketched in color till now. Coz it can't be a goldfish if it isn't gold. Well... it's more orange than gold.  





Monday, April 10, 2017

Daily Sketch Day 4 - Tortoise

Animal of the day----Tortoise. It's a random choice. On second thought, it describes perfectly my art progress. Slow but steady.






Sunday, April 9, 2017

Daily Sketch Day 2 - Hedgehog Surprise

 
Hedgehog Surprise


First time drawing a hedgehog. It wasn't easy. It made me think till my head hurts.  But... I'm glad I did it.






Friday, April 7, 2017

Daily Sketch Day 1 - A Dog and Two Birds


 To be good at any skill, one needs to develop and practice it everyday if possible. One of my daily struggles is to find the discipline to draw. Believe it or not, I find drawing difficult.  I find it daunting because all my insecurities as an artist surfaces whenever I'm confronted with an empty paper or canvas.  It reflects back to me what I don't know. What I don't know, I cannot draw.  So I procrastinated a lot. And hoarded a lot of drawing tutorials or books to the point that even that became overwhelming as well. It doesn't help that when I compare my drawings with that of artists I admire, all the more I feel inadequate. 

A Dog and Two Birds

And so, after months of starts and stops, I'm getting impatient with myself.  The only way for me to overcome this is to challenge myself and sketch something... anything.... everyday and upload it. One sketch only... a day.  And if I can do more, the better.  And if I do this for 100 days, I think it would become a good habit and hopefully become effortless.