Some Updates

It's not a huge update, but I did keep my word to work tonight. I think I would have worked more if it wasn't for my shoulder, it's starting to hurt. My wrist and elbow are following the trend of today and starting to hurt. My elbow pain actually woke me up today. I think that was a sure sign that it is definitely not just my knees and I really need to go to a new doctor and have this looked into. Aside from my joint paint, I'm still pretty happy with this and despite my misgivings about the hair closest to the to I think it's looking rather well. The shadows at the bottom are looking rather awkward though. I think those will look a bit better after I work them out more and fill in more of that board. I also need to work out that right side boundary. I need to figure that out soon. I think my main decision will be whether to include that corner or not. As of right now I'm planning on buying standard sized frames and getting custom mats so I really don't need to worry about fitting the drawing into a certain proportion. Hopefully that strategy won't backfire, and everything will look fine when I frame it. Also I'm really hoping to make this one of my five that I put in one of those three shows in the spring.

Drawing udpates

This really is not a great photo. There is too much glare and the light is uneven but since my last attempt at taking a photo failed miserably I think this is pretty ok. I'm a bit happier with the hair and I'm liking the progress ont he second face. The perspective is still driving me crazy though. I think I should focus on finishing the hair though that will just save me some sanity for a little while. Then I can move on to the second face and then I can worry about the board. I know the second face is in the right spot so I can trust lining everything up with that. I worked hard to place that face in the right spot with the sketch. I think though it still may be a little confusing without the reference photo to compare, it is coming together a bit.

I still feel that if I really push myself I can get this done before the end of december. I just need to push myself to work more and focus.

Drawing update and a little retrospective thought

I've got a little work done tonight. I'm happy with the progress I've made for the most part though I do think the lower part of the lip and chin look a little odd. I'm hoping that starts to clear up when I add in more hair, for some of what I have on there right now I was just trying to get the skin under the hair and most should be covered. Hopefully it will all turn out right. I also took a detail photo of the nose area and the cheek. I'm a little unsure of the teeth, though I haven't worked on the shading much so that might explain a few of my misgivings. I'm liking the hair though and for the most part the cheek.
My birthday is tomorrow and I just thought to look back at my artwork that I've done over the past year. I've finished 9 pieces between my last birthday and this one, and I'm working on a 10th. I've been consistently working most of the year and this is by far the most I have worked without an assignment and quite possibly the most I have worked even when taking a class. I also think I am producing quality work consistently, it's not like that last drawing class that I took where I walked away with 2 pieces I was really proud of. I hope to work even more frequently through the coming months and maybe get a few more pieces done before January. So far I've done 8 pieces between January and now I'd like to get that up to 10 or more. If I finish this one and my painting before January I'll be able to meet that goal before. My goal though is to be done with this before the end of December. I think ideally it's more time than I really need, but we'll see how that goes, if I get done before that deadline I can try to finish my painting. It really doesn't need that much more work before it's complete.

Drawing update

I got a little work done tonight, still not as much as I would have liked. At least it's a bit of progress. The hair is still frustrating me I've noticed that several more strands are out of place and I'm trying to make it work. Right now I'm having trouble typing right now because most of the keys are sticking on this keyboard. I don't know what happened with this it was working fine now most of the keys stick. Anyway I'm liking my progress on the board and the skin just frustrated by the hair and a few angles. I haven't been feeling all that great either and that just really hasn't been helping. I'm going to try to work tomorrow too, but I'll have to wait and see how I feel.

Little progress

It was just getting far too hot for me in this room tonight and being bent in so close to the light was not helping. Anyway I got a little bit of work done. I got a good bit of shading filled on on the nose and it's pretty close to finished I think. The hair still needs tons of more work. I really don't like how my teeth show in the photo and I may lay some hair over it just to cover it up. I don't think it's really that essential. I'm still happy with the direction that this is heading in.
I have to say since I started this drawing I've noticed that a lot of the story books we've been reading lately are illustrated with colored pencil. It's made me think of the girl I went to high school with, her colored pencil work was amazing and she did some wonderful illustration work.

Colored Pencil updates

I defined three of the borders, and got some more sketching done. I also realized that I put part of the hair in the wrong place. I'm trying to figure out how to rid of the hair I put in the wrong place. Putting it in the right place is no issue. Some of the hair can just be blended right into the trees part of the background, but the hair over the board is going to be a bit tougher to remedy. I'm wondering if I could just spray it with fixative and then put in a new layers with the colors for the board over it. I know I can work with the extra hair, it may just look a little too thick, but really I don't want that. Other than the hair I'm really happy with everything else I'm doing. This is really challenging but I'm feeling rather good about it. I really like what I did with nose and the glasses, still just need to make this hair look right. I'm starting to fill in some background too around everything so the hair will layer over everything right and so the hair will still have that thin wispy quality of hair.

Another try with colored pencil

I'm having another go at colored pencil. I'm really happy with the last colored pencil piece I did and I've been wanting to try it again. Also I think the reference photo I'm using could only work in color. I thought of using it for a painting but I just really need a break from that right now. So far I have mixed feeling about this. This is a huge challenge for me, most of my face is obscured by my hair so I filled in a bit of the nose then just started focusing on the hair. I'm a little unhappy with the color right now but overall I don't think it's looking that bad, if I can just make it look like hair even if the color is a bit off I think I'll be happy. So far though I'm really happy with the nose.
The first photo is how I'm working on this, and the second photo is how I may orient the piece in the end. I'm not sure though. The photo looks really interesting vertical, but I'm working horizontal because the photo takes us more screen space if it's vertical. I like to use reference photos straight from the screen, I feel like most of the time I loose some depth of color and value when I print photos. I've also been working small enough to accommodate. I've been working on my sketch book paper on the last few pieces. My next piece may be larger, and if this works out I may experiment with different color and textured paper with colored pencils.
The more I look at these photos the better I feel about this. We'll just have to see how this goes. I don't think the hair looks too bad right now.