May is eye month!

Having finished "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" (I admit, I skipped the last chapter about colors. I'm color blind, and I don't have any interest in adding color to my drawings at this point, because it would just mess them up. Besides, I'm mainly interested in learning technique and skills right now, so color can come later maybe.), I was inspired by Mark Kennedy's post on eyes to turn my attention to just that for a while. When I was younger, I would draw whole pages of eyes that I'd find in my sister's magazines. I'm going to focus (pun intended) on them again, starting with the examples from "The Human Figure" by J. H. Vanderpoel, which I just bought. After that, who knows. I intend to study skull structure, follow some of the tutorials I've found online, and take a look (ooh, there I go again) at some of the masters. This will probably take me through June, and from there, we'll see where I go.

My first sketch

With the recent posts on sketching from Temple of the Seven Golden Camels and ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive, I was inspired to do something I'd never done before: sketch something from real life. It's true - I have always been intimidated for some reason by drawing something that's live and in 3-D, so I've copied things from print. I know, it's cheating, and real artists would never do such a thing, but I'm not a real artist. I have never gone to art school. I just like to draw. But I'm trying. Please don't hold it against me.

So in order to hone my drawing skills, I got myself a pen and during today's lunch break, I drew a scene from outside my office window. Soon I'll actually venture outside and try drawing people (I work at a university, so there is no shortage of unsuspecting animated young people to practice on). Maybe it's appropriate that for my humble beginnings of sketching, I chose a garbage can. Anyway, without further ado, here is my first sketch (which is also my first attempt at hashing).