Aidan - WIP 5

I haven't gotten as many lunch hours or evenings to work on this as I would like, so it's moving along slowly but surely. I finished the subject of Aidan's interest - a snail that is hanging upside down on part of the bird bath. I've never drawn a snail before, so it was a challenge but fun. I actually picked up a snail the other day while the boys were playing with it and studied its shell to get an idea of how I might draw one. Another challenge with the bird bath was trying to make its texture different - it is aluminum, I think, and somewhat smooth on top but rougher on the sides. I also wanted it to stand out from Aidan's mouth, since it's overlapping. I hope I did OK.

Aidan - WIP 4

I've finally finished Aidan's hat and face. I originally wanted to place the part of the bird bath that's blocking his mouth further to the right and then reconstruct his mouth, but after thinking about it and looking for other reference photos, I decided against it. I think I made the right decision, because I probably would have made him look like the Joker if I'd tried to guess what the obscured part of his mouth looked like.

Aidan - WIP 3

I finished Aidan's hair, the shading beneath his hat, and most of the hat. Since his hat is a light khaki color, it loses a lot of detail on the left, since the sun is shining on it. I think I'll have to add some background to this drawing to define the edge of the hat.

Aidan - WIP 2

I worked a bit more on Aidan, adding his ear and starting the hair. There isn't much of it in this portait, since he's wearing a hat, just a few locks that typically hang down on his forehead. I'm afraid I may have messed up the tooth of the paper on his forehead to the viewer's left, since I can't seem to add any more graphite to darken it up. I'll keep trying.

Aidan - WIP 1

After I finished Grant's portrait, I felt very proud - I had never been so proud of one of my drawings before. I spent many hours on it, and took my time, applying lessons I'd learned from books and from my friends at the ArtPapa forums. I already had a photo of Aidan picked out that I wanted to use for the next one, but after a while, I realized I was dragging my feet about it. One day it occured to me that what was preventing me from working on another portrait was a fear of failure. I was afraid that I couldn't do as well (not to mention better) on another portrait as I'd done on Grant's. I don't expect my skills to improve markedly from one drawing to the next, but I do expect to learn from my mistakes, if nothing else. Still, weeks went by and I couldn't bring myself to start Aidan's portrait until one day I forced myself to.

I'm using a new paper, Arches 140 lb. Hot Pressed Watercolor, and graphite.

Fear of failure

After feeling so good about my last drawing, the portrait of Grant, I find myself dragging my feet with my next drawing. I've chosen a picture of Aidan to do, which I think is really cute, and I've done the contours and started on one of his eyes, but for some reason, I'm afraid to continue. I've been dragging my feet with it, finding other things to do besides work on it, whereas with Grant's portrait, I couldn't wait to get to it to see how it would come out. I even bought nice paper to use with Aidan's portrait and everything. I realized this morning that I'm afraid to mess it up - I was so happy with Grant's portrait, I think subconsciously that I've convinced myself I can't top it. But I know I can. At this point, I've lost my drawing momentum and I need to just pick up the pencils again and continue. One of my goals for this week is to start it up again. Sigh...

Grant - Final

Here is Grant's finished portrait. I have to say that I'm prouder of this drawing than ever I have done before. I used tips I've picked up from the many drawing books I have, and from the great people over at ArtPapa Forums. I couldn't have done it without their support.

I learned a lot on this portrait, and already look forward to my next one. I made some mistakes on this, and hopefully I learned from them. Maybe nobody will notice them but me!