Saturday, August 9, 2008

Drawing and Shading Kids


I spent the afternoon drawing and doodling and I ended up with this sketch.  It's fairly straight forward and simple, but I really liked the drawing in the corner.  It seemed very Norman Rockwell, middle America to me.  I tried to make the side view the same character, but I don't think I was as successful.  

Shading the characters with white can be a good technique - I have been experimenting with it for a few sketches now.  It's bringing out the areas that the light is hitting.  For some reason, I didn't shade in the darks on this drawing.  I think I was afraid that I would overwork the sketch. 

I have also been working at my cross hatching.  Looking again, I probably went too far with the lighting - it's a bit overpowering on these simple sketches and I definitely went too far on the last post!  Less is more.  I have to learn when to stop.

Is it me, or is it harder to stop sketching when you are doing it digitally?  I feel like the eraser is so complete and you never damage the paper or are left with faint pencil lines.  When I start a sketch on actual paper, I work faster and get through more sketches and more pages.  I am more willing to accept the imperfections of my line because I am more willing to accept the low shelf-life of the drawing. 

Enough of my rant.  Here's the sketch.  Comments are always welcome.

1 comment:

Namowal (Jennifer Bourne) said...

I agree it's easier to accept the imperfections on real paper compared to digital work. I used to do life drawings on notebook paper and a ballpoint pen because it took the perfection pressure off.