Sketching for July/September '13

With over a month since my last post, you'd think I'd have lots to show.  You would be wrong.  It's not that I've not been active (though I've not produced anywhere near what I should have - almost no speed paints for example), just that much of that I either can't show, or can't show just yet.  Mostly though this month (and the end of the last) has just been a fairly tough slog.  Long time followers will know that October 5th marks an unhappy anniversary for me, and  as such the two weeks around that date are usually a pretty horrible time for me emotionally.   This year though I also had two friends pass away in the time since I last posted.  The latter was very close, and died on Thursday.   I won't post my thoughts on that here - it's best left to other places, but obviously it's affected me deeply.

But on to happier things, at least for this post.  We've had a house guest for a few weeks, and he's likely to be around for a while longer.  While his presence is obviously a minor distraction from the art thing he's also the model guest, and we're very happy to have him. I do also have some things coming up soon - I'm taking a new painting class, and I'll be posting the results before long.  One of the pieces seems to be fairly popular, (though of course, being me I can't see why) and overall there should be three or four paintings by the end of it.  I've also been working on a new book cover for Dr. Sandifer, and that should be hitting the electronic store shelves in the next few weeks - I'll have a post about it ready when it does of course.  There are also another two covers that are essentially done, and just waiting on a final page count.  Those I'll probably blog about in December and January when the books go live.  So yes, things are happening, even if it's not quite in the places I would hope (anatomy practice, sketching, that sort of thing - I've had no mental time for it the past few months, but hopefully that will change soon).  For now though, let's get the sketching up to date...

Two sheets of heads from July through to September.  Varying quality, obviously, although there are a few I'm really pleased with (yes, that's a rarity - mark this date in your diaries).  The profile of the woman (used n the thumbnail of this post) turned out quite nicely, as did the closeup of the eye to her right.  Below the eye is perhaps the best face I've ever drawn while not referring to a photograph - He just looks very natural to me (albeit like Bill Clinton's younger sibling).  On the larger sheet I like the stylization of the chap in the top left, and the expression of the girl below him.  The arm of the girl to their right turned out okay too.  I've also put a little work into drawing some more diverse ethnicities.  Hopefully that's apparent here.

And here are some figure based sketches. I like bits of many of them, but almost none of them as a whole. I still have a long way to go with this stuff evidently.

And there you have it - Not a lot to be going on with, but it won't be over a month until I post again, so there's more to come fairly soon.