Random Drawing Moods

Hello, readers!

Every now and then, I have random days where there's only one thing I really want to do: Draw.

Yesterday was one of those days.

In my advertising class, we were given a brief assignment where we had to design a billboard advertising the (fake) end of the NHL lockout. I realized that I actually had my clipboard with blank paper on it with me, as I had brought the clipboard in order to do surveys earlier in the day.

After finishing my design a little early, I decided to do a bit of drawing until class finished. It was just a messy pen sketch of a girl, but it made me kind of happy, and it ended up getting me into a drawing mood.

Unfortunately, when I got home, I really didn't have any free time. After listening to my mom talk to me for about an hour, I went to get supper, then went back home only to have to write a 1000 word essay.

1000 words? That might seem easy, but not so much when it's a personal essay. I simply had too much to say. But I recalled my teacher telling the class that it wouldn't be a big deal if we went over the word count, as long as it wasn't obscenely long. He also said that 1000 word essay somehow amounted to a solid four pages, but even with my 1200 word essay I only had about 3 1/2.

Anyway, back to the point, this took me until about 11pm to finish - the time that I usually go to bed. But then I began staring at my desktop background:

I was suddenly overcome with a need to draw the photo.

I originally attempted to draw Cedric (on the left), thinking that it would be more challenging. But it ended up looking pretty terrible, and I didn't feel like trying to fix it anymore - so instead began to draw Omar.

I put a little bit of my own style into it, but was determined to keep the brunt of the high-contrast style of the original the same. In about 20 minutes, I ended up with what I thought was a pretty good rendition of the photo. I only did the face, as I did not feel like guessing what was going on with his clothing nor did I want to draw the full afro, but I was still really happy with it.

I began with the outline of the profile, and the line between the lips. I began my shading at the nose - I've recently started to find this a good place to begin. I spent most of my time focusing around the nose and lips. After a while of stupidly careful shading, I decided it would be easier to instead get right to the outline of the sunglasses, then draw a light outline of where my shading will be. As I finished major components of the shading, I smudged out the edges of the shading into the rest of the face just using my finger.

TIP: When doing dark shading, try to keep in mind the actual outline of things - for example the sunglasses. I am also very picky about the facial outline - I like it to be noticeable, but not too much. I like the shading right beside the facial outline to be only a shade or two lighter.

As for the hair, I worked on it whenever I came to a part where there would be hair. I was kind of lazy like that. I also made an effort to distinguish the hair from the face, without making it too separate from the body - the little hairs at the sideburns were particularely tricky, as I wanted them to be dark enough that they wouldn't just look like shading, but light enough that you could see all the individual strands in a really awkward way.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to let me know!

By for now, readers.