Then and Now

It was almost five years ago when I decided I wanted to learn how to draw.

and I believe this is the first face I drew. Soon after I drew this I got a "Learn to Draw" book from the library


and I drew this. This drawing was an exercise in upside down drawing. Where you take the image you are going to draw and turn it upside down

and rather than drawing an arm or a sleeve, you draw the lines as you see them, a curved one here, a darker one there until you finish drawing all of the lines. It is always amazing when you turn the picture around to see what it looks like.

From there I worked on sketching the outline of faces, as faces was what I really wanted to learn how to draw.

I continued to practice and practice and a couple of years ago I took a great online course from Misty Mawn (an amazing artist that draws and paints beautifully). One of the exercises she got us to do was draw a self portrait, and I drew this one of myself and my younger daughter.

DOes it look like us? well not completely, but I was happy with it (I didn't draw all of my wrinkles). I continue to enjoy to draw, and learn from it every time I do it.

Here is the drawing I have worked on over the past few days. It takes me about 4 hours to draw a picture like this, so I don't do it often. (big chunks of creative time is rare for me, and I hate to stop a drawing once I have started one) I continue to see areas that need improving, but I also see improvements in my drawing skills every time I draw, and I love to challenge myself with different angles and shading all of the time.

My word for 2011 was BELIEVE, and I believe I can learn to draw, and will continue to work on it over the next many years to come.