Jeff's Blog » Graphite

Boats in a San Francisco Harbor

Jeff — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 02:03:43 +0000

8″ x 10″ graphite on bristol smooth. I generally prefer to work from life rather than from photographs, but there’s no way I could have done this from life: I’ve been working on this off-and-on since mid-November.

Dancer #3

Jeff — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 04:30:31 +0000

Another dancer sketch. Something of a theme going here I guess…

Dancer #2

Jeff — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 04:35:16 +0000

Just another quick sketch of a dancer… This one is from a photograph in a coffee table book about the 20th century.

Tiny Dancer

Jeff — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 04:14:36 +0000

I’m not happy about the amount of time I’ve spent in 2010 doing everything except making “art”. I went to the art institute today looking for a little inspiration. Amazing how quickly you can lose a few hours in a place like that. This is a sketch of a small sculpture I saw while I was there. I didn’t get her name (apologies to the original artist), but I liked the way she looked.

Superman’s European Dressing Room

Jeff — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 21:11:28 +0000

Donovan McNabb

Jeff — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 00:39:36 +0000

Another athlete courtesy of Sports Illustrated. In this case, Donovan McNabb doing what he does best: scramble out of trouble.

This sketch started out as just a study of his arm and hand, but I thought I needed to give the disembodied arm a little bit of context; so I sketched out the rest of his body. Maybe if I do enough drawings of individual parts, I’ll be able to put them together into a cohesive whole someday. This method was good enough for students during The Renaissance; it should work for me. Right?

Roger Federer

Jeff — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 01:33:06 +0000

In keeping with my goal to draw more people, I decided to draw this pic of Roger Federer from a recent Sports Illustrated. This was my 2nd sketch, and the one I am happiest with.

This is what the rest of the page looks like:

Pouring Water Into A Glass

Jeff — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 01:30:42 +0000

Sketched from a photo on Stock.xchange. The drawing is out of proportion and crooked, which I attribute to the couple of glasses of wine I drank before pulling out my sketchbook; but if you squint and look away quickly, it might fool your eye just a little.

Oh well, learn from your mistakes and move on, right?

Goodbye, 2009

Jeff — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 22:11:08 +0000

Just a quickie sketch of the train under our Christmas tree. In another couple of days it’ll be gone until next year.

My preliminary goals for 2010 are:

Draw more. In 2009, I only managed to draw a couple times per week — maybe not even that if you average it out. I firmly believe that getting better at drawing and painting is largely a matter of practice; so if I want to get better, there is no way around this.
Draw more people. I have steadfastly avoided drawing people as much as I could. At some point, though, you realize that drawing people well is something you need to learn to do. 2010 is the year I start down that road.
Rely less on line, and more on areas of tone/color. I have a tendency to outline everything, then fill in the areas like a coloring book. Sometimes, this is a nice effect; but I rely on it too often. Time to change my approach.
Do some finished pieces. So far, my portfolio is almost entirely comprised of drawings and paintings in my sketchbooks. Time to do something worthy of hanging on the wall (or at least, on the fridge).

Well, goodbye 2009. You were a good year (artistically speaking). I feel like I did get a little bit better, and I had a heck of a good time. I can’t wait to see what your baby brother brings.

Nap Time

Jeff — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 21:57:42 +0000

After my experience drawing someone in constant motion, I moved on to a more stationary subject. Again, the likeness is not quite there, but at least I am starting to gain a little confidence.

And for those of you wondering, those glowing orbs above my subject are Christmas ornaments hanging on the tree behind his chair.