All from the Butterfly house at Melbourne zoo, shot using the IR mod camera with a 590nm filter and 35mm lens. It’s mid winter in Australia at the moment, and even in a hothouse the butterflies were a little sparse and looking a little ratty. I quite like the tattered look.
My plan today was to finish the ink dot drawing started last week. But I arrived just slightly too late to get the same spot in the room. Instead, here’s a charcoal pencil portrait of the same bold-featured (and so interesting to draw) model, from a different angle.
This is probably about half done, but the same model will be back next week, so I’ll hopefully get the other half done too*. Fibre pen, approx 2 hours.
* Note to self: turn up early enough to be able to chose the same seat
Foolishly or otherwise, I have signed up to do a project in this year’s 100 Days Project. So, here we are Day One, Drawing One. Not nearly finished, but certainly at least started.
It was a holiday-day here yesterday, so I finally made a serious start on painting the latex lizardling created in the Jordu Schell workshop last month. Doubtless there will be significant changes still (should it be blue skin? Or perhaps golden-bronze??), but at least tis begun.
I’ll also try a version with instamorph teeth and spines, but I am still figuring out how to best secure these into the mask.
This little garden cutie (approx 3mm or so long) kept moving its head from side to side to get a good look at me. And then, being a baby jumping spider, it would sort of sproink sideways, only to stop and look around at me again. Bad for the taking of photos, but really rather entertaining to watch.
This week, the wrong side.
The friendly portrait group I draw with for a couple of hours most weeks is often nearly full by the time I arrive. This means the spots that have a full or three-quarter view of the model are usually all taken. I don’t mind at all. The very first drawings I remember being fascinated by enough to try and copy when I was a child were profile studies, by the likes Holbein, the Egyptians and Aztecs, and Regency silhouettes. I like drawing people in a way they rarely see themselves, but is so distinctly them.
However, I realised yesterday that I have a habit of usually sitting on the side of the room that gives me a left-looking profile. The only seat available yesterday was on the other side, and it was weirdly difficult to get my brain to drawn an accurate right-looking profile. So, note to self . . .
Black and white charcoal and white ink, on A3 brown paper, 2 hours
