This past week, I attended a tech conference called MWLUG in Atlanta. (It stands for MidWest Lotus Users Group, but has spread beyond the Midwest and the products are no longer known as Lotus, but oh well.) While I was there, a couple I know described their visit to Japan, and how the Japanese don't really have a tipping culture, but believe in giving small meaningful gifts to show appreciation and respect.
With that in mind, I wanted to thank Richard Moy who put together the conference and Lisa Duke who was local liaison and made the Atlanta arrangements. They both did a fabulous job, and while my sketches are still amateur, I mean them as tokens of respect. These were both purely digital, done with a mouse and Gimp. (I really need to get myself a drawing tablet or something.)
 |
| Lisa Duke |
 |
| Richard Moy |
Trying
to sketch a girl's face. Hmm. I need to figure out what makes a girl
look like a girl without going into stereotypical exaggerated big eyes
and small round face.
A friend on Facebook suggested that I need to spend time drawing faces of actual girls to get a sense of what I actually see as opposed to what I think I see, so that later when I sketch, I have a sense of contours and such. Sounds like a plan to me.
As a quick note, I have no idea whether my use of the words sketch and draw are correct. I think of a sketch as more representational and without a model, while a drawing is (intended to be) more accurate, less representational and uses a model of some sort.
Also, drawing class today!
One of my author friends suggested that I try sketching cats, as they can be quite challenging. From what I can tell, the faces aren't too difficulty (as sketches, not as drawings), but the bodies are harder for me. I will work on them more, but here are two I sketched last night (while sitting in the car at 3am at the Amtrak station waiting for my son to arrive).
While my drawing class is mostly about drawing actual stuff in front of
us, I have been playing with sketching on my own. One of the fascinating
things is that it is easier in some ways to add fewer details and let
the viewer interpret. Such as this face, which doesn't even have an
outline, but still works (I think).
I tried a couple of others before this which didn't work quite as well, but were still interesting to try (though I messed up the lighting when taking the picture).
