I drew Edouard Manet one evening because I was feeling anxious. There’s something very meditative about drawing these guys with their epic beards.
Tag Archives: art
Manet
Posted by melydia on April 4, 2016
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Toulouse-Lautrec
Posted by melydia on April 3, 2016
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Q. Why did the French train derail?
A. Too loose la track!
For the first half of my life that joke was pretty much the extent of my knowledge of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Then I saw Moulin Rouge. Then, finally, I connected him with those famous posters I was already familiar with. And here you have it.
In other news, I’m starting to think I should just claim derpy eyes as part of my personal artistic style.
Rodin
Posted by melydia on April 2, 2016
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Degas
Posted by melydia on March 31, 2016
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This drawing of Edgar Degas did not turn out how I’d hoped. His head is shaped weird and his hair isn’t anywhere near fabulous enough. But while I don’t share everything in my sketchbook (because wow there’s some atrocious experiments in there), I decided to go ahead with this one. The longer I go since I drew it, the less horrendous it looks to me. I mean, it’s still not great, but it doesn’t make me cringe so much anymore.
Monet
Posted by melydia on March 30, 2016
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Journal52 – Week 8
Posted by melydia on March 28, 2016
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Fathers of Aviation
Posted by melydia on February 21, 2016
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I continued the joke and ended up drawing Orville Wright on Tuesday. About a week later I drew his brother Wilbur. These are not subjects I ever would have considered drawing. I’m not sure what happened to their eyes. A conversation I had with my husband while drawing Orville:
Me: Pretty sure one of the fathers of aviation didn’t have derpy eyes.
Him: To be fair, one of his eyelids is droopier than the other one.
Me: Yes, but both his eyes are pointed in the same direction, unlike his depiction in my sketchbook.
Oddly, I drew Wilbur one night because I was feeling anxious and needed to quiet my brain. Some people use adult coloring books to de-stress; apparently I draw dead people.
Clara
Posted by melydia on February 20, 2016
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Still on my retro photo kick, I decided to see if I could find any good pictures of women. Clara Barton was the only one I could think of with a clear headshot. I’ll be frank: I don’t like this one. I think it turned out weird. Her eyes really weren’t the same height, but somehow I managed to switch which one was higher.
But you know what? All drawing is drawing practice. The more you do it, the better you get. And no matter how good you get, sometimes you make stuff you’re not happy with. It’s all part of the process.
Matisse
Posted by melydia on February 18, 2016
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After drawing Thoreau on a random Thursday, my friend Six said that last she heard, Sundays were Matisse and Tuesdays were Orville Wright. Following up on her joke, I said that I’d thought Mondays were Matisse, so I was a day late with this one.
Finding a reference photo for this taught me that I know exactly nothing about Henri Matisse. I was surprised to find any photographs of him at all, having assumed he lived a good hundred years before he did. Turns out a bunch of famous painters had their photos taken. I guess that means I have more folks to draw.
If it’s Thursday, it must be Thoreau
Posted by melydia on February 17, 2016
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Inspired by my sketch of David Bowie, I decided to practice drawing more faces in ink. It’s difficult to find modern professional photographs that haven’t been touched up, so I did a search for Daguerrotypes. And up popped everyone’s favorite civil disobedient, Henry David Thoreau.
He was fun to draw. Lots of wrinkles and ridiculous hair. And he was, quite possibly, the original neckbeard. It’s the complete opposite of today’s styles: a clean-shaven face with a big bushy beard on the neck. Ugh. Glad that went out of style.