When my husband and I went to Disney World in 2015, I snapped a picture of him wearing a ridiculous hat from The Haunted Mansion. This past Inktober I sketched the photo. He’s not quite that fat in person, but all in all it’s not a bad likeness.
Tag Archives: portrait
Mom
Posted by melydia on July 15, 2016
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This is my mother. After seeing how quickly I was able to draw my dead artists and my selfies, she requested that I draw her. Rather than make her stand around for an hour while I figured out her face, I snapped a quick cell phone photo and sat down later to draw.
Most of the reason I like to draw dead artists is because they don’t complain if I make them look wonky. So I was extra careful on this picture, telling myself that if I screwed it up, I didn’t have to show her. But it turned out okay, if I do say so myself. It helps to have such a beautiful model.
Grandma Moses
Posted by melydia on June 29, 2016
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Marie Bracquemond
Posted by melydia on June 24, 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.
Uncle Bob
Posted by melydia on February 19, 2016
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This is my grandmother’s brother Bob. I never met him (he died more than 25 years before I was born), but I had a decent photo of him in my genealogy files. I think this drawing looks more like my friend Jose than Uncle Bob, which is a little trippy since I’m fairly certain Jose has no Iowan in him and Bob definitely has no Puerto Rican blood.
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.
Draw Tommy Kane
Posted by melydia on September 30, 2015
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Tommy Kane, one of the teachers of Sketchbook Skool, is someone whose work I find profoundly inspiring. He has an ongoing project called Draw Tommy Kane, where a bunch of folks draw the same photo of Mr. Kane. It’s neat to see all the different styles, and I like my own contribution enough to feel proud to be among the ranks.