Sketchbook dump
Hi! So, I went to Italy in September for my (two years belated) honeymoon, and I swore to myself I would make a real effort to draw and do some watercolors. I didn't do as much as I would have liked, perhaps, because there was SO MUCH to do and see there, and of course there was the whole "spend time with my husband instead of ignoring him to draw".
Some of this stuff is from before the trip -- like the fangirl weekend, when Ven and I went to the Rodin museum and drew statues. (That was, by the way, good practice for going to Italy!)
Misc Sketches
Title: Test sketch of Hooch
Artist:
twilightsorcery
Characters: Hooch
Rating: G
Artist's notes: This is super old -- it's one of a couple of warmup sketches I did for last year's Kinky Kristmas. I don't draw Hooch very often, so I needed to work out how I envisioned her before I started on the main piece. This is version one, which I referenced off a still from the first movie, changing the bits I felt strongly were wrong for my version (like her hair). I still found her looking a bit too soft, but it was a decent start. Fortunately I had no need to do anything with this, so I didn't bother to fix the facial skewing. :-P
Title: Test sketches of Tonks, Hooch, and McGonagall
Artist:
twilightsorcery
Characters: Tonks, Hooch, and McGonagall
Rating: G
Artist's notes: These are the rest of the warmup sketches for last year's KK. McG is loosely based on a still from, I think, some other movie Maggie Smith was in. I probably should have kept track of that. Oh well. Note the less-soft version of Hooch up top (I eventually ended up somewhere in the middle). Tonks is there for no real reason except that I like her.
Title: Filler sketch of Snape
Artist:
twilightsorcery
Characters: Snape
Rating: PG
Artist's notes: I got a new sketchbook to take to Italy. It was too empty, so I put a little Snape on the first page. Note to self: charcoal pencil is very, very messy.
Title: Cattan
Artist:
twilightsorcery
Characters: none
Rating: G
Artist's notes: The night before we left for Italy, I was annoyed with myself for not having practiced the watercolor techniques Ven showed me last year. So I painted the only thing available... the Settlers of Cattan box top. (Except without all the people, because that is so far beyond my skill level it's not even funny.)
Sketches from Fangirl Weekend
Title: Regency Guy
Artist:
twilightsorcery
Characters: Some guy from a painting in the B&B we stayed in for Fangirl Weekend
Rating: G
Artist's notes: There was a wonderfully dorky-looking painting at the B&B depicting a baby-faced Regency gentleman, which got me to thinking how much Austen movies revamp the fashion and hairstyles of the time. You'd really have to do something about Mr Darcy's hair if you wanted modern audiences to fancy him. I mean, I doubt even Colin Firth could pull this off.
Title: Random sketch of Laurie
Artist:
twilightsorcery
Characters: Laurie from Watchmen
Rating: G
Artist's notes: I dunno, sometimes characters appear. I always liked Laurie's strong shoulders.
Title: Rodin hands
Artist:
twilightsorcery
Characters: I don't think Rodin himself would know...
Rating: G
Artist's notes: Note to self: bronzes are super hard to draw. Cupped hands are super hard to draw. Attempting them leads to crankiness and throwing your eraser in a museum.
Title: Rodin kiss
Artist:
twilightsorcery
Characters: Oh, you know, some folks...
Rating: PG
Artist's notes: Note to self: white marble is super fun to draw! It will make you feel better after you get too cranky to draw bronze anymore.
Sketches from Italy
I adored the Uffizi. I spent the entire day there, from opening to closing -- my husband got bored and left around 2pm, saying, "I've seen all the Madonna And Child With Two Unidentified Saints I need to." But I stayed, and I saw EVERY SINGLE piece of art they have, and it was awesome. I only had time to draw one piece, but I loved the one I picked.
Title: Fat Badass Judith
Artist:
twilightsorcery
Characters: Judith
Rating: G
Artist's notes: I generally like Judiths -- Artemisia Gentileschi's bloody murder scene is my favorite -- but this one caught my eye because this Judith is fat... you know, me-shaped. I do love a badass fat girl, and her expression is so fantastic -- like, "oh, you know, just chillin' with this severed head."
Title: Baptistry Window at Pisa
Artist:
twilightsorcery
Characters: St. Jerome, I think
Rating: G
Artist's notes: We took a day trip to Pisa, and did not have anything to do with the tower. Instead, we saw the mausoleum and the baptistry. By the time we got to the baptistry I was pretty tired, so I drew this window while my husband climbed up to the top level on his own.
Title: View from a balcony in Rome
Artist:
twilightsorcery
Characters: none
Rating: G
Artist's notes: This was the view from the balcony of the hotel room in Rome we had for the first two nights (the rest were at the apartment we rented in Florence). We were resolved to fight jet lag by staying awake till at least ten, so as soon as we got in and settled, my husband went out to deal with our cell phones, and I sat on the balcony and painted until it started to rain. I continue to be bad at both watercolors and perspective, alas!
Title: Fiesole bell tower
Artist:
twilightsorcery
Characters: none
Rating: G
Artist's notes: We went to Fiesole for the views of Florence. They were gorgeous, of course, but I forgot to put on sunscreen and couldn't sit in a good place to paint them. Instead, I found a bench and painted what I could see from there. Badly. I mean, geez, those colors aren't even close, and despite my best efforts, the perspective is still wonky.
Title: David
Artist:
twilightsorcery
Characters: David
Rating: G
Artist's notes: We had some trouble getting into the Galleria dell'Accademia early, and we had some confusion as to the closing time -- the Firenze Card booklet said 6:30, and the woman at the door said "9:30, so come back when the line's shorter". We came back at three; it closed at 6:30. So, alas, I only had time to draw about half of him -- and no time at all to draw his butt, as I'd promised Ven (sorry!). However, I think this is the one piece I did in Italy that I genuinely love.
I took so many pictures. SO MANY -- about 2,000. It's actually putting me into ADD avoidance mode trying to process them. But I've at least broken them out into sets of "times I accidentally reset the photo count", so at least that's something. ;)
Originally posted at dreamwidth.
Some of this stuff is from before the trip -- like the fangirl weekend, when Ven and I went to the Rodin museum and drew statues. (That was, by the way, good practice for going to Italy!)
Misc Sketches
Title: Test sketch of Hooch
Artist:
twilightsorcery
Characters: Hooch
Rating: G
Artist's notes: This is super old -- it's one of a couple of warmup sketches I did for last year's Kinky Kristmas. I don't draw Hooch very often, so I needed to work out how I envisioned her before I started on the main piece. This is version one, which I referenced off a still from the first movie, changing the bits I felt strongly were wrong for my version (like her hair). I still found her looking a bit too soft, but it was a decent start. Fortunately I had no need to do anything with this, so I didn't bother to fix the facial skewing. :-P
Title: Test sketches of Tonks, Hooch, and McGonagall
Artist:
twilightsorcery
Characters: Tonks, Hooch, and McGonagall
Rating: G
Artist's notes: These are the rest of the warmup sketches for last year's KK. McG is loosely based on a still from, I think, some other movie Maggie Smith was in. I probably should have kept track of that. Oh well. Note the less-soft version of Hooch up top (I eventually ended up somewhere in the middle). Tonks is there for no real reason except that I like her.
Title: Filler sketch of Snape
Artist:
twilightsorcery
Characters: Snape
Rating: PG
Artist's notes: I got a new sketchbook to take to Italy. It was too empty, so I put a little Snape on the first page. Note to self: charcoal pencil is very, very messy.
Title: Cattan
Artist:
twilightsorcery
Characters: none
Rating: G
Artist's notes: The night before we left for Italy, I was annoyed with myself for not having practiced the watercolor techniques Ven showed me last year. So I painted the only thing available... the Settlers of Cattan box top. (Except without all the people, because that is so far beyond my skill level it's not even funny.)
Sketches from Fangirl Weekend
Title: Regency Guy
Artist:
twilightsorcery
Characters: Some guy from a painting in the B&B we stayed in for Fangirl Weekend
Rating: G
Artist's notes: There was a wonderfully dorky-looking painting at the B&B depicting a baby-faced Regency gentleman, which got me to thinking how much Austen movies revamp the fashion and hairstyles of the time. You'd really have to do something about Mr Darcy's hair if you wanted modern audiences to fancy him. I mean, I doubt even Colin Firth could pull this off.
Title: Random sketch of Laurie
Artist:
twilightsorcery
Characters: Laurie from Watchmen
Rating: G
Artist's notes: I dunno, sometimes characters appear. I always liked Laurie's strong shoulders.
Title: Rodin hands
Artist:
twilightsorcery
Characters: I don't think Rodin himself would know...
Rating: G
Artist's notes: Note to self: bronzes are super hard to draw. Cupped hands are super hard to draw. Attempting them leads to crankiness and throwing your eraser in a museum.
Title: Rodin kiss
Artist:
twilightsorcery
Characters: Oh, you know, some folks...
Rating: PG
Artist's notes: Note to self: white marble is super fun to draw! It will make you feel better after you get too cranky to draw bronze anymore.
Sketches from Italy
I adored the Uffizi. I spent the entire day there, from opening to closing -- my husband got bored and left around 2pm, saying, "I've seen all the Madonna And Child With Two Unidentified Saints I need to." But I stayed, and I saw EVERY SINGLE piece of art they have, and it was awesome. I only had time to draw one piece, but I loved the one I picked.
Title: Fat Badass Judith
Artist:
twilightsorcery
Characters: Judith
Rating: G
Artist's notes: I generally like Judiths -- Artemisia Gentileschi's bloody murder scene is my favorite -- but this one caught my eye because this Judith is fat... you know, me-shaped. I do love a badass fat girl, and her expression is so fantastic -- like, "oh, you know, just chillin' with this severed head."
Title: Baptistry Window at Pisa
Artist:
twilightsorcery
Characters: St. Jerome, I think
Rating: G
Artist's notes: We took a day trip to Pisa, and did not have anything to do with the tower. Instead, we saw the mausoleum and the baptistry. By the time we got to the baptistry I was pretty tired, so I drew this window while my husband climbed up to the top level on his own.
Title: View from a balcony in Rome
Artist:
twilightsorcery
Characters: none
Rating: G
Artist's notes: This was the view from the balcony of the hotel room in Rome we had for the first two nights (the rest were at the apartment we rented in Florence). We were resolved to fight jet lag by staying awake till at least ten, so as soon as we got in and settled, my husband went out to deal with our cell phones, and I sat on the balcony and painted until it started to rain. I continue to be bad at both watercolors and perspective, alas!
Title: Fiesole bell tower
Artist:
twilightsorcery
Characters: none
Rating: G
Artist's notes: We went to Fiesole for the views of Florence. They were gorgeous, of course, but I forgot to put on sunscreen and couldn't sit in a good place to paint them. Instead, I found a bench and painted what I could see from there. Badly. I mean, geez, those colors aren't even close, and despite my best efforts, the perspective is still wonky.
Title: David
Artist:
twilightsorcery
Characters: David
Rating: G
Artist's notes: We had some trouble getting into the Galleria dell'Accademia early, and we had some confusion as to the closing time -- the Firenze Card booklet said 6:30, and the woman at the door said "9:30, so come back when the line's shorter". We came back at three; it closed at 6:30. So, alas, I only had time to draw about half of him -- and no time at all to draw his butt, as I'd promised Ven (sorry!). However, I think this is the one piece I did in Italy that I genuinely love.
I took so many pictures. SO MANY -- about 2,000. It's actually putting me into ADD avoidance mode trying to process them. But I've at least broken them out into sets of "times I accidentally reset the photo count", so at least that's something. ;)
Originally posted at dreamwidth.