I hope everyone had a merry Christmas (if you celebrate it). The new year is approaching and it's time to start thinking about our resolutions. How about you? Do you make resolutions or are you one of the ones who makes resolutions not to make any more resolutions? Me, I think resolutions are good, like goals are good. And I'm going to put a lot of thought into mine this year. I have a week left to get a good list going, which I'll post on the first.You may have noticed that I've not been around much lately. I've been very busy and haven't had time to surf through the blogosphere. When I have surfed, I haven't really had much time to comment. Some of it is because of the expected hustle and bustle of the Christmas season, but mostly, I've been submersing myself in the drawing tutorials online (linked at right). I really think it's a great program for the money (very cheap) and highly recommend it. It focuses mostly on figure drawing, a class I've always wanted to take and can never seem to find in my area.
This giraffe was sketched from a morguefile photo. I was getting a little frustrated with my figure drawings and wanted something easy. It is done in black prismacolor. 
These are sketches copied from Bridgman's Complete Guide to Drawing from Life. It's a book that Matt (from the tutorials) suggested. I'm not sure I really like the book, but have to admit it is helping me see the human figure more in terms of volume. So, I guess I would still recommend it. What I don't like about the book is how little it does in the way of explaining. It's more about showing, but I don't always understand. This last sketchbook page has a couple of quick gesture studies, in continuous line and a sketch from one of the online poses available on Matt's site. I was having trouble with her legs, so I brought out her musculature a bit more than she had in order to help me understand the volume. I'm guessing that it took about fifteen minutes, but you know how time goes when you are sketching; so, I couldn't swear to that!
I really struggled with writing this post. I suppose that it's obvious, with the awkwardness of the phrases and the dullness of the content. I think it's time to pick up a good book to read. That always helps. Although, if I read a good Steinbeck novel and then write, wow! That is funny! I once wrote a letter after reading Of Mice and Men. When I read my copy of it (the letter) now, I laugh. I am so easily influenced! I would be one of those people who come back from Britain, and suddenly have a British accent. Oh whoa, I went off on a tangent there. Sorry.
