I had to double check because it didn’t seem possible, but it looks like it’s been almost a month since my last drawing. Time really flies sometimes. Okay, not sometimes – pretty much all the time. My last post was about using models and figures to help with portraits, which in my case was some Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. As
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Following my brief foray into digital artwork, it felt like time to get back to my usual comfortable pencil-and-paper mode. At this point, I’ve got a pretty substantial computer folder full of ideas, many of which are inspired by Unsplash photos. But before tapping that reservoir, I found myself with a portrait request! Actual subject requests are somewhat rare for
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It seems like I haven’t posted much lately, which is confirmed when I look at the monthly archive counts on my sidebar. Over the last year, I think I’ve averaged 9-10 posts per month, with some peaks and valleys. But June and July have been huge valleys, with only six and then three posts! This does make sense though; summer
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This weekend, I made my first clumsy attempt at digital art. And over the last couple months, I’ve been almost exclusively drawing fictional characters from movies, athletes, and performers. That’s been a significant change from earlier in the artwork timeline on this site, when I pretty much always sketched my family. I mentioned months ago I needed to diversify my subjects,
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As I scroll through Amdall Gallery’s main page, I can’t help but notice how my drawings have changed. Not everyone may agree, but I believe there has been an improvement over time. From August 2017 until now, after about seven months of practice, these sketches seem more confident to me. Especially when it comes to color; skin tones seem more
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This is sort of a part two from my post Friday night about drawing my wife, and the challenges of art involving people you are close to. Basically, the goal I’m striving for is to get some more accurate sketches of my wife, since several I’ve done in the past didn’t quite look like her. The first attempt I
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I have drawn four total sketches of my wife. From what I can see looking at these previous drawings, I don’t think I’ve ever quite captured her accurately. Years ago, I did one of me and her together, and it wasn’t bad. I also did a rough sketch I used for my proposal, which looked like her but was no
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As I continue with these sketches, I’m trying to make sure I’ve got most of the configurations of family portraits covered. Even if some of them were newer and in color versus older black and whites. I’ve got the full family, me and my wife, our two girls together, me and each girl, me and both girls…one glaring omission is
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This may be a little surprising, but I’ve never really worked with color. Well, back when I was a kid in school I’m sure I painted something. But, in terms of art as a hobby, I haven’t branched out at all from my basic graphite pencil. Exploring other websites via the WordPress Reader has really opened my mind to it
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This Christmas, we were excited to attend an additional event beyond the usual family get-togethers. My wife’s close friend for the last two decades was getting married, and she was the Matron of Honor. Also, our oldest got to be the flower girl. My wife and her friend met in high school, and they’ve been like family since. I decided to
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This one seemed simple enough, since I’ve been doing so many family sketches. I set out to draw a scene from a Thanksgiving dinner out with my mom, sister, brother-in-law, wife, and our two little ones. Unfortunately, not all art is destined to actually work…and this one I think falls into that category of “not this time, Jon.” Here’s what
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Well, I’m sure it seems like the prevailing theme for all these drawings, but here’s another a did of me with my oldest kiddo. I actually started this one in the same session as the last one I did (her dancing, me flailing about), and I finally finished it yesterday. I think I finished the dancing sketch first because I
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Last night, after putting the kids to bed, I was smacked with an urge to try to draw my entire family. I’ve drawn my wife and I together, and I’ve drawn our girls a couple of times, but I haven’t done a sketch with all four of us as a group. Usually for something like this, I’d draw a grid
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