I’ve been going a million miles per hour for the past few months — getting the business up and running, planning, strategizing, writing, emailing, selling products and holding phone conferences like crazy. With so much going on, I almost forgot the most important part of being an illustrator: ILLUSTRATING!
Sure, I’ve been working on client projects and commissions (all of which I’m super excited about), but I haven’t taken much time to do what’s most important — practice. I always say if you’re not learning, developing or practicing your craft, then you’re not growing. And it was high time I took my own advice. So over the weekend I stayed up late, with nothing but my pencils and my sketchbook.
I decided to practice sketching faces. So much of my work right now is based on the head-to-toe figure, and I haven’t really had the opportunity to really refine my face. A little practice was way overdue.
I wanted to nail two things: defining the face with shading, and practicing the face in profile. I went back to basics, referencing my stacks of illustration books to review proportion, spacing and light and shadow. Those sketchy horizontal and vertical lines you see in some of the faces are the traditional guidelines for drawing facial features.
I also tried a change in medium. Almost all of my work is in marker (and I LOVE my markers), but I wondered what happened if I depended solely on colored pencils for a few drawings. Plus, I’m always looking for different ways to render brown skin so that it’s dimensional and radiant, not ashy and flat. I actually really enjoyed the result — it’s softer, a bit more delicate than my usual style, but still vibrant. It feels much more suited for beauty or hair illustration. (And I couldn’t resist putting a few violet and indigo highlights in the hair.)
Even when you’ve been doing something for a while, it’s always good to take yourself back to school and re-learn the basics. Cuddling up with my books and pencils reminded me of when I was kid, when would stay up waaaaaaay past my bedtime reading art books and sketching along with the lessons inside.
And if nothing else, it’s a fantastic way to escape the hubbub of the daily grind — taking a moment to relax, grab a cup of tea, and just draw for drawing’s sake.