Rose
Shortly after I started drawing and painting again, I became eligible for a month-long sabbatical from work. I spent that time practicing at a furious pace. It was before I made this website, but eagle-eyed viewers may have noticed a high number of signatures dating from July/August 2021. This year, I am again taking a sabbatical, and again spending it drawing.
My goal this time around is more focused. I am continuing to practice gesture drawing as a foundation to building up the skill necessary to draw figures from imagination. I have been making page after page of relatively quick gestures from a variety of sources. I’ll be making posts from those, but this drawing is born of a desire to make something more final looking that exercises some of those same skills.
This is a drawing of Aftyn Rose, referenced from what I presume was an Instagram post. I wasn’t able to find a link to it, though, so perhaps it was from an older account.
I started this like I have been doing the gestures. A quick, loose and flowing drawing to get the feel for the pose, which I then refined in successive passes adding details and shadows. I found some places to edit for accuracy as I went, but not very many, truth be told. I think my original gesture was pretty accurate. I wish I had kept it to show. I’ll remember that for next time.
Overnight I had the impulse to add a little color layer, like using watercolors to give some red to her cheeks, but I changed my mind. I think it looks good as is. I hope you like it, too!
Medium: Digital
App: Artstudio Pro
Tools: Pencil