Asian Girl in Oil Pastel

Completed: June 11, 2014
Time Spent: ?
Materials: Oil pastels, chalk pastels, street chalk
Paper: Sandpaper, 18in x 22in

Girl on Sandpaper

An author of a book on painting with pastels listed fine sandpaper as one of the types of paper she's used in the past, and I thought that was pretty cool. The use of an unconventional material intrigued me, so I wanted to give it a try. I chose to use oil pastels, because I didn't have a workspace that's suitable for working with dry pastels. Working with dry pastels produces a lot of dust.

I found out pretty quickly that it wasn't easy to add little details with the wide tip, cylindrical oil pastels, especially on sandpaper! It's a good lesson on how your materials dictate how much detail you can put on your painting. If I only painted one element, like the girl or the flower or the butterfly, I may have been able to create a more detailed rendition of each. Live and learn.

Completed: 11 December 2012
Time Spent: 3 hours
Materials: Crayola oil pastels
Paper: Fine sandpaper, 9in x 11in

Major Kusanagi Doodle

Completed: 18 November 2012
Time Spent: 2 hours
Materials: Artist's Loft and Crayola color pencils
Paper: Strathmore recycled sketch paper, 9in x 12in

Hellsing: Alucard

Who doesn't want to draw Alucard? Who doesn't?!

I needed to practice shading to render light and shadow in my drawings, and I thought this was a perfect drawing to practice with. I also liked the challenge of drawing the gun. Drawing the straight lines was going to be easy with a ruler, but I knew getting the angle right was a different story. I had to redo them a few times, which also required a lot of erasing and re-shading.

I struggled quite a bit with the top left corner section of the drawing. Making dark marks on white paper was so much easier that the other way around. Perhaps would have done better with a larger drawing, but then again, I just didn't know what I was doing. (The saliva dripping on the creature's mouth in my version makes that quite obvious!)

There are no techniques in my drawings in the sense that I just draw with my intuition. I'm a trial and error kind of learner. (That's formally known as a tactile-kinesthetic learner, isn't it?) I've read books and articles online, so I'm familiar with drawing terminologies mentally, but they're not sinking in. They will eventually but not until I get to a point where I'm able to "see". At this time, I'm just exploring and indulging my eagerness to create finished drawings. I'm just playing, in other words. That should let you know why I'm not being articulate—that is, not using drawing terminologies—to write about my process.

Completed: 8 November 2012  6:26P
Time Spent: 10 hours
Materials: Different pencil grades, vine charcoal, tortillons, regular eraser, kneaded eraser, Faber-Castell pencil eraser, Pentel Ain Clic Knock Triangular Eraser, red marker, ruler
Paper: Canson Bristol, 11in x 14in

Pretty Korean Smile

This was a huge challenge for me. I'd be lying if I told you I had a lot of fun with it, especially because I never attempted to draw a human face before. However, I loved the original work so much, I just couldn't resist trying my hand at copying it. I'm glad I didn't give up on it.  It's one of my favorite pieces now.

Completed: 7 July 2012
Time Spent: 20+ hours
Paper: Strathmore 300 Series Drawing Paper, 18in x 24in
Materials: Different pencil grades, tortillons, regular eraser, kneaded eraser,

Harajuku Girl

This is a tag from a cute Harajuku purse that my sister gave me. The characters looked like fun to draw, so I did and this is my mix 'n' match version. It took me forever to shade the hair. I remember wishing I made a smaller drawing. Talk about big hair!

Completed: 12 November 2011
Time Spent: 6+ hours
Paper: Strathmore recycled sketch paper, 9in x 12in
Materials: Pencils, regular eraser

First Self-Portrait

This is my first attempt at drawing my self-portrait. I know. I know. It's pretty scary. If I remember correctly, it's the first exercise in Betty Edwards's very popular book, Drawing from the Right Side of the Brain. The exercise is meant as a record of our current skills and to be used as a measure of our progress over time.

I have a mixed feeling about this drawing. It doesn't excite me, because I could've done better; but I'm also kinda proud of it, because I know I have improved much since I drew it. However, I'm steering clear from portraits for now. Yikes.

Lesson learned: Don't doubt yourself. I started this drawing already fully convinced that I would fail. Not good.

Completed: 5 Nov 2011
Time Spent: 20 minutes
Paper: Strathmore recycled sketch paper, 9in x 12in
Materials: 2H Pencil, pink eraser

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