children at play (pencil drawing)

For last few weeks I am practising rapid sketching where I try to draw sketches in 60/90/120 seconds. This hopefully will help me sketch people on the move, especially children who hardly sit still. These two sketches have benefitted from this practice.

Back to old habits

I used to make portraits from celebrity photographs. With lot of patience and some skill, I was able to copy number of photographs in pencil drawing. But I never seriously practised any drawing techniques. I did not take any training either. So for many years this was the only thing I could do in the art world. Each portrait used to take around 6 to 8 hours (some up to 20 hours) and I had to use as much eraser as pencils. I used to work sq. inch to sq. inch and complete the picture. Since I have now been practising for last 3 months, I thought let me see whether I can do the copy stuff any faster. And this picture was born in around 25 minutes. Though it is not a perfect copy, I feel I was able to catch the essence of the photograph (the meditative concentration) quite ok. What do you think?

Portrait by accident (Pencil drawing)

Originally I was just planning a quick sketch. After drawing the contours of the face and hand I realized that the sketch was too big for the small (and cheap) pad I was using. So I decided to draw the face also. I was not expecting much from this (and especially given half my attention was on TV). But to my own surprise, not only the features but also the expression on face turned out to be quite accurate. This is what I call luck! I hope with more and more practice, the odds improve further.

Reading Face (Pencil Drawing)

Face of a woman reading seriously!

Another sketch (Pencil Drawing)

And this one is little better I think!