Feeling more positive this evening about finishing my March drawing in time. I finished off the line art and started block colouring and it’s amazing the leap forward that makes. There’s still a long way to go but it looks more like it is coming together I guess.

I’m going to try doing the hair a bit differently than I have been. The way I have been doing it last few drawings is light years better than my embarrassing first attempts (seriously I’m mortified that I put those on the internet) but it’s still not part of a consistent style. I need to go for realism or comic – not in between.

I’ve also done some more research into lighting. I struggle with getting my shading because there’s the contours of the face right, and so I mark those out but the shadows/highlights obviously change dependant on the light source. Then there’s the battle of likeness as obviously I want the people in the drawing to look like they are supposed to. I think the key to that is mostly proportion. I have done some practicing with pencil lately but thats a different style again. It’s hard.

Still I guess by noticing and thinking about it maybe that means I’m learning? On my goals for the year I put “choose an art style” and this is working towards that. I have 9 more months so minimum of 9 more drawings this year to confirm that. I signed up for a video class on pencil art and I need to find the time to work on that. Techniques are obviously different depending on medium but core principles apply across method. Hopefully anyway!