Artist Progress 2016 - Faces

I looked over my older blog posts recently, and realised that not that much was really documented. It was interesting to see what was there. Each post was like a moment in time that I was taken back to. I didn't write a lot about my personal life or anything like that, but memories were still there, attached to the art and the words. It made me realise that I'd really life to blog more often, to keep more of these little parcels of time to look back on.

One thing I'd really like to start doing is practicing more, and having a set point to look back on, which I can say "this is what I could do then" and "this is what I can do now." I've decided that I'd like to create a few different artworks in about January and February each year, then try to recreate similar things at the same time next year, to see what progress I've made. I don't really have a set point to compare to from last year, but I have to start somewhere.

"January 2016 Traced Portrait", Digital, January 2016

I've been wanting to draw some more portraits, so this is hopefully the first of many. For full disclosure, this one has been traced over the top of a photograph, not drawn freehand. I know some people have a problem with that, but I find that tracing over an image helps you to look at lines in a different way than if you just look at the image as a whole, so I think it still has merit as a learning tool.

"January 2016 Freehand Portrait", Digital, January 2016

This one was drawn freehand while looking at a reference photograph. I added the flowers in her hair because I was getting bored by that point. That's also the reason I didn't shade this one, but I imagine the shading would have been pretty similar in style to the traced portrait.

This one is also available on my Youtube channel, Renee Dillon Art, if you'd like to watch me draw it and ramble a bit about nothing. Hopefully now that I've learned to record and add my voice to videos I'll have more important things to say in future,