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The month's coming to a close, so it looks like it's time for another massive camera unloading!
This guy's children apparently decided to bring him to the Zoo and made him come over and sit for me. I think he might have been a bit senile, but he did give me a big thumbs up when I showed him the drawing (without changing his expression a single time).
Guys like this are always the best customers. Adolescent boys always think drawings of themselves are the most awesome thing, and you're usually free to let loose a little bit an exaggerate more than you might with, say, the average teenage girl.
Wouldn't take off his hat or glasses. I kind of felt like I was drawing the invisible man or something.
I like this one. Not a bad likeness. The mountain dew cap helps a lot.
I tried something a little different for the composition here and I think it worked really well. This is going to be one of my go-tos for double portraits from now on.
Not a bad likeness, but I can't help but be dissatisfied--there's a lot to work with there.
A demo of one of my coworkers that I worked on between customers. I'm going to miss Anna. Not a great likeness... unfortunately this is probably the best drawing I did of her all summer. Hopefully I'll have another stab at it in the future.
I like the one of her the most.
Mom looked like she was about to cry from gushing so much over how cute it was, though she did ask if I could lighten the shadow on the bottom of the girl's face ("it looks like a 5 o' clock shadow!").
Feel pretty good about this one. His wife had a good laugh.
He wanted to be Tarzan, a request I've never done before. I like his face but I'm really, really disappointed with how I handled the body here. I've got to work on my bodies generally.
We frequently do demos of passers-by to demonstrate social proof and show what we do to potential customers. Since our subjects usually aren't paying us for these, I usually take it as an opportunity to exaggerate and be a little bit more playful than I normally feel comfortable doing. I kind of thought this kid's mom was going to tell me to go take a flying leap, but the whole family liked it enough that they decided to get their other kid's drawing done too.
I'm not as scared of doing trios / quartets as much as I once was, though it's still not my preference. Things tend to get a little crowded and they never come out quite how I want them to.
Wish I'd got his teeth and a cute little overbite in this one. Another body that I'm less than thrilled by. I keep trying to strike a balance between working quickly and doing a reasonably-good looking drawing. Loosening up has always been a problem for me; in school, I envied my peers who could draw quickly and retain a gestural energy to their work while still keeping a good design and structure. It doesn't come naturally to me, and I always have to make a very conscious effort toward that end.
Not a bad one. This boy was absolutely impossible. Even in the photo, he refused to look at me!
Someone pointed out to me recently that a lot of my eyes tend to look pretty similar. I do have a habit of drawing people with bulbous, shiny eyes even if that's not necessarily appropriate to the drawing. It's a habit I plan to break.
A weird (but fun!) special request. I'm kicking myself a little now for not asking them to explain any of it.
This grandpa was a real hoot. The kid's mother works for Comerica Park--after I took the picture, they all told me there was no way I was going to get away with not drawing the Detroit logo on his shirt! I obliged them, of course.
Another body I wish I'd done differently. Should be bigger, pose should be more gestural. I need to think more in the context of the entire page.
The top girl came out really nicely. We also do face painting at our stand; fortunately, they all waited until after I'd drawn them.
I'm always relieved when large groups want their drawings done individually rather than as a group. Number two from the left was a total joker. God bless mothers who let their kids make faces like that for caricatures.
They wanted to be wrestlers because they're "always fighting." Bodies could have been a lot better (again).
Harry Potter request. "Why am I smiling if my broom's on fire?" "Maybe you haven't noticed yet?"
He requested the goatee and skull shirt. This kid is going places!
Not thrilled with the sister, but I like how the boys came out here.
Not a bad drawing, though not a great likeness.
A rare drawing that I like almost everything about. If they could all be at this level, I'd be at a great starting point.
Should have handled the eyes differently, in retrospect. Got to keep reminding myself to pay attention to exactly what's up there and not get lazy.
Working on trying to speed up--I need to find a stopwatch so I can start averaging how long it's taking me to do these. I'm about even Colin and Anna, but Bil is beating me with minutes to spare every time.
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