Daily Sketchbook Tips: Painting Stylized Faces

Yesterday in the comments I was asked for tips on  how I draw faces.
One of my favorite things to do is paint faces of all kinds. I go from
more realistic to completely flat and decorative like these.
I use this technique  as a fallback when I have no idea what to paint one day, and
then I end up having a fantastic time!
Here is a simple lesson on how to try this yourself.
I would start with faces looking straight forward as going to the side or a profile
is more difficult.

Faces are all shapes, play around with them.
Look at pictures in magazines of people to get a bit of reference.

Play around with hairstyles. They don't need to be realistic, be imaginative
dots for curls and stripes for longer locks.

And then the details. Big eyes, thick eyebrows, a dot for a mouth or some big glasses.
Remember that toy where you could turn the cubes and the character
kept changing? Its like that, the shape of each part, lips, eyes, nose will totally
change the expression of the face. Mainly just have fun and do it a lot, you'll get it.

Daily Sketchbook Tips: Reference part 1

It's important to really know what an object looks like before you draw it

even if you plan to stylize or abstract it. 

When I have a bunch of flowers I've picked I love to paint them live. Or I photograph

them and paint from the photo. I try to get a photo of everything that catches my eye
for later use.

I look carefully at the light, the colors and the shape. The way the petals grow from the stem
and the way the leaves fall and then I infuse my own style while keeping the essence of the object.

I'm going to talk about reference for a few weeks. Different ways to find and use inspiration.

Please visit my daily sketchbook archive on my website here!

Sketchbook Tips, How to Choose What to Paint

This week I was asked how do I come up with subject matter everyday?
It is by far the most difficult part of the project bar none.
In 2013 I did a month of only food.

It was great and got me interested in a daily painting habit. This would be a good
way to structure yourself. Choose a theme every month and stick to it, you could even
map out the month before hand so when you are ready to go you aren't struggling with that.
Personally I enjoy the randomness of it. I like to do what feels important to me each day.

For instance, this was last summer. The nasturtiums are from the farmers market and since we
were on vacation I was inspired by people on the beach. This way the sketchbook becomes a visual
diary. I can look at these paintings and remember my days on Cape Cod.

Here it was Frida Kahlo's Birthday and it felt right to paint her that day.

This spread was a cold rainy spring weekend in April. Some of them turn out to be messes.
I don't always like what I create but it's a notation of a day in my life. It just doesn't matter
if they all aren't perfect, I learn something about painting, color, design every day, even if it
turns out to be something I don't ever want to do again. Failures are learning opportunities.

A good  solution if you are feeling tired or busy is to just not deal with color.
I often just paint the paper black and draw some flowers  or some words stating my frustration.
It's meditative and helps me move on.

It's great to have a staple list of things you know you love to paint or draw. Like
flowers, people, self portraits, animals, lettering, anything. You can always fall back
on that list. But there still will be days when you just sit  there completely flummoxed..
Just put some lines down. Pick 2 colors and just go, the next day might work out better.
And have fun!!

Tips on Daily Painting 2

The most important thing in a daily painting practice is to go into each day without 

planning to paint a masterpiece. 

In fact the less pressure you put upon yourself to be perfect the more fun and 

more creative you can be. My first year of painting I used a sketchbook with very 

cheap paper. It took away the preciousness of the whole thing. Its become a 

habit now so I have upgraded my sketchbooks, 

but I actually enjoy painting on computer paper or construction paper. 

Liberating!

My  painting above was a big, tangled mess of stems and leaves that had no focus. 

I still had time in my 30 minutes so I painted over that part in black and used 

my gold gelpen to editorialize my feelings. It felt good, almost like a big deep breath.