A Life in Lines: Exploring My Drawing Styles and Sketches
Sketching, drawing, and doodling have basically been my shadow since I was a kid. I was that student doodling in the margins of every notebook during class. Miraculously, I never got in trouble for it! I even remember being allowed to draw all over a wall in our apartment during a remodel. It felt like total freedom.
These days, I try to keep that energy alive. I make it a priority to hit up life drawing sessions every week. There is something so raw and exciting about capturing rough gestures from a live model in just a few minutes. But I also love cozying up at home to work on more detailed pieces. Whether I am sketching portraits, inventing fantasy characters, or jumping into the latest online art challenges, my sketchbook is rarely closed.
This section of the blog is a giant umbrella for all those scribbles and masterpieces. It is where I share my drawing styles, from the messy 30-second gestures to the polished character designs. I hope you enjoy browsing through my visual diary as much as I enjoyed creating it!
Drawings
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Male figure, gesture drawing
Back to the gesture drawings, I really like when drawing sessions start with a series of quick 1-minute standing poses. It’ a great warm-up exercise, helps one get into the drawing mood for the rest of the session.
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Sitting figure, charcoal drawing
Spent about 20 minutes on this drawing. I think if I added a few highlights, this figure would really pop. Seeing and analyzing my work like this is actually really helpful. When I’m drawing, I’m not noticing the mistakes because I stare at the drawing for so long and just get used to it. However,
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Reclining figure, charcoal drawing
Here, I concentrated way too much on the things surrounding the model, and had not enough time to work on the actual figure. However, I do like those pillows xD
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20-minute poses, charcoal drawing
Come on, get up so that you can get drawn better! xD Seated poses are still much harder to do ^^; I think these are 20-minute poses. Charcoal on construction paper. Model: @taylour_bogdan
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Single figure, charcoal and pastel drawing
I think I did better here with highlights, but maybe it’s best to stay in two-toned palette right now. I think highlights are a good tool to distract the viewer from negative parts of the drawing 🤨
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Two full figures, charcoal and pastel drawing
Using here willow charcoal, conte crayons, and white Rembrandt pastels on construction paper. I wanted to keep white only for highlights, but kind of went overboard. Need to practice my values 🙂
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Female figure, charcoal drawing
I’m trying out all kind of materials as I learn to draw. This is a rough construction paper, and it has a charming feel to it. It certainly isn’t the best paper for serious work since it doesn’t even photograph that well. For example, those wavy wrinkles are almost invisible in real life. However, it’s
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Two 10-min poses, charcoal drawing
These are 10-minute charcoal sketches. I think if I had more time, I’d soften those outlines a bit.
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Two short poses, charcoal drawing
Okay, now you know what half-n-half looks like 😂 I think these are 7-minute sketches 🙂
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Two-figure sketch, charcoal drawing
– I’m leaving and I’m taking all of the charcoal with me! – What?! Butt, you have to stay! 🤣 I swear, I don’t plan these scenes, they just happen xD
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Dark figure, charcoal drawing
I’ve noticed that on many occasions, I make my drawings too dark from the start. Not sure how to go about correcting this, I guess I need to press lighter on the charcoal stick? ^^; Or maybe I should try some value studies. Any tips?
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Runaway, charcoal drawing
Step through the mirror into the whole new world, where you can build anew.