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Ria Sharon

pondering creativity, process, and making art

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Portrait studies and sketches

November 6, 2020 by riasharon

color study

color study

composition study

composition study

color studies in sketchbook

color studies in gouache

pencil drawing in sketchbook

sketchbook

large sketch

large sketch

Harold drawing

finished sketch

Layer 1 of portrait painting

Layer 2 of portrait painting

layer 3

Filed Under: Documentation

Artprof draw along: eyes

November 2, 2020 by riasharon

eye study in photoshop

I spent the evening drawing a dog portrait so since I already had my tablet out, hopped on Artprof’s livestream for this Draw Along.

dog portrait

Teddy

I spent last weekend doing watercolor and gouache portraits but funnily enough, I could tell that what influenced me the most on the eye study was working on Teddy. I used a watercolor brush for the dog and the Michael Adamidis oil brushes for the eye study but I can tell that drawing and painting a little bit every day has really increased my comfort level and my facility with the forms and structures, regardless of medium.

 

Filed Under: DIY art school

Portrait studies, batch #2

October 27, 2020 by riasharon

Jessica Hagedorn portrait study

Maria Ressa portrait study

Filed Under: art journal, DIY art school, gouache

Test color palettes

October 24, 2020 by riasharon

tropical palettes

Warm, “tropical”

more palettes

To test with portraits

Filed Under: color theory, DIY art school

Portrait studies

October 24, 2020 by riasharon

How loose do I want to do portraits? I did a series of “sketches” yesterday to play around with that but also decided to explore several color palettes and mediums (oil pastels versus pen versus straight up gouache).

greta gerwig sketch

I really like this palette but not sure I liked the oil pastel lines. I like the color. Maybe if my sheet is bigger so the lines are not so big relative to the composition.

semi geesture portrait

I love the colors (the balance of yellows and blues) but the linework feels contrived.

leni robredo sketch

I didn’t like my color selection — it’s too real, too hot… but I really like the structure of the face.

I liked the drawing when I did it and i LOVE this palette but I don’t like the inked lines.

ria sketch

I liked the size of this one — I feel like I had enough room to be more relaxed about the strokes. And the color palette is great too. I took what I learned from the previous ones and applied it to this one.

 

Filed Under: art journal, color theory, DIY art school, gouache

Color palette study

October 21, 2020 by riasharon

It’s not just Wes Anderson that uses color intentionally. 🙂 I’ve started paying much more attention to color palettes and what the filmmaker is doing. This choosing colors tutorial is helpful—the 60/30/10 rule. Just remembering to limit my palette to just a few colors will be a game changer.

little women screenshot

little women screenshot

little women screenshot

little women screenshot

Filed Under: color theory, DIY art school

Watercolor study: another portrait

October 20, 2020 by riasharon

I’m on a roll. This time I’m following this tutorial. I picked it because I want to learn how to incorporated a background into the composition. This one appealed to me in how the artist represented depth of field. Also, I still want to loosen up my rendering style. The last one I did, I felt was too loose.

I don’t like this approach in that we’re starting and finishing areas of the portrait all at once before doing the next area. It’s hard for me not to build up the whole thing to see where I need to make adjustments as I go. Even though it looks okay, the process is very uncomfortable for me.

watercolor portrait wip

Oct. 22

watercolor portait wip

Oct. 21

watercolor portrait study

Oct. 20

Filed Under: DIY art school, watercolor

Watercolor study: wrinkles

October 20, 2020 by riasharon

I followed this tutorial, although how to paint wrinkles aren’t what I got from it. I was looking for a way to loosen up my portrait rendering. I did this all in one day and forgot to take wip shot so here it is…

watercolor portrait

What I learned:

I like that it was looser but I don’t like that it’s “sketchier” — I want it to feel more substantial. It was a good exercise in that I’m much more comfortable doing portraits, not because it’s good as much as I know that if I mess up, I can just make another one. Maybe after 10 more of these, they will lose their preciousness.

Filed Under: DIY art school, watercolor

Watercolor study: giraffe

October 20, 2020 by riasharon

giraffe complete

Oct. 20: done!

giraffe watercolor

Oct 17

giraffe head

oct 10: giraffe head

initial wash of giraffe watercolor

sept 30: initial wash

giraffe drawing

sept. 28: ink drawing

giraffe reference photo

Louise de Masi’s reference photo

Starting another Louise de Masi class this week. Stepping it up one notch and used the reference photo to freehand sketch instead of tracing her line art. Not that it matters that much but there’s def some translation that happens there. I inked my sketch and now ready to trace this to my watercolor paper.

paper: Fluid 100% cotton, 140 lb.

giraffe ink drawing file PDF)

Filed Under: DIY art school, watercolor

My Pandemic Journal

October 17, 2020 by riasharon

pandemic journal - oct 7

 

page from my art journal

page from my art journal

 

Filed Under: art journal, DIY art school, gouache

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A little about me

I have an undergraduate degree in art. By day, I work in higher ed and in my free time I'm currently putting myself through DIY grad school.

I teach classes on creativity and inspiration on Skillshare. I occasionally share my original paintings on Etsy and fine art prints on Minted. I've also been known to make puppy portraits.

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