Chris Beaven

I’m at the point in the drawing where I’m refining and darkening everything. Basically just building up the charcoal in layers.

Wow it is hot here! Unfortunately the heat saps my energy and focus, making it hard to stay the course.

I don’t have much to say about the drawing so far so I will let the images just show progress on the session.

Not much to say about today’s session, more of the same just moving forward slowly.

Not only is my progress on this so subtle that you can barely see it from day to day but I didn’t have the time to spend 2 full hour on it.

I finished up the contour of the figure then I got messy with filling in all of the paper with charcoal. I guess I could have just started with gray paper…

I’ve been doing some experimenting on this drawing rather than sticking with my normal process. I’m not sure if that is a good thing.

I’m starting another new drawing and I’m not sure if I will ever get back to the two paintings I started.

Now that I have this drawing finished I’ve realized that keep forgetting lessons that I have learned in the past. I keep repeating mistakes.

I keep putting charcoal down and I find that it needs to be even darker still. The drawing is taking a long time but I like the look of it.

In an effort to fill in all the gaps in the shading created by the paper texture I used a brush.

As I said in my last post “shading takes forever”. I’m finding this more true the more detailed I get.

I normally just draw on newsprint but with this drawing I’m using different paper that is allowing for better shading.

I just felt like drawing today, so I put the paintings aside for a bit and got to it.

With the drawing done I’m excited to get back to doing some painting after a month and a half away from it.

I really don’t think that drawing this way is my style. Well, I at least know how I prefer to draw and this way is not it.

Just taking it slow and steady on this drawing. I’m focusing more on details and working my way down the figure.

Well, it happened. I forgot to draw today.

After three weeks of being out of it, know now how important exercise it in fueling the rest of my life.

So my focus lacking, and I’m putting out nothing but short bad drawing currently. Very boring for daily blogging, but… it’s what I do…

I’ve been inside for too long and it was a beautiful day outside, so I spent an hour drawing then spent a lot of time in the sun helping my landlord in the garden.

Nothing special about today I’m just drawing. I’m still not feeling well and just trying to stay focused.

Today I’m in recovery mode. I’m sleeping most of the day, then work a bit and draw a bit.

I’m still sick and I’m getting worse. I’m not sure why but today I wasn’t feeling well at all. Short session.

I thought I would be over my cold by now but I’m not. So, again I shortened my drawing time and decided to go with my comfortable style of drawing.

I’m drawing this figure today trying to use the method from the Russian academy book. But, I’m not doing well, I feel like I need more information.

I’m tired, not feeling well and work is taking up all my time so for today I’m just drawing.

Today it is all about simple shapes. I’m drawing this figure and thinking about cylinders mostly.

I’m back to the figure now. I’ve recognized my temporary setback with travel and sickness, so I’m ok with the slow progress for now.

I’m writing this post 11 days late. I’ve had a very long and busy couple of weeks.

After driving all day long over land and sea I’m home late doing the bare minimum of drawing.

Just a quick drawing before we take a trip to Canada for the weekend. I’m working on the same portrait.

I have a lot of art books but I never read them from cover to cover. I don’t want to do this with the Fundamentals of Drawing course, so I’m going to use it.

As I constantly strive to improve my drawing I find myself going back to basics, it’s not exactly like starting over, but some days it feels like it.

Lots of distractions today during my art time, but that was still less frustrating than trying to sculpt a pelvis.

I was supposed to only do an hour of drawing then move on to the Ecorche, but I found myself getting lost in drawing.

As I was drawing I just began to let my mind and hand wonder a bit. I was being informed by the model but I wanted to try and capture more than just the visual.

Life drawing didn’t go as well today as it did last week. I couldn’t get a rhythm going with my drawings for some reason.

When I’m drawing like I currently do I have to be very comfortable with unfinished sketches.