tannis   Comment Posted Mar.22nd, 2010, viewed 9 times

Hi Cindy, Thanks, you are so intuitive! You always amaze me that you can "see through" our postings! I know that you always have my best interests at heart!
You've asked lots of questions and I'll try to answer them as honestly as I can.
How long? not long enough apparently:) LOL I didn't spend alot of time on this I don't know, I did it over a couple of days and was probably more tuned in trying to get the outline drawing correct and I didn't spend a lot of time on the shading as you noticed. I think all total maybe 5 hours and perhaps 2 of that shading, and I could be way off when I say that..

Was I distracted, yes. This past month-ish has been draining for alot of reasons, but I won't use that as an excuse other than to say, yes I was distracted!
Am I not in the right place for drawing right now? What is my attitude? I think I've voiced this a couple of times... I have lost confidence in using my pencils to shade. Not earth shaking never get back lack of confidence, just that I feel like I have forgotten how and that I need to revisit the earlier units. I don't feel like I am terribly stressed over it, I know what I need to do to fix it, just haven't done it... I wanted to do the final week of the nude tutorial because I want to go to a live figure drawing class and I don't think that shading will come into it as the poses don't last very long! I probably should have practiced the shading a bit before I attempted to shade this, because honestly it felt really awkward at first and that it wasn't working, it felt a wee bit better as I went on but not great, and I think I mixed a few charcoal techniques in there!

Hair, I think at one point it looked better, then I got a wee bit free spirited...hands and feet... yikes, you should have seen them earlier in the process! Terrible! I have never drawn hands and feet and find them a bit intimidating, so I'll have to practice that. I just carved and carved until they sort of resembled what they were suppose to be!
As for slowing down, I am actually pretty slow, I think, but really fine details escape me, I have a hard time seeing them and the lines that I am trying to draw, due to an eye problem with my corneas.(Someday I will need cornea transplants) that is why I probably get a bit creative with the things that I can't actually see! Hence from a distance the hands and feet being maybe okay.

I very well may try the expressive nude in charcoal,no guarantees though as I am getting ready for a 2 week trip to Peru, we are going to hike the Inca Trail to Macchu Pichu. I do want to get better at this because a co-worker has graced me with photos of her, she is around 8 months pregnant! She is so incredibly beautiful and I want to be able to draw her really well!