Diving into Portraits - steven robert wind

Alright! I’m really excited that we’re all caught up to my instagram now. Now to begin diving into portraits! Majority of this year (2020) has been a practice in me studying full-body portraits. For a long time, I was afraid and intimidated, because – well, the human body and anatomy can seem intimidating. I’m glad I spent so much time focusing on it, though, because now I feel a lot less overwhelmed when tackling it.

drawing of a scantily clad woman wearing what looks like alexander mcqueen claw shoes — alexander mcqueen knockoff

I really love these shoes/feet. I think this was just after I had spent so much time studying insects, and this was a pleasant creative combination. They remind me of the Alexander McQueen claw shoes that Lady Gaga wore in her Bad Romance video – remember?

a drawing of a woman in what looks like alexander mcqueen shoes, this time in color — alexander mcqueen knockoff in color

And now, in color! Moving forward, I think I’m going to show both black & white as well as the color images. Some of them look so, so different with the addition of color. This piece isn’t really an overwhelming distinction, but I do think the color adds some more dimension. That said, I think I prefer the black & white version better.

drawing of a woman in her nightgown — nightgowns

This woman is perhaps one of the best “moods” I’ve ever drawn. She is so, so over those damn neighbors waking her up every morning! I love her little cloud slippers, but the way her shawl is draping down her arms isn’t very impressive.

drawing of a woman in a nightgown with an angry look, in color — nightgowns in color

The craziest thing about this color version is the five-dot pattern littering the image. A few months back (a little while after drawing this), I was going through an old sketchbook from probably 2014. I had used the same exact background patterning on a drawing back then, too. I won’t share it here because the drawing is completely dreadful, but if you’re interested, shoot me a message and I’ll email it to you!

drawing of a mermaid on land, ribbed fins in place of legs — an ariel impersonator

Another instance where I prefer the black & white to color! I really love this piece, and I’m pleased with how the hand on her hip came out. Not so much the other one, so… let’s not talk about that.

drawing of a mermaid on land, ribbed fins in place of legs in color — an ariel impersonator in color

Definitely an instance where the color version didn’t quite work out. I like the colors that I chose, but the ink on the green color was starting to run dry, which led to the strange texture on it. In addition, it bled into the skin-tone, so… perhaps this drawing was doomed from the start. I don’t know!

drawing of a half woman half anglerfish — anglerfish woman

Half woman, half anglerfish! What combination could possibly be better? Or… worse? Again – so happy with how the fingers and hands turned out here. Hands can be really hard to draw, people! For me, anyway. I feel like my hand studies have only gone downhill since this drawing… I need to freshen up.

color drawing of a half woman half anglerfish — anglerfish woman in color

Who doesn’t love red latex? The perspective of the torso isn’t really working in this drawing – I think it’s most easily noticeable where her butt meets her back.

a drawing of the backside of a woman with a pencil eraser for a head and pencils for legs — pencil legs

I would say this was one of my favorite drawings of 2020, but there have been so many since this that I’ve liked equally or more. I love pencil lady! I think I was able to capture the model’s pose pretty well in this image. For the record, the model didn’t actually have pencils for legs, but that’s besides the point.

a color drawing of the backside of a woman with a pencil eraser for a head and pencils for legs — pencil legs in color

And in color! A little better, I think. I was able to add a little bit of dimension with the addition of color. I particularly love the shadows along her back and arms.

a black and white image of a half-woman, half-sunflower growing from the ground — sunflower, revived

Sunflowers – my favorite. I drew a sunflower lady a while back on my instagram that might be worth searching for. I would include it here, but I think I’m already adding too many drawings to this post! I think I made the woman’s legs in this drawing a little short, and the tilt of her head isn’t quite accurate – but nonetheless, I love my sunflower ladies.

a colored image of a half-woman, half-sunflower growing from the ground — sunflower, revived in color

A little color never hurt, right?

a black & white drawing of a fawn getting ready to play tennis — batter up

A fawn! Getting ready to… play baseball? I don’t know, use your imagination.

a color drawing of a fawn getting ready to play tennis — batter up in color

And that’s it for this post! I think we did a good job of diving into portraits, no? There are plenty more of these coming up – and hopefully there will be some male-presenting images, too! I know I’ve been inundating you all with female-presenting images.

While posting these drawings, I was thinking about how for so many months, I was drawing full-body portraits probably 96% of the time, instead of busts, which is what I really loved (and felt comfortable) drawing for a long time. Recently, I’ve been working on a deck of cards, which I think I mentioned in my last post, so I’ve gotten to spend time on busts as opposed to full-body lately… And you know what, I’ve missed it! But now I’m starting to miss drawing full-body models! I think after I complete my deck of cards, I’m going to start a set of tarot cards, which will be better suited for full-body images, I think. We shall see.

As always – feel free to write me with any questions, comments, or to see if any of these images are for sale! I would love to hear from you.