I’ve decided I should probably be wrapping up my 2019 drawings and at least get on with the new decade for you all! I feel like there was a pretty drastic change somewhere around December for me. I had taken a couple of weeks off drawing while I was in Hawaii. Once I returned, I felt I had unlocked a new “level” with my art. It peaked on New Years Eve, which was when I created perhaps my favorite drawing of the last decade (listed at the end).

Before we get into that, I wanted to share one more zodiac sign drawing before moving on. As I mentioned in my last post, I had drawn 3x sets for each zodiac sign. The one below was one of my favorites, and I chose to color it in with marker instead of digitally.

I think the zodiac sign challenge was a turning point in me being able to draw faces in profile. I always had a really hard time between the nose and the chin, but I drew so many profiles during that phase that I think I was able to grasp it better.

I love this one. She sort of reminds me of the artist FKA Twigs for some reason. This drawing in tandem with the others from my first post created a space for me to feel a lot more comfortable exploring dismemberment and separation of limbs. That sounds strange, I guess, but it’s such a common theme of my work – plants, skeletons, nude bodies, fragmented and/or distorted limbs. I guess I should have put a disclaimer that a lot of my work is of naked people. Whoops!

Even now – almost nine months later, I still really love this piece. I can see areas that are far from perfect, but I’m also able to see that I was starting to understand the human body. To be honest, I think the face on this drawing is maybe among the better faces I’ve drawn. Go, 2019 Steven! Clearly, I was still being influenced by my zodiac drawings. Notice the arrow through her head. And please, please don’t forget the Louboutin heels she’s got on!

I remember being quite happy about this drawing as well! I think my sense of perspective was still a little warped (and hey, still is at times). Note her left leg. I think technically with the pose she was in, the foot should have been a little higher up.

Looking at this image now, I’m realizing I love the mint color as a choice for shading – I haven’t done that in a while! Cooler colors really complement skin tones, so I think the mint in combination with her skin tone works really well here. I also am very happy with her face – although, not her nose so much. Watch out for those nostrils!

I can’t forget to include this one! I received a lot of likes when I posted this on facebook. One thing that’s important about this piece is that it opens up the doors to me using dots as a background element. You might have noticed that I typically keep my backgrounds white. Maybe a lack of background seems like a cop-out to some, but for me, I really want the sole focus to be on the portraits. Everything else is white noise, to me. That said, in this image I bring back a cluster of dots, which is something that in 2020 I have in almost all of my drawings. I want it to be a sort of signature for my work – but maybe that will change in time.

I love carnivorous plants! I also would like to point out the very lovely movement in the falling leaves. At the time, I was studiously looking into Draw a Box, which is an incredible resource for aspiring artists. At some point, I have to finish it. Anyway – there is a passage on ribbons, leaves, and plants and that absolutely helped solidify an understanding of the “movement” of plants for me.

I was so, so proud of this drawing at the time. I still like it, but not as much as at the time. I remember showing it to one of my closest friends and we had a laugh about how happy she looks to not have a body. My friend joked (from the perspective of the drawing), “Getting rid of my torso has done wonders for my body image,” which had me laughing so hard I started crying. She proceeded to say, “What’s there to hate if there’s nothing at all?”

This is another one I was really proud of. I loved her hair, I loved the mourning veil, I loved how the portrait highlighted her bust and omitted the rest of her body. Looking at it now, her eyes are a little odd, and her lips are outlined quite strangely. I have this really weird, lazy habit of not properly aligning the nose and lips. If you take a look, you’ll see her lips are quite off center compared to the rest of her face.

All of these drawings culminated towards this last one, which is still perhaps the drawing I love the most. It is my phone’s background wallpaper. I love seeing it every day, and I think it did a great job of wrapping up 2019. I drew it on New Years Eve, and I wanted it to represent all the various themes I had explored throughout the year. Those themes include plants, bones, lips, zodiac signs, and pink hair! Yes, some of those themes have carried into 2020, but I think I’ve introduced some interesting new elements to my work this year, as well. I hope you enjoy it, too!

For more of my work, check out my last post or my instagram.