amateur dabbles: 2009

Pencil Drawings - Resting Leopard

I took the photo of the Leopard at Lake Nakuru National Park. It was just by the roadside, almost 6pm, and there it was....i couldnt believe my luck and got really good pictures. This is one of those pictures. The original one pic below and what i drew "My little eden"

What i liked about the photo was the calmness that the leopard had - it seemed unperturbed by our presence.

What i'd like to do is to draw the leopard using charcoal. if only i'd been able to get a close-up, if only it hadn't moved away - but then i was the one driving - you can only be so lucky sometimes.

Pencil Drawings - Gymnast

One of my favourite drawings. It has so much life & character.Took photos of the drawing using different camera modes - posted both because i culdnt make up my mind which to post.

I will probably look for more athletic pics to draw - i think the athlete's body in action can be quite something 2 capture on camera or as a drawing.

Pencil Drawings - Two lifeless trees in the middle of nowhere

I took the picture at lake Nakuru National Park. It seemed odd seeing 2 trees in the middle on nowhere with nothing else living around them - really beautiful in a desolate kind of way. So did the drawing of the trees from the picture

Pencil Drawings - Old Tree

I love drawing trees. The reason being trees can be very interesting when they have mangled branches almost resembling arms and fingers. They are twisted, knoted, various textures - makes me enjoy drawing.

Painting : From Photos

Sometime last year i took some photos of Fort Jesus in Mombasa, and decided to try paint them. Ive posted the original pic & the painted piccture next to each other. My Paintings for now are watercolor painting, am yet to venture into acrylic & oil painting but once i become better in watercolor paintings, hopefully will experiment with more. The last 2 paintings on this post cheetah and the last one which i dont quite know what to call are both watercolor trials.

Pencil Drawings - Lone Elephant

Single solitarty elephant. Did this last year christmas period along with other drawings. Was mostly multitasking between drawing & watching CSI. i suppose thats my biggest fault when it comes to drawing because i want to do so many other things at same time.

Pencil Drawings - Faces

Simple face drawings. When i draw faces, i always begin with left eye, then right eye. I work on nose next & mouth. From left eye, i work on hairline & rest of face outline. When it comes to faces, what defines it for me is the eyes. If i get the person 's eyes right, the rest of the expression work out seamlessly for me.

Pencil Drawings - Anatomy

Just begun doing or rather learning to draw anatomy drawings late last year using a really wonderful book on anatomy. Its helped me learn alot about shading & creating 3-d effect.

Pencil Drawings - Horses

The thing about drawing horses that i really like is that they are very muscular which makes them have so much character wen drawn i.e. mean eyes, flared nostrils, bulging muslces...

Pencil Drawings - Fighting Zebras

Did this from an amazing wildlife calendar.

Pencil Drawings - Baby & Girl

The girl....based on a photograph i took. Did a simple sketch but didnt finish & i dont plan to....thoh from time i wonder what it would look like...may sound silly but i dont want to ruin picture by finishing it.

The baby....saw it as an ad on a women's magazine...it looked really cute..baby biting adult's feet, culdnt resist drawing it.

Painting : Learning

Am not much of a painter. Am still learning how to mix colours, techniques of painting but i tend to be impatient when it comes to letting paint dry at various stages. I did these some time back after i'd jst bought some watercolor paints & brushes... My hands were shaky hence the results. I used to paint when i was in primary school using my mother's paints. I knew where she kept them so used them til they got finished & thats when i stopped painting. so here i am now learning how to mix color & how to work wit paper.