I'm at it again. Before going to Yoga, I revisited the picture from 08/06/08. After Yoga, I drew it yet again:

Now I'm trying to relax more while drawing. Beautiful approach for beautiful drawings. Relax - now, that doesn't mean to sleep!

I'm fluctuating between two approaches. I guess I'll work on both of them, and use whichever one is appropriate at the time when I'm drawing.

The first approach - 3-d shapes. Like wedge, egg, pyramid, book, dish-detergent-bottle. That sort of stuff. Definite decisions in the predraw instead of wild scribbling. Here are 2 pictures (just the line-art) using that approach. I was able to sit back and relax. I like the results. Even before putting in any shading, it looks real solid:

Until I do maaaaannyyy of those though, I think the second approach will work better at parties. It's much faster. NO predraw at all this time. Just basic knowledge and simple shapes

• drawing from the inside out. As you can see in the following sample, though, this approach usually grows too big for the page.

But when I try things like limited predraw of outsides before doing insides with marker it gets stiff and boring to me. So now I'm thinking of trying athird approach - no predraw - outside-in. Stay tuned - I hope to post those studies soon.

Meanwhile, here's the picture drawn from the inside out - with no predraw:

Studying continues.

Today I decided to simplify. To make my job EEEEasy. At first, I thought this was perfect. Here's a simple picture drawn with basic answers:

'This will make my job easy', I thought. So I drew another man. Ick - what a crummy picture. I had to draw him again. The 2nd one came out easily, but I can't very well draw everybody 2ce at a party:

Maybe that was just a difficult Caricature. I tried the simple approach with another photo. Counfounded again. I was only satisfied with the 2nd picture:

Sooooo, it might look easy, it might be fun, but I still have to focus and work at it when I'm creating Artwork. There's no easy way out of working. Keeping it real.

So there I was. Just watching tv, paper beside me. What to draw?

First I drew a picture loosely based on some innocuous character I saw on the screen.

Then I wondered if I could turn him into a 3/4 view just based on what I drew in the front view.

Then I wanted to pump-up the 3-dimensionality, but the supplies I had there were limited. Still, it passed the time pleasantly:

BTW, if You (Dear Reader) know who said that quote that popped into my mind when I saw this picture's eyes, "If I have seen farther than other men, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants", please let me know. I couldn't think of it just now, and I'd want to give credit to the originator.

optidust@gmail.com