Confessions of a researchaholic

Avoid the trap of converting weak perspectives into orthographic projection.

Now I can believe what I see instead of only see what I believe, I move on to practice volumes, concurrently with shading, beyond contours, spaces, and relationships.

Practice drawing objects from memory, such as a cup or teapot from different (imaginary) angles.

It is OK for beginners to take time; like all crafts, practices help efficiency.
Later, I can impose time limits to practice prioritization.

The model was not satisfied with the virtual resemblance and physical stiffness, both I plan to address by improving my sighting skills.

This is the first time I asked someone to pose for me, and probably also the last time; it should be easier for my brain to register moving parts than for other bodies to remain relatively stationary.

This exercise looked simple but turned out to be quite challenging due to the delicate proportions and relationships.
In my first attempt I tried direct sighting but the result was not good. In my second attempt, I placed some background guide structures (visible on both the original and my copy) for help.

This is a simple exercise is profile head proportion, but I found that by slightly varying the relative sizes and positions of facial components, I can create different faces, and they appear plausible as long as the underlying proportions remain so.

Copying from a master’s work helps me appreciate their greatness.
For example, this one by Matisse has loose and yet precise circular contours depicting the girl’s body.

After finishing the first draft, I noticed from the photo that the right foot was too forward for balance, so I shifted it back a bit in a revision. See if you can spot the difference (my eraser mark should be visible).

As usual, subtle differences in the face can make huge perceptual differences. My version looks older and sourer than the original one by Matisse.

I noticed the face bears more resemblance to Wolverine than Allan Poe during sketching but I have yet to learn shading to figure out how to properly deal with it.

The proportions seemed about right during drawing only for me to find out, afterwards, that the lower left leg was too upward and thus looked too short.

I sat across the counter and panned + tiled my head around for sighting.
The fruits, with irregular shapes, tolerate more mistakes than the more regular cooking coils.
I was not sure how to draw the mesh bag containing several beets, so I lightly touched the grid structures first followed by heavier contours.

(October 19, 2018)
Daichi commented that this one is orthographic but not perspective projection.
I have had difficulty with weak perspectives like this one, so it can help to place vanishing points far outside the canvas.
Tools like Adobe Sketch can help with placing vanishing points and lines, but I can also practice this without assisting tools, either digital or analog like rulers.

I drew this low table top as it was without any clean up or modification; the inherent disorder and complexity took me more than an hour to complete this exercise.

I did not notice the streaks caused by the texts on the back page slipping through until photographing the canvas.