Confessions of a researchaholic

2019-03-24

Subjective depiction of objective reality

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 9:30 pm
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A drawing subject has expressed concerns about the lack of similarity between her self-perception and my depiction. I told her that since my drawings are a long way towards professional maturity, she should be concerned about her appearance much less than I about my drawing skill.

This applies to other discrepancies between what others depict us and what we think of ourselves. The former can provide opportunities for improvement, but should not cause disturbances if we truly understand and believe in ourselves.

When I was a kid, my grandfather once told me that only fools care about what other inferior people think of us.

2019-03-22

Portrait sketches

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 3:52 pm
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The sandwich place inside the company is a good place to watch people.
During my lunch there today, I noticed a chunky visitor with flesh squeezing out all over his face and body, an employee with long mustache, and a visitor who looks like Tuppence Middleton from the side.
I had only about 15 minutes to draw so I picked the last one as the subject, even though she left before I could even finish the outline.

It took me a while to find this interesting subject on the evening train. He disembarked at the Mountain View when I just started the outline, so I finished the drawing mostly from visual memory.

This girl sat at the same seat of the bearded guy. I failed to capture her essence before getting off at Menlo Park.

I drew this inside a cafe; the lighting eventually turned dark and thus challenging for hatching.

2019-03-21

How to draw human subjects on trains

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 6:40 pm
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Pick a schedule that the train is neither too crowded nor too under attended. It is very difficult to draw in an overcrowded or a completely empty train.

Pick a train (or a specific car) with open views so that you can easily see other passengers, preferably frontal faces.

The above two require some experiences but would not be hard to figure out after a few weeks.

Walk through all cars once the train departs to identify the best subject and your location.

Like research, the most important stage for art is picking the right subject. The rest is just execution.
The subject should have enough visual interest (at least to you) and yet in a stable enough state to draw (e.g. sleeping or focusing on a book or device).
Sit at a right angle and distance from your subject. You need to be able to see his or her face with sufficient clarify, while avoiding being noticed. (People might not behave naturally if they sense being watched.)

Time your drawing with the train stops.
Ideally you want to have enough time and physical stability to draw, so place the most important strokes (e.g. the outline and key features) during the longest segment (so that the subject is most likely to remain there).
Also consider how shaky the train can be; place the coarser strokes (e.g. initial base layer) during bumpier movements, and the finer strokes (e.g. detailed eye structures) during slower movements.

I usually have about 20 to 30 minutes for a trip during which I try to complete the drawing as much as possible. Sometimes I perform fine touches afterwards, but only if my visual memory is still fresh.

2019-03-20

Quick sketches

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 9:13 am
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I had no more than a few minutes to capture a glimpse of this body posture waiting on the platform for an arriving train.

Most of the passengers disembarked in the Palo Alto station. This girl remained sleeping soundly all the way through.

I saw this interesting profile sitting in a conference room during lunch.

This guy was happily eating his dinner and looking at his phone.

2019-03-19

Quick sketches of train passengers

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 9:35 am
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2019-03-18

Quick sketch of a neighborhood cat

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 7:23 pm
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This cat likes to walk around the block with grace and greet me when I am around.

Quick sketches of train passengers

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 9:33 am
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I woke up at 5:45 am thinking I got plenty time and thus I almost missed the train were it not delayed by about two minutes.

On an evening train, I drew this guy sitting on a lower deck from a shaky upper deck.

2019-03-17

Drawing from an IMDB profile picture

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 10:16 pm
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The proportions, which I did not spend a lot of time fine tuning as my main goal was to practice sparse coloring, are a bit off, so the subject is probably unidentifiable.

2019-03-15

Quick sketches during a company happy hour

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 5:41 pm
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I had more time to draw the relatively stationary reader than the animated singer.

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