Playing Guitar

Here is a sketch of somebody playing the guitar. I made the sketch using a 2B staedtler pencil and tha  gave ink drawing to it to make the lines darker.

Somebody Playing the Guitar

I feel that I have to practice more on figure drawings. So, although this blog is about wildlife drawing, anyone who visits this blog regularly will see more subjects of human figure that I add in his blog. Enjoy the drawing.
Please, support this blog by buying some of my artworks that printed on t-shirt, mugs, clogs, iPhone case, tote bags, purse, and etc. at this link: Charles Roring's Art

Drawing of Clothed Female Figure

Digital Drawing

Enjoying Sunset

I mention above that I use Autodesk Sketchup and Stylus to make the digital version of this lady. I have to redraw everything from the beginning again. Drawing on the surface of glass screen and drawing on paper look the same but actually are very different. The glass surface of my Samsung Galaxy Tab A tablet is very smooth and slippery. I have to familiarize myself with this different environment. When I draw using colored pencils, I pick up various different pencils whose sharpness are different from one to another. Sometimes, I have to take a break to sharpen the colored pencils or wait for the paper to dry before I continue the work.
In digital drawing, I have to use the same stylus that is so little and lighter compared to watercolor pencils. The light from my tablet also is another challenge for me. But the most important thing in digital drawing is the basic skill of the artist and his or her knowledge about the drawing application. I need several months of drawing practices before I become more familiar with the application. Well here is the final result of the drawing

This is a sketch or drawing (in progress) of a clothed female figure in cross-legged sitting position. I haven't finished the work and also haven't decided what to draw at her background. I just want to show the process of how I make or create figure drawing from just a few lines of sketches to the finished artwork executed using watercolour pencils. I hope that it will be ready soon and I will present the completed drawing in the next paragraph of this blog post.

update post 30 June 2017
The process of drawing this lady is quite long not because it is difficult but because I had to go into the jungle to guide a French tourist on a 4-day/ 3-night hiking, camping and birdwatching tour in lowland forest in northwest area of Manokwari. I returned to the city with a lot of ideas to draw but still this sketch was not finished yet.
So, after taking a rest for one day, I decided to complete the drawing. I made two drawings that look of this lady. One that is colored pencil artwork on paper and the other the digital drawing on tablet. For the new media, I used stylus, Samsung Galaxy Tab A with S-pen and Autodesk Sketchbook as my tools.
Watercolor Pencil Works

Enjoying Sunset

For the manual drawing, I just have to continue the above sketch by adding its surrounding environment which are the sandy beach, the sea, and the sky iluminated by sunset light. I made a lot of lines or hatchings with several different colors. I superimposed the yellow ones with several diferent red color to create the effect of fire or sunset light that brightens the sky. After that I apply wash all over the paper to cover all of the drawing surface with various colors that I think suitable to describes the clouds, ripples on the surface of the sea and the ground where the lady was sitting. The result is one the right of this paragraph. This drawing composition is looks similar to the digital one that I recreated below. Drawing with watercolor pencils takes longer time compared to drawing using a stylus and tablet.

Drawing Feet

I return to the basics of figure drawing - practice, practice and more practice. This time parts of human body that attract my attention are feet. They are located at the lowest part of our body but they are quite difficult to draw. I have created several pencil drawing of feet on different positions or poses. The other parts of the body are not included because they are not my focus of attention now.

Drawing Human Feet

I also apply different pressure on the pencil strokes to create shades and hatchings so that the feet look more natural. I still make mistakes in drawing the toes particularly if some of them are slightly twisted. Our toes will not look normal if we use tight shoes every day. So, the shapes of our toes are determined by how frequent or how long we wear shoes.
I also make a small drawing of a lady at the bottom right corner of the sketch to compare the size of her feet and the length of her legs with the length of her arms and whole body.
This female figure is only an example of drawing exercise that I make to improve my understanding and skills in sketching human body. The proportions of legs have to be balanced with the sizes of head, arms, chest and stomach as well as hips.
Well, I will make more drawings of human figures beside drawings of flowers, birds, and other animals for this blog.

Also read:

• Drawing of Clothed Female Figure
• Figure Drawing of Cross-legged Sitting Lady

Figure Drawing Cross-legged Nude Sitting

Female Figure on Cross-legged Sitting Position

Drawing female human figure in sitting position is quite challenging particularly on the proportions of the legs compared to her whole body. I have just completed this sketch today. I only used my 2B Staedtler Mars Lumograph and Winsor & Newton A5 sketchbook. My hands are rather stiff after not practicing for several months. I need to get used to drawing on paper again after using tablet as my drawing media for sometime. The feel of holding a stylus and a pencil is totally different. Also the smoothness of the glass surface of a drawing tablet such as my Samsung Galaxy Tab A is totally different from paper.
Although I now use tablet more for drawing flowers or fish and birds, I still like drawing on paper especially for human figure. It gives me full control of what I will create out of just a piece of pencil or charcoal stick.

Cross-legged Female Figure in Sitting Position

For me, pencil strokes are more natural for drawing human figure than stylus ones. After finishing my sketch, I continued the work by coloring it. I used Derwent Watercolor pencils and applied moderate strokes to create hatching on shaded area of the female figure. The colors that I used were Ivory Black 67, Golden Brown 59, Deep Chrome 9, Bronze 52 and Raw Sienna 58, and Mineral Green 45.
The next drawing is the result of the coloring works.
The artwork is now available in my redbubble store, printed on various products such as cell phone wallet, tote bags, clocks or studio pouch. If you are interested in buying some of these products, just click the above pictures.

Reclining Nude Girl in Digital Colors

When drawing human figure, I like to use pencil and paper. But I like to try new things such as using tablet and stylus. I have made digital artworks of hibiscus and grass flowers. The process is very similar to using pencil and paper. However, I consider drawing or sketching on flat glass screen of a tablet is more difficult. The sizes of my Samsung Galaxy Tab A and its stylus are quite small. I also have to adapt myself with the hard glass surface of my tablet that is slippery.
With a lot of efforts, trial and error, I created the following Reclining Nude Girl with digital colors.
The drawing is not perfect. I need more practice to make my drawings look more attractive.
If you want to give any comments or suggestions, just send your message to my email: leororing@gmail.com. You could also use whatsapp to: +6281332245180.

Wooden Jetty of Anggrem harbour in Manokwari town

Also read:

• Arm Wrestling
• Charcoal Sketch of a Lady

Arm Wrestling

This is an old drawing of mine that depicts a father and a son were playing Arm Wrestling. Actually its real title is "David Against Dad." I made this drawing in 2004 when I was still living in Malang city of East Java. I think I used colored pencil manufactured by Faber Castell and created the artwork on an A4 size drawing paper.

I still have the original drawing. So, if you are interested in buying it, you can send me an email.

Reclining Nude Siesta

This is my drawing entitled Reclining Nude Siesta that I created using charcoal pencil. This black and white drawing was made two years ago and I began studying how to sketch using charcoal. This media was similar to graphite pencil but darker.

Reclining Nude Siesta now available in Redbubble store

I did this figure drawing study to improve my skill in sketching human figure. It was not a perfect artwork but I was satisfied with the result.
I feel that I need to practice drawing more human figures until I feel that the result of my drawing is well balanced if not 100 percent perfect. We see people everywhere. If I make mistakes in drawing an arm, people can easily recognize it.
If you want to give comments or suggestions, send your message to my email: leororing@gmail.com

Bush Flowers T-Shirt
by tropicalart

Paradise Bird T-Shirt
by tropicalart

Nude Lady by Waterfall

Here is another watercolor painting of mine a Nude Lady by Waterfall. I made it in 2004 when I was still living in Malang city of East Java. I have just bought a set of watercolour pencils from Derwent. These high quality art materials are imported products from the United Kingdom. I made the painting on Canson paper. I think it was from France.

Every artist knows that drawing or painting human figure is one of the most difficult subjects in visual art. 

Even though I have practiced drawing human figure for years, I still feel that it is definitely a difficult subject. Human being has got standard proportions that every artist has to follow but every person is unique. One is fat but another is slim. Some are short but the others are tall. Even an experienced artist still needs to see a model when he or she wants to draw someone with accurate details. So, I consider this artwork as a drawing and painting practice. In my opinion, it is not perfect.

Sketch of a Woman Sitting Cross-legged

Human is the most difficult subject to draw. Why is that? Because not all of experienced artists can draw human figure with balanced or accurate proportions. If we draw a tree, scenery of the beach and mountains, the mistakes that we make in the form of branches, waves of the sea won't be easily recognized by people who see the artwork. It wil be different if the subject which we draw is human figure. If one of the legs is shorter, or the neck is longer than usual people who see the drawing can easily identify it.
That's the reason why artists need a lot of practices to achieve an expertise that is adequate to draw human with good proportions.
Below is the drawing of a woman in sitting cross-legged position. In the beginning, I made the sketch of the woman as a whole from her head to toes. I drew a lot of lines and erase them many times before I could determine that the proportion of the drawing is well balanced.

A Young Lady Sitting Cross-Legged

After that I did some hatchings and coloring all over her nude body. Although she is fully naked, I did not expose parts of her body that are sensitive. Let the viewers imagine how those parts behind the folding hands and crossed legged look like in their minds.
I don't want to make full color drawing or painting of this naked lady. This is only an ordinary sketch of human figure that I create for the purpose of study. Yes, I study human forms using pensil lines. If there are still parts of her body that are not perfect, please, understand that I am still in the learning process.
An artist who can make very good sketches has got strong foundation to draw or paint anything. And that's the uniqueness of visual art.