Hotel Sketches

It’s a very rainy day here in San Antonio, Texas!  Typically, when I visit here, (which is quite often), I stroll down the River Walk and usually find a nice spot to sit and sketch.  However today it is very wet and very cold so I find myself stuck in the hotel room.  Looking around for inspiration, I just grabbed a few magazines and decided to sketch a couple of portraits.  I try to practice whenever I can so I worked on profiles.  They are the hardest for me to draw – the proportion is so important for a realistic sketch.  If one feature is too big or too small, your figure begins to look cartoonish.

The first sketch comes from a Free People catalog.  First picture shows the actual advertisement.

I started out with a watercolor wash all over my page.  After studying it for a few minutes, this is what began to emerge and what I really saw in the advertisement:

And here are both pictures, side by side:

Next, I decided to draw a dude!  I always get asked why I only draw ‘girls’ so today, I thought I would challenge myself – there is nothing better to do anyway.  So here’s the progression of my cowboy:

I added just a touch of watercolor pencil to his jacket and I think I shaved a few years off his face!  All in all, it was a nice way to entertain myself in the hotel today.  Praying for sunshine tomorrow!