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@TBB Thank you. Yes, it’s supposed to be Cillian Murphy 😄. Took me forever. It’s not perfect but better than before where he looked like he had an eye lift 😅. I applied a heavier hand but the pencil wasn’t having it. I ought to outline the overall shape before I commence next time as I’ve seen other drawers do. I have much to learn. Other than a few recent drawings, its been many years since I did any. I never did much in the past – all I remember is one rough texta drawing I did of my dad. I haven’t kept anything but will start to now.
I don’t know the actor you drew but again, it is outstanding 👏. An excellent study in value adding methinks. I love the light and shadow effect you brought to it. Have you kept all the pictures you did over the years, and from your early days?@muzikmama, yes, it really helps to do a light sketch of the whole figure, then start adding in more shading / detail. I really think it looks good, though. Like I said, you did a great job with the form (shape) and that’s often the thing people struggle with the most. Even if you’ve been drawing for a while, it is tricky to get that perfect and you did great with it. You should try some different kinds of pencils. Some pencils are just more limited with how dark you can get the values, but something like graphite pencils or charcoal pencils, you can get those very dark without a ton of effort. So yeah, maybe try some different kinds. That’s always fun. 🙂 And I don’t know if you could still even add more pressure – Maybe try on a different sheet. You can add more pressure than you’d think to get the values darker (with some caution, lol). That’s really cool that you’re doing so well with drawing without a ton of experience. That doesn’t happen often, lol. You definitely should keep going with it and share it here so I can see it, ha. Also, I don’t know where the smilie face menu went. I’m lost without it. :S
Thank you so much for the kind words about me drawing! I’ve sort of gone through phases with the creative things I like to do, many different phases, because I love to try different creative things and I think it is a way I am able to connect with people and also try to express myself, obvs. All of them are a pretty big part of who I am. I actually have a lot of my drawings from high school; I think they’re at my parent’s house, but I don’t know if I have my childhood drawings, which, rest assured, are quite bizarre, LOL. I may have to recreate some of them because some of them were pretty hilarious. I do have a lot of the drawings I’ve done from high school, onward, and all the ones I’ve shared here span a fairly wide range of time. The most recent ones are the acrylic paintings, the strawberry, and some of the portraits. The oldest one is probably the one of Frodo Bag(gin)s.
Confession… I just bought a cheap pen tablet because I’ve wanted one for a long time and it will help with creating new “uke drawings.” The next uke-related drawing may have to exist after that arrives, because I am struggling to draw on the mousepad on the laptop I have now. But it should be here very soon. You didn’t need to know any of that, but now you do. LOL.
But for now, here are a few drawings I did in high school:
1. Gandalf, done with graphite pencil, if I remember right. Possibly charcoal pencil, too?
2. A random Australian person I used to know in high school. At one point I was doing commissioned portraits online of random people and I sold at least four of them. I don’t think this one sold, but I like it. He looks nothing like this now, as this was a long time ago (probably close to 20 years, eesh) and I’m pretty sure you couldn’t identify him based on this drawing, LOL. (Charcoal pencil)
3. Another portrait of this British girl who lived in Kuwait and she actually did buy this, or rather her parents did because we were both in high school, lol. Again, close to 20 years ago so this isn’t identifying her whatsoever, nor did I include her name, along with the accuracy of my drawing being imperfect. (Charcoal pencil)
Hopefully that wasn’t TMI, but it probably was. Thanks for the good discussion and for sharing! 🙂
Marvellous work I gotta say first on the drawings. The girl’s parents must have been impressed. No wonder you sold some, that’s great. You did very good work back then. I’m not too familiar with Lord of the Rings but recognised the two characters/actors you drew. Nice detailing on Gandalf. It’s actually interesting to me to learn the background of things I guess because of my natural curiosity. Same about your pen tablet. I’m just amazed you can draw with a mouse. Appreciate you taking the time to share it all.
I confess I had to come back later to read your whole post lol. Been working on a possible submission for this month’s challenge but it may not eventuate. At least with drawings, I can revisit and fix it without starting over, unlike music. Feels like drawing is an easier hobby in general. I’ve been busy watching artists and painting tutorials on YouTube as I need to learn. This is threatening to take over the ukulele! I tested out painting values and did a face which I then tried to turn into Israel (“Over the Rainbow”) so it’s very rough, and weird looking. I know for one there’s not supposed to be black outlined lips etc 😆.
I thought all pencils were graphite. I agree I think I could have pressed harder. A few days ago, I stood in a store deciding between two sketching sets, lost on what to buy and thinking how you’d know – even thought to post a question here but no internet reception lol. A day or so later, just bought both. Inexpensive sets to start with. Charcoal is new to me. Never heard of kneadable erasers until now. So now I’m set to go wild with values!@muzikmama, thank you so much for your kind words about my high school drawings! Not gonna lie, looking through those was so nostalgic and strange, a bit emotional, because this year is actually my 20 year high school reunion! That’s kind of “aging me,” big time, but oh well. 😂 I am old, so what? 😂😅 I’d like to think I still have a youthful spirit and energy about me (sometimes in a bad way). 😅 But anyway, I was reminiscing so much looking through those drawings, I also found a journal from an art class I took in high school and looked through that, and it’s really inspiring me to get back into drawing, too–Even though I never fully stopped despite life’s obstacles. I think drawing with the mousepad on a laptop is ironically easiest for me because that’s what I’m most used to using. With the pen tablet, I can see it’s a bit of a learning curve. I may have to adjust the settings because certain aspects of it are weird, like the pen moves before you’ve even touched the tablet. I’ll be back with some uke drawings hopefully today because I actually have time to play with that today. 😊
Haha what were you going to submit for the challenge? Maybe you could do something not too crazy for it, but I hope you do join. Your drawing is really amazing, you have a natural skill for capturing people and getting a feel for an image, really impressive! Was that oil pastels? If so, even more impressive because those can be hard to use, especially to get detail. Haha the beauty is you can do both ukulele and drawing, I love both things equally, maybe leaning more towards uke right now honestly because of RC101 and the amazing people here, how creatively it’s inspiring me and how much fun it is, and also for me it’s incredibly therapeutic, playing uke. It helps with my anxiety and other issues. All the creative things I do have helped with that.
I think most everyday pencils you see are graphite but they are cheaply made, not as high quality as a nice set of graphite pencils. Some pencils have more fillers in them that can hinder drawing quality or scratch the paper or things like that. I’m so excited for you! 😂 I love buying art supplies and trying new things with that. Please keep sharing what you’re working on here, I love to see it! Moar uke drawings! 😁💕
@TBB I’m glad to hear the therapeutic value you get from your creative pursuits. Hobbies have that tendency. Writing poetry helped me a lot at one stage. Only time I wrote poetry. It wasn’t an ongoing interest. Though one poem I submitted to a newsletter I was quite proud of. Alas, I’m not a gifted poet 😄.
Wow, 20 year school reunion. Time flies. Not that you’re old. Are you going? I’m too much of a homebody for those things. Lol, yeah the challenge. Too late, I did end up submitting it despite not knowing what I’m doing. Details are in the thread. It was a toss up between that and a song I already knew but without experience of playing to an accompanying vocalist that isn’t myself. I really wanted to finish the one I chose because I never did a chord melody arrangement before and it was more challenging. Crazy to attempt. In my defence, if it didn’t have heaps of chords to start with, forget it.
Thanks, I used regular acrylic paints. Seen a paper stump used to rub oil pastels into a drawing. Smooths it out it seems. Will give that a try. Might work. Yes I read about fillers in pencils. Makes sense of course about the cheaper ones. Hope to see your uke art. 🙂@muzikmama, I can’t even begin to relay the insanity of the past two weeks for me. 2024 needs to slow down, big time. Maybe I jinxed it by saying “2024 is starting out pretty great.” 😅😂😥😭
Needless to say, much to my sadness, I didn’t get to try my pen tablet much before we lost power from a blizzard this last Friday/Saturday. Just got it back last night. Had to abandon my house and go to a place with heat and power and running water because the temps were well in the negative (F). I actually still don’t have running water. Hopefully that will come back today. 😅🥺😭
So that was the main issue the past few days, but there’s so, so much more that happened besides that that I shan’t get into… 😅
Anyway……….. I just need a little break, so I wanted to reply here and in the challenge thread.
So cool that you’re working on your own arrangement?! I found your description in the challenge thread quite funny for some reason, just how you described what you’re going to do, “I have no idea what I’m doing.” 😂 But it’s awesome that you’re just going for it! Can’t wait to hear it!
As far as poetry, that’s also very therapeutic and fun to do, too. I’d really like to read the poem you submitted. I’m very into poetry, reading and studying it, and on occasion trying to write it, but there are only a few I’ve written that I like.
And I’m definitely NOT going to my high school reunion. 😅😂 They may not even be able to make any arrangements for it again (as with the 5, 10, and 15). High school was not the best experience for me, anyway, and all the people I want to know from high school I already interact with, so that’s a nope. 😂
Blending stumps, paper stumps, can be good but they have their drawbacks. They can burnish the paper, which means they wear the paper down so it’s so smooth and shiny that you can’t add more pencil to it. Never tried it with pastels though you’ll have to let me know how that goes!
Sorry for writing this novel, apparently I needed to get some of that out of my system. During my adventure to someone’s house, I did manage to do a little drawing with my sister there. I’ll attach that. It isn’t uke related, but I might draw her holding a uke later so just imagine that. 😅
@The_Bumble_Bard, Strange that you have power and still no water. Are you sure that your pipes did not freeze while the house was cold?
@wannabgood, sorry, I actually explained that really poorly. 😂 The issue was that the house was without electricity for around three days in sub-freezing temps, so we shut off the water. Since last night the electricity was back on, but because parts of the house were still so cold we had to wait to turn the water back on, so indeed the pipes wouldn’t freeze and burst. But since I wrote that we actually were able to turn the water back on, so that’s really good. Some of the pipes still aren’t draining though. Like the tub isn’t draining. It may just be frozen, then thawed, shower crud so we’ll see if we can fix that. 😂🤢
You just don’t realize how easy it is to take things like light, heat, water, cell phones, stoves, all those conveniences for granted until you don’t have them.
I deal with properties so my instincts kick in. I was a little reluctant to say anything because I didn’t want to be perceived as “mansplaining”, but I also didn’t want you to have a problem that could be messy and expensive. Glad to hear that it wasn’t a freeze up on the water supply. I think you are correct re: the frozen drains. The water in the traps probably froze solid and need a little time to thaw. Good luck.
@wannabgood, haha, no worries about that! 😂 I really appreciate you mentioning it. Even though I’ve lived in Wisconsin a long time, I’ve been lucky to not be without power for multiple days like that. It was sort of a major incident with the number of people without power – over the course of a few days, around 100,000 people lost power in the dangerously low temps, after the foot of snow from the blizzard. Sadly we were some of the last to get power back, but it’s getting back to normal now. Praying it will stay there. 😂😅
… Except the shower, ha. Also, my car. “Jesus take the wheel.” 😅 Yes, thank you, hopefully that won’t be too long before that issue is sorted out! Indeed it might just be a waiting game with the dang pipes. 😅
@TBB That’s a harsh winter. Blackouts are like a bit of an adventure but blizzards and water turning to ice can’t be fun.
I really liked your composition for the challenge particularly with the shift in the middle section, the photos and video transitions – awaited a final video before commenting.
Thanks for the interest in my poem. As it relates to a personal topic, I’m not comfortable sharing it, sorry. Truth be told, I’m similarly not 100% comfortable posting on such a public site as RC either, despite appearances. I think sometimes I should just zip it. Like, what’s the go with my preferencing art on a ukulele learning site for example 😅. Speaking without thinking.
Good to know about the blending stumps, thanks. Looking good on the drawing. My daughter likes the shading (she likes to draw too. Told her it’s called values but she says, nooo, “it’s rendering”).@muzikmama, ha, yes, the power going out was a little fun, using candles for light and such, but yes it gets a bit dangerous with the sub-zero temperatures. Thousands of people had to leave their houses temporarily because of the outages and the cold. We basically had a three day sleepover at someone else’s house, so that part was fun. 😂 But I’m sure you’re pretty unfamiliar with that kind of winter, living in Australia? 😂😅
Thank you so much about my song! It’s always so intimidating creating a song and it’s easy to be really hard on yourself about it not being good enough and things, but I actually am pretty happy with that based on my current skill level. Hopefully I can get a take playing it better, it’s pretty much done now.
Your arrangement is sounding very lovely! That’s really amazing for your first arrangement and just in general it sounds really nice. So many chords. 😂🥺
Haha no worries at all about the poem! I understand that. I also overshare about things (quite obviously) but yes there are definitely some things you don’t want to share in this context. Ha yes I guess we should keep in mind that this is an educational ukulele site. 😅😂 But I really do think that different creative ventures can inform others, as with visual art informing/enhancing the experience of learning music.
Ha thank you about my drawing! Please do keep sharing yours! The drawing on your video in the challenge was yours? That looks really nice. Haha she is right, it is rendering, rendering is the process of creating the drawing and you do that using different values if I’ve got that right! Hopefully I’ll have more uke drawings soon, I’m actually moving very soon, so I have to pack and do many things, whoops, also sorry for so many run on sentences. 😅😂
This is not exactly “uketalk”, but it seemed like the best place to share a short LA Times film that a friend sent me over the weekend. It’s called The Last Repair Shop, and tells the story of the musical instrument repair shop that maintains 80,000 instruments for the LA County school system. It profiles the fascinating lives of several of the technicians who work there and the impact that music has had on their lives. It’s worth a watch if you have a spare 40 minutes or so.
https://kottke.org/24/01/the-last-repair-shop?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
@wannabgood, oh sweet! I’ll definitely give that a watch. I love documentaries / short films like that. Thank you for sharing! 😊
To be fair, this topic is stretching the definition of “uke talk,” but we have shared a bunch of “uke art” / disturbed ukulele fan art (in my case). 😂
TBB, I’ve never experienced snow in my life, not dissimilar to most. Winters get cold but think I prefer it over hot, tiring summers.
I so agree about our own work. I was hesitant to post this month. Questioned the work and had struggles. But I’m moving toward building a foundation so that I’m not flailing lol.
My song choice is slower paced and isn’t that hard to play overall. When written like that, the chords can look overwhelming. I was itching to move onto something else. Here’s hoping about the mutual enhancement thing with the multiple creative interests!
Yes, I drew it but since it was for the music challenge, it was quicker in that I traced it first. As for the visuals, the song title was way overstretched in the video (editing oversight), oops.
Just doing the courses right now since recently becoming clear about my ukulele goals. In the meantime, here’s the drawing with continued value adding. No. 3 is final (2 was in the video). 2 & 3 have more subtle differences. I did have to centre Alan’s eyes (bottom guy) as he was looking off to the side (picture quite small to work on). 1 would have sufficed until I knew about values!
Wannabgood, interesting learning the personal stories of the technicians and students in the video.🎸🙂🎨
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