Food styling sketches

I have found myself looking at a lot of food styling photography, so I decided to do some thumbnail sketches in order to better observe how photographers are working. A few things I learned is you need a lot of props: a million type of textured fabrics/towels, various types of silverware, cutting boards, bowls and plates that match/accent the food and all sort of boards for backgrounds (lots of wood, some slate, or marble). Monochromatic compositions such as white on white are quite popular, and when in doubt slices of citrus make for interesting color and texture.

So to really get into food photography, not only do I need to find someone to prepare some lovely food for me to shoot, it turns out I also do not have the props needed or storage for them. Still, if I find some time I might explore some simpler ideas focusing on ingredients and textures.

Tuscany Rooftops

One more from last week's rooftops. Lots of earth tones in Tuscany.

Rooftops

Had a bit of nostalgia for Europe last week and ended up drawing quite a few rooftops. Found some lovely reference images on Pinterest, from Bern to Tuscany to Venice and of course Paris. Some were rushed ones on the bus, and some I took the time to color digitally.

Hands

I have lost track on what number theme I am on, but last week I drew hands and I am a little rusty. I've never had serious issues drawing hands and have always looked for excuses to draw them. I did a drawing of someone drinking out of a giant mug solely to focus on the hands and have a linocut of hands on a violin among other random hand obsessed doodles. I have however been criticized that my hands are too cylindrical, and not angular enough, and I happen to remember exactly which instructor said it. So last week I did a few where I tried to focus on planes that are also very unlike my style, and a few quick loose ink ones. Since I have always been a fan of Schiele I do like the loose ink, but the angular ones remind me of a criminal character so I will have to find an in between.

The last one is a drawing of a beautiful sculpture by Michael Keropian.

More Cats

I would like to say this is my last cat post so that I don't become crazy cat lady, but there might just be one or two more sketches in the works. I have some empty frames that need to be filled with drawings of my two cute cats which are getting very jealous that they are not getting any sketchbook time...  Ha! 

Kitty Cats

As much as I like cats, I always had trouble drawing them. I am not sure why. Their faces never made any sense to me, and it took me two weeks to improve. The first few days drawing cats was frustrating and they looked like they were wearing too much eyeliner so those didn't quite make it to this post (the first image is from the earlier days). I am finally ready to be crazy cat lady and make portraits of my cats, although their expressions of disdain and superiority are still hard to capture.

Also the verithin prismacolor, but only the Tuscan Red, rocks on the Moleskin!
It was a two weeks of me losing my eraser, although an unfortunate event, that happened to be the best thing for me!