Posts Tagged "colored pencils"

Drawings from old sketchpads

(I actually constructed this post as I was waiting for my turn at the dentist’s office the other day where I underwent Root Canal part 1. Hope that’s not TMI.)

If it’s not obvious enough from Instagram, I’ve fallen in love with painting all over again. I can trace this love from back when I was 4 or 5 when I received my first Guitar watercolor set. You know the one — hard, loose cakes with hardly no pigment in a flat tin case. Fortunately my parents lovingly supported my whims and bought me art books & materials without flinching whenever I needed them. For instance, this slanted drawing board which I’ve had since I was 8…

drawing-board

It’s filled with old memories of spilled paints, failed sunset wash attempts, and crudely cut friskets (which you can still see traces of). I can’t bear to throw it out even if there are better, less clunky, CLEANER tabletop easels out there. Happy that it’s getting a lot of use again.

I also went on a mission to unearth old sketch books from my room at my parents’ because I wanted to see them again and show them to Arnold. Out emerged a stack of moldy Corona pads filled with yellowing pages of (mostly laughable) illustrations from when I was in grade school up ’til college. Just for fun I’m sharing some of the more presentable ones:

drawings-from-childhood

1) These are from 6th grade when I was obsessed with painting trees and Sanrio characters. Kiki and Lala were my faves, as you can see.

drawings-from-childhood-2

2) More drawings from 6th Grade, also because we had “Practical Arts” as a subject. So here are early attempts at figure drawing and lettering. And yes, yet another tree.

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3) Big jump from 6th grade to 4th year high school. I remember being fascinated with paisley patterns and water reflections. Incidentally I made a lot of oil paintings in high school. I think I’ll show them another time.

drawings-from-childhood-4

4) These sketches were for Figure Drawing 101 class in college in U.P. where I was fortunate to have had Robert Alejandro as a teacher. All the stiff-looking figures above are mine but the fluid figure guide in between the dancer and man carrying a baby is his. I remember him telling me to loosen up my lines because I was so self-conscious when drawing. I think I still am at times… Anyway. He was also my teacher in Advertising 101 so I have more plates with his signature and advice / comments on them.

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5: More sketchbook drawings from college. Being in Fine Arts allowed me to express myself through illustration. This will carbon-date me but the guy on the left is supposed to be Robert Downey Jr. in “Less Than Zero.” The boy on the top right was copied from U2’s album “Boy” and the drawings on the bottom right are supposed to be Terry Hall on the cover of The Colourfield’s “Confession” album. (New Wave fan right here *raises hand*)

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6) Even more drawings from the college years. I don’t recall my state of mind when I was drawing the girl and the snake but I must’ve been in an emo phase (though the term “emo” hasn’t been coined up yet. Back then it was simply called “being a teenager.”)

And finally, one of my old favorites because I think I was able to capture his likeness without using a grid…

Side note: I was a big fan of River Phoenix since his “Explorers” days — way before “Stand By Me.” I used to watch “Sneakers” and “Running on Empty” over and over (on a Betamax, lol). This painting was done 3 years before his untimely demise in 1993. I’m not even sure if it was for class, I think I just painted him for watercolor portrait practice.

Hope you enjoyed this little journey down memory lane.

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Figure Drawing Practice

colored pencil illustrations

Figure drawing has always been my crutch so I’ve been re-learning the basics lately. Well I had a lot of practice drawing people back in art school – in fact we had an entire semester devoted to it but after years of relying on digital tools, sadly my skills deteriorated over time (see proof in my art style evolution blog post). Among my resolutions for the year was to hone whatever skills I developed in my early years and pick up where I left off.

I don’t post them online but each night for the past month I would draw human forms in different positions and let Arnold (who obviously is a whiz at figure drawing) check them for flaws. Below are some initial practice sketches from a month ago (waaah, don’t laugh 😳 ).

figure drawing practice

Now you know why I’ve always been drawing cartoon style, I was pretty bad at realistic figure drawing. Arn is a very strict teacher actually, he would give me drills and make me re-draw over and over until I would get details right. (He *should* hold workshops, don’t you think?)

It really helped me find the right path again and soon, I was able to draw those colored pencil illustrations posted above and this one below.

Kinda leaning (hah! ????) towards figure drawing these days. ?? #illustration #coloredpencils #artph

A photo posted by Cynthia Bauzon-Arre (@arncyn) on

More soon, guys. I’m also busy working on an interesting personal project which you’ll see work-in-progress pics of in my Instagram.

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Custom Pet Portraits + I Love My Cat

I’d like to to share one of my latest projects, something I never thought I would do since I’ve never really drawn animals other than cats and birds before: custom portraits of my friend April’s Shiba Inus! When she first asked me I wasn’t sure if I could do it so I made this colored pencil sketch of her two Shibas sitting side by side. For practice.
custom pet portraits by cynthia bauzon arre
Obviously I got the proportions all wrong. 😳 Anyway, working on the sketch allowed me to familiarize myself with their features and markings so I eventually felt more at ease drawing them. I think it also helped that Shiba dogs look somewhat “feline”1 with their upright ears and almond-shaped upward-slanting eyes.

And then I made individual portraits, taking into account each of their distinct attributes — for instance a slightly crooked ear for one of them which was from an operation, etc — for a more personal touch. I was confident enough to use watercolor this time. I don’t typically use blacks for coloring but the black and tan Shiba variety called for it and I was quite happy with how they turned out and thankfully, so was their mom. 🙂
custom pet portraits cynthia bauzon arre
These were so fun to do and once I get more dog-drawing practice under my belt, I’ll likely add animal portraits to my custom artwork repertoire. (I will have to draw the line at pet reptiles though… 😯 )
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Meanwhile.. it’s no secret that I love our cat. In fact he’s right there in my blog logo illustration which I haven’t changed for years. He’s also in my still-non-existent handmade store’s logo (see watermark) and in a lot of drawings I’ve done and even in some of Arnold‘s comics as an Easter egg to friends who know us well.

There was one day last week when my mind hit a blank and I couldn’t start working. He was lying on his play mat in front of me and, as if sensing my anxiety, started rolling around playfully. I could never resist when he does that so I went over and gave him a chin and back rub. He looked so content and carefree that I felt like preserving that moment. Without thinking I started sketching him. He kept moving around while I tried capturing all his poses and that was the birth of the series of illustrations below (right) which I ended up turning into a pattern (left).
pet portraits

It’s still being proofed over at Spoonflower but if you like cats too, my orange tabbies pattern is now available on phone covers, iPad sleeves, and more at Zazzle and RedBubble.

  1. for me at least[ back]
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I'm Cynthia Bauzon-Arre, a Filipino watercolor artist & graphic designer. I live in QC with my graphic novelist husband Arnold and our friendly marmalade tabby Abbas. This blog has been chronicling my life, likes, and loves since 2001. [ more ]

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