STUDIO STUFF

I like to keep all sorts of items I find interesting around me in the studio. It gets to be a bit cluttered but that's OK.
I read that Freud had a collection of figurines and here's a picture of Ray Bradbury in his office.  He's even got a wonderful model of the Nautilus (behind the red dinosaur) he got while working for Disney.  Anyway, these things are great to sketch and often show up in my artwork.

ANATOMY

So, how useful is it really to have a good knowledge of anatomy when drawing people?
It should be, but I can't really say why exactly. Anyway, I keep working to improve my understanding of what lies below the blanket of skin.  Drawing something improves your visual memory of it.

Drawing with a ball point in my sketchbook.  Suppose there were birds that discovered they could use the warmth of geysers to hatch their eggs.  Of course, it didn't work well and often hard boiled them instead.  Naturally they became extinct.

OK, time to get back to the portrait.

I decided the body seemed to be leaning in too much, so I adjusted it.  Practice with figure drawing helps. I'm not just copying a photo here.
Also, blonds are no fun to paint.  The hair color is complex.
Lots of little adjustments needed in skin tone, eyes, nose, mouth, jaw line, etc. 
Still thinking about cloths and background.

Figure drawing group again.  Work, work, work!  Each of these took 23 to 30 minutes.  I think I'm improving. I'm able to spend a little time putting a face on.  Last year most of my drawings were headless.
Hands and feet are almost as much trouble as the entire figure.  They never look quite right.  It's not unusual to put six fingers or toes on without realizing it.

Just a little sketch from the sketchbook today.

Lately I've been spending a lot of time with Sketchup, the free Google program for creating 3D objects.  But it's time to show the next step in the progress of painting the portrait.  So here it is.  Basic colors are starting to appear and the shapes are being restated with lines.