But It's a Dry Heat

Archive for February, 2026

Figure Studies, Part One

My morning warmup routine currently consists of doing timed, gesture studies. I usually keep each study to 2 minutes, which is just enough time to get the main lines of action down, but not enough to get lost in details. Later, I’ve been going back and adding a bit of color and a few details to the ones I like.

This one was fun because of the forced perspective, the photo taken from above the model, her feet far below her and pinching off in the perspective.

A Bit of Fanart

More fanart, this time inspired by Voltron: Legendary Defender. Kosmo the space wolf who is a very good boi. In the show, there’s a scene where Keith, attempting to bond with his new pet, a young Kosmo, throws a stick. Kosmo, even as a cub knows he isn’t a dog and shoots Keith a puzzled look. In this drawing, Kosmo, off by himself on a snowy day, explores the notion of playing with a stick. Of course, he’d never fetch it, because…not a dog.

First Try at Portrait Painting

A big chunk of my art practice in 2025 was focused on figure drawing. The effort worth it. My sense of proportions for the human form is much improved. Not perfect, but improved.

What’s still lacking is my ability to draw faces, stylized or realistic. I don’t think I’m face-blind, but when it comes to putting more than a smiley face on a round head, “arting” is still a struggle.

Anyhow, this is my first concerted attempt at a portrait. My reference is a photo of Sophia Lillis that was posted on Reddit.

The process of rendering, adding color, wasn’t inherently difficult (not that I did a great job), but what had me tearing my hair out was her facial proportions. I should have saved earlier steps in the process, because, lol, she started out looking like a middle-aged woman.