Sketchbook Round-Up: Volume 16

In which I return to drawing regularly!

2 of the 3 original circus girls from 2012

I'm finally getting back into the swing of things, and it feels really good! 

In the last months of 2015, I almost completely stopped drawing.  I feel like I've been able to pick right back up where I left off, though, which is a relief. My drawing seems to have improved enough to revisit some of my earlier work.  So, I decided to update the circus girls, which was the project with which I came out of my ten-year, post-art-school hiatus in 2012.  They were part of my very first (and only) solo art show in 2013, but unfortunately I wasn't very good at documenting my work at the time, so these pictures are actually from the person who purchased them.

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On New Years Day, I was still working on a three-month colored pencil project (I'll be showing you guys soon!) and didn't want to start sketchbook work on the circus girls until that was finished, so I used a drawing prompt generator that produced the sentence "As he chanted, a light grew from within the potion bottle," and I drew Morrissey working a spell.

After the colored pencil project was finished, I started brainstorming ideas for the circus girls.  I knew I wanted to draw something that would correspond to each of the original drawings without being the exact same subject matter, so I researched vintage circus photography and decided on a dancing girl that would harken back to the juggler, a knife thrower that I could compare to the ring master, and some sort of animal handler that would vaguely resemble the girl with a zebra (not pictured).  She's all ready to be painted now, and I've just started the sketches for the knife thrower.  I'm pretty excited about these pieces so far!