As usual, my pen was moving while I was chatting. Today I was thinking of making 'sxy' girls - sometimes the people I draw ask me for that. A sxy face, um, here's what I came up with today:

These would work. But I look at them, and it makes me wonder. What makes these so called 'sxy' faces? They both have big eyes. One has big hair and the other has big lips. Is big 'sxy'? If so, then the one with the small lips would not be considered 'sxy', but it is.

So is it personality? Attitude? The first one looks smug. And the second one looks scared...

Seems like any features can be 'sxy'. And any attitude can be 'sxy'. So what is it that people are asking for when they ask for 'sxy'?

BTW, what makes the picture look 'scared'? And what makes the picture look 'smug'? But that's another question.

I'm at it again. Before going to Yoga, I revisited the picture from 08/06/08. After Yoga, I drew it yet again:

Now I'm trying to relax more while drawing. Beautiful approach for beautiful drawings. Relax - now, that doesn't mean to sleep!

I'm fluctuating between two approaches. I guess I'll work on both of them, and use whichever one is appropriate at the time when I'm drawing.

The first approach - 3-d shapes. Like wedge, egg, pyramid, book, dish-detergent-bottle. That sort of stuff. Definite decisions in the predraw instead of wild scribbling. Here are 2 pictures (just the line-art) using that approach. I was able to sit back and relax. I like the results. Even before putting in any shading, it looks real solid:

Until I do maaaaannyyy of those though, I think the second approach will work better at parties. It's much faster. NO predraw at all this time. Just basic knowledge and simple shapes

• drawing from the inside out. As you can see in the following sample, though, this approach usually grows too big for the page.

But when I try things like limited predraw of outsides before doing insides with marker it gets stiff and boring to me. So now I'm thinking of trying athird approach - no predraw - outside-in. Stay tuned - I hope to post those studies soon.

Meanwhile, here's the picture drawn from the inside out - with no predraw:

Studying continues.

Today I decided to simplify. To make my job EEEEasy. At first, I thought this was perfect. Here's a simple picture drawn with basic answers:

'This will make my job easy', I thought. So I drew another man. Ick - what a crummy picture. I had to draw him again. The 2nd one came out easily, but I can't very well draw everybody 2ce at a party:

Maybe that was just a difficult Caricature. I tried the simple approach with another photo. Counfounded again. I was only satisfied with the 2nd picture:

Sooooo, it might look easy, it might be fun, but I still have to focus and work at it when I'm creating Artwork. There's no easy way out of working. Keeping it real.