ICU

Waiting to hear any news about one of my brothers.  He's been in open-heart surgery.  I know a little more than I did this morning, it's a triple-bypass. 

So I'm passing the time flitting between a few images.  One is a small (2.5" x 3.5) picture of an eye.  I'd like to show you but I have misplaced the chord for downloading from camera.  Not far into it yet anyway, just got it  started.  Watercolor pencils.  Can't guess what kind of look it will have.  The bangs already do not look photorealistic as I've not found the right closeup pic to emulate.  I'm using several different images as ref.

(Ooooh!  Jesseca has suggested an alternate which I'd also like to try.  Needs researching,)

Waiting for the phone to ring and I keep getting robocalls from Holiday Inn trying to sell me a stay there.

I've just about mapped out the Hatshepsut and can begin actual drawing.  Wondering if I can make that epicanthic fold a bit tighter.  Hatshepsut  led Egypt when leaders were expected to be men, and took to wearing not only a man's headdress but the ceremonial beard as well.  I'm undecided whether to draw this.  It's a nod toward gender aspecificity, non-binary so it would support a message I'm happy with.    At least, that's one way to interpret it.  On the other hand, I've seen female leaders (CEOs, heads of state, etc.) who felt they had to model themselves after the worst male behavior to be effective.  That's not something I can encourage.  Most importantly, the visual aspect: I'll have to see what the image needs.  I want a full drawing for the face and possibly the uraeus (snake on the headdress), keep the nemes (Egyptian headdress - ya learn stuff doing a drawing!) more lightly sketched in.  The two sides of the nemes drape over her shoulders, leaving a negative space between and under her throat.  It doesn't look pleasing and I want to break that up, but not by simply drawing her neck...that's dull.  As to the ceremonial beard, there are ancient busts and statues of her both with and without so I'm covered either way - if I drop it, it's not a dodge.

 Almost 5 PM now, been working on these since morning with a few breaks.  Maybe I'll stop and watch videos now.  Or at least change up and map out the Rimsky Korsakoff picture.  Bet you've never seen Rimsky eating a sundae.

I have at least three joke images I'd like to do as well.  One requires heavy construction in Gimp, one would be a drawing, and the last is basically a cartoon - simple, probably light use of watercolor pencils.  That last should be a snap except that I find drawing simply - say, cartoons or characters - is exceedingly difficult for me.  Photorealism, that's easy be comparison.  Seriously, it takes skill to make a simple line drawing that looks good.