Back from the dead? A fruit-bat-dog!

thomas-clausen-2016-10-03a-dog-pen

Friends! It’s been one thousand years since you last heard from me, and I am sorry!

I’ve been up to a lot of strange things – nourishing my second hobby, which is learning languages (I’m working hard at moving forward with Arabic!) – working my slightly unsatisfying and out-of-my-field job making kitchen counter-tops – eating pizza and feeling bad about not drawing!

I’ve been drawing so little that I had a hard time finding a pen that wasn’t dried out for this one!

This little guy is called Timber. The owners call him a fruit-bat. I call him first drawing in months, and here’s to getting back in gear (I hope I’m not jinxing it now!)

I’d also be happy to do some of those drawings for money that I do. Or I’ll never be able to afford that trip to Greece!

 

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Gem

Quick sketch of a guy with his camera

 

Again a Reddit gets drawn sketch – this guy wanted to have a drawing made of him holding his camera. I wanted to try one of those really quick pen sketches with loosely added watercolor to make it come alive. I often see people making those, and really love how this minimal attack can give really nice results.

I think the last time I tried doing something similar was when I tried to copy some great watercolor cyclist sketches by Maxine Dodd very very long ago.

I actually drew this so fast that I accidentally dipped my watercolor brush in my coffee. But never worry. It tastes just fine.

753thomas-dalsgaard-clausen-2015-11-25f sketch guy and his camera in pen and watercolor

Sketch of Vladimir Putin seeming less than amused

thomas-dalsgaard-clausen-2015-11-25a portrait of vladimir putin in pen

I did my angry Erdogan sketch earlier, so here’s Putin. You could argue that there’s something uniquely fitting about his facial expression. But then again – this is just how he always looks. His eyes got a little wobbly. I can’t seem to draw portraits with aligned eyes – at all. On my previous baby portrait, Laura commented that she thought it looked cute. I’m not 100% sure that the same goes for Putin, but I’ll let you judge that one.

Putin is next in line for my “Rulers of the world” project where I will eventually draw every head-of-state in the world.

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Little face in profile

thomas-dalsgaard-clausen-2015-11-24d sketch of boy in profile

Once you get started with Reddit gets drawn it gets hard to stop! People just keep posting great photos to draw from!
I rarely draw in profile, so this one was fun. I really like the white skin against the black background. The woolly clothing was and remains a challenge. I haven’t figured out a great way to render that..

This was my 745th sketch since the 9th September 2014!

Another lounging dog – in pencil

thomas-dalsgaard-clausen-2015-11-24a sketch of a lounging dog in pencil

All the pets I draw these days tend to hang around in very comfortable poses and positions. Here’s a drawing of a Labrador retriever looking like he’s considering something important. Or very deep. Or food related.

A few months ago, I remember thinking that I’ve somehow made a breakthrough in regards to composition and disposition of the paper. Well, I was wrong. These days, for some reason, I seem to constantly need to correct a jaw, make a nose smaller or cut off ears in order to make my sketch fit on the paper. As you see in this one, I’ve got plenty of space above the pup’s head, but the chin seems to be a little compact (and it is – the photo is not like that!).. I suppose I better start planning out my drawings a little better from the beginning.

This one was another free drawing request

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A sketch of a cat in oil pastels

oil pastel sketch of a cat

I did this sketch upon a request from @WitchetyMog on twitter. Mostly, my drawings are in pen, but I’ve got a few different art materials laying around that I don’t have the slightest idea how to use. So this one is in oil pastels! – with a little graphite thrown in. Oil pastels (and dry pastels too really) are really difficult to control in my world. In fact, you need to use special paper, and probably draw much bigger than my usual 4×6 inches – oh and then there are techniques. I just have fun with it. I’ve seen people do amazing things with pastels – and even the so-called “photo realistic” drawings, which seems like quite a feat. It’ll never be my goal, though, I’ve got a camera that can make photo-realistic paintings in 1/40th of a second. If I were do draw in pastels more often, I’d probably use it to make something more expressive (or let’s say messy!).

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Lounging cat sketch

thomas-dalsgaard-clausen-2015-11-19a sketch of a lounging cat

This is a cat named Niko requested by @vickisarris on twitter

Don’t forget that you can request a free sketch of your pet if you want!

I’ve been neglecting this blog for a long time. I call it One drawing daily, but sometimes it’s been one drawing every four days or something like that. The reason is that I’ve been really busy with my studies. The good news is that I just presented my thesis-project today, and that I passed the thing! That means that I now go from being a stressed out student to being a lazy couch-potato! I’ve really been looking forward to this, and I plan on making it an occasion to get back to being more regular with this blog, experimenting a little more with my drawings, and having fun! I also hope to be able to scale up the whole pet-portraits on commission deal, all the while having time to also make drawings not of cats and dogs. (Oh, and then I ought to go look for a job too, I suppose?)

Thanks to everyone who’s still sticking around after months of inactivity on this site as well as all of those “bulk” posts. I’m going to try and make more of an effort out of it now!

This was my 736’th drawing since September 2014!

11 tired sketches and drawings!

Drawing of a silly dog

Sketch of a dog in pen

A quick sketch of a happy dog!

Sketch of a room

This is a pencil perspective that I’m using as a means of visualization on a project I am making in architecture school.

sketch of a roof garden view

This is the same deal. View from a roof garden.

Drawing of a cat in pen

And here’s a cat sketch. I’ve been really busy lately, so I might have skipped  a few days in between some of these

Sketch of a cat in pen

Another cat in pen. Playing  a little with the background

Sketch of a dog

This is the third out of three dog sketches. It didn’t go really well as you can see – it took me three attempts to make something I eventually was happy with!

Drawing of a dog in pen

Second attempt – a little rough.

Drawing of a silly dog

And here’s the third one. I think that the sillyness of this pose helped bring out  something positive in the sketch as opposed to the two others!

Drawing of a dog in pen

Another one that I’m not too happy with – Very soon, I’ll be having more time on my hands to actually draw something that’s not rushed every day !

Drawing of a cat in pen

A cat!

Commissioned drawing of a boxer dog called Henry

And finally – here’s a commissioned portrait of Henry the boxer, that i just finished. I hope you like it! If you’re interested in seeing more of my custom pet portraits –  please head over to my other site, tclausen.net ! – I’ll post that last one over there shortly.

These were my 725-735th drawings since the 9th September 2014 !