Sketchbook drawings

(C) 2018 Dale DiMauro

This is the time of year when I truly dig into my sketchbook as the days become shorter.
I am always eager to improve on capturing the human anatomy. Or at least I aim to.

Lately, I have been adding watercolor washes to some of my portrait studies done in pencil. This gives life to the drawings. I am usually thinking about composition and which color combination to consider when working on these. 

This is also the time of year when I do the bulk of my book reading. In the last month I have been actively reading six books. Two that I finished. One, Grant, by Ron Chernow, is nearly one thousand pages long. Often information from these readings seeps into my drawings. For example, how can you not sketch Grant without considering his involvement during the Civil War.