Black and white charcoal/pastel drawing on toned charcoal paper. Drawn on dark gray Canson Mi-Teintes charcoal paper. Time-lapse drawing video. Forward facing portrait drawing.
I am pleased to announce that Heidi Rounds Drawing Studio is expanding to include prints and originals. I recently added a series of Rocky Mountain Wildflowers that look great as a set or individually. Prices start at $12. Please check out the store to place orders. I have appreciated your support throughout the years and am always available for commissioned portraits and custom drawings.
With just a little clean up and a few adjustments, I’m calling this one done. Titled “The Rest”. 18″ x 22″. See the progression of this drawing here, here and here.
This commissioned drawing was just lovely to draw. Clean and crisp customer supplied photograph, great lighting and the tipped horizon line just put it over the top. One of my recent faves. Beautiful couple too.
Commissioned drawing 16″ x 20″. “Shroud of Turin”. A bit stylized as requested by my client. You can purchase another faith-inspired drawing, “Amazing Grace” here.
Grateful for commissioned drawings taking most of my time this week. Not a lot done, but was able to squeeze in the valves. Winning! You can check out my previous update here and the finished drawing here.
Got the hand drawn in. Hard to tell but the paper is a very dark grey. Tricky with skin. Soooo much white! Hoping the benefit will be in the high and low trumpet shades and highlights. You can check out my next update here and the finished drawing here.
Commissioned drawing. 16″ x 20″. I decided to leave white out of the shirt as I thought it would be distracting. The background was important on this one as the drawing wouldn’t have made sense without it.
Commissioned drawing. 16″ x 20″. This was built from four seperate photographs. Bringing grandkids together with their grandparents in their younger years. Very touching tribute for this family. Grateful that I was able to help them with this project.
Wrapping up a very busy holiday season. I celebrate tonight with a sore hand and a warm heart. Happy Holidays and thank you for all the love and support this year. Cheers!!!
Very technical drawing of a car dealership completed. The reflections in the glass were no joke. Each panel had to be drawn and shaded separately while still looking like they go together. Commissioned drawing 12″ x 22″.
Harley #2. Commissioned drawing. 16 x 20. This one is a combination of charcoal, pastel pencil and colored pencil. Strange combo, but I wanted brighter reds. The red pastel was way too muted. See another Harley Davidson drawing here. Buy a Harley Davidson drawing print here.
Commissioned drawings. Each are 8″ x 10″. These little beauties are proof that you can get a lot of information in on a smaller drawing when provided with a very clean and crisp photograph.
Commissioned drawing 12″x15″. This one took a bit of learning and patience but was very rewarding to finish. I don’t usually become attached to work I do for clients but it was a little hard to ship this one out.
Time-Lapse black and white portrait drawing of baby girl. 16″ x 20″. Commissioned drawing. Black and white pastel pencil and charcoal on charcoal paper. Photo-realistic drawing.
When working on commissioned portraits I use a very elementary system of grid lines. I first print out whatever I’m drawing and than box it out with 1″ squares. If my drawing is a 16″ x 20″ the boxes will be 2″. This ensures that my proportions are correct (or as correct as I can get them). I did this video to show the boxes and how I use them. There are lots of ways of laying out a drawing. This, for me, is the easiest and fastest way. The lines disappear on the charcoal paper I usually draw on, so I did this drawing on regular drawing paper with a 3B drawing pencil. It was a lovely break to get away from the pastel pencils for a few and just draw without blending or worrying about highlights.
After two months, patiently waiting to hear, I am happy to announce that my drawing “Intention” was selected to be a part of the Seattle Erotic Art Festival. As an artist who loves drawing the human figure it is such an honor to have been chosen to exhibit an erotic piece that is subtle yet has a strong message.
In the art world, which is dominated by professional painters, I find that drawing is sometimes seen as a technique that is used for layout or quick, gestural drawings. I am so excited that I have been able to hold true to the medium that I love and still compete in today’s “Modern Art” world. If you’re in Seattle toward the end of April, come check it out (if you’re into that sort of thing). I can’t image you could attend this festival and not have a good time. 😉
Okay… I know this sooo last month, but I just had a chance to write about it. Google Arts & Culture App now has “Search Your Selfie” where you take a selfie and they will match you up with artwork of old masters that look similar to you. For the purpose of this post and curiosity, I downloaded the app and you can see my match in the sample below.
PROMISE?! This is the best they could do? God love this woman, but am I really that ugly? I felt like I looked pretty good this morning. That good feeling has very quickly fizzled away and I have been left only seeing my sad, saggy eyes and ever sinking jowls. Does this portrait capture my essence? My God, I hope not.
After wiping away a few tears I mustered the strength to continue this post and carry on. I’m okay. Thank you.
Some genius out there thought that it would be a good way for our younger generation to connect with artwork and get “cultured” by starting with a selfie? As a parent of ever aging children, I am constantly growing more and more concerned about how much our kids are learning about how to value themselves based on their looks. I’m a 40-something, confident woman who is only a little hurt by this comparison. What would a 13-14 year old girl think of themselves after some God awful comparison made by a computer program? I remember being 14 years old and being crushed at the slightest thing. I wanted to be loved by everyone. I wanted to feel pretty in my 5″ 10′ body with zits covering my face and greasy hair.
Will this app do anything except destroy the little self-esteem we have left? I’m all about Art History. All in for culture. Let’s get more educated. Let’s get our kids interested in art, but my God, does it have to start with a fucking selfie? Aren’t our expectations as a society just becoming more and more self-absorbed? Should I expect that my 13 year old daughter won’t be totally into herself for her entire life? Selfies, selfies, selfies… I can’t take it anymore. Turn your fucking phones off! Go to a museum. Look around. Smell the galleries. Get close to the art. Stop and actually get a good look. I promise you will be moved by something. Let’s not compare ourselves to artwork. Let’s instead teach our children that they are gorgeous with whatever “flaws” they believe they were given.
The Google Arts & Culture app is otherwise amazing and worth the download. Would I have written a more positive blog about the selfie feature if it had likened me to a classic portrait of a beautiful woman? Maybe, but I hope not.
Tomorrow night is the opening reception at the Own an Original Art Exhibition in Littleton, CO. The recent drawing I completed (shown below) will be exhibited at the show. Yay and ugh!
Show openings are a perfect excuse for my husband and I to get out of the house without kids for a few hours. This would be even more amazing if we had even a little bit of time once we got to ANY opening. There is, no fail, always something else planned on those evenings. This year? Our daughters choir concert at 6:30 pm. Show opens at 5:30 pm. Half hour drive to get to the school. See the problem? If we’re lucky we’ll have a half hour to peruse the gallery and shove in as many hors d’oeuvres and wine (okay, let’s be honest – lemonade) into our guts as we can hold.
With both my husband and I being artists, you would think at openings we would be “those people” slowly passing between the pieces of art and meticulously gazing at each piece in a desperate attempt to figure out the ‘true meaning’ . Instead, we quickly walk the show and very judgmentally talk about everyone else. We crack jokes and laugh too loud, but try very hard to behave and keep up with the small talk that takes place. Sounding smart is hard for me. If someone asks what materials I used or where I got my inspiration I generally draw a blank and stare at them like I’ve just had a mini-stroke. I try to avoid this problem by repeating the brand of pencils and paper I use on my way to each show. Doesn’t matter. I still make a fool of myself and get laughed at by my husband and God knows who else.
After our short critique and observations, we generally hunker down near my piece and try to eves-drop on what people are saying. We’re like the background actors in a commercial that are pretending to be involved in a very serious conversation but are actually making no sound. We look stupid and don’t care. Well, my husband might care, but he’s nice and doesn’t say anything. I love hearing what people think of my drawings. I love watching their faces when they see it for the first time. The best comments? “How did she do that?” There is no better compliment.
Of all the things I do with my art, shows are my favorite. I love the competition. I love submitting work and waiting to hear if I got in. Below is an image of the first drawing I submitted to a juried show. It was 2009. It’s an pen & ink drawing that was drawn with live models in a open figure class. I drew it in about 20 minutes and never thought about it again. My husband saw it in my portfolio and said he love it. So, that was that. I submitted and got in. I was so nervous about strangers looking at something I had done. I remember driving to the show and wanting to throw up. I am very insecure about my work and it’s hard for me to find satisfaction in anything I have ever painted or drawn. I have learned through the years that most people don’t see what I see. They don’t see the chin that is too low or the eye that’s slanted a little to the left. It’s now become a pleasure to have my work represented at exhibits and I am more than happy to be a part of something that has such amazing artists showing amazing work.
If you’d like to join us tomorrow night, we would love to see you during the three seconds we’ll be there. You’ll find me near the dessert table. Cheers!
Happy Summer! From now until August 1st I am offering 25% off any portrait or custom artwork. Please contact me and we can work together to create a piece of art customized for you or your loved one. This is a quick promotion so if you’ve had something in mind don’t hesitate to contact me. As always, free freight will be included in the Continental US. Please visit my ordering/pricing page for information on how to start.
I am so excited to have completed this drawing. I love figure and the human body and have been wanting to do a more “sensual” drawing for some time now. I’m hoping that it excites the senses and draws the viewer in for a second look. I titled it “Intention” for, hopefully, obvious reasons. If I offend, I apologize – Well, not really. I warned you with the blog title.
I love taking the time to draw for myself. A few times a year, I create new pieces to be used in shows that I am interested in being a part of. The last few have been portraits, so this is a nice break. Something new, something naked.
As I have stated before, I am always happy to quote for freelance artwork as well as portrait. If you have something in mind, let me know. I’d love to talk with you.
My kids have been watching me draw since they were born. I don’t push them to be artists mainly because I don’t want them to tell me that I suck someday when they develop mad skills. I try to follow the Ignorance is Bliss policy in our home as often as possible. However, as they have shown interest, I have taken the time to explain what I’m working on.
When drawing a large portrait, I frequently set up the drawing in the back of a room so that I can see what it looks like from a distance. This is where I find most of my mistakes. On a detailed drawing I may put it back every hour or so to see how it’s coming along. I have taken the time to show my kids (if they care that day) the things that I see that are incorrect so that they have a good “eye” for fine art. I want them to be able to see mistakes or things that are out of proportion in case they are ever interested in creating portraits or artwork that would require this type of skill. This has completely backfired.
When I used to get, “That’s really good, Mommy!” I now get, “Oh, Mom, that highlight is in the wrong spot.” or, “The ear is too dark compared to the rest of the drawing.” or, “Why did you draw the hair like that?” It’s becoming unbearable. There isn’t a thing I do lately that doesn’t get severe criticism from my kids. What used to be cute is now totally annoying. Now, when I set back my drawings, I have three little people lined up next to me. All of us rubbing our chins with our heads cocked to the side. My cute little critics now have nothing nice to say and only point out problems which are sometimes intentional “problems” that I actually like. So, my new policy? Hide what I’m working on. I cover half the page if I hear little feet coming or cover the whole thing when I get up from my drawing table. I am actually hiding my work from my own children.
Lesson of the day? Keep your kids ignorant of what you do. Tell them that you’re nothing but a bad-ass all the time. It will make your life easier.
While most of my drawings are left blank, I have found that in certain circumstances it is necessary to add a background in order to place the subject in context to its surroundings. While this may have been a decent portrait on its own, I think adding the background of mountains and water really helps pull the drawing together and make it look more like a completed piece. This drawing was done in about two hours, so the details are limited. I did it quickly to make sure the video didn’t run too long. The drawing is 12″ x 15″ on toned paper with pastel pencil. It provides for lots of contrast with the black and white. Enjoy!
Pablo PicassoI recently heard a story about Pablo Picasso that has me thinking. The story goes that Picasso, in his eighties at the time, was drinking at a bar in Paris when a woman recognized him and asked if he would sketch something for her on a napkin. He obliged and did a quick sketch (perhaps similar to the one shown below). She was very excited but instead of him handing it back when he was done, he apparently tried to charge her a couple thousand dollars. When she objected and said it only took a moment to sketch, he replied “No, it took me forty years.”“Dove of Peace” Pablo PicassoWhat!? Okay, okay, I get it. He’s world famous. Everyone thinks he’s the shiz. He spent decades mastering his craft. He wouldn’t be where he was in his career without those forty years of work and practice. But really? Could he sound like a bigger dick? Speaking of dick, one of Picasso’s most famous works depicts a woman with a dick on her face. Seriously! A dick on her face. See below.“Le Reve” (The Dream) Pablo PicassoNow, you may feel that I don’t have a right to talk shit about a “Master Painter”. I probably don’t. Since I can remember, I was told that Picasso was a genius. He broke the boundaries. You can’t go through an Art History or Art Appreciation class without getting more than your fill of all things Picasso. I have yet to be convinced. I tried. I really did.I relate this same feeling to being a little girl and my mom serving me liver and onions. I would cry and say I didn’t like it and refuse to eat it. She would tell me that if I put ketchup on it, I would never know that it was liver and it would taste good. Now I’m telling you, ketchup or no ketchup. It tasted like shit. You get where I’m going with this…Picasso was a master. He put ketchup on the world of shitty art and made it taste good to his audience. Kudos to him. However, I can’t bear the thought that he was so conceited to try to charge a woman in a bar an exorbitant amount of money for something so simple. Yes, yes. She probably would have turned around and sold it for a large profit and Picasso was no fool. He would have been aware of this. So, if this story is true, why not just say “no” to this poor woman. Did you want to get her hopes up only to make a fool of her? I have made up my mind.Pablo Picasso was an asshole.I would love to hear your thoughts on this matter, but please don’t try to convince me otherwise.Thank you.
With the holidays around the corner, I am offering all clients 25% off list price on any portrait size until December 16th. Please visit my ordering/pricing page to get started. Make sure and mention this ad.
“The pain of creativity is ingrained and never far from the artists consciousness.” – Leonard Everett Fisher
I wrote this quote in my sketchbook in 1992. I was a junior in high school and having problems coming up with ideas in my Studio Art class. Nearly 25 years later, I am having the same problems I had when I was seventeen, hot and still firm.
As I have stayed busy with commissioned work which I am more than grateful for, I have deadlines fast approaching for juried shows I am interested in being a part of. I work well under pressure, but am racking my brains trying to think of what to do this year. I feel like creativity is either something you have or you don’t. It’s like a sense of humor. You can’t bullshit being funny. Everyone sees right through it. I have accepted that I am not a creative person. I have lived in jeans and tank tops since I was a teenager. Same hair. Same makeup. Same style of music. Same food. I try to be creative in the way I dress or the way I do my hair. When I make attempts to change, I look like an idiot. It’s not me. The same is happening in the creative side of my artwork.
I try to set myself up so that I can clear my mind and focus. I love walking and being in nature. I love big sky and clean air. I love the sun and rain and all things outdoors. I never have as much of this as I need.
Last week I had my daughter home for three days with a stomach flu. Made for a very unaccomplished week. Yesterday, our family packed up to spend a day in the mountains. Our picnic and all things needed for a day out were ready to go. As we were getting in the car to leave, my daughters nose started to bleed. No big deal. We went inside to wait for it to stop. We waited, and waited, and waited. It didn’t stop bleeding. As I have gotten older, I have developed a strong phobia to blood pouring from my children, and this wasn’t a normal nose bleed. It was out of a horror movie. I tried to stay away so I wouldn’t pass out but my husband left me to go to the bathroom – convenient. I did everything I could think of, but the faucet of blood pouring from her nose made us soon realize that she would bleed to death if we didn’t do something. We gathered the family and instead of our day in sun with quiet and clean air, we spent the next 4 hours in the ER while my poor daughter was clamped, cleaned and bleeding all over herself and everyone else in a tiny, depressing room. Needless to say, she made it out just fine, but feeling like complete shit, we spent the rest of the day at home.
Glad for the thought that tomorrow is a new I day, I went to bed last night grateful for time I would have today to walk, get some sun, clear my mind and draw. My daughters stomach flu from last week had a different idea. My son has been throwing up since 1 am. He is laying in a lump next to me in a chair moaning and groaning. No serenity here. My poor kids.
The reason I wasted everyone’s time writing about this is because I feel like I would only ever be able to find and be in touch with my creative side if I built a shack somewhere deep in a forest where I lived off the land and had no contact with anyone. Being creative for me is like trying to think of how a song goes when there is another song playing in the background. There’s always a song playing in the background. Hmm… what to do… what to do…
Years ago, my husband and I would spend our Thursday nights at Open Drawing. This is where you pay a small fee and sit with other artists and have a model (usually nude) in the middle of the room and for a couple hours you can draw, without instruction in your own style and at your own pace. It is a very quiet and proper place, for obvious reasons. My mom would take the kids for a couple hours. We would stop at Starbucks and try to get there early so we could pick a good spot and get easels next to each other in the back of the room. I’m claustrophobic and don’t like feeling trapped between people. We loved going. It was our little bit of time alone each week.
I took these opportunities to draw very seriously. I wasn’t in school anymore, and I loved having live models to draw from. My husband, Mike, however wasn’t as serious as I was. He is a very talented and capable artist, but would become impatient when having to draw for a long stretch. There were times where the model would hold the same pose for 2 hours with only a couple breaks in between. Mike would look for every reason to get me in trouble. I remember one of the first classes we attended. I had been concentrating on finishing before our session ran out. I looked over at Mike’s drawing and he had a complete figure minus the head. There was a soldier he had drawn on the side of the paper throwing a grenade. Where the head of the model should be was instead smoke rising up and ashes. I, of course, was taken by surprise and started laughing. I had to leave the room. Everyone was giving me nasty looks and the model didn’t look happy. I was horrified. That was just the start. From then on, Mike would go out of his way to try and make me laugh while sitting in a completely quiet room with other very skilled artist. He would do this in a way that would leave me looking like an asshole as he would immediately go back to work, very seriously like nothing had happened. I don’t think we have a lot of the drawings anymore, but I found these last week when I was digging for paper in our giant stack of drawings in the basement. Thought it would be fun to share.
I am so excited and nervous to get going with my new portrait artist website and career. My amazing husband has worked tirelessly getting everything ready for me.
I have always imagined a time in my life that I would be able to work as an artist. When I was young, I imagined myself in a house with a huge studio. I would wear flowy dresses. I would have nude models going in and out through my home and gardens. In between my numerous lovers, I would create paintings and drawings that would shock and awe society. I would intimidate and bewilder those around me. Classrooms of children would see my work and decide at that moment, that they too, wanted to be an artist.
Three kids and numerous shitty desk jobs later, I sit here. I sit in old-lady shorts and a tank top. I sit with my hair in an “I’ve given up” bun. I spent my morning cleaning up jammies, undies, toys, hair-ties and whatever else my kids left on the floor before going to school today. I decided to give up on trying to get the goo (doo) out of the intestines of my daughters Doggie Doo toy that hasn’t been able to poop since she fed it too much yesterday. These are my days.
There is no romance. We are all trying to make a living. I do this today for my kids. I have always preached to them that they can be anything in life if they work hard enough. This is my “anything”. I want them to watch me fulfill a dream. I want them to see that with work, you don’t have to follow society.
I sit here, at my desk, with a cup of coffee and music playing in the background. I sit with the project I’m working on. I sit here feeling grateful, for there is no place I would rather be.
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You can check out my previous update 
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