It’s the doorknob to the bathroom, shown in the post immediately before this one.

I have discovered using a single dark colored pencil, such as Prismacolor black or sepia, for sketching. It’s difficult to erase, so that temptation is gone, and I can easily add tones–something that’s much harder to do with ink. This sketchbook has Strathmore 80 lb. paper, and its medium grain works well with the colored pencil. I’ve resolved to use up all the perfectly good sketchbooks in my stash before buying another one.

After drawing my own mouth for awhile, I thought, why not try to copy some mouths by an artist who really knew how to draw? I chose Rubens. What a master. He established a vocabulary of drawing that we take for granted today. My copies are pretty feeble, and also though the challenge was just to draw a mouth, I couldn’t resist putting in the whole face.

All the mouths on this page were drawn while looking in the mirror except for the two on the far right of the page. Those were copied from the book Drawing People (How to portray the clothed figure) by Barbara Bradley.

There’s that oatmeal bowl again.