I can't draw

I was told in my Crit that my drawing style was quite childish and rough and that I needed to work on my drawing skills. I completely agree that I am not the strongest drawer but I have been trying to create my illustration own style which looks deliberately rough and childish, with aggressive crudely drawn faces and crooked teeth.  For some reason I like my models to look like they are angry creatures that are going to bite you. One of my tutors told me to look at the work of Ralph Steadman, Aubrey Beardsley and Quentin Blake, and I was really inspired by thier distinctive rough, yey slightly dark illustration styles.

Ralph Steadman

Aubrey Beardsley 

Quentin Blake

To make it clear of the type of person and image that I wanted to portray, I did an illustration page of my 'muse' for this collection. I used watercolour instead of my usual coloured pencils and pens as I thought it looked more fluid and professional. One of the first things I noticed about Beth when I met her was how beautiful I thought she was despite being scruffy and homeless, so decided to make my character a beautiful homeless girl. I did both a full length drawing and a close up of her face. In the full length illustration, I put her in my favourite orange dress design.

I made her body language look vulnerable and I had her sitting on the floor with her legs bent revealing her knickers and with her bra strap hanging out, which hints to the tragic fact that homeless young girls are often sexually abused, but also in a weird way kind of glamorises and sexulaizes her. I put an empty MacDonald's cup and a sign saying 'Spare some change' next to show that she is quite obviously meant to be poor and homeless. In a way this illustration is more like a styling idea than a reality. 

I drew a close up of her face as a way of getting to know and understand my 'muse', the process was like looking deep into her eyes. I deliberately made her look pale, thin and unhappy. I gave her hollow cheekbones, a pronounced collarbone, bloodshot eyes and a pained expression to show that she is in distress.  I also gave a her gappy crooked teeth because I wanted to uglify her otherwise pretty face and gave her straggly, messy blond hair with the roots growing. This whole look, cheesy as it sounds, is meant to reflect the 1990's 'Herion Chic' look. Disturbingly, one of my tutors commented that it looked like Peaches Geldof, who recently tragically passed away from a heroin overdose, which really disturbed me but got me thinking about whether I subconsciously based my characters appearance on her slightly because I was deeply upset by her death.