Portrait Gallery Sketches

No update since February. That's just scary. Locked in some of the worst work overtime known to man and  despite life drawing most weeks, having very little to show for it. I've been drawing all the time though, mostly learning things, as much as I can and sometimes this leaves me with very little to put on the blog.

Trying to learn new things in drawing is interesting, I've found that my skill level takes a big hit as I try to wrestle with some of the new ideas. You think that you would just get better in a nice straight line but I've found I get way worse. I'm not surprised people hold onto bad habits rather than trying to break them.

This week I got a fairly successful life drawing, might put it up, might not but it marks an end of a very long plateau. I switched from drawing on newsprint to drawing on proper paper and because charcoal behaves quite differently on the two surfaces, this hit me for six. I just wasn't feeling comfortable with it but gradually this seems to be getting easier. I find that if you come up against a barrier you have to face it. I could never draw at an easel, so in the end I bought one, didn't let myself draw any other way and now I prefer it to sitting. I also couldn't draw open handed, again.... force yourself to do it and it becomes second nature.

So here's a page of museum sketches, this was done in a rare day off hanging around Edinburgh. Happy (ish)  with these; as you can see I struggled with the brow line on the bottom left but all and all an enjoyable day's drawing.

February Tonal Studies

Well it's been a slightly less successful week, I completely tanked it in life drawing and so here we have some tonal studies instead. I tried these in carbon pencil, some have blending and others don't (I think they're more successful like the top left study). The Velazquez bottom left is rubbish, don't think I was feeling one and doing a 3/4 portrait like that as a small thumbnail proved tricky. Charcoal works better for these, it's easier to move and play around with the tone.

But yes life drawing....what is going on there? I should be so much farther along than I am and I know not to make a lot of the mistakes that I'm making. I think I haven't got to the stage where I've relaxed into it, it's still a struggle and you know how it goes when you think about things too much.... Awkward pose and shifting model last week but I should have been able to handle it. I seem to be like that, I'll either really progress or really tank it and nowhere in between.

Museum Sketch

I meant to get this up on the blog several weeks ago but the weather has been so bad I couldn't take a proper photo. These drawings were done at Christmas, we visited the National Museum in Edinburgh for a day and whilst I did take my sketchbook, in reality I spent most of the time chasing after my son who was having a wail of a time running off everywhere :)

But I ended up going back by myself for two more days and it was bliss. Not that it wasn't without it's difficulties, the first day was tough, lots of people filing past/ blocking the light and I also couldn't figure out what type of drawing I wanted to do. In the end I actually got a decent page of pencil drawings from day one but then I ruined them by trying to go over them in ink and wash afterwards. This is the hard thing about learning, you have to accept that quite often you will balls it up. I'd love to be good with pen and ink but I find it the hardest thing to master.

Which brings me to day two. Less busy and the museum has quite a nice Egyptology section. Looking at the statues really reminded me of the amazing pencil drawings by Disney artist Paul Felix on Emperor' s New Groove. They were drawn in blended graphite and although I decided to try out carbon pencil instead, essentially I was thinking that instead of drawing in line I would be drawing in tone. Similar idea.

And it turns out I really like carbon pencil. It feels like a cross between pencil and charcoal but best of all it blends very nicely but doesn't cause a mess like charcoal. And drawing tonally works very well in an environment like a museum because trying to build your drawing up in line takes way too long.

The drawing on the top right is my least favorite  I think I really lost the idea of concentrating on the simple shapes first, on the other drawings I managed this better and I think it shows.

I've been busy in work for a long time now and the tiredness is affecting my ability to get out and draw. I haven't lost my enthusiasm for it but I am physically done at the weekends. But for those two days at Christmas it was really nice to feel rested, de-stressed and get out there with the sketch pad. I hope that there are more days like that this year. I think about that Neil Gaiman speech a lot and right now that mountain seems mighty far away.....

December Drawing

Semi successful week I think, there's something up with the head proportionally but I can't quite put my finger on it. That's the problem with drawing, you can be off by a fraction and it immediately jumps out. I didn't get much time to refine this to be honest, the time limit is too short for this type of drawing. She's sitting on drapes and I never even got round to those! Wish I had.

I'm starting to move away from newsprint, I really like drawing on it, the charcoal layers up nicely but you can only work it so much until you almost go through the paper. So I got some Strathmore Charcoal paper for next week, it has a slight grain which might take some getting used to but we'll see how it goes. Still need to play around with surfaces, haven't quite found the one I like yet.

I made a decision to get the head in, I always seems to leave it, so I'm pleased I got it drawn, the hair was a nightmare. Short poses are still posing a problem. I think it's because I'm not sure what I'm aiming for with them, I'd like to be doing them in pen but I'm really not good enough yet. I got a book by Karl Gnass, lots of nice quick drawings and it really made me think.

Hmmmm....yes....

Not sure about this one, I did better with getting most of the figure drawn but really those hands should be in there. Again, the time limit is causing a bit of an issue, I might have to rethink the type of drawing I'm doing in 1.5 hours. I'm rushing to get to the tonal stage and I'd like to be taking a little more time over this. The measuring is getting better though, I think here I may be slightly out: it is definitely starting to click though. That cast shadow over the shoulder is still a problem area and this week I tried putting in the shadow lines with compressed charcoal to make them a little bit more permanent. Not sure if I'll do that again as compressed charcoal can be quite severe and you have to be careful that the drawing doesn't go dark too early as it has here.

As much as I appreciate how difficult a life model' s job is, these guys absolutely love bolt upright long poses and I think that's one of the issues I have with this. The pose is just so darn dull and every week it is similar. It's all practice and on a brighter note the upright pose is good for proportions but still, maybe if I was a better artist I could have enhanced it a little with a bit of a twist or something.

I've been looking at a lot of Dean Keller recently, that great line quality he has with charcoal. I really love his drawings. Thinking about  moving away from the rough newsprint, it holds the charcoal nicely but isn't so good when you start into tone- at least not with my haphazard method.

The regular classes are great though, I come away with so many ideas for things to try the next week. So it's all good :)

Birthday Sketch

On my birthday this year I got a rare day off, just to myself and I went sketching around the art galleries in Edinburgh. I get to do this maybe twice a year and as I was sketching I was thinking what a shame we all don't get to do things like this more often rather than spend time behind a desk.

This is a little cast study from my sketchbooks, measuring a few inches across. I did the original drawing in graphite at the museum, then pen and wash at home, finally adding some gouache and watercolor. I recently picked up some gouache as I like using watercolor and the two work well together but I have to admit my handling of it here is very clumsy, I really couldn't work out how to paint with it. Whilst gouache is opaque, it's not totally opaque and it picks up the ink and wash below- I found this very difficult to control. But there's something in this sketch that might have potential. It needs to be looser, outlining the shadows and filling them in doesn't quite work but as an effect, I like the color in it, I think it works in some ways, it's just lacking experience.

Managed more life class this week. Seem to be getting small improvements every week, post coming soon.

Life Drawing

Another Life Drawing this week,it's OK I think but with a few problems. One is speed, I'm just not fast enough to complete a drawing in 1.5 hours and I was aiming to always get the head, hands and feet in. I think this is still down to being a bit slow in the measuring phase of the drawing, I need to figure out a better methodology there. I'm also hoping that my drawing will loosen up a bit as it's a bit too tight at the moment but I'm not too worried about that versus getting an accurate drawing.

I'm getting my butt kicked on the shorter poses and would like to be getting something out of that, so more work to do there. One interesting problem I'm running into is cast shadows over a dark area. Because shadows are transparent in ambient light you can have an area of the body turning into shade but with a cast shadow falling over the top. An example here is the right shoulder which was definitely in shade but was also getting a strong cast shadow from the neck. I have a feeling I should be leaving one of these out, it doesn't really work on this drawing but I'm not sure how to handle it. It's times like this I wish I could ask a tutor their advice but I can't so......

I have some cast sketches I did at the museum last week, will share these soon :)