Thursday, May 30, 2013

More Sketching

Challenged myself today.  I like finding unusual poses and perspective and then seeing if I can actually draw it freehand.  Today's challenge was a sketch of a cute foal.  This is not a finished drawing, again it's just a sketch but I do believe I captured the babies expression and body language along with the interesting pose. Completed with a #2 pencil on cheap drawing paper. This photo was provided by Cindy Weitzel on Artist Reference Photos FaceBook Page.
Hope you like it!

Thanks for stopping by :)


Just Sketching

Not feeling very motivated right now so just did some sketches the last few nights.  These are all done with a #2 pencil on cheap drawing paper.
Hope you like them!

Thanks for stopping by :)

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Pony Challenge

I kept telling myself, this is "just a sketch".  Ha, ha!  I like to challenge myself with unusual poses and I'm still trying for 100% anatomically accurate even when "just a sketch".  So, I saw this really great photo capture on Paint My Photo website and had to have a go.  It was taken by Dave Webb and is a pose of two ponies fighting. Even though it is "just a sketch" I kept wanting to fiddle with it and add more and more details LOL! I had so much fun with this pose, may have to do it again on decent paper and take more time than just sketching to get the poses completely accurate! Ah well, maybe next time :)
Hope you like it!
Thanks for stopping by :)

Friday, May 17, 2013

Seagull Flyby

This is a graphite drawing on fairly cheap drawing paper.  It's approximately 8" x 8.5".  I saw this really neat photo on the Artist Reference Photos FB page.  If you're not familiar with this page, you should acquaint  yourself with it.  There is an agreement that you read and if you agree to the terms, you sign the agreement and then you are free to use any photo on the site to paint or draw from as long as you abide by the rules :)
They also have monthly challenges both for the photographers and for the artists. 
The photo that won for this months art challenge was taken by Rachel Taylor and is titled "The Seagull Flies By".  I thought it was a pretty good challenge for me to attempt to draw using graphite.
So, that's what I did LOL :)
I'm not completely satisfied with it but most of my dissatisfaction comes from the type of paper I used. I usually only use the cheap drawing paper for quick sketches.

Hope you like it!

Thanks for stopping y :)

Monday, May 13, 2013

Tiger- WIP Update

Well, I got a little carried away today while working on this painting and forgot to stop and take progress pictures.  I used all the same colors as the previous post an also introduced new colors to the painting.
The new colors were:
102 Cream, 165 Juniper Green, 168 Earth Green Yellowishh, 184 Dark Naples Ochre, 233 Cold Gray IV, 181 Payne's Gray, 230 Cold Gray I and 131 Medium Flesh.
I continued on with the fur and started added in the darker areas. I also started on the leaves.
Hope you like it!

Thanks for stopping by :)

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Tiger - WIP

This drawing is based on a fabulous photo used with permission from Woxy on deviantart.
This drawing took a very long time to get right and when I finally got it transferred to my working surface, for some reason I was afraid? to start the next step with this one but finally bit the bullet today and just started it.
It's been fully drawn out and transferred to the final platform  which is a 9 x 12 Sheet of
Steel Gray Mi-Tientes Pastel paper since March 9th.  I will be using Faber-Castell PITT Pastel Pencils to complete it.
Ha, just realized it's been exactly two months since I finally finished the drawing. 
I haven't done any art on this color of paper and I've only completed two other pieces on colored paper so this is definitely going to be a learning experience for me.  


For some reason the scan of the drawing lightened the paper considerably.  Not sure why.  The second image is closer to the actual color of the paper.


I'm trying to create a step by step with this one so there will be a lot of pictures showing the progress.

Hope you like it!

 
Transferred Drawing:


The transferred drawing
I believe the eyes are the windows to the soul and I always try to capture that from the first pencil stroke.  
I want to get the expression and eyes accurate before I continue on with the rest of the portrait.
If you get the eyes right, the rest of the portrait just flows!
If the eyes are not right, I can't continue with the portrait!

Because I'm working on the Steel Gray paper and the eyes are mostly a light yellow, I started with an underlayer of 101 White and then added 103 Ivory. Marking in the highlight and filling the lower eye area with White then putting a layer of Ivory over the top (avoiding the highlight) and also starting on the white fur around the eye.  I put a little bit of the 177 Walnut Brown around the eye to start getting the shape and depth of the eyes in the very middle of the walnut brown I added a touch of 169 Caput Mortuum.

Next I brought a little 183 Light Yellow Ochre and 182 Brown Ochre into the eyes and added 177 Walnut Brown for around the eye and the under coat on the pupil. 
Using the 183 Light Yellow Ochre and starting at the top half of the eye and bring it down into the mix of the Ivory base gradually getting lighter with your pressure. With the 182 I did a light layer on the top half of the eye and lightly over the pupil. The 177 was then added around the eye and over the pupil. I used the 103 Ivory and the 182 Brown Ochre for blending the colors in a nice gradual gradation.
These eyes are less than an inch across so care had to be taken to not lose the highlight in the eyes.
Adding the color

I outlined the eyes in black, put black on the pupil and started branching out from the eyes. 
I try to create a gradation of light to dark to capture the spherical shape of the eyes and the depth under the eye is created by adding the gradation from dark and moving down the eye.  Stopping at the halfway point with the darker colors and blending them into the light colors.
The darker colors used in the eyes were also 173 Olive Green around the outside of the pupil  and 182 Brown Ochre. 
I added a touch of 140 Light Ultramarine Blue in the highlights to reflect the sky.

The markings are first done in the 177 Walnut Brown and then Black is put on top.  
To further enhance the black stripes, I added a touch of 151 Helioblue.
For the rest of the fur I've used 101 White, 103 Ivory, 183 Light Yellow Ochre, 182 Brown Ochre, 187 Burnt Ochre
Moving out from the eyes
Continually branching out from the eyes.
This is as far as I've gotten today. 



Today's Progress 5/09/2013
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Friday, May 3, 2013

Different pose

Not my usual subject but I saw this pose and wanted to see if I could accomplish it so the challenge was on to sketch and complete it. 
I worked on the hair for a little over the two hour mark.
This was done by building up the layers with three grades of graphite.  I started out sketching with an HB graphite pencil.  Next I started identifying the darkest areas and where the high-lights will be.  The darkest areas were refined using the 2B and then the 3B graphite pencils.
Using a brush, I brushed and softened the graphite in the direction of the hair, dark to light. 
Then to put in the highlights, I used a  blu-tac putty rubber.
Hope you like it!

Thanks for stopping by :)