Power Dressing

OK I have only made a few minor changes to the image in the end. I was going to erase a space at the bottom for a signature, but the graphite is just too thick, I would need to scrape it off and risk damaging the paper.

Re-scanned now, and the grain of the paper seems quite clear in this one.

Back to black

Now I've gone and done it. I started to add a soft background but the texture of the paper meant that I lost the line of the figure, so I needed to go really dark in the end to bring it back. In an earlier post I said that I was using the Progresso pencils but in the end I really used the B/2B carbon clutch pencils for most of the drawing, but I did do the background with the 4B and 8B Progresso. They seem to give a good dark on this bamboo paper.

I will leave this image to mature for a little while now so that I can come back and finish it with a fresh eye. Though I am not sure at this stage what else I will be able to do as I have committed with so much dark? Well I guess if nothing else changes it still needs cropping and balancing properly as the light area round the legs seems to be a result of the scanner light on the graphite layer.

I have the basic rendering of the body down now, and it is time to think about the background. As there is quite a contrast gradient in the image I will have a lock for a graded background reference, but I expect I will go for a graded tone. I am pretty please with how this has turned out, though some of the detail does seem to get lost in the soft edges produced by tooth of the paper. I chose this paper partly to give a softer finish so I shouldn't be surprised.

Cold winter night

Last night was life drawing night again, and it was cold. The snow came down really fast just before the start and we were thin on numbers this week. As you may be able to see from the post our model needed to wrap up a bit. I don't feel like I did so well with the tones this week especially with on the cloth, even though I did have the time. I guess that is the challenge of life drawing, you just need to do what you can on the day.

Top down

I am really enjoying the rendering of this image now. Due to the tendency to smudge quite a bit I need to be strict about working away from my hand, so I am working from top down left to right. All apart from the background, which I will leave to near the end to try and balance some of the tone.

Adding the extras

OK, back from a birthday party weekend and now I have added some more details to the image. I had forgotten how much graphite can smudge on this paper so I have also moved back to my B clutch pencil to finish up the line work.

It has been difficult to keep the details clear with the paper at this size. Looking back at my other pictures on this paper they have had less detail at this stage so I will just need to see how this progresses.

Fig. 1

I have now got pencil to paper, at last, on the new project. This time I am working on bamboo paper which has quite a bit of tooth, but is also hard to scan due to the texture. It is unusual paper to work with as it can take a lot of erasing while holding together really well, but at the same time is quite fragile. I need to take care not to bend the corners or dent the surface of the paper. With this paper I also like to use soft Progresso graphite pencils, which come as graphite sticks.

Again I am using one of Veronika's reference images.

The Best Plans

Well my next project is taking quiet a bit of planning. I normally see an image I like and dive straight in, but this time it is taking quite a while to get the right image of the right quality and resolution. I plan on combining a few images together and need to make sure I can remove surrounding context from the individual parts so that I can see how they will all fit, but a lot of the figures I would like to include seem to merge in to the background. Hopefully I will get the pencil going again some time today.

Inky

I have also done a bush inking of the last image. My brushes seem to be wearing out a bit now, and I can't decide what type to go for next? Maybe I will stick with the PITT pens for a while or just graphite?

Darker and down

Well I carried on working with the col-erase pencil but it was increasingly difficult to get the darks that the image needed and the rendering started to get that over-worked look so I needed to add some more line. Then I added some darks with the prisma color black pencil. This pencil does not produce as even a line as the col-erase though it is much darker so I needed to work with both pencils for a while and also with the electric eraser.

In the end I am now happy with the darks but will probably look at working with the darker graphite pencils on paper with more tooth next time, and probably stick to graphite instead of the prisma colors for a while. The prisma color pencils do have a really good feel when being used but I find they can be difficult to finish a drawing with.

I should also say that the reference for this image came from Kevin.

Living it up night

Another life drawing night and a tired one for all as we have a lot of sleeping to catch up with from the weekend. Only managed two drawings tonight, but I did enjoy them still. This was the first sitting pose. I had some trouble with proportions, as being tired I kept starting on the detail before I was ready and ended up having to erase about as much as I ended up drawing.

In the shade

I am now back from a weekend at Erotica and am trying to get back into the swing of things. I have started to add more block shade to the skin tones and the cloth. Next, adding more tone and starting to fix some of the errors I can start to see more clearly now that there is a bit more shape to the figure. It seems a bit strange making these basic changes at such a late stage, but it is all part of needing to get some of the shade in early I think. Good job I have kept the pencil quite light so far.

I will need to clean that scanner plate too...

Line and Block

This is the start of my next piece. There is a lot of soft shade in the reference image so I have started with a mixture of line and block shading. This is not how I would normally start a drawing so it will be interesting to see how this one works out. There is a bit more detail in the face at the early stage too he to try and get a feel for how the light will fall on the part of the face that is exposed.

Last post for a while now as I am off to Erotica today...

To the gallery

Well I have submitted some images to an on-line gallery. It has taken a lot more time and effort than I had expected putting it all together. Just have to wait and see now if they are accepted...

The Last Pose

I liked last weeks sketch so I have inked that too. I may try some smaller sketches next with a better indication of light and shade to make them easier to ink, but it never seems that easy when the model is there in front of you in full 3D...Maybe I could even get some good sketches at Erotica this weekend?

After T

I have inked my life drawing sketch as I liked the line in it. I have tried inking rendered drawings such as my previous pencil drawing Reflaxion though I find I get a better result if I ink the early line drawing. This was the sketch of Tabby after she had her tea.

Sleepy Monday

Yep, Monday is life drawing night again. Sometimes I find that being a little tired at the end of the day helps me relax and draw, which can help me get into the zone. This week I was a bit too tired to finish as much of the images as I would have like, but I had a good time all the same. The contrast on this scan is really high as it was a pretty light drawing.

Self-Reflection

Now she is finished.

I have enhanced the contrast in the image a little more, though this is hard to see from the posted scans as I have adjusted the contrast digitally on the other images so that they can be seen better. Also I have only added a soft background as there was the danger it was making the image look a bit too soft at the edges.

I have enjoyed this drawing and the reference puts me in mind of a woman alone in a bedroom, checking out her reflection in the mirror after getting up.

Foreground darks

I have added darks to the foreground image now, and you can see that the image has more contrast and the background is much lighter from the scan. There is also more depth to the figure and I will start adding some background next.

I usually find it takes a while to decide on the background shading, but I do now find that I like the look of light hatching in the background and around the figure to contrast with the smother feel of the skin.

Working in the pencil

Now I have spent some time blocking off the darker tones and starting to add some depth. I may leave the cloth quite loose in the final image so I am using some clear hatching there. Next I need to spend some more time working those darks with this pencil. The col-erase feels soft to work with like a darker 2-4B pencil, but has a much softer shade like a H, but like a softer pencil the shades can be built up with application.

I am glad I scanned the early images as when I looked back I was starting to loose some of the pose that I liked from the original lines so I was able to pull that back. I also seem to have a bit of dirt on the scanner which I will need to clean up for the final scans.

The scanner I am using is an A3 Mustek 1200. It was the cheapest one I could get and doesn't yet seem to have native Linux drivers, but is by far the best digital  art equipment I have invested in.

Early shades

I have started on my next piece. This is almost the first stage, as the first lines didn't seem to get picked up by the scanner. I am drawing this one freehand (as usual) with a col-erase black pencil. The pencil is really smooth to work with, but is not good for getting dark dark's, but I'm not there yet. I got the pencil tip from http://www.drawing-tutorials-online.com which I found to be a really useful site.

Here I started the line drawing on my angled drawing board to help reduce perspective errors, then took it of the angled board to scan it and carry on shading on a flatter board that is less cumbersome to use and allows me to rotate the paper more.

The image here is dark as the pencil is still really light. I start shading the dark areas first, but only lightly so as to allow for corrections.

What's the Mat-er?

I finally invested in a Mat cutter and rule. I have tried to use one before, so I knew it wouldn't be easy. I got a DAFA cutter off e-bay and 5 boards. I thought that I would loose most of the boards practicing and hoped to get at least one cut Mat out of them.

Well it didn't go to plan. I used all 5 boards but have nothing to show for it, but I did learn a few things along the way...

The cutter was cheap, and I think I would have been better off spending a bit more on a recognised brand. When running the cutter along the paper, the sharp edges on the cutter's body caught, lifted and ripped the already-cut edges of the board. As I was cutting from the back, this meant that the sharp bevel edge was ruined.

I used the cutter on a board of MDF covered with a few sheets (~10) of drawing paper. The surface seemed fine, though I think an investment in a larger A3/A2 self healing mat would be worth while. I later tried cutting on top of some off cuts of the Mat board, which seemed to turn out better.

The main problem with the cutting was that the cutter would often tear the board and produce a lot of dust.

In the end I just ordered a few ready cut boards from e-bay, from a seller I have used a few times with good results and at a cost of about 20p more per sheet than the un-cut boards were.

The next morning, not wanting to give up I tried again with a different blade, to find I got some nice sharp bevel cuts using the board scraps I had left over. This was a shock as the cutter was new and I expected that the fitted blades were sharp but it appears they weren't.

So with my new small experience I plan to try again on some new boards with a sharp blade...

On balance, I think being able to cut your own Mat boards is a convenience when you need a non-standard size and can't wait or don't want to pay a disproportionate delivery fee for a single board. Now I have invested in the cutter I will try my best to get it working, but I won't be rushing out to buy replacements when these blades run out or I need a new cutter.

Life Monday

Monday night is life drawing night, and I had a good night. Some of the poses were a bit shorter than I would have liked though so I didn't get enough time to lay down the darks. As a result this image was really difficult to scan, but great fun to draw!

Soft Inking

I have now inked 'The Cat and The Bird' with Pitt pens. I do like brush inking but have found the pens to be more practical for some images. Here is the raw inked version:

The Cat and The Bird (Ink)

While I enjoy the original inked images, I also like the extra depth that can be added to a simple monochrome drawing with a simple digital effect:

The Cat and The Bird (Soft ink)

The soft blur is very subtle and may not be visible in this smaller image post.

Going to ink

Hi,


I have been doing some pencil work based on some great images from Veronika Kotlajic. While the reference images are fantastic to work with, it can sometimes take me a while to become comfortable with my own work, either in pencil or ink. This is the current image that I am working on, with Veronika supporting another resting figure. Playing with figure scales is one of the things I like to do, as it often makes me feel like I am in the picture, sort of like when Mike Teevee goes into the TV set in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.


Here is the pencil in B and 2B carbon. I like to use the carbon pencils as you can really work them without getting the graphite shine. I will probably get the 4B next when it is back in stock and I have some cash again.

The Cat and The Bird

Veronika is wearing a top made of feathers here and I think the second figure looks a little like a cat sleeping in a tree and so I have titled it 'The Cat and The Bird'.