Wall Flower

I have added a bit more tone now, and some shading for the wall. There was not much tone variation in the reference image, so I have tried to enhance what there was, but still I left quite a few light areas.

Slow Pencils

This week has been slow for drawing, but I have moved this image on a bit. The reference is well light so I am taking it slow building up the tones. I think it needs a contracting background too.

I am going to step back from this now to look at it fresh again later...

Fresh start

I have been drawing over the past few days but unfortunately the line work has not been working out as hoped. I have had my eye on this reference for a while now, and I feel that the key to the image is in the models smile, but while I like to draw freehand the image requires more accuracy than I currently have the freehand skills for. So I have used a reference grid on this attempt to generate the initial lines. There is still a lot of work required though to give the figure some depth.

Push up

And the final image with some extra tone. The fixative layer wasn't as useful as I had hoped, but is worth trying if a darker tone is needed with this col-erase pencil. I was interested to find I could erase part of the original pencil if I tried, so may I should have used more spray.

Pushing it out

I have finished the first draft of this and I have really enjoyed it. There was some difficulty with the eraser but I will leave this till tomorrow and review what I think. It could be a bit darker but this is a common problem with the col-erase pencil and I may try re-applying it after using a fixative if needed.

Still seem to have some scanner spots...

Push it real good...

OK I didn't keep the momentum with the last image and it started to go bit wrong as the more I worked with the col-erase on the toothed paper, the more fuzzy the picture became and just couldn't erase the mess cleanly.

Now it is the winter holidays and I have a bit of time to try and get a full picture done and some more learning. I am looking at the Loomis books again. I really like he writing style and the we he presents the information. Loomis is out of print not but his books are still available on-line here.

I have started blocking the shaded areas on this now, after doing the line work last night. I am working on smooth paper this time but with the col-erase again. I have a set of carbon pencils on order and some more pencil extenders which I am looking forward to trying. I really like the clutch pencils but sometimes the selection of leads can be limiting and the holders themselves are expensive to have a wide range to hand.

Anyway here is my latest effort.

Wonder

I have started this new image without any planning...yep, didn't I learn from last time. But! I think one of the most important things about drawing and when you are in the mood you just need to go with it, and after life drawing tonight I was in that mood. Here I grabbed a sheet of recycled card stock and the col-erase (as it was to hand on my desk), and started drawing a great reference that I have been looking forward to working on for a while. The recycled paper has a more tooth than the normal fine paper that I use and the col-erase leaves a mark with a very gentle touch so erasing is much easier, and with a plastic eraser seems to have little impact. Well here is the first step, I hope I can keep the feel of this when I carry on.

Hitting the tone

Well today I have been experimenting with tone. For this I drew Lexxii using a light box and a col-erase pencil. I didn't draw any lines, and tried just to draw with cross hatching and shading. It was difficult and I have learned to appreciate how useful line is in setting up an image even if the line is removed, or mostly removed during the rendering phase as I normally do. I enjoyed this and am happy with the outcome for a quick sketch.

Behind you!

I am now finished with this image. I have learned a few things from it, such as how much fine motor control is needed for fine cross hatching and drawing with the mechanical pencil. I like the way the contrast on the dress has turned out, which is different to the reference.

Hand aches now

I have got to the first stage draft of this now and my hand really aches. Maybe I should have rested more, but I wanted to get this done. I am more comfortable with this now and think the main difficulty so far has been the amount of detail in the dress, though I really like the contrast and effect it has. I will carry on and darken the skin tones tomorrow...well later today when I get up again.

The Sharp Bluntness of it

Still working, but I don't think this technique is for me. The mechanical pencil has its add disadvantages. It does keep a point, but the sharpness of the point seems to vary. As one side of the 0.5mm point wears down it does get blunt until you turn the pencil a bit and then it is really sharp again. I don't get this with the clutch pencils or the col-erase. Also the micro small lines are hurting my hands and forearm a bit to keep up. I will still try to finish this though, but I don't think I have the patience to try so hard for the realistic effects. I have enjoyed drawing the hair the most, so far.

Raising Hair

Last night and this morning I have been working on the hair in this drawing. I have also been using a 2B mechanical pencil. I am not used to drawing with this type of pencil and have not found it comfortable in the past, but I have been reading about how they are good for keeping a point when drawing in fine detail, so I am giving it a try.

This is not a great scan as I don't want to take the paper off the drawing board again.

Light it up

In an attempt to try some other rendering techniques I have started this project with a spot of light boxing. I have used the grid method too in the past, but the light box seems faster. A big problem with the light box method though is that it requires an image of the final size (here I am using A3). I have an A4 laser printer and an A2 wide format printer, but the high contract B&W laser printer worked out best here after adjusting the reference for high contrast. I them cut the A3 image in half and printed it as two A4's which I then taped together.

A down side to light boxing however is that it doesn't do much to help your free hand drawing skills. Anyway here is the first rough outline.

Par-Boiled

Well I didn't plan this one and just went with the flow, and the flow went down the drain. This drawing has at least given me a better feel for the reference and helped to highlight some areas to take care with when doing a proper drawing :)

Project Planning

I was starting a new project today, but haven't had much planning time. I have started here with a simple line drawing and am now exploring a look for it. So far I am not sure if I will complete this image or keep it as a planning sketch, which is something I haven't done before.

Getting over it

I have a great weekend at Butlins, and now I am trying to get over the lack of sleep. Life drawing again tonight, which did suffer from lack of concentration. It is also cold here now and our poor model did suffer and eventually needed to put some clothes back on, but I did get this quick sketch beforehand.

Quick Sketch

I am away for the weekend so I don't want to start a project till I get back. So in preparation I have done a quick sketch of one of the images I may work with.

There now, for now

OK, I have drawn a line under this picture...well for now at least. I have added more tone around and especially round the face. Here is the reference for the picture Blue coat.

I will try the fixative tooth effect with anther sketch, and if successful may eventually come back to this one.

Getting Precious

I started this picture with the intention of doing a quick drawing to test the use of fixative to add tooth back to the working surface, after having worked on it for a while. The aim being to get better darks with the prisma col-erase pencil. However four day later I am still working on this image and starting to get a bit precious about it. I am no longer sure if I will use the fixative layers technique on this, though it does need a bit more work on the hair which is in danger to becoming cover rendered if I have to keep working the darks in there in the usual way.

Diving in to Pop it out

So most of the block tone is in place now, but it still needs balancing and the contract needs to increase to make the image pop a bit. The middle of the hair needs to be darker and the shirt edges need more contrast to bring them away from the skin. The buttons are popping out a bit too much and the tone around them needs to go darker to reduce the contrast a bit.

Round the houses

Now I am relaxing in to blocking the tone in. I have been really enjoying this stage so far, though I can see where I need to go back and balance the tone as there are lots of darks missing, but I have a plan for them. I will aim to use a layer of fixative to gain more tooth later.

The Wrong Hands

Well last night was life drawing night again, with our local beauty. This model often poses with a large cloth, which provides variety and a change of textures. Unfortunately I didn't have my drawing hands on and the best I managed was a few small sketches.

Back on the Hot Press

Yes I am back on the hot press paper again. The smooth finish gives so much more control, and I will worry about getting the dark darks later. This is a full length A3 drawing, which is the most awkward large size paper I can manage on my desk, the danger is that it will get badly smudged while I work, so I need to use a protective sheet.

This image is extra challenging, as although it was submitted as a drawing reference, it has a large water mark across the middle of it which comes out really strong if I print the picture, and I am trying to work around it.

Lexi-cal

In my experimentations with paper and pencil I have tried the prisma col-erase black on watercolour paper. The model Lexxii is very pretty, and I like the results of the pencil and paper combination. However the smooth feel of the pencil was lost a bit with the texture of the paper.

Directions

OK, I have done more of the main figure rendering and I am not too comfortable with the way this is going. I am having some trouble getting the range of tone I need and the details are getting lost with this paper. Often the drawings can look a bit rough at this stage, but I must admit I am having my doubts with this one now...


... I have now decided that this image just isn't going to make it, so I will stop here and put it into storage. The lesson to take from this is not to try and get lots of details with this bamboo paper. It works well for large images and textured or toned areas, but not for fine detail or controlled tone gradients.

Light at the Back

This time I have decided that I don't want the background to be so dark, so that I can keep the contrast in the foreground. To make this a bit easier I am trying to lay in the mid background tones first, as I will be able to lift them out more easily as I work, or lay down some sharp dark tone next to them. This paper allows for quite a bit of working, but it is difficult to add a sharp light edge later on.

On the line

I have really enjoyed this project so far. The basic line work and block areas are marked out using my B carbon clutch pencil. I will try to put in at least some basic background references before rendering, as I think that will make it easier to maintain later with this bamboo paper.

Bag of Bits

Ready to start a new project again. I will follow the same process as the last one as I think it lead to an interesting result and I enjoyed it. The first stage of putting the images together seems to take a while though. I have been pasting things together in GIMP but it can be hard to tell if they will work from the photos. I think I will collect more reference images to start with then just dive in.