Study thread: drawings and paintings

[Marian Rowling]

Hey Brenno I'm really glad to see a post from you. Your own studies have always been very motivating to me so I hope you will be updating us with what you've been doing lately. I would love to see more of your drawings and how your painting is coming along. Hope you and your family are all well.

[Mane]

Inspiring to see such lovely progress your making, haven't been doing any quicker drawings for awhile, must get back into doing that.

dont forget to update soon
chrisx

[wenyirose]

very inspiring! keep up your good work!

[bkkm]

Marian: Thank you for your kind words!

Mane: Thanks! Quick sketches are excellent practice to improve your feeling for the gesture, and train your attention to focus on what's most important on your subject. They're a great complement to longer, observational drawings. I should be working more on the latter, if only time allows

Thank you, wenyirose!

---
It's been a long time! These last few months have been incredibly hectic around here, but hopefully in the near future I will be able to post more often. Because of this, I've been relying more and more on my sketchbook, which I always try to have around, since we never know when those ten or fifteen minutes of hurried lunch will turn out to be the perfect drawing opportunity... With that in mind, here are some sketchbook pages from the past few months: sketches of family, of people in cafes, some attempts at gouache, and a couple of pages done at a recent life drawing session:

[Marian Rowling]

Lovely, lovely update Brenno. I really like the freshness and vibrancy in the first three. Are they colour pencil or pastel on textured paper? They do look really good. Also love the calligraphy of you line in your ink portrait. Yours was always one of my favorite sketchbooks so it's a visual treat when you can post. Thanks also for your feedback in my little sketchbook.

[Kolbenito]

Awesome update, really enjoy looking at your work.

[kevinwueste]

Nice works here! - Kevin

[jinny]

Your figure drawings are very inspiring.

[lionheartGFX]

amazing figures your so good with values, form and lineweight and the feeling of your line its so i dont know warm, im sure you will keep on growing i only ask of you to keep us informed! haha

im suscribed man cheers and be well!

[bkkm]

Marian: Thanks for stopping by. Those color sketches were done on Canson Mi-Teintes paper, which I hand-bound into a sketchbook. Personally I prefer a little less texture, but they're very good quality paper nonetheless. I used watercolor pencils to draw, though since I did not apply water to them I suppose any color pencil would do. There is another page from the same sketchbook below.
Kolbenito, thanks!
Kevin: this means a lot coming from you. Thank you!
Glad you've found some inspiration around here, jinny!
lionheartGFX, I've been trying to work on my line quality lately, I'm glad some of it is showing in the works. Thanks

-----
Here are a few more recent studies and sketches, all from life except for the Asian boy, which is a quick study after Chase:

[Mane]

nothing to crit just keep in up dude some lovely studies especially those studies in 154 and the bottom figure.

[Ramon Hurtado]

Great work Brenno!

[lionheartGFX]

wow amazing update, love those landscapes are those from ref too? its great to see you keep on growing, excuse me asking but what mediums did you use on that leg and hip study? also id love to hear some pointers from you as i am also reading on hamptons and vilppu but having a little trouble grasping some ideas.

keep up the awesome work and be well

[bkkm]

Thanks, Mane!

Ramon, thanks for the encouragement!

lionheartGFX, thank you for the kind words. Except for the Asian boy in the red background (which was a very quick study after William Merritt-Chase), all the works in the last post were done from life and on location, including the gouache landscapes. For the leg and hip studies I used Terracotta Derwent Drawing Pencils, and their equivalent white for the highlights. Though any sanguine-coloured material (such as pastel pencils or conté) would do. The important thing is the combination pencil + paper, and how comfortable you feel with it (different people, different preferences). As for me, I am still experimenting. I'd be glad to try to help you with Vilppu's and Hampton's ideas, if I can, but it would help me if you were more specific as to which ideas you are having difficulty with. From my experience I've learned that some of their core concepts are like seeds; they present themselves in different stages or layers, gradually: they grow within you and become clearer and more complex the more you practice. This is the case with the idea of "gesture", which is so important. I can't overemphasize how important it is for you try to learn by doing. Life drawing is particularly useful here. If you can afford them, take a look at Vilppu's Figure Drawing DVDs. I've found volume 6 presents a nice overview of the whole process, and could be a good starting point if you want to understand what the "big picture" is in this approach to drawing. You may also want to check Ramon Hurtado's "Old Thread" sketchbook for an example of great dedication and impressive progress using Vilppu's guidance. (Look at the post above yours in my thread, that's Ramon)

---

Here are a couple 15 minute poses from a recent life drawing session: