Biting the bullet- daily drawings

[black-swan]

Veshkau: Thanks for the comments and the advice. I think I exaggerated the curves that I saw in those figures, something to keep an eye on. Thanks again.

Chris: I hope you found the comment useful in some way. Thanks for the feedback. I have been blocking in the darks and erasing for the reflected light as you’ve said. I’ll try out what you’ve recommended; I’m interested in seeing if there is a difference doing it the other way. Correct value relationships are a big weakness of mine and something I’m trying to work on. See you tomorrow, glad you’re going

Drawings: I’ve been reading Loomis’s book creative illustration- I started with the tone section. It is really eye opening and is changing my views of picture making altogether. I want to make good tonal designs and schemes, regardless of subject matter. Now that I am aware of such things I might be able to see them better in subjects- practice and time is what is needed now. As well as the feedback I’ve got from a critique thread, I’ve really had a great change in thinking about tone and about pictorial design- hopefully I can show that in recent work. I’ve been doing studies in black ink of masters work and from life- they are not easy to read but I’ll get there- and I learned stuff from doing them.

I’ve done a portrait of my granddad and a sphere from imagination (not enough reflected light though) in charcoal- I’m trying to get myself to widen the value range. Also trying out Utrecht charcoal and straethmore paper- both work really well. Some gestures of horses from life, some observational drawing and copies of vanderpoel. Included some thumbs I do before paintings and some landscape thumbs.

Still working on the bargue, the head was a bitch to get to that point. Only the fabric and outline to go, not long now…

All oil paintings from life (I’m been doing a lot of painting, now I don’t have the space to dry them out!) Some from a recent critique thread. Some monochrome studies of still lives in raw umber and white (3o mins each, I plan to do 20). Two colour paintings of a life model- 45 mins or so each (burnt sienna, Prussian blue and white) and some 10 minute oil studies of the same model in monochrome.

I went out to the preseli hills yesterday and did three landscape paintings in oil, second time out doing plein air- it’s a lot of fun, I love going out and painting! It was 1 or 2 degrees out though, a bitterly cold wind. My feet and hands were dropping off after three hours!

[Aaron_Radney]

Hello. I'm quite impressed with the sheer volume as well as the diligence of the studies here. If I may make a suggestions perhaps some more focus on your values would be good. They seem to stop short of getting some really dark darks that may help add some pop to your practicing. Your anatomy still needs work but so does mine and I'm sure everyone could stand to work on it on a regular basis.

[black-swan]

aron_Radney: thanks. You're right about the tones, I tend to faf about with them a bit and don't commit to really dark darks. My anatomy is better than it was, but still has a long way to go. thanks again

[Aaron_Radney]

You're welcome. Yeah, an unwillingness to commit with tones was a problem I had too and sometimes still do. Perhaps working with ink for a bit might help. I had a link to something one of my teachers suggested when I was in school and the exercise did help. I'll see if I can find it and get back to you.

[aks9]

nice start on those plein airs. id really like to get into oils, i might give that a go in march.
you seem to be focusing on painting, i don't know enough to offer anything constructive, so ill just say keep up the good work

[black-swan]

aks9: Thanks for the encouragement. Since starting oil painting it's become a bit of an obsession, I hope you give it a go

it took a lot of effort and time- but I go there. I finished my last bargue drawing! Now I can go onto the really exciting stuff- cast drawing!

I've also included some life drawings in this post and some plein air studies of Sandy Haven. With the latter I used oil paint- raw umber and white. I need to make my lights brighter I think, still have a long way to go regarding edges too. It was so nice to go out with calm weather!

[black-swan]

Currently reading: 'Figure drawing for all it's worth' by Andrew Loomis

I've finished reading the above book, I figured i'd read it all first and then attempt the exercises/ methods within. Which is what I'll start doing tomorrow, tonight I can start to block in the cast and start drawing.

I haven't had the chance to go to life drawing lately, so I have been largely working at night. When I do go to life drawing next week, I'll focus on contour work there (the lighting is from all directions at one venue, unsuitable for tonal work- it's not good to fake it!).

My focus has largely been on tones these past two weeks, I've been doing oil painting studies in raw umber and white, in natural light and using one artificial light source. Raw umber from Jacksons is excellent, don't bother with Sennelier students oils (very weak pigment, not dark enough from the tube). I've been using very little medium/ thinners, so the paint is quite thick. I like using it like that, but I think I will have to thin out the darks in future so it's easier to paint in the lights cleanly. I've been working from dark to light, using 6 values I mix before commencing the painting. I've tried to separate my light and dark values as much as possible. I'm still not good at varying the edges, need more practice with that. Also been experimenting with white and black backgrounds, I've found I don't like doing high key paintings- I'd much rather some contrast for some punch!

A few charcoal drawings of grandad, the dog and a tea pot from life. Some pencil drawings of my hand, some perspective drawings from memory too. A whole load of little thumbnail plans for painting, some linear arrangements and continuing notan studies of master works and random compositions.

Two charcoal gradients, one in hard grade, the other mixed. Very difficult, charcoal moves around a lot on the surface of the paper, it's quite fiddly to get a smooth tone.

Also gone back to 'The natural way to draw' by Nicolaides, I've included some 1 minute gesture drawings and some modelled form drawings in crayon of the skeleton and my hand. The focus with these was not proportions, but tackling one aspect of drawing at a time. Pure gesture, and the sensation of weight and form in space.

[luthertaylor]

Love the updates, Keep going!

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Quite difficult, this time not at sight size, but I have chosen a viewing distance. At that distance the drawing is larger than the cast and the board placed higher than the cast, it's just a matter of maintaining the proportions of the cast at a slightly larger scale and on a different plane- not simple! I fear I may have gone too complicated, too soon, hehe, we'll see,

[black-swan]

I've started doing colour charts in oils after reading 'alla prima' by Richard Schmid, it's good practice and fun to do, also not too intellectually taxing after working all day. I went to an art-link away day the other week, the tree is the beginning of an outdoor painting, I wasn't having a good day that day, so went home early. Trying to do full colour painting outdoors in oils is quite difficult to do well, I guess I lost my nerve.

A recent self portrait in conte and white chalk, drawings of my grandad, my hand and some drawings from today's life drawing class. I'm feeling really tired, and I think it shows in my work. Time for a kip I reckon, hehe

[nickbernstein]

Really interesting way of breaking down the form of the frog. I'll have to give that a try

[Colossi Octopi]

Your figure drawings are getting much stronger. I wouldn't mind seeing some more still life drawings too! Watch that line weight!

[black-swan]

nick: Thanks, it's better to get the general proportions somewhat correct first before moving onto details. You can also choose 1 unit of measurement and compare everything else you put down to it- you've just got to get your initial measurement right with that approach.

Octopi: Thanks for your kind words, i'm planning to do some more oil studies of still lives, I'll post some up soon. As regards to line weight, I just tend to put emphasis on what I want to, usually where I see dominant forms- still need to explore contour further.

Further refinement of the frog, may need further corrections. Also, I have done a colour chart for lemon yellow dominant and chrome yellow dominant- also included is the palette I am using. The charts look better in life, sorry about the poor lighting in the photo.