New paintings and regular art updates.
Drawing from April…. Why did I add glitter as the base of this? Then drawing over it in purple and black to include the cupboard and its content. I remember the feeling if the gritty glitter under the felt pens. Rough and making it hard to get straight lines. The teapot is definitely a bit wonky! It was drawn as a challenge with #uskstoke, day six. I like it because it wasn’t too safe. I need to think about style and how things look. This is a favourite although it’s very sketchy.
Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was vegetables, so I decided to draw some new potatoes. Metallic pen and pencils on black cartridge paper background. Makes a change from felt pens. Probably could have taken more time over it but I like the effect.
.
Watching Sky Portrait artist of the year. I couldn’t find pictures of all the sitters so decided to draw Catherine Grainger from a photo on the Web, ten minute sketch.
I want to watch the programme so leaving it at this. I might do another one later.
Thermocouple fan sitting on top of the New Scientist magazine. Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was mechanical and this was the first thing that came to hand….. Heat from a fire is converted via a thermocouple into energy to rotate the fan. It should sit on top of something like a log burner so the base gets hot but hubby has it lying down in front of the halogen heater…. He likes watching it whirl…
I was just watching an on line lecture about using the new photoshop system and it reminded me of this drawing I did back in August. It was a quick sketch of my desk and drawing tablet. We were disussing about doing loose drawings and I realised thats what this is. Apparently I should be building up layers so I can change and alter them as I draw. I need to learn more… Over ten years of using photoshop and I never got into it! Thats the thing if you dont see information and you try aand learn things just by trial and error!
In the first lockdown , Urban Sketchers was doing a daily drawing. On dat 30 we did a chronicle of the day. This was mine on 17.4.2020. I seem to have spent the day on chores, cooking, eating, drinking watching cats and drawing.
How little we knew then of how long Covid19 would last, everything seemed new and unusual, a challenge, not a problem. An opportunity to be involved in something creative. And all the clapping for the NHS on a Thursday night seemed appropriate. We didn’t know one lockdown would end, and despite people’s efforts we would go into another one this Autumn. I wonder if I should do another Covid diary?
Sometimes hatching won’t do, so I use dots to shade things. It still creates a slightly darker tone than white. It fools the eye into thinking there is grey there (a bit like half tone in newspapers). I love the 1960’s pop art paintings where they used half tone dots to emphasise the graphic design style of them. Black felt pen on cartridge paper.
This is part of a set of drawings I did to learn how to make a GIF. its more complicated that I imagined. I managed to do it but you have to optimise files and do all sorts of things. Trouble is Ive forgotten what I did – maybe i should have another go.
The drawing built up over several frames. In the missle was a wild swirling pattern and then it built back down to the original sketch.. I wish I could run it here but I dont think I have enough memory and I dont know if WordPress works with GIFs?
Today’s challenge was to draw cans for today’s #bandofsketchers challenge. Turns out a lot of things in my store cupboard was mainly coloured red. This was mostly coloured in with a watercolour pen that certainly zings. I’m not sure these are the actual colours, I was trying to take a photo in between bright sunshine and deep shade. The resulting photo was too dark so I had to adjust the exposure a bit to brighten it without making the red overwhelming, too be honest I still think it’s a bit bright.
If you are learning to draw have you tried drawing vanishing points yet? If you draw a horizontal line along the middle of a piece of A4 paper you can work out how to do three dimensional objects. Draw a dot somewhere along that line. Use a ruler and draw lines radiating from it. Then draw vertical lines up or down to them. Instant buildings in perspective. You can even use more than one vanishing point. For curved objects like a can or a glass it gives you a clue on how to draw curves and what direction they will be in. Generally upwards if you are looking from below the rim of a can and downwards if from above. It all depends on your eye level. The horizontal line in this exercise represents that. But it’s your choice. The line can be higher or lower (think of the view for a child, closer to the ground, or someone at the top of a bus!)
I used to also have fun drawing boxes with this, or alien buildings, or anything, I tried it with a horse once! You can use soft pencil to draw in the lines so you can erase them later, or use to mark out an object before you start a painting. It helps you sort out all types of things, including portraits or figures. Just play about with it.
I only suggested A4 as that gives you plenty of room…. You can use any size or type of paper.
Have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
