Think fast, sketch faster, part 2

More sketch practice. This time I brought my camera with me so I took photos, which meant that I could refer back to them and sketch people on the move. Again, no real detail, just shapes and lines.

Girl with a dog. It's supposed to be a boxer but it looks like a mutt :)

Boy feeding a swan

Think fast, sketch faster

I want to draw people. The problem is that I'm bad at drawing people, especially with proportions and foreshortening. So I took a walk through my local park and made myself sketch human form. Sitting on a bench I sketched people that sat on the bench opposite me.

The thing with drawing people on the move is that they are on the move. Fortunately sitting people don't move around as much but I still had to draw quickly. Drawing quickly also meant that I had to capture body lines instead of fine detail, and be more confident with the lines I draw (I didn't bring an eraser with me). I still have a long way to go but doing this was kind of fun, even if the weather was a bit breezy.

I was also going to take some photos around the park for my own reference, but it's difficult to do that when you forget to bring your camera XD

Illustration Friday: subterranean

My entry for this week's Illustration Friday, "subterranean".

 (ink pens on black paper, A4)

I didn't want to think too hard about what to do for this week's topic, nor did I want to spend a lot of time on it. "Subterranean" didn't really inspire me in any way other than underground. So I basically sketched out a really simple cave drawing and scribbled in the colour with some ink pens. The man with the pastel lantern was an afterthought and fits pretty well with the piece, as well as my blog title which I changed from "I don't draw...". Yes, it was my attempt at sarcasm and humour. But you know, some days...

Tears of a clown... fish

I wanted to get some more watercolour practice in before I do the next Illustration Friday (that's if I even do it) because as frustrating as watercolour can be, I enjoy it. My past uses of watercolour have been dark to say the least, so much so that the grey and black pans in my tray are getting some serious abuse while the other colours are unused and neglected. Looking for inspiration I turned to my desktop wallpaper, which currently houses some clownfish.

(re-scanned for your viewing pleasure)

I have a habit of wanting to fill in with solid block colours (probably picked up from acrylic painting) so what I wanted to do this time was keep the colours fairly thin, I didn't want to 'Nemo' him. Yes, I failed that. I also outlined in black which, I learned in high school is a serious no-no when you're trying to draw or paint realistically as the real world is not outlined. Well, good thing this isn't in the real world.

Edit: I outlined the outline in white. Now my fish glows.

Illustration Friday: brave

(watercolour and ink, A4)

Fall or fight?

As with most of the IF's that I've done so far, this wasn't my first idea. If I have a flash of inspiration, I'll come up with one idea, then another and another and I'll overload and decide that most are overly ambitious and scrap them. It's quite sad when I have an idea in my head and it looks amazing, but then I can't actually put it down onto paper, or when I do it looks nothing like what I wanted.

I've been in a pretty dark place emotionally for months now and I don't really see an end to it yet. Like my ideas, one thing happens, then another and another. So this was inspired in part by that place in my head. It also reminds me of the scenes in Dragon where Bruce Lee is battling that huge demon. I don't know why this is apparent to me now, I haven't watched that film in ages.

Illustration Friday: perspective

I decided to keep this week's Illustration Friday really simple (click for big):

 

All he wants is to be included.

For you

It's been a while since my last entry. I got sidetracked with other stuff like trying to finish a book and some computer related nonsense. I'm going to get back to painting again - I have at least 3 paintings I want to do - but before that I tried to dabble in some soft pastel goodness.

Done on black paper. Not my best use of pastel TBH, but I have only ever used them properly maybe 3 times, this one included. I learned a whole load of stuff doing this:

• Don't do a detailed piece in A4. It's too small and detail will be non-existant
• Don't use black paper if you want the picture to be vibrant
• Use paper with more tooth, the pastel will stick to the paper better
• Fixative is good at removing contrast
• Photoshop is good at getting it back :D

Again, it's all learning from past experiences, good and bad. And drawing this brought back a few good memories.

On to the next one...

Update (2011-03-08): I really want to draw this again. It was only after a few more pastel pictures that I realised a piece of blackboard chalk had somehow made it's way into my box of pastels. The chalk was too hard and didn't blend or stick to the paper properly. I now have proper white pastels, some nice A3-sized pastel paper and more practice with soft mediums, so most of the problems I initially had should be gone with a redo.