Sketched from a photo on Stock.xchange. The drawing is out of proportion and crooked, which I attribute to the couple of glasses of wine I drank before pulling out my sketchbook; but if you squint and look away quickly, it might fool your eye just a little.
Oh well, learn from your mistakes and move on, right?
This mountain bluebird is my entry for Everyday Matters challenge #125: draw a bird.
Drawn from a photograph in the book Born Wild by Henry H. Holdsworth; a photo book of young animals in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.
Drawn during a short break at drawing class.
A simple, scribbly sketch while waiting for drawing class to start.
Our condo has a small area at the front of the living room that is not exactly part of the living room, but neither is it a separate room. The floor plans referred to it as a den. I suppose with an open floor plan, you can call any area anything you want; but I get a kick out of showing guests “the den”.
This was a 30-minute sketch: 4B pencil in my sketchbook. Just trying to capture the light/shadow from the lamp.
Hobos are known to share their brown paper bags. I’m not a hobo, but I am still willing to share mine with you.
This was drawn in class this evening. 18×24 charcoal on Canson drawing paper which was graciously supplied by the instructor. This was too large for my scanner, so I had to photograph it with my phone (because it seemed like too much trouble to dig out the good camera); that dark spot on the bottom-right is my shadow.
I was happy with my loosey-goosey sketch of that garlic crock the other night, and (apparently) lacking much in the way of creativity, I decided to try it again: this time a little more controlled, and I tried to make the composition a bit more interesting by placing a bit of garlic in front of the crockery.
I stuck with the Cotman paints and waterbrush just for the sake of seeing whether I could keep things from getting too messy.
The main issue I have with this is that I don’t think I got quite enough contrast. This has been an issue that I’ve had from the beginning; though I do feel like I’m slowly improving in that regard.
As I slowly reintroduce art back into my daily routine, I thought I would try a very loose painting today. This garlic crock stood out while I was cleaning up after dinner. It keeps moisture from getting into the heads of garlic stored within, and it looks nice sitting on the counter.
I eschewed the under-drawing, opting instead to lay down the paint directly. Accuracy suffered, but I like the looseness of the image. I also opted to use my student-grade paints and a waterbrush for this one, because they are just less hassle to deal with; and tonight was all about minimizing hassle.
Everyday Matters challenge #37 is ‘Draw some keys’. These are mine.
Yes, that is a Garanimals key chain. No, I don’t have kids. Yes, I am a full-grown adult. That’s just how I roll.
And for the record, I don’t actually wear Garanimals. Although if I did, it would certainly have prevented a number of fashion faux pas committed by yours truly over the years.
I’ve been in an artistic funk for the past couple of weeks; waiting for inspiration to strike. It hasn’t. Fortunately, the Everyday Matters list has lots of things to choose from — no need to wait for inspiration. Too bad the list can’t come to my house and kick my lazy butt off the couch sometimes.
I picked up some gray PITT pens this weekend while I was supposed to be grocery shopping. Hey, it’s not my fault they put the grocery store so close to the art store… This is my first sketch with them.
Edit: just for the record, I did continue on to the grocery store immediately after the art store.
This is my beat-up old cubs hat. I bought it at the first game I’d ever seen at Wrigley Field, and I’ve worn it hundreds of times since. It’s probably time to replace it — some of the wrinkles are permanent. But, like an old pair of slippers, a good hat feels better the more worn-out it gets.
This sketch is black and white because, quite frankly, I’m a little tired and too lazy to pull out the paints. Besides, I wanted to see whether the new sketchbook I have would handle pencil. I didn’t do any blending, but I think the paper in this sketchbook would have taken it fairly well.
Truthfully, I have no idea what sort of plat this is. All I know is that it sits near the front window, and its growth only seems limited by the size of its pot.
The color in the real sketch is not quite as yellow as it appears here — blame the scanner until I can figure out how to make it behave.
My work schedule is finally starting to get somewhat back to normal. So I hope that means I can get back to a regular drawing schedule. I’m not committing myself to anything, though, because the onset of summer means that my evenings and weekends are filled with bike rides, concerts, baseball games, vacations, and family visits. I know many of these things are great fodder for drawing, but I am going to have to break some old habits in order to fit that in.
This is my entry for EDM #116 – Draw Something Green.
I’ve been buried by a mountain of work lately, and my sketching output has suffered a corresponding flattening. So it was nice to visit with family this past weekend and get away from things for a while (I don’t know how much they want me talking about them, so I’ll just say that they’re wonderful people, and leave it at that).
Despite an action-packed weekend, I did manage to carve out a few minutes to sketch the table in the sunroom. The birdhouse caught my eye from the breakfast table, so I dusted off the sketchbook and drew for a while.
My work schedule will continue to be hectic for the next week or two, so don’t expect much output between now and then. But I’ll do my best.
This morning I learned about carbon pencils when I stumbled upon the Extraordinary Pencil blog. I was impressed with how black the artist was able to get her darks — something that I’ve struggled with ever since I picked up my pencils last fall. So I stopped off at the art store and picked up a small set.
Let me tell you, those pencils are DARK! They blend really well with a stump, and they mix pretty well with pencil. But they do not erase well at all. And if you push too hard when shading with the graphite, the carbon won’t lay on top of it. So if you use these, you want to use standard graphite to map out the shapes and then use the carbon judiciously.
Anyway, on to the self-critique…
The last time I tried to draw something in a glass container (see my picture of a shell), it was an unmitigated disaster. This attempt is a little better. In part, I think, because the carbon pencils allow me to capture much better contrast; and in part, because I have a little more experience now.
The lighting was straight top-down, so I didn’t have a lot of the really sharp highlights one might expect of a glass container. I should consider this a little more when doing more formal still life work.
My elipses are a little off. And the bottom of the vase took on a funny shape because I was too heavy-handed with the graphite before trying to come in with some carbon to lay down a shadow along the bottom edge.
This was challenging because of the amount of attention I had to pay to light and shadow, instead of just shape and shading. What started out as an experiment with a new kind of pencil ended in an hour-long sketch that was a bit of stretch for my puny attention span. In any event, good practice all around.
This is my bike helmet. It protects my noggin’ from damage when/if I fall off my bike.
I think I missed the mark in terms of conveying the three-dimensional form. I know one mistake I made was introducing a second blue paint which was darker, but not representative of the shadow of the first blue. Then I tried to tone it down a bit by glazing over with orange, but it must have had too much yellow because it turned my blue to green. Also, my shadows are not anywhere near dark enough — too much water, I suppose.
Probably a bit too ambitious for me. Anyway, something to try again later, once I get a better handle on the paints.
Everyday Matters Challenge #221 is “Draw a Handheld Game”.
Anyone of a certain age will be sure to recognize this (holy crap, did I just say that?!). These electronic games from Mattel were really the first of their kind. You can tell this one wasn’t mine, because we still have it. I think all of mine are rotting in the bottom drawer of some retired teacher’s desk.
Surprisingly, it still works. I didn’t play it long enough to see if it still creates that smell of cooking electronics that reminds me of Christmas morning. I must say, though, it is not as fun to play as it was back in the day.
The yellow (actually, raw sienna) is a little aggressive on the highlight side of the game. Sure, the plastic case has yellowed a little over time, but not quite as badly as I’ve depicted here.
I’ve noticed a tendency in my paintings to shift a bit too far into the greens. I’m trying get some decent neutral grays, but I find mixing them to be a huge challenge for some reason. I’ll blame this on a touch of color blindness, but I’m hoping practice will help me overcome that.
Believe it or not, this is what the top of my dryer looks like. You don’t even want to know what the cleaning supply shelf looks like. And yes, that is two spray bottles of the same cleaner. There’s a third one sitting on top of the washer. I suppose some things (like taco cheese), no matter how much you have, when you go to the grocery you think, “I wonder if I am out of that? Better buy some just in case.”
After another week completely getting away from me, I got a note from Blade over at The Artistic Biker reminding me that we’re supposed to get together for a little critique session soon. I haven’t even looked at my sketchbook in almost 10 days… panic sets in. Nothing like a deadline to get your butt in gear!
Of course, by the time I can actually get around to doing any sort of drawing, it is dark outside. So I am, once again, relegated to the great indoors.
I’m actually quite happy with this one. It is, by far, the most complex composition I’ve tackled. And I did this one without a net – no pencil, no eraser (I don’t usually erase anyway, so really not a big deal I guess). I went into it really worried about keeping my proportions correct and trying to get the perspective right. I know it’s not perfect, but it’s not too bad either.
Before I added the color, I took a quick scan of the pen drawing (just in case I screwed things up). This represents about a half hour of work.
The next hour and a half was highlighted by playing with my watercolors. I bought those things with the intention of spending the month of March learning how to use them. Then charcoal caught my attention, and now it is May. Funny how that works.
The one thing I wish I hadn’t done was so much shading with the pen. It helps to visualize things as the drawing progresses, but it really sort of competes with the paint in a way that I’m not completely thrilled with. Still, the scope of this painting is beyond anything I’ve done in a long time, so I’ll count that as win.
This is a compact flourescent lightbulb. It is supposed to save us all from global warming. And it is supposed to last nine years. Well guess what? I installed this light bulb less than a year ago and it is already burnt out. Let’s hope the global warming thing fares better.
Funny thing about this drawing… I wasn’t planning to draw a light bulb. I was actually planning to draw a pair of pliers; had them in my hand and was on my way to my sketching station (a.k.a. the dining room table) when this little beauty caught my eye. It was sitting on the kitchen counter, because I have no idea how to properly dispose of the darned thing. To be quite honest, I was planning to leave that problem to the next owner of our condo. So much for that plan.
As I was saying… I sat down, pulled out my charcoal and sketched a rough outline, then proceeded to shade (being careful not to avoid inadvertant smudges along the way). Unfortunately, I was so caught up in the process of shading, that I forgot to take a good look at the overall form of the drawing. Result: a lightbulb that looks like a failed refugee from a Salvador Dali – wilted, but not quite enough to hang out with those amazingly relaxed clocks.
So that led to sketch #2:
This one was done with a Micron 03 pen. I was more cautious about getting the shape right on this one. I stood over my sketchbook rather than sitting; and I think it helped a lot. Some of my lines are too sketchy, though. This was a problem that I had in my early highschool art career, and I can still hear my art teacher in my ear: “Make a line, dammit.” Something to work on.
It was interesting to tackle the same subject with a couple of different mediums. I actually think the pen was more appropriate for the subject matter, but I probably should have been a little more bold with my line and used dark, fluid shapes for the shading instead of trying to draw it as if I were using a pencil.
On the plus side, I kept this lightbulb out of the landfill for another hour. That’s got to count for something, right?
This is my entry for Every Day Matters challenge #131 – Draw a spray bottle.
I was sitting at home, watching the Chicago Blackhawks beat up on Calgary Flames in the first hockey playoffs the Blackhawks have been to since I moved to Chicago. I was getting tired and thought about watching the rest of the shellacking in bed. Fortunately, the little voice inside my head said, “why don’t you draw something before you hit the sack?”
I’ve been doing quite a bit of charcoal work recently and was looking around for a subject that would fit the charcoal mindset. Instead, I found this spray bottle and remembered seeing it on the EDM challenge list.
I have a couple of micron pens that I haven’t used yet, and this seemed like a good subject for them. When I finished, I thought, “why not add a little color?” so I grabbed my colored pencils that I’ve only used once in a failed attempt to draw a stock car. I think I did a little better with them this time.
Anyway, it was a nice diversion from the charcoal kick I’ve been on recently, and a good reminder to myself to mix it up every now and then — makes the whole experience a lot more interesting. And it probably helps me from an overall perspective to gain some experience with a wide variety of mediums.
We recently replaced our dining room chandelier. I like the shape of it and have been wanting to draw it for a while. And since I’ve been playing with charcoal recently, I wondered what it would be like to draw it with charcoal.
As with most of the stuff I’ve done with charcoal, there are parts that I like and parts that I don’t.
Starting with the stuff I like… I think I’ve captured the overall feel of the chandelier: the general shape is there; basic pattern of light and dark. I like the dark on dark of the drawing. And I think I did an OK job pushing the rear lights into the background.
Now onto the “not so great” stuff: the lines lack any sort of sympathy for the subject. Instead of modeling the shape of the light domes and relying on form and shadow to create separation, they’re mostly separated by lines. There are a few too many spots where the lines meet the background which lack any degree of blending whatsoever. There is an overly dark spot in my background below the lights on the right of the picture. And I should have put a little more contrast between the background and the light domes — they’re dim, but they’re not THAT dim.
I was shooting for a soft, ethereal feel to the image, and I’m just not sure I achieved that. But for those of you wondering, I actually DID use my kneaded eraser in this drawing to pull out the highlights in the light globes.
Charcoal is a difficult medium to gain any degree of control over. But I will continue to work on it until I feel it’s time to move on to something else.
I tried to get outside to draw today. I really did. But it was cold again. Maybe I’m just a wimp, but the thought of sitting down somewhere for thirty minutes or more when the temp is in the 40′s is just not my idea of fun. So, another inside pic. Sigh.
More charcoal play, though. So that was fun. I’m really enjoying the organic quality charcoal is bringing to my work; though not so much on this one as the vases. I can’t wait to try it on an outdoor subject.
In the meantime, I claim victory over Everyday Matters challenge #159 – Draw a Favorite Cooking Tool. A stove is a tool, isn’t it?
I finally broke down and bought a box of willow charcoal today. This is my first charcoal sketch (well, my first one in 22 years). Between illnesses, a heavy work schedule, a bunch of home projects, opening day (woot!) and some good-ol-fashion laziness, this is my first sketch at all in several weeks (unless you count some sketches I did as part of the planning phase of those home projects).
The weather in Chicago has not been cooperative, either. I keep telling myself, “if it’s nice tomorrow, I’ll get outside and draw.” And then the next day is cold, windy, rainy, snowy, or all of the above. I know this is what ‘Everyday Matters’ is all about, but I’m not afraid to tell you, I’m getting real tired of drawing the stuff sitting around my home.
That said, I can’t tell you what a pleasure it was to draw with a burnt tree. The charcoal is nice and dark, and smudgy and splotchy and, well, almost paint-like the way I can push it around on the page. As far as a rendering, this is most definitely not my most accurate work. But I felt like I was really able to connect with the sketch in ways I haven’t felt up to this point. I will definitely be doing more charcoal sketches; I just need to figure out a way to not get charcoal dust all over the house.
Holy cow! I can’t believe I let myself take two whole weeks off. I must be mindful of this. I definitely needed a break, as I was starting to feel like making art (OK, maybe not “art”, but whatever…) was a bit of a chore; but two weeks is a bit much. I haven’t been completely slacking — I ordered new watercolors and have been busy working out how to mix reasonable grays and washes, but nothing that resembles actual artwork.
This is my pencil sharpener. I like it because it holds all of the shavings in its own little container instead of letting them fall all over the dining room table; though, it does have a tendency to clog. Part-way through the drawing, I realized I probably should have picked a different subject, because I needed to sharpen my pencils before I finished (duh).
More than anything, this was a paper test. I’ve read a lot of posts by pencil artists who go on and on about the benefits of Bristol paper for drawing, and I wanted to test it out.
I stopped at the local art store a while back and picked up some Artist Trading Card packs of Bristol Smooth and Bristol Vellum. These little packs are great because you get a good sample for just a couple dollars, instead of dropping a tenner on a pad that you may wind up hating.
This drawing was done on the smooth paper.
I like the smooth surface for its ability to blend, but I was less than satisfied with its ability to grab the graphite and pull out really dark darks. I used really soft pencils; all the way up to 8B, but the darks are still pretty light. I’m hoping the vellum finish does a better job. If not, I may need to start integrating charcoal — I’d rather not, due to the mess and the fingers-on-chalkboard feeling I get when using charcoal. On the upside, I love the thickness of the paper. It is substantial and it makes you feel like you are producing something worth sharing (as opposed to my sketchbook, which feels–well–sketchbooky).
Winter isn’t done yet — we’re supposed to get a bunch of snow overnight. I’ll be glad when we can stop opening this closet every day.