Woo.. Gesture Drawings!

1 minute gestures
4B Graphite on Mahjong Paper
(drawn referencing Posemaniacs.com)

My New Pup!..

Finally got in a little puppy sketching today. Really have not been doing much artwork recently but I've been trying to get back to it as much as possible as my new pup quickly matures and needs less and less constant attention. He's getting more and more adorable by the day, if thats possible... :)

Asleep at last.. ;)

about 5.9" x 4.1"

A few tiny thumbnail gestures of me pup at play

Thanks for the visit.. Hope to get back to more regular updates soon!

1st'ish Alla Prima Life Portrait!

My amazing and lovely boyfriend popped on a scary movie and sat still for a full 2 hours tonight so that I could paint this quick alla prima portrait of him... :)

Watchin' a Scary Movie
Oil on Daler Rowney Paper primed for Acrylics
Size: 10" x 7"
Looks kinda flat as he was lit by some awful fluorescent lighting,
 my spot light bustin' at the last minute.. 

Started of straight blocking in the form, without any preliminary drawing working the details in later as the portrait progressed...

This would actually be my second life portrait painting (did a quick one some 8 years back in college) but non since. It's kinda hard getting someone to sit still long enough in these busy times (and one rather feels bad askin too.. :) )...

Anyways hopefully this is the first of many to come soon, cos I could really do with a lot more practice... :)

Thanks for the visit!...

Dip Pen Ink Bottle

It's been ages since I last drew with my dip pen and ink, so out they came today... 

Holbein Sepia Permanent Ink on Acrylic Primed Cartridge Paper
Size: about 3" x 4"
(this is the actual ink pot the ink came in..)

The Holbein Permanent Ink I used has never been really suitable for my particular working method. Always found it too diluted (thats why I prime the paper, for it usually just seeps through,... just a real mess). I much prefer W&N Peat Brown Permanent Ink, which is much much thicker, but haven't been able to get it over here for ages.. :(

Been meaning to try different ways of using the holbein ink though, to find it's strengths (since I have two bottles!). So this time I tried mixing a little ink with water so I'd have two tones to work with. This seems to be a good way to work with it's inherent washed out look and I will definitely be experimenting much more in this direction.... :)

Mafiosi

A friend expressed a desire to have a portrait sketch done of himself like a previous sketch I'd done of Albert Einstein a few weeks back, and here's the result!....

4B Graphite on Brown Paper

Size 7.4" x 9.3"

Hopefully it's as he imagined.. :)

Colour Dry Brush Portrait Complete!

It's always exhilarating to finish a work of art,.. and I always just can't wait to post it here on one of my blogs,.. so here it is, my latest commissioned portrait using the dry brush technique (oil paint on Fabriano watercolour paper)

Just completed dry brush portrait...
It's been cropped oval since and just awaits to be packaged safely ready for the lovely lady!..

I'll be posting a better picture of this on my main blog soon!!

Till then thanks for visiting!

Albert Einstein Portrait Sketch

4B Graphite on Brown Paper

Size 8.7" x 7"

Jacque Fresco Sketch

Jacque Fresco of The Venus Project

4B Graphite on Brown Paper

(drawn from a picture)

Another attempt at a quick sketch but this one turned in to an almost 2 hour stint, but all good. This was the first time drawing a more mature wisdom etched face... :) 

Another Portrait Sketch

Watching 'Yes Prime Minister'

Portrait Sketch

20 min 4B graphite on A5 Arboreta Paper

Potato Alla Prima

Decided to take more time on this one... Alla prima completed in 2 hours.

Oil on Primed Thick Card Board
size: 2.75 x 3.5 inches

BUY A PRINT AT REDBUBBLE

Gaddafi Caricature

Rough Caricature done some time back at the beginning of Libya's Arab spring

Hopefully the Libyan's will finally regain some peace...

Willow Charcoal Portrait

Took a break from 'The Natural Way to Draw' today and decided to practice some portraits with a freer more expressive approach (all of which hopefully I've been developing with Nicolaidess' method)... Unfortunately I've got a ways to go yet.. 

Best effort for today.... :)

Willow Charcoal on Newsprint

Kind of skipped on the eyes cause my model was wearing glasses...

1/2 hour Modeled Drawing in Watercolour

For todays, and for the next few practice sessions, Nicolaides from 'The Natural Way to Draw' is once again focusing on the modeled form but this time in watercolour. 

The same method as previous modeled watercolour drawings will be used. However more time will be given for more in depth detail this time, the longest session lasting 2hours.. 

1/2 hour Watercolour (yellow ocher, burnt umber and lamp black) on Manilla card

10 Minute Form Studies in Ink

Another study from 'The Natural Way to Draw'... It's a cross between a gesture and a weight drawing done in 10 minutes... This particular 30 minute session (3 drawings) was done with a normal ball point pen...

"Start with the consideration of weight and TRY TO GET THE DISPLACEMENT OF THAT WEIGHT IN SPACE"... quote from Nicolaides in 'The Natural Way To Draw'...

Daily Gesture Drawings

As you may have noticed if you've read previous posts here I'm always posting gesture drawings... This is because I do them daily, even if I don't have time for anything else, 25 (1 minute gestures) are done without fail.

Usually start off with 15 figure gestures with the help of posemaniacs.com. (the page is usually completely filled, freeing me from being too conscious of creating a perfect drawing instead of working with the fluidity needed.

Although working from a 2D source is less than ideal, it helps me become familiar with human anatomy.. The lack of life subjects is made up for somewhat with primarily practicing those most notoriously difficult to draw human appendages, hands and feet, for the next 10 gesture drawings.

Hand gestures are done more so than feet as there are just so many more variances of 'posture' in their poses... :)

They warm me up for the arty day ahead, of course, give invaluable drawing practice, and are thoroughly enjoyable to do.. :)

Thanks for visiting!... 

Dragon Eye Work In Progress

After much deliberation over it's design, I've finally started painting this one. I'm working on it concurrently with other projects so will probably be done with the underpainting in 1 to 2 weeks... 

So far Acrylic on Canvas board
Size 7.3" x 5.1"
Still have a ways to go with the reflections in the eye and so forth.
Some of this underpainting will be left to be seen in the final.

My 'Survival of the Fittest ?...' painting has been on hold for a bit but will show you some progress as soon as can be.... :)

Ta for now, thanks for visiting... :)

p.s. check out the completed underpainting for this painting here

5 Minute (about) Caricature sketches

In leu of a possible job involving illustrative caricatures, I thought I'd better start practicing..

As you may find, I've got a ways to go before capturing the essence of caricature, most importantly MORE EXAGGERATION.... As an article from 'The MAD Blog' says, it takes 500 failed attempts before one really starts to GET IT... so here goes.... Here are my first few quick attempts (their kind of light cos the pencil I grabbed happened to be a 'H', though I tried darkening them a bit in photoshop their still limited in tonality).. 

'Nicolaides'
Seem to have 'normalized' this one instead of the required exaggeration.. 

'Joey Barton'
Mind the language!... 

'Najib'
Classic example of a lack of exaggeration
that ends with it looking like a bad portrait instead of a caricature...

'Lee Chong Wei'
This ones a bit better but still could do with a lot more exaggeration..
practice, practice, practice.. :)

Well thats it for now... It was nice posting something different this time.. Thanks for visiting!.. :)

More Hands n Feet Gestures

1 Minute Gesture Studies
4B on Mahjong Paper

1 Hour Modeled Drawing

'Still Life of Squaw Sculpture'
Modeled Drawing in Black Oil Pastel
Starting to model more detail