Homage - Portrait Sketch

As I have no access to a live model at present, I thought I would get the juices going with a homage to one of my favourite artists, Annigoni.  This was inspired by one of his drawings.  The paper should have been smoother to capture the half-tones I was trying to emulate and the photography isn't that wonderful either.  Next time, maybe.

"Homage"

Graphite on Watercolour Paper - 9" x 6.5"

2020 - First Sketches

These are the first three sketches of 2020.

They were done quickly without much fuss as all I wanted to experience was the use of these new tools for drawing; water soluble chalks which are just superb and lots of fun.  I am not posting these because I like them, although there are some interesting marks in each work. I am posting them because I want to get back into the discipline of recording what I draw and sketch throughout the year without being strategic about posting my best work.  It's all going to be out there in 2020; good, bad and wholly indifferent.

Another quick drawing this time with gouache.

Another quick drawing/sketch this afternoon. Same subject, different photo. I cannot replicate the sitter's face as I am so out of practice. Again the lighting for the photography defeated me. I do see some improvement over the last effort though, so that's something.

"Inspired by Anna (2)"

 Pencil, Watercolour & Gouache on Cartridge Paper - A5

Quick Pencil Drawing

This didn't go exactly as planned, but certain aspects of it surprised me. I haven't done representational work like this for years and years and it was quite liberating.  If the photography was better, the sitter's clothes would be much darker.  I honestly have to find a way to photograph pencil and charcoal works.

"Inspired by Anna" 

Pencil on Cartridge Paper

A Sketch and a Drawing

I felt like putting up some drawings on the blog today, and found these two. I haven't shown the complete work in either case.  The first is a section of a full life drawing and the other, a close-up of a charcoal portrait of no particular distinction.  In the latter, I rather liked the transformation of the original drawing by getting up close and personal and in the end, the close up can almost not be recognised as fragment of the original. That's photography for you. More drawings to come in the next few days I hope.

Close-Up - Life Drawing - Pencil on Cartridge Paper

Close-Up - Portrait - Charcoal on Cartridge Paper

Portrait Sketch of Lara

I decided to get some portrait drawing done this afternoon and not having done any sketching or drawing for ages, I expected to do badly.  This one didn't turn out all that bad, but again, the lack of professional lighting and a small camera doesn't show the drawing up very well.  I wanted to shade the background in pencil but it looked like a long haul, so I decided to compromise with a few quick brushes of black gouache and it certainly added a bit of dynamism, even though it slightly overshadows the drawing.

Graphite and Gouache on Cartridge Paper
10.5" x 8.5" 

 

Graphite on Cartridge Paper

10.5" x 8.5"



#annecmcampbell

Sunday Sketches

I've often wondered how those brilliant (mostly American) illustrators were able to convey form and expression on a face with just cross-hatching so I tried it here. It does obviously convey more detail than charcoal ever could with a similar technique, but lots more practice is needed. Again, the photographs just don't show these small works properly. Maybe I should get a digital camera that can take good black and white shots. The paper is a creamy white in both sketches, but I just couldn't adjust them to look like the originals.  Not a problem really.

Portrait Sketch Pencil on Cartridge Paper - 9.5" x 7.5" (Approx.) 

Portrait Sketch Pencil on Cartridge Paper - 7" x 7.5" (Approx.)

Charcoal Portrait - Melancholy Series

I haven't posted any work for ages and the reasons are too boring to write about but I have been mulling over and experimenting with the seductive medium of charcoal recently. Unfortunately the paper I am using is not fine enough to hold the fine cross-hatching but I am not running out to the art materials store like I usually do when something isn't quite right. The photography seems to have picked up some blotchy bits which are not apparent in the original even though I didn't use any flash photography.

"Portait - Melancholy Series"

Charcoal on Cartridge Paper - 16.5" x 13" (Approx.)

The photograph below shows how I ended my day. I still feel creaky after not having drawn for nearly a year, but it's good to be back doing something creative.

Back to the drawing board

I found this drawing half done in a folder tonight and decided to 'finish' it. It's based on a photograph which really isn't the best source material from which to create a portrait, but it was all I had and I just felt like letting rip for a while. I now know how much work needs to be done to get back to where I was some years ago before I started The Drawing Vault blog. It does look better in real life, I promise. I find photographing pencil and even the more matte charcoal very difficult. There's a trick somewhere to this genre of photography.

"Quick Portrait" 10" x 8" Pencil/Graphite on Cartridge paper

More Value Sketches for Portraits

One thing I am learning is that I need to do lots of preparatory sketches before I take on a portrait in oils. My impatience gets the better of me and I love to get stuck in, but I've noticed that the final paintings need a lot of work on getting the values right. I am doing a mini-series on "Melancholy" and decided I needed to get to grips with the correct values and I was right. It took me two sessions to get this basic charcoal sketch as close as possible to the values of the original photograph. After I had finished the first phase I sprayed fixative on it and left it overnight. This is a wonderful part of charcoal drawing because pushing charcoal over the drawing the next day is wonderful - the darks turn to a very deep coal black.

The first one is the correct and final one. After I thought I was finshed, I felt there was something that was just not authentic about the face. I noticed that I had drawn a line around the side of the face closest to the light (second photograph below) and no such line exists in the photograph - the face almost merges with the background. The gouache doesn't look too good, but it helped me see my sketch align with the photograph which was the whole purpose of the exercise. I'm now always going to do value sketches. Always.

"FINAL Value Sketch for Melancholy Portrait Series"
Charcoal & Gouache on Cartridge Paper - 12" x 9" (Approx.)

"Value Sketch for Melancholy Portrait Series"
Charcoal on Cartridge Paper - 12"x 8" (Approx.)

Value Sketches for Portrait

This afternoon after preparing the backgrounds for a few paintings amd feeling so frustrated that I couldn't finish anything, I decided to do a value sketch in preparation for a small portrait I am hoping to do tomorrow. By small I mean 5" x 5"! I haven't done portrait work for ages and I needed to get to grips with the drama of the photograph I am working from as well as the tiny format. This sketch was done rather quickly at night and as a result, I found it hard to capture the nuances of the half tones on the model's face. However, I now know more for when I come to paint the real thing. This was fun but I am not drawing at night again until I get really good lighting. I also tried giving it a blue tint as the background of this portrait will be a bright saturated turquoise. Can anything go wrong?

Preliminary Portrait Sketch
Pencil on Cartridge Paper - 5" x 5"

Preliminary Portrait Sketch - Blue Tint
Pencil on Cartridge Paper - 5" x 5"

Sketches at last...

I haven't posted any drawings or sketches on this blog for nearly six months due to spending most of my time painting. This has resulted in mediocre drawing which is frustrating. Today, I decided to practice drawing faces as I am entering a blog challenge this month with a self portrait. I just threw pencil at paper today and came up with these two strange sketches but I have to say, I enjoyed doing them for some reason or another. Maybe it was the lack of messy oils and not having anything to clear up afterwards that was a bit of a break, but even though they are not that hot, I am putting them up here to chart my progress with my self portrait project. The first drawing is from a photograph and the second one is a 'made up' face I did while listening to an online class, which was a strage experience, but there you go.

Pencil on Cartridge Paper
8" x 8" (Approx.)

"Looking Down"
Pencil on Cartridge Paper7" x 5" (Approx.)