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

Life Drawing Class...It's Been Ages

It's been years since my last life drawing class and it shows!  However, it was great to get the charcoal scratching along the paper and to let go.  This was a 15 minute pose and I didn't have much time to correct anything but the model thought it good enough to photograph for her portfolio.  More next week, I hope.

Life Drawing Class 1.

Charcoal on A2 Cartridge Paper

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.)

Positional Vaticano

Strange title, but this is a first sketch of a painting I hope to do of a scene in the Vatican. A few more drawings with the figures in the correct positions and more attention to the values need to be done before I even start to paint this.  I just wish I knew how to photograph drawings.  I think I'll practice some gesture drawings tonight and if they are passable, I'll post them on the Drawing Vault. 

"Vatican Procession"
Pencil on Cartridge Paper

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

Winged Goddess of Victory - Sketch

This is my first submission to Sherry Massey's "History of Art Challenge" blog. The challenge was to portray, in any medium, a chosen image from Ancient Greece. I chose a very famous statue currently housed in the Louvre, Paris: "Nike of Samothrace", a marble statue from c. 220 - 190 BC, which depicts the winged goddess of victory in full flight. I am woefully untutored in the art history of this time even though I studied it at university. It was an interesting exercise for me as I was enchanted by the pose; the huge triumphant gesture and those delicious folds of drapery. However, to capture those in detail would require a larger sized paper and possible rendering in graphite pencil. Big congratulations to Sherry Massey for starting a challenge blog with an academic angle. I look forward to watching it grow from strength to strength.

"Nike of Samothrace"
Charcoal & Carbon Pencil on Paper - 16" x 12"

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.)

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.)

Charcoal Portrait - Final Version

After looking at the charcoal portrait I did last night in the cold light of day, I saw a few changes that had to be made. I am happy with the result. I must do more of these and get the correct paper for charcoal. This paper is not smooth enough.

Portrait

Charcoal on Cartridge Paper - 11.5" x 11.5"

Charcoal Quickie.

Ages have gone by since I have had any remotely acceptable drawing to post on this blog, but tonight I decided just to do 'something', 'anything', so here it is; a charcoal sketch of a photograph I took recently. I am finding it so hard to photograph drawings and sketches, as the blacks come out grey and flat. I have sprayed masses of fixative on this one and tomorrow morning when this has dried and settled, I am going to make minor adjustments to the mistakes I am noticing already and then re-photograph it to see if I can get a better result.

Portait

Charcoal on Paper - 11.5" x 11.5"

Another Quick Sketch

I have had no success with painting this August, so I have been feeling the pinch of failure and despondancy that projects are lying around unfinished. I got home from work tonight aching to do something, anything, that could be called 'creative work'; this quick sketch is the result. It took me 40 minutes and it is based on and inspired by a self portrait by Fantin Latour. I loved the darks and tried to emulate that in my charcoal sketch, and succeeded up to a point, but the flash photography ate into the coal blacks which is a pity. I might just take another photograph because this one is really not the best, but I am happy that something has been done this week, and so I am posting it. I learned an amazing amount about the medium of charcoal in the short 40 minutes - more than I have learned in a lifetime - so I shall definitely process more charcoal work. Only it is so messy and where do I store it?

Quick Sketch in Charcoal

New Project - Proto Five Minute Sketch

For this new 'project' I want to jot down how I am feeling about not having a studio. I am not ungrateful for having the space I presently use as a studio, but it is definitely not a real studio. I am cramped and disenabled. I did this sketch in five minutes flat and I intend to develop the theme with better drawing. I did this out of my head so who knows what it will really look like once a proper study is done. To anyone else this might seem an empty exercise, but not to me, and at least I managed to start the project. It is so easy to hold these schemes in one's mind and not to do anything about them. If I can do one sketch per day that would be awesome, but I don't think that will happen as I work during the day, but the more I sketch the better I can record my mind's eye.

One day, soon I hope, someone is going to teach me how to photograph drawings that don't turn, green, blue and grey. One day soon.

Pencil Sketch on Paper - A5

New Project... Just for the Record.

From July, I have decided to do one drawing per week and post it on this blog. I have been neglecting my drawing for so long and it is showing. I intend to do small sketches which shall sometimes contain water colour and, at this stage, I am not too sure what the content will be as I am not going to drawing class, but I do want to put down 'thoughts' on paper. I shall have to get the relevant materials out which is a bit of a pain because I don't have too much space, but if I don't do this, I shall forget. Just for the record....

Looking back on previous posts, I am somewhat annoyed. There it is; evidence of challenges, unfinished and undistinguished. I ran out of time for both the Wig and Diana challenges, and apart from the fact that I absolutely do have a time problem because I can only draw and paint at nights and on the weekends, I am also guilty of not practicing my drawing and, because of that, I am working a lot slower than I need to. This has got to stop; a simple 'quickie' here and there all adds up to that magical figure of 10,000 hours to get mastery at something. I'll talk about the '10,000 hours' in a future post. The thought of it is too overwhelming at present.

However, I am in one way relieved that this blog is a sort of 'documentation' of the blog challenges I enter, finished or unfinished. I can use those ideas for future challenges,which might not have been at all possible had I thrown these works in the trash. See?