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"

I Lieu of Sketching Today I went Shopping.....!

Let me state it clearly and plainly: There is no better shopping experience than in an art supplies store. Nothing can compete. I haven't been up to either drawing or painting for nearly a week due to a weird head cold that knocked me sideways, so I thought I would cheer myself up and replenish some of my art supplies. I bought a new bottle of that wonderful Liquin, white, black charcoal and sanguine sketching pencils, two huge fat sticks of graphite and two 5" x 5" canvases. There is absolutely no need to photograph them but I just felt like it. Somehow, even this folly keeps the oar in the water. Hope springs eternal. I hope to have some more sketches on this blog by the end of the weekend.

Happy Purchase.

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?

Humble First Sketch

I had intended to send in a drawing or a painting to a web challenge a week ago, but time got the better of me and I only got as far as the first rough sketch (and it is very rough and sketchy) which would give me a feel for what was going on visually. At this stage I didn't know whether or not I was going to paint it or draw it. The subject was taken from a photograph of a statue of Diana with her companion, and it was quite a tough one to say the least. In the end, I really did want to paint it but didn't have the time, even though drawings were permitted. I am posting it here for the record.

First Sketch of Diana

Painting Challenge 1. Sketch - Second Phase

I've done another sketch. I wasn't too sure about the first one because I felt the figures were too large. I am not too sure about this one either. I think there was a better dynamic with the rendering and positioning of the painter in the foreground of the first sketch, but the background is more resolved in the second and there seems to be more confidence with the drawing of drapery as well. We'll see. I can't do any more today but I have given the canvas one coat of oil with Liquin. This will serve as the basis for the glaze I am going to put over the whole format. The light is going and even though today was brilliant as the sun was just shining in, I cannot do any more. In fact, after reflecting on this second sketch, I think I am going to base the painting more on the first sketch. It is amazing what one has to work through to get something clear. It's also good to see so many new sketches on the Drawing Vault in two days after such a long absence. I hope to post more sketches tomorrow and start the painting itself. Then, I shall be posting my progress over on my other blog, the Painting Vault. I just hope I have enough time to finish the project to send it in by 4 March. Time is very tight and I have complicated things out of all proportion. Ambition is good, but this.....?! T'was a Good Day Today.

Second Sketch.

Painting Challenge 1. Sketch - First Phase.

At last! Some real sketches for the Drawing Vault. An explanation of what they are 'for' is required, because they don't stand on their own; they are sketches of a painting I intend to send into a competition/challenge in a couple of weeks. I posted the full story on my other blog, Painting Vault, yesterday.

I have accepted a challenge to paint a picture, send it in to a website and have it published. Well that sounded prosaic and dull, but luckily for me there is a fantastic and extremely generous artist in the USA who has started a blog 'challenge', open to all, where a photograph is put up every two weeks and anyone can create a painting based on that photograph. The basis of the challenge is to be 'inspired' by the photograph and use it as a basis for our art. The photograph is extremely challenging in itself as a subject - a shot of a window display for wigs! Who would have thought of issuing such a challenge to artists? Here is the photo:

So what on earth can one do with such a subject? I would never have noticed this display and I guess that's what this challenge is all about; stretching oneself. What flashed into my mind after staring at this picture for ages, was something probably a few steps too far from any real recognisable representation of the photo above. Here's what I am going to do: I am going to create an 8"x10" oil on canvas of myself painting a fresco, partially finished, with these heads and wigs turned into either minstrels or angels. Okay, well, that's the idea and I had to get home tonight to do a rough, very rough, composition of what I wanted to create. These are give below. You can see the development of the rough idea with all its tentative, pale marks, developing into something a little more confident and resolved. I have also learned a lot from doing this sketch which took about an hour inbetween serving dinner and making tea. I hope to post more sketches tomorrow. The only problem I have is that I have two weeks to complete this painting and I only have weekends. If only it was high Summer with available light after work...... Apologies for the photography....it will get better soon.

First tentative sketch.

Figures more resolved and the addition of myself.

Mapping in the oval as a compositional device


Random Sketch - Close Up


Close up of detail


Key Figure emerging on the left.


Close Up of Key Figure.

Drawing Vault: No 2 Link on Google Front Page.

Yay me!

Today I checked on Google's front page and 'Drawing Vault' was No. 2. As I said before, those two words are hardly the most searched-after keywords on Google, but it is fun watching it go up and up and up. Now off to get some drawings done after my earlier rant.

No. 2 Link on Google Front Page Today!