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 "Homage to Rembrandt - Variation I"

I haven't been drawing or sketching successfully for quite a few weeks now. Most of my works have been thrown away and only last night I decided to take on a drawing of a Rembrandt self portrait from 1659. The reference itself was a head only shot of the original work, and I aimed at representing it as accurately as I could, with all the nuances created by those magnificent brushtrokes. I nearly pulled it off, but got some of the proportions wrong. This wouldn't have happened had I traced it and it was a much larger scale than the original photograph I was working from, so the up-scaling of the work took its toll. However, I adored working with charcoal on such a large format again, and I intend to get to grips with this medium more and more in the future. The original drawing is much darker than the photograph and shows the vast range of tonal ranges - I found it almost impossible to capture the almost black charcoal. More lessons.

"Rembrandt Portrait - Variation I"
Charcoal and White Pencil on Cartridge Paper - 16.5" x 23.5"

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.