I'll try to keep my future drawings made in traditional material as much as I can. I have found that especially shading with a digital pencil is practically impossible. And it's often those shades that add depth and makes a drawing more interesting...
Just about to start redrawing the sketch for my latest "Spider woman" project with real pencil and paper. Now that I now that I can use a simple digicam photo as a first sketch I just can't continue using that touchpad-sketch as the starting point. Thanks for being one of those who made me take that step of finally posting a "real" sketch.
"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." - Picasso
Yea, that's what I said. That pencil one is much better. HA!! You all owe me a months pay. Jihaa, I'm rich!! Just you wait 'til your wife gets you a Wacom Introus tablet for you birthday. You'll go ballistic. It's exatly like drawing with a swiss army pencil. Looking good mate. Keep them coming:) Life is contrast.
Glad you like it, thanks a lot. Van Gogh is actually one of my favorite artists - along with among others Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Dürer, Rembrandt, Monet, Friedrich, Doré, Matisse, Picasso and...Luis Royo . Which are your favs?
"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." - Picasso
Glad you like it, thanks a lot. Van Gogh is actually one of my favorite artists - along with among others Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Dürer, Rembrandt, Monet, Friedrich, Doré, Matisse, Picasso and...Luis Royo . Which are your favs?
Very much the same as yours...Though Da Vinci has a special place in my heart...Among the artists of today I am very fond of MW Kaluta, Brom, Frazetta, Adam Hughes, Frank Cho...Would make a very long list.
Yeah, Leonardo is one of the indisputable masters. Must admit I don't know very much about today's greats, Frazetta is the only one I recognize of those names. Will check the rest out asap though. I'm sure they're awesome
Todays line workout - that ended up as a tree, some kind of serpent and a hedgehog was done with a HB pencil:
"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." - Picasso
Keep doing my quick line workouts. Today I once more tried to structure the lines into some sort of landscape, paying attention to contrasts: The difference in angles, pressure, hardness/softness of the lines. Tried a little soft and gentle shading here, a little "furious woodsketching" there. Light, flowing motions for the leaves, hard, forced, edgy lines for mountains and rocks.
Really like sketching simple landscapes this way - probably my only real "comfort zone" so far when it comes to drawing. Probably will do many more like this one.
Drawn with a HB pencil, my favorite pencil atm, since the softer ones tend to get so "messy". Probably should get some fixative if I draw something I really feel like saving. Haven't done that so far though
"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." - Picasso
The oak seems to be a returning theme in your drawings...Very nice !
When I draw I usually go from harder pencils to softer ones, though HB is my favourite too for universal drawing, I finish with 3B to get that real contrast in the end.
I keep a piece of smooth plastic under my drawing hand to avoid smearing out the graphite and I prefer to have my paper on a very hard surface ( makes erasing simpler because the tip of the pencil doesn´t sink so deep into the paper ) You can rub gently with a "Topz" on the graphite to create smooth shadings (don´t use your finger ! )
I still think pencil and paper is superior when it comes to get ones ideas into reality.
Yes, I've always enjoyed looking at - and drawing - trees. Thanks a lot for the valuable drawing advices. All your positive and instructive replies mean a lot.
Haven't got any eraser (or ink pen) yet, but now that I'll soon get Colclough's book on fantasy drawing I know he thinks one should start with a S.I.M.P.L.E. setup of equipment, that "E" being "Eraser" (and "I" for "Ink") - so I'll probably visit the art supply store soon.
Today I tried a "2 value exercise", drawing - you guessed it - another tree. Rather hard trying to focus more on values than lines.
(Btw, yesterday I realized I've been posting in a WAY to big format - apologize for that and will try to keep my future images below screen size)
"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." - Picasso
Yo man. Great to see your pencil drawings. Just thought I'd tips you about this site. It's a drawing site with great drawing lessons from beginner to advanced. I was browsing for exercises for the drawing class I'm teaching. Ended up signing up myself:) Think both me and my pupils will benefit from this. I in my place needs to get the things I do set in system. I often have now idea what I'm doing when for example draw perspective. It just works. Don't know why, and needs to know why to be able to do it quicker:) Sign up and get the full lessons. It's free. Life is contrast.
Hi again, Geir. Thanks a lot for your comment and the link to that site - it REALLY looks interesting. Of course I'll sign up asap and start doing some of the exercises (great to have this while waiting for Carly to get better and launch his "beginner challenges". Feel really sorry for him - hope it won't take too long until he's back feeling well again. )
Actually have roamed across the net a lot looking for structured courses on drawing - but somehow I had missed this goldmine completely.
Read some articles at about.com yesterday about "Ideas for your sketchbook" and was inspired to try drawing a small outdoor still life motif from the same position once a month. Picked and drew a dogrose bush by the snowy porch outside and plan to draw it again, for another 11 months. Think it will be interesting to see how the bush and it's berries (perhaps flowers?) will change with the seasons as well as if there will be any noticable differences in the way I choose to draw it during that year.
This is what todays drawing looks like (used a HB pencil):
"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." - Picasso
Looks fine. Try next time you draw it (or something else from real life) to tie everything together properly. Let the vertical part of the railing connect with the over laying horizontal plank. Make a pencil drawn frame, just a line, on your paper (this is something I tell all my pupils). Let it be about 3-5 cm or more from the edge. This is a good habit witch will enable you to add to the drawing if needed without taping on more paper. And it makes for a fine border into witch your drawing shall be. It actually makes (for me at least) the white empty surface less intimidating and makes it easier to compose a picture. Try to fill the whole frame with your drawing and let every line go all the way out to the frame. See how you feel about the drawing then. Witch size paper are using?
Life is contrast.
Thanks (and thanks again for that link - doing some symmetry (B03) exercises atm, decided to start from B01-lesson and move on from there. Really high quality lessons ) for your advices about framework and composition. To be honest I wasn't quite sure when beginning how much of the bush I would actually draw - just where I wanted to start. Will probably pick an even smaller area next time and make a bigger drawing. Going through the first lessons about "negative space" it has become even more clear that I must get better at going from big (outlines of the object) to small (those fiddly little details that I often tend to give too much focus too early). This one was actually drawn almost the opposite way.
Since I didn't know how big the drawing was going to be I took a simple A4 paper for this one - but knew I was only going to use the upper half, so A5 - lying down - is the actual size (but the drawing was really small, not even taking up half the width of the paper).
A5 is actually the biggest size I can imagine doing a complete, detailed pencil drawing in atm - A4 seems a little too demanding. I have noticed that I often have a tendency of not finishing a drawing unless I complete it during the actual session, especially if I have to shade big areas. A4 is fine for quick line exercises and that kind of sketching however. Any recommendations concerning paper size?
"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." - Picasso
. Which are your favs? 
Mindbender:
)
) for your advices about framework and composition. To be honest I wasn't quite sure when beginning how much of the bush I would actually draw - just where I wanted to start. Will probably pick an even smaller area next time and make a bigger drawing. Going through the first lessons about "negative space" it has become even more clear that I must get better at going from big (outlines of the object) to small (those fiddly little details that I often tend to give too much focus too early). This one was actually drawn almost the opposite way.
