Weekly Drawing Thread April 22 - 29

[michaeleric]

Weekly Drawing Thread April 22-29

Welcome to the weekly drawing thread! Each week a new thread with a reference and suggestions for that reference will be posted for anyone to draw and post their results throughout the week. You may follow the weekly suggestion which is a loose guideline to try or draw and experiment on your own around this week’s subject and post your results.

Some people look on it as a challenge… but that's the great thing about these 'challenges' - they aren't against any other artists...the challenges is to you to do YOUR best against yourself! So it doesn't matter what other people do, as long as you do your best!! Better still – if you do it consistently, so that no matter what is thrown at you, you attempt it...that's the real challenge!

The goal of this thread is open-ended. This means you decide what it is you want out of the weekly challenge. Do you want to do a sketch or do you want to become more proficient at drawing, or do you wish to break into other dry mediums or even mix the mediums? It is entirely up to you as the artist. You know your own strengths and weaknesses and you can find them in each reference we are faced with. Practice is where it’s at, just think of this thread as your personal motivator.

Any level of drawing is encouraged to join in!!!

Different mediums are fine as long as we post preliminary drawings, sketches, and "under-drawing" of the painting, so the discussion on the thread stays relevant...and be sure to post the final painting for comparison of your drawing. Good drawing skills are crucial to the final product of a painting and we would need to see how you got there!

We accept submissions for reference photos. Feel free to PM reference photos or links to Lady Carol, arnoud3272, SparrowHawk7, Luicre, ArtsyBren or michaeleric. We recommend images out of the image library that you would like to see here or upload your own photos...but be sure to keep in mind of photo quality and choice of reference. We put all submissions in order of their arrival in our PM Inboxes. If you have questions regarding this, feel free to PM one of us.

It is always a good idea to study the works of great artists and one of the best way of studying them is to try and copy their work. Here are the works of several of my favourite works. I have a superb book on French drawings but unfortunately it is in Cape Town and I am in Johannesburg!

The first work is a self-portrait by Gustave Courbet. It is quite a moody piece with lovely contrasts between light and shadow.

The praying hands are by Albrecht Duerer. I have not seen anyone do such graceful and at the same time powerful hands the way he did with these.

The next two are by Leonardo. The dragon and lion is an excellent study in the use of sanguine or red chalk. It is best to use a coloured paper for this. The portrait of the girl is a great example of using a few strokes of a pencil (in this case, silverpoint) yet capturing the essence of the model.

I’m sure we all recognise this detail from a Modigliani painting. I included it to show how one can use very simplified forms and yet still express emotion.

The following piece is by Rembrandt. This is my favourite drawing by him (more of a brush drawing). It is less detailed than usual yet still conveys a powerful but peaceful presence.

I’ve ended off with three pieces by Egon Schiele. His drawings fascinate me in that they can be extremely bold and almost vulgar yet also, as in these, beautifully delicate. The girl was cropped otherwise a butt icon would have to have been used, but I could not resist showing how one can render hair in a broader way without getting involved in the details of the hair strands. Schiele was heavily criticized for his erotic art and one day used a model that was admittedly rather young. He spent some time in prison for that and the next two pieces are self-portraits of him as prisoner.

These are all very different styles from different eras but one thing that they have in common is to keep your medium loose and flowing. Not easy, because it requires a certain amount of self-confidence, but certainly worth the effort.

[Gerri Mc]

This thread doesn't appear to have a sticky!!

Wonderful refs, Michael! Love the Duerer.

[luicre]

OMG, Michael what a great choice of refs!!! I think I am going to try the Rembrandt, N° 6.....such a beautiful drawing-sketch


Saludos

Luicre

[WaterBaby]

I hope to get one done this week, great choices.

[michaeleric]

Originally Posted by WaterBaby

I hope to get one done this week, great choices.

Looking forward to it, Kas.

[michaeleric]

Gerri, that is a beautiful piece. It can be inspirational but also intimidating. I often think of doing a series on hands and then an image of this piece pops into my head and I think "nah" .

Luicre, I think that drawing would be a good choice for charcoal or pastel - just my personal prejudice. Try not to replicate it too closely - you'll lose the looseness of it. Rather use it as an inspiration to create your own spontaneous drawing.

[luicre]

Originally Posted by michaeleric

Gerri, that is a beautiful piece. It can be inspirational but also intimidating. I often think of doing a series on hands and then an image of this piece pops into my head and I think "nah" .

Luicre, I think that drawing would be a good choice for charcoal or pastel - just my personal prejudice. Try not to replicate it too closely - you'll lose the looseness of it. Rather use it as an inspiration to create your own spontaneous drawing.

Thank you, Michael. I was thinkiong about that. You are right!!! I will try my best...at loosen up...but It`s Rembrandt .....will try...

Luicre

[Gerri Mc]

Originally Posted by michaeleric

Gerri, that is a beautiful piece. It can be inspirational but also intimidating. I often think of doing a series on hands and then an image of this piece pops into my head and I think "nah" .

I hear ya!

[Bill Linn]

Great selection of reference material! Hope it makes a lot of folks grab paper and pencil. (It did me.) Anyway, here's the easy one done on cheap paper with a hard charcoal pencil. Hope to get time for another one, may get started today. (The lawn can wait!)

[michaeleric]

Bill, I love your motto - the lawn can wait .

You have kept your style nice and loose and brought in some drama with your contrasts. I like the way you have made Rembrandt's drawing your own.

[Bill Linn]

Thanks Michael,

Gotta get this one uploaded (Third try..guess I've forgotten how!) then MOW the lawn.

Charcoal again, size 8x10 ..

[michaeleric]

A very expressive drawing, Bill. What you have done very well is get volume to his hair. There is often the danger when one draws dark areas like that to make them look flat. If I could make one suggestion - there is a light area just below his beard. It kinda makes his head look like it is floating above his shoulders. Perhaps darken it a bit to match the shadow of his neck. Don't worry, the lawn ain't going nowhere!!

[Bill Linn]

Michael, thanks for the feedback. It really helps to have an extra set of eyes....and the feedback. I got rid of that line below the chin and beard-line and did some more blending, adjusting the lips, nose and eyes slightly.

(I did get the lawn mostly mowed in between sessions of editing.)

As a note of interest, I aquired a Motorola Xoom that I'm using to photograph the drawings in mono. It seems to do a good job with graphite and charcoal. This picture has been cropped, otherwise, it is straight from the camera.

[michaeleric]

Ah, his head looks a lot more anchored to his neck now .

If you have found a digital camera that can reproduce graphite and charcoal you have found a goldmine . I have yet to master the art of photographing drawings

[twistedmedium]

I also went for the Courbet, all I had was a pen and ink at work during lunch: