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March 17, 2018 at 8:49 pm #453126
Started working again in a sketchbook that I had thought was lost some time back. I would post everything in it, but there is a lot that is not really very helpful I do not think. . . if you want to see it all just let me know. I will start with some of the more recent pages, not just the better drawings and work I have in there but some of the little scribbles.
I wish this paper took washes better. . . so many of the pages are actually done in a Deep Indigo Inktense pencil, would love to get the watery ink look on some of these. I have a bit on a few pages but it’s very difficult to keep the pages from rippling all over the place. Anyone know a way to smooth out some rippled 60lb paper, stuff is almost as bad as inkjet printer bond paper.
- Delo DelofashtMarch 17, 2018 at 9:45 pm #586551Oh these are super! I particularly enjoy the page with “from life”, “from study”, and “from imagination” Keep posting, please
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All Media Art Events, Artwork From Life, Art JournalsMarch 18, 2018 at 11:52 am #586493Thanks! I enjoy doing them that’s for certain, they are really helpful for practicing and learning. The images would probably look better from a scan, but they are just sketches anyhow. Will try to get some more scans of my sketches as I move forward, nearly finished another page last night, more like the first sketch. I am teaching myself how to draw and paint complex subjects from imagination right now, the first sketch illustrates the initial step in the process.
- Delo DelofashtMarch 18, 2018 at 8:33 pm #586556I like your sketching style. All of these are great.
Regards,
Greg.[FONT=Century Gothic]So when is this "Old enough to know better" supposed to kick in???
March 20, 2018 at 1:54 am #586563It’s great to see your work Delo. I totally hear you on paper in some sketchbooks buckling. I had that happen in Stillman and Birn with watercolor pencils (and I did not think I was using a ton of water), though it flattened out mostly when the book was closed, but when I tried sketching on the other side of the page, I could feel the effects of the buckling. The two sketchbooks I’ve had least buckling in are the Aquabee Super Deluxe sketchbook and Robert Bateman Recycled sketchbook (though the Robert Bateman does not seem like it well-suited to watercolor pencils in my experience).
Sandra
March 20, 2018 at 7:00 pm #586494Yeah Sandra, I remember having a nice little watercolor sketchbook a long time ago. . . but heavens knows where it went off to. I spent a little time today looking for another sketchbook actually, even reached out to a couple of manufacturers to see what they would suggest from their lines.
“Close” to finishing up this sketchbook, unfortunately the pages are too thin for working on each side, or I would have a ton of room left in the book. That is part of the reason I am looking to get a new one actually.
These are a few more pages from this book that I had time to get scanned in. I have done a couple more pages today that are more focused on drawing from imagination in a very structured way, but I can’t get to my scanner at the moment. Will have to post those another time.
- Delo DelofashtMarch 21, 2018 at 10:34 am #586495This is the method I use for drawing and painting from imagination when I want an actual constructed scene. There are notes and details on the top down flat views of the pieces I am building, then I create an isometric view (perspective view of the flat with extended vertical alignments that do not necessarily respect rules of linear perspective). From there the last page shows a VERY rough version of the painting that gives me an idea of the space and some of the shadows. That will give me the composition for the placement of objects and some sense of what it might look like lit up.
Today or tomorrow I plan to do a painting from that sketch. If I were to do this process for presentation to clients I would take the time to do this larger, on full individual sheets, with clean line work, and shading done in marker, watercolor, gouache, or some other transparent thin aqueous media. The painting will be executed in oil most likely (because I picked up a big set for $10 with canvas paper and a carrying case last month).
The house and little figures are for a different project.
- Delo DelofashtMarch 21, 2018 at 4:22 pm #586538nice sketches I can’t stand working on bad paper. I love S&B sketchbooks as I can play with washes or anything else and they behave beautifully. I’m just trying their Nova with grey or beige paper at the moment.
MY WEBSITE:http://vivienblackburn.com MY BLOG:http://vivienb.blogspot.com/ ETSY for original paintings http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6150568
March 21, 2018 at 7:52 pm #586496Oh hello there Vivien, I had not planned to be doing water media in this sketchbook originally. To be honest though, I hadn’t bought watercolors in over a decade after having lost my old set. About a year or so ago I picked up some watercolors and was using them a bit here and there on some stretched 90lb paper (where they were not causing any buckling), but here in my sketchbook no such luck. I reached out to a few of the paper companies to inquire about their papers, since it’s been a few decades since I bought paper for watercolor or any other kind of mixed media. So, I got a few samples coming in to try out and hopefully find the best paper for what I need.
I am planning to create a “presentation” sketchbook, filled with a variety of my best kinds of works (planned out and done as professionally as possible). This way I can show prospective clients a sampling of some of my better quality work without having to carry around a portfolio with paintings and drawings of all kinds of sizes.
Today, I decided I needed some kind of color study for this work before I do a full painting. While I should probably make some copies of it to color them all with different lighting situations, didn’t have access to my printer today. I did have my phone though and snapped a photo before I colored in the gray ink linework.
Only thing left to do is make a little oil painting from it now, doubt I can get the paper to handle a coat of gesso though, it’s only 60lb (89 gsm). Maybe I could laminate two of these pages together and then gesso that, might work out.
- Delo DelofashtMarch 21, 2018 at 9:01 pm #586552I applaud your preparation steps and studies. I’m fond of the work in post 9
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All Media Art Events, Artwork From Life, Art JournalsMarch 21, 2018 at 9:44 pm #586497Thanks so much eyepaint.
I think the color study will look even better when I actually finish it, ran out of time this evening. I still need to do the second pass of shadows everywhere, then pull out my tube of white Casein or white colored pencil, so I can build back up my highlight areas and all. Then I will need to wet the back of the paper and iron out the wrinkles, so much to do to get this to look the way I want, but I really do want a very good reference to work from when I do the oil study. My aim is to get this to the quality of a finished piece that would go in my “presentation” sketchbook.
- Delo DelofashtMarch 23, 2018 at 12:05 pm #586498Yesterday’s work is a bit of a divergence from the work I had been doing for the past few. Starting a set of creature designs in profile, later today I am planning to try to build the top down view equally small. A lot of it is up to my imagination, but each silhouette I have established here can get it’s own page in the sketchbook should I wish to bring them all up. From there I can redraw the top down and profile views larger, placing them in perspective as though they were flat drawings on a wall or ground. This will allow me to build a 3D form from the points where these intersect using a ruler to map out points if needed. Scale and depth will need to be adjusted of course.
Each step in this process builds on the one before, making each step easier because they all have increasingly more detail. Like the watercolor painting above, they will be turned into color comps for each one, and then I can use all this information to place them into action scenes. Huge amount of work for just one painting, but I think it will be worth the effort.
Top and middle left have a few warm up drawings to get my brain thinking, top left and right from imagination one designed to look like a pack animal but a bit front heavy, the other just a little rat. The tree was the best warm up exercise I have done in a while, which felt really rewarding to do and done mostly from reference (life).
- Delo DelofashtMarch 24, 2018 at 10:20 am #586499Yesterday I did a little bit of work on my color comp, because it has some unfinished areas that need to be brought up a bit more (soft shadows into the midground from the foreground). In addition to using that as a nice little warm-up exercise (15 min or so), I worked out a couple top-down view of my dragons. From this sketch, I can project a 3D model of each of my little sketches by drawing the tiny sketch in perspective and cleaning up the line work; similar to what I did for the landscape. Using the top-down view for the ground plane, and the side view as a “modeling” plane, the 3D model is created by way of intersecting points and drawing contours and cross contours as needed from the points where they would intersect. If this seems a bit confusing, it sounds that way, but I could show an example of how this works if anyone would like.
- Delo DelofashtMarch 26, 2018 at 2:50 pm #586500Finished up the color comp, this is as far as I take it in my sketchbook. I plan to make an oil painting from this, I may do a few other much faster color comps for this before I do that, but if so they will probably be done digitally.
The color is a bit off, but I can never get this to scan properly, or more likely the compression to jpeg kills the color depth. All good, looks pretty close, values are close. All the darks appear more solid in actual.
- Delo DelofashtMarch 28, 2018 at 11:24 am #586488Very impressive sketches collection! Love the last one you will use for an oil.
Kay
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