Sketches and Drawings, Sometimes NSFW)

[snowbear]

I attended the local DC area Art Improvement Meetup today, and we all made some figure drawings. The primary topic was shading, but for me it was the whole process of drawing the human figure; it's been a few years.

The first is charcoal on newsprint, about 7" x 12".

The second is pencil on bond paper (sketchbook), about 8" x 9".

 

[Original katomi]

Nice, you have a talent there.

 

[tirediron]

Nicely done sir... you need to add 'pencil and paper' to the gear list in your signature.

 

[terri]

These are beautiful! I really like the look of charcoal. If this is how well you sketch when you've not done it in a few years, you're going to be a force when you feel less rusty.

Love these, keep 'em coming!

btw - for these kind of figure sketching/drawing, the "NSFW" in the title should suffice. No worries!

 

[Jeff15]

Good stuff, lets see more......

 

[snowbear]

Thanks, all; I really appreciate it; art is jammin' hard work.

I've been drawing, off and on, forever; started painting with oils when I was, maybe 10. In my first semester at the local community college, I took an oil painting class. That's when I found out how much work art really is - a painting each week. After the class was over (I got a "B") i didn't pick up a brush for years. I made a few drawings, but nothing like before.

Fast forward to 2007, when I was underway to getting my BS in Geography. I was working full time, taking one or two classes per semester at Maryland University (College Park). I got in a situation where no major classes were available in my time slots, so I took an intro art class. I loved doing it again. I ended up taking a second drawing class and topped that off with three photography classes (two film, one digital) to end up with 18 credits in Studio Art, an unofficial minor.

 

[terri]

This is an oil pastel semi-nude, so I thought I'd pop it in here.

The main challenge for this piece was to have a play with the Zorn palette. It's basically a limited palette containing roughly the primary colors - though distinctly minus blue.

The colors are: yellow ochre, a light cadmium red, white, and ivory black. (Ivory black is warm and soft and kind of acts as a blue.) I think it's best used for portraits or nudes - anything where there's a lot of skin tones showing. People have done amazing work with it.

Here's my palette - I used all Sennelier OP's, which I rarely do, but they're the softest OP's out there and this approach calls for a lot of blending.

Here's my effort:

It's definitely a learning process. You have to decide where to place each color to get what you're after in skin tone. I had a ref photo for the pose, and sketched in a grid pattern to keep proportions on target. I took a few WIP photos:

After blocking in color, you basically start blending like a mutha. I used Canson Mi-teintes paper because of the nice gray tone, but as @snowbear knows, this paper is really pocked for texture, so it was a stupid choice for something that needed this much blending to get smooth. My newbie mistakes cause me pain and suffering. The swirly background was a necessity to cover up the grid.

Anyway. If I try it again, it will have to be with a different paper, because that was a frigging pita!

 

[snowbear]

Great work. How about using a velum-textured Bristol board? It’s pretty smooth but has a slight tooth to it.

I saw an article on using only ultramarine and one of the browns, burnt or raw umber, IIRC. I’LL have to look for it again and give it a try.

 

[terri]

Thanks! Funny, I had a pack of that exact paper and liked it. The last couple of times I looked for it at a local art store, only the smooth surface was there. Might have to go online. It's a great value, IIRC.

That limited palette of ultramarine and a deep brown sounds interesting!