The mind of watercolor

I followed along with the demo for this Strathmore workshop and here is my take on the landscape:

I learned a couple of tricks and I will be watching the video again. I think it lacks a bit of contrast but all in all I am happy with the result.

Imaginary landscapes

Another assignment was to draw landscapes either loosely inspired by something we saw or from imagination. We began by painting a sky and a ground and then added shapes. I used guache for lack of other opaque materials. Maybe watercolor crayon could work, but I am not convinced it would give the same flat one tone shapes as the opaque watercolor does. I suppose it is something to try. Until then, here is what I came up with:

The fist two are loosely based on pictures I took on vacation. The last two are marks from imagination. the idea is worth exploring I like that it gives a certain freedom. I do not feel obliged to strive for a certain likeliness - which is only in my head anyway, somebody looking at the end result has no idea how the landscape or the object looked like anyway. Maybe one day I will have time to explore things more ....stuff like this makes on the list of to do-s only to never get done ...

Shapes

An assignment in Cat's course was to sketch shapes with a heavier brush. She uses opaque watercolors, but I did not have any so I used guache instead. The effect is not the same of course but I think the idea is.

Here are the results - a bit fauvistes but that is in part because I only have few tubes of guache. And in part because I like color anyway.

Hello ... and good bye

I have been missing in action for a while due to vacation and work.

The vacation was uneventful sketching wise. I packed plenty of art supplies, bought a new Stillman & Birn sketchbook, took a total of three sketchbooks with me. In a nutshell, everything prepared for the big, bold sketches ... that never happened.

I spent two weeks in Romania - first time back home since my dad passed. Two weeks full of running around to various chores, but also concerts, visiting family and friends, food. All in all, two much agitation to be able to stop for long enough to sketch. I have about 3 unfinished sketches from these two weeks.

I then spent three days in Vienna - and walked about 20 km every day. Again, not much time to stop. Simply too much to see and too much ground to cover.

And since I came back, I was busy at work and running around for various errands, dealing with various aches and pains. Again, very little sketching.

I signed up for Cat Bennet's class over at Carla Sonheim's so that at least I have an assignment to do every week.

I managed to squeeze in a small coffee shop sketch yesterday - it needs some finishing touch and scanning.

But I will be gone for two weeks ... very unlikely I will have time to draw.

In the meantime, these are the marks I did for week 1 of Cat's course. They caught the attention of my furry friend!

Landscapes

I signed up for Shari's class on craftsy. As I am preparing for vacation, I wanted some tips about painting skies and such - although to be honest I am not sure how many landscapes I will be able to paint and even if I will remember what I learned! I did enjoy the class though very well done and full of tips and tricks.

These are my class samples:

I will have to revisit the instructions after I refill my palette. Some of the sky colors are not what I would normally use but I want to finish all the colors in the Altoids box to be able to refill it for the trip. So I am using whatever leftovers I happen to still have.

Running horse

In the analytical sketching class, we spent some time drawing animals and I was pleased that the results showed improvement. Here is a horse I sketched on a pre-painted background. I recycled this page I did not like. First I attempted to draw a portrait with ballpoint pen - because I saw so much gorgeous sketches made with pen that I decided to try, too. Disaster! But being stubborn. I did not want to rip the page off.
I covered the mishaps with paint and moved on. I do like the horse!

Analytical drawing

After the first weeks trying my hand at patterns, lines, ovals, cubes in perspective and organic shapes, it was time for the first "real" subject: plants! Results ranged from strange to sort of ok.

 The trees fall in the strange category - this one had tons of super small leaves and I could not figure a better way to simplify them and suggest volume at the same time.

 Contour drawing and pen texture:

 Pentel pocket brush

 The paper is Strathmore tan - great paper, very smooth. The marker bleeds, but it does not bother me for now.

Dynamic Drawing - the end

Last class was about feedback on homework and drawing plaster models.

We talked a bit about curvilinear perspective - something I want to look into. The course if over, but the work is not. Of course ...

As somebody said - inspiration is for amateurs. The work needs to be done, no matter what. Show up and put in the hours. That is what I am trying to do...

Theatrical combat pose

Few weeks ago, Max organized a theatrical combat session for us to draw. Mostly gesture drawing - slow movement - and one longer pose at the end. I did not finish the long pose, so I tried again at home from the pics take in class. Col-erase pencils.

Dynamic Drawing - almost the end

Last week's class was a life model class - 15 min poses. No movement this time. These are some of the unfinished sketches:

Cartridge paper and col-erase pencils. The last one has a face, just not the model's face! I had to sharpen the images to make the lines more visible. The idea was to use the lighter colored pencils for the first pass, then to finish with ink or darker pen/pencils.

Back to basic - 2

The topic of the week - tone and form. I finally learned how to draw ellipses! Even more important, I learned that not all ellipses are created equal. What was I thinking ???

What I mean is this: I always assumed that the cross-sections through a cylindrical objects are the same (basically I would struggle to make them all at the same angle). They are ellipses alright. But the angle changes! Some sections will be lower that the eye level, some might be higher. Depending how low the sections are in respect to the horizon line, they form of the ellipses will change! Tadah ....

And the other elementary thing that did not cross my mind - how to make cylindrical object symmetrical.
Measure! Take the mid-line and measure points on each side to make sure they are equally spaced from the mid-line.

It took a while to measure! I even had to play it by the ear in the end because the original measurement was wrong. I did not want to use the ruler again because I will not always have a ruler handy. So I measured with the pencil. One day I suppose it will get easier!

This is all I had time for in one (longish) setting. I don't think I drew a more 3D object ever! Thank you, Earnest!

Back to Basics - 1

The first Strathmore course of the year is open. The assignment for the first week was a pencil sketch. I had difficulty with the measurements. They simply would not add up, meaning that what I measured (or thought I measured) was not the same as the size on paper. Usual stuff, I am afraid.

This time, I followed the suggestion in the course and used a ruler to measure. Now, this worked. No approximation, "this looks almost 3 units and 1/3" and other such things. It works great for 1:1 renderings.

I have a nice photo of a shell I took at the Redpath museum. That makes a nice subject for a texture exercise in pen or pencil. It is on my to-do list.

Dynamic Drawing - 2

Second week of the course - topic du jour: intro to Pentel pocket brush and sketching a tai chi master in action. I decided to use the brush for the gesture studies, and the result is not what was intended.The gesture studies should be done with one uninterrupted line, not an easy task if one does not master the brush. I tried to focus on sketching the folds in the clothes and the tassel of the sword to suggest movement. I am starting to notice a certain looseness in the line and an itsy-bitsy feeling of letting go the expectations of how these studies should look like... microscopic feeling ...

Dynamic Drawing 1

After expressive watercolor (class not given this semester at Syn Studio), it was time for dynamic drawing. We started with gesture drawings of moving subjects. Tough job... in spite of all the reading I did, Nikolaides among others ... there is a disconnect between hand and brain. The most I was able to master was the use of stick figures because the subjects (ballet dancers from a short clip found on youtube) were moving way to fast. But this is not the idea.

Steps are much easier than that. In fact, there is only one step: put pen to paper and do not lift it until the sketch is complete. Do not draw contour lines. Draw the big shapes. Suggest movement. Easy-peasy.

The first week we had a model - dynamic poses of 3 - 5 min. She chose a sequence of about three movements (lifting a box from the floor and placing it on a shelf, that sort of thing) and repeated it for the duration of the pose.

It took me a good chunk of time only to get over the impulse of drawing the contour lines first and then be stuck there. I used pencil on newsprint, but after a while I switched to woodless graphite. The pencil lines were to thin and pale where the graphite is thicker and it slides easier over the paper. I selected a couple of sketches that represent better the requirements of the exercise.

This course has homework too. Control exercises and pattern to get uses with various tools. More moving subject studies. Doodles. Pentel pocket brush is new to me. I think I will use it to add accents to ink drawings, but maybe with time I will change idea.

Texture & gesture

I received ahead of time the info about the upcoming Dynamic drawing class I will be taking starting Saturday. Classics on the menu: gesture drawings causing me a lot of grief; texture samples great to do waiting for appointments; abstract shape design.

I used pen, watercolor brush and ink, niji brush filled with diluted black ink.

 This shape was inspired by a ginger root.

 Ballet dancers from a youtube video. I had to give up trying to draw a torso, legs and arms because the movement was too fast.

There will be more of these in the weeks to come, I am sure...

Expressive watercolor - 8

This week, the assignment was to start working the the "graduation piece" aka "the masterpiece" aka a finished painting. I used a postcard from my trip to the Grand Canyon as a reference.

 All in all, I am pleased with the result. On the spot though I almost hated it, but the next day, in the daylight and with some more work it looked better.

Expressive watercolor - 7

Topic du jour - landscapes. Mark brought some posters with various landscapes. I picked a seascape, which I did not finish in class. I was overwhelmed by the size of the painting - half a sheet - and the amount of details in the rocks, foliage etc. I started fidgeting with small brushes trying to add shadows on the rocks. I need a faster way to add texture! Here is the result:

In the classroom, the colors looked somewhat lifeless, but when I checked at home in daylight, everything looked better. I took a picture of the poster because I want to work on this a bit more. This is Fabriano hot pressed paper - this posed an additional challenge because the paint dried almost instantaneously.

Before starting on the painting, we did composition and colour sketches, but not thumbnails. I found them much more useful at this bigger size, especially for a subject with so much detail. And I got to try two compositional approaches: one with the horizon line higher and one with the horizon line lower. For the final painting, I chose to lower the horizon as it made more sense given the size of my paper.

Expressive watercolor - 6

Topic of the week - long pose with costumed model. I had some help with the hands - I just could not figure out the right proportion and placement of the hands. I used Aquarius II paper for this one and I am not enthusiastic about it. I found it harder to work on it than on watercolor paper. I should have probably use more water or something. In any case, I don't think this is a paper for beginners. I'll use it for ink drawings or dry media.

Expressive watercolor - 5

In spite of the obvious mistakes, I am pleased with the result.

Expressive watercolor - 4

Topic of the week - life drawing! 10 minutes to sketch to figure and apply the first wash, then another 10 min to apply shadows and darks. 'Nough said.

I was very confused - what to do first? Drawing, measuring, mixing the wash? Very good exercise to work in small increments - it avoids the tendency to agonize over every line and angle.

I found on the internet a "recipe" for measuring the body in relation to the head. Things like accross the shoulders is two heads, the lower leg in two heads and so on. This of course does not take into account foreshortening. I tried to correct the drawings, but it did not work out. I am keeping the recipe for future reference though.

I want to go regularly to life drawing sessions, but I will need some kind of plan to approach drawing the figure. The road ahead is long ... but fun.