So yesterday I spent my day practicing drawing with a pen. I have become dependent on my pencil, and its eraser! The first two drawings are from morguefile, reference numbers 209473 and 618871. The girl saluting was done with my Lamy Safari, non-waterproof ink, which I then added water too. She was backlit by the sun. The second was with my Pigma Micron 01 in sepia. I randomly placed the figures from the photo. Sketching with a pen is so unforgiving! And I don't really like my line work in ink. I'll keep practicing though.
Okay, on to today's confession. I tried, I really tried, to paint loosely. I just blobbed on the paint at first. But, I didn't get that loose look, I just got a mess which I then felt I needed to clean up. There must be more to this loose look than I realized! I really disliked the outcome and kept adding to it in hopes of saving it. I'm really disappointed with the ink line that I added. I don't think that helped at all! And unfortunately, this little experience has me petrified to add color to the sketch of people at Rudy's. Because I really like that sketch and don't want it to be destroyed. Even though I have it immortalized on the internet...oh, okay, it's just a sketch and I can do more of them. I'll never learn if I don't do!!
If you figure out the magic formula for loose painting, would you let me know please? :) I finally gave up. I think it requires painting outside the line on one side of the figure and not quite to the line on the other.
ReplyDeleteOn coloring the Rudy's sketch - It's perfectly acceptable to leave a fantastic pen and ink sketch in black and white. It can stand alone as finished on its own merit.
However, if you are determined to add color, I'll pass on the suggestion given to me when I had the same dilemma. Scan it, print it out on WC paper (or other suitable paper), and paint the copy. Preserve your original in B&W. It's a win/win solution.
It looks great! The thing that helped me loosen up was those firgure drawing classes at A&M, but the excercises are in the book, "Figure Drawing" by Goldstein. We did an hour or more of warm up excercises, in a 3 hour class. I thought it helped a lot to work under the direction of a teacher, with a live model. There is also some good information in "Keys To Drawing" by Dodson.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I feel like you do, about not wanting to ruin my original drawing, and, sometimes, too, I just want to use different colors on the same picture. So I use a light table to copy my pictures on a different piece of paper. That way, I can use different color combinations on the same picture. I don't have a real light table, but I put a lamp under a glass topped patio table, and tape my pictures on the table. works really well!
Happy Birthday! Maybe you got rain for a present! :)
ReplyDeleteoh the colouring is perfectly fine! though I know that feeling of looking at your own drawings. but trust me, when you come back and look at it again in few days you'll feel pretty happy that you did it. It's all part of the journaling right :P Keep it up! And I think you do great in Ink!!! Should try more! and throw that eraser away
ReplyDeleteGreat pages Raena, you are cook-en!
ReplyDeleteWow - you got energy and light in the saluting figure, depth and light in your color pieces. I agree with Gary - you're cook-en.
ReplyDeleteWow, Raena. You are a drawing machine. Great images! AS for the fear factor, I could empathize with you. I just jump in and do it.
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday! It's good luck when it rains on your birthday....good luck for a whole year!
ReplyDeleteMan, I missed your birthday post!! I certainly know what you mean about being afraid of the next step. When I feel I am doing something really good - that is when I tighten up and slow to a crawl which is no good though I think I am learning not to. .. Once again I am having a whole lot of trouble seeing the defects that you see. Maybe you are just on a higher plane or something. :)
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