Landscapes and Atmosphere

It's been about a hundred years since I last posted, but I'm still here!

I'm working really hard to improve my art work, focusing a lot on putting my subjects in a space with some depth, and atmosphere.  I spent about 40 minutes doing this sketch, and it's the first woods scene of my life that actually achieved that.

Drawing from life or photos of scenes has helped a lot.  Especially when it comes to the texture of plants, though I know I've got a long way to go.  For this one, I used the value almost exclusively.  The limited light source really helps you push things into the background. 

Color-aid Paper and Colored Pencil - A Great Pair!

Well folks, I have been busy! I've done a lot of work on the house, a lot of family related stuff, and lots of drawing!

My sister had this big stack of Color-aid paper.  If you've never seen it, the color is rich, incredibly even, and has a very fine tooth.  We were going to try some collaborative exercises, but we've both got a lot on our plates and it hasn't really worked out.  What did happen, is that I found out I LOVE to draw on it with colored pencil!

I've always really enjoyed drawing on toned and colored paper, but this stuff is fantastic.  It's small, so I don't usually spend more than a couple of hours on a drawing.  It's a lot of fun to let the colors come through in the drawing.  This is made extra challenging by the fact that it doesn't erase well.  In fact, you'll probably lift the color off the page before you lift the marks you want to remove. 

The best way I've found to work on it, is to start with a low-contrast pencil, and draw lightly.  For these bird drawings, I've been lightly blocking in the whole bird, and slowly building the colors.  It was initially developed as a backdrop for photographs, but since when did artists ever use things the way they were intended?

Black Is (And Isn't) A Color

James Gurney has just published the best explanation of the properties of black that I have ever seen. He has done a four part examination of its use as a pigment, in composition, and properties as a color...or not.  This last installment was my favorite.  As it turns out, it depends on the context of the discussion, and its relation to other colors.  This man is a heck of an educator!

If you don't read his blog yet, I highly recommend it.  GurneyJourney.blogspot.com

New Scanner!

A Scanner Darkly: It might be the name of a really weird movie.  It might also be the addictive behavior of a person who just purchased an Epson Workforce 7510. 

We bought it for the large-format printing and scanning ability.  Now, I'm not planning to make art prints for sale with this thing, though I hear it does ok with that.  I was really interested in the scanning ability.  The reviews were great, and I've been a scanning fiend since it arrived!  It's got an 11x17" bed, and prints up to the same size.  It's not a plug-and-play scanner, but the software and network setup is not complicated, and the directions were quite clear. And all of that setup comes from it being WIRELESS!  Here's a fun feature: any apple mobile device connected to the same network can print without any setup!

Check out the detail it captured in one of my new drawings:

Primary - Female Eastern Bluebird

I'm still tweaking the color settings.  It seems to read white as white, without letting its natural transparency appear.  Much of this can be corrected in Photoshop without too much effort.  I did change the gamma setting, which helped a great deal.

I also prefer to start my scans through the PC application, because you can crop out the extra scan area before the image is captured.  If you use the buttons on the scanner itself, you cannot perform this function. 

Yes, I've only had this thing for a few days, but I really could not be happier!  Scanning is so much faster than setting up a photo for these small drawings!

The Tall Man

It was a dark and rainy night.  My energy was all but spent, but I had not touched a pencil.  I asked Rachel who I should draw, and with my last efforts of the day, completed her request.

The Tall Man, Angus Scrimm.  

I had some trouble getting a good photo of the drawing, given the reflective nature of graphite.  I'm. Going to give it a try with a scanner later.  It should yield better results.  

Rendr Sketchbook

Because I have been practicing capturing likenesses, I decided that I wanted a sketchbook for that alone.  I've also been using wet mediums much more, so I needed a sketchbook that would allow for that.  Wandering through my local art supply store, I found this Rendr sketchbook, which claims to have no show-through pages.

We all know that traditional sketchbooks cannot begin to claim that.  Rendr achieves it!

Here's the sketch I did of Kelly MacDonald in gouache.  The pages curl, but that can be remedied by just closing the book for a while.  But does the paint show through? 

No.  Not at all!  I'm impressed! 

What other sketchbooks would you recommend for this type of work?  Do you keep sketchbooks for separate subjects?

Etsy Overhaul!

I am in the process of giving my Etsy shop a MAJOR facelift!  I went ahead and listed a whole bunch of new things, including some folk style paintings, and a couple of prints.  I'm aiming to get back to my goal of one new item each week! 

Check it out here!

Purple Isn't Real

Ever wonder why purple is so hard to mix?  It might be because it's something our brain invented!

New Project Excitement!

I'm so excited about making stuff!!!

First,  I'm getting my drawing chops back, and can actually pull of likenesses again!  Yippee!  I seriously worried that I had lost that ability. Bad for what I want to do.  Recognize this guy?

Never question Bruce Dickinson.

Then, I joined a local music and crafty group.  While trying to decide on a new project to take there, I found this.  EEEE!  I'm going to learn to double-knit, and make the one that does not have backwards writing on both sides.  It will certainly be a challenge, but I'm so stoked! :D

Making Madness

What have I been making lately?  A lot, actually!  My own deodorant (after a terrible breakout from the one I bought from Lush,) a new purse, a lot of artwork for my friend's movie, a corset for another friend, and food.  Lots of food!  Friend, memories, and plans to travel to NY.  So here's to marathons of crazy busy madness, because sometimes you need it.

iPad Painting

We finally broke down and boughty an iPad.  It's almost like we're as savvy as people our age are expected to be!  Naturally, we downloaded all the social media apps and games first.  But shortly after, we started the hunt for painting apps.  So, I present to you my first ever iPad painting!

I'm still figuring out how to do everything.  (I'm a PC person.  Shh, don't tell!) I'm super excited to have a reference image provider in my studio now.  I have a sneaking suspicion you may see a lot more posts about art from me now.  I feel really good about that! 

Happy Saturday! 

Returning to Paint

So, there was only like... four months between these two photos.  But I'm painting again, and it feels FANTASTIC!  I might be taking a break from sewing.  Or I might just have to finally figure out how to balance them.  Like sew tomorrow night, while this thing is drying.  But painting, it's seriously awesome.  :)

Anathema - Getting Down to the Wire!

I promise I'll get back to regular scheduled programming soon. But for now, I need your help. Rachel's kickstarter has only 4 days left, and we still have $1200 to raise! Please, please please spread the word! Even if you don't like horror or plan to pledge yourself, repost somewhere. It would mean the world to me! Here's the link to her marvelous lesbian werewolf epic fundraiser! It's basically a pre-order of the comic, with some added rewards like original artwork from the artist! Now seriously, who doesn't want original art? But it doesn't even get a chance if the funding isn't reached! Make her dreams come true!

Anathema Continues!

Rachel just launched her kickstarter for the rest of Anathema, and it's off to a splendid start!  I couldn't be more pleased, or proud, or excited! 

Thank you for allowing me to shamelessly plug her!

The Palomino Long Point Pencil Sharpener

If you don't want to spend $2 on a pencil, even if it is a Blackwing 602,  you should try to get one of these pencil sharpeners.  It's one of the strangest things I've ever seen, but it's super nice.

The case, first of all, calls it a "long point" sharpener.  The meaning of that became clearer as I examined this thing.  It has two steps written on the box: "Shape the wood, then the lead."

Shape the wood, then the lead.

Two step shaping.

As you can see, each step is numbered.  The channel for step one is significantly larger than the one for step 2.  At the top, there is a small reservoir type space, that says "STOP."  This was a bit confusing at first, but as you sharpen, the lead extends out the back of the channels, and you stop sharpening when it reaches that line.

1. Shape the wood - the lead is relatively untouched!

Then, using the number 2 channel, you sharpen just the lead.  This leaves you with an extremely precise point, and a lot of exposed lead.  That means you have to sharpen it much less often.  I suppose that's where the extra speed they talk about with the 602 comes from.

2. Then shape the lead.  -  the wood is not touched in this step!

It is vital to have sharp blades for this, and any pencil sharpening endeavor.  To aid in your quest, pencil wielder, Palomino has even provided replacement blades.  Now how about that?!

Open sharpener, with replacement blades!

The Palomino Blackwing 602

Once upon a time, there was a pencil.  A very nice pencil.  So nice that when they discontinued it, some people were paying up to $50 for this pencil.  Now, they're making it again.  Rachel got me one with her Klout.

This is apparently a special edition release, just for the Klout folks.  Check it out!

The box, number 271 of 602.  The middle of the Edition.
That's a good thing! :)

Slid off the numbered seal, opened the box
to find black paper and another golden seal. 

Slid off the paper to find a velvet bag.

Blackwing (Black), Blackwing 602 (Grey), refill erasers,
Long Point sharpener, and a handwritten letter:

It's kind of crazy that someone sat around and wrote 602 of these letters, but given the care of the rest of the package, I can't say I'm not impressed.

Rachel kept the 602, as she is the wordsmith.  I kept the regular Blackwing.  I think what makes this pencil so nice is really in the details.  It's made of cedar, so it's easy to sharpen, but sturdy.  The lead is firm, but still very dark.  You get a great line/value variation from just a single pencil. The eraser is an eraser, but it's incredibly nice to be able to change it so easily, and to get the sharp points that its unusual shape offers.  I'd totally spend the $20 for a pack of 12.

The pencil sharpener was one of the strangest things I've ever seen.  I'll show you that tomorrow.

Happy Drawing!

The Other Side: Part II

Rachel's been plugging away at the latest project, The Other Side.  I was right there with her, tweaking and adjusting the logo.  When I finally got something she loved, I traced it for a nice clean copy.  After a not-so-quick scan, here's the final result:

The next step will be to turn this into a vector image.  I don't know if I'll ever go to an all digital way of working.  There's something oh-so-satisfying about the feeling of pencil on paper!

The Other Side

I'm getting some steam again, now that I'm drawing much more regularly.  Rachel's a big help, for sure.  One of my latest projects has been a logo for her next project.  I got kind of lucky on this one, having come up with a lot of different ideas in one go.  I was pretty pleased with all of them, and Rachel liked one in particular right away.  After that, I just did a bunch of variations on that theme, and fine-tuned it until we arrived at the final versions.  It's a little creepy, a little elegant, and I like it a lot! 

Here's a photo of all the working versions:

Inspired by Charles Vess

Rachel bought me the illustrated version of Stardust last weekend.  It was illustrated by Charles Vess, who has this amazing way of drawing old, twisted, gnarled trees.  I love it!  So I tried my hand at it.

Autumn Forest Scene - After Charles Vess

As I was drawing, I kept thinking about this woodcut I had done years before.  These pine trees live a very long time, and get twisted, with a sort of spiral to their branches.  To achieve the Vess look, I basically did the same thing, but made the trees much smoother.  

Twisted Tree - Woodcut

I'm going to list it on my Etsy page, so keep a lookout! 

The Science of Drawing

Since finding some inspiration again, I have resolved to do at least one sketch every day.  I'm not always great with these sorts of rules, but so far, I've held up.  I don't necessarily know where I want to take my work, but I can at least keep my chops up while I work on that.  In order to do that, I've been taking requests, and drawing everything I find.  New friend Harry asked me to draw his cat.  I've never done that before, and it turned out to be more difficult than I expected.  I had to slow down, and pull out the old drawing geometry.  It doesn't involve calculations.  It does involve points and angles.  It will help you get proportions correct, and it is the very reason that I say anyone can learn to draw.

First, find some points that you can connect.  You'll need to make lots of angles from these points, so the more clear they are the better.  Ramona here has three great points that I'll work with: the tip of each ear, and her nose.


















Next, connect them by holding up your pencil to your subject matter.  Get a good feel for the angle.  You've probably seen people do this:

This guy is finding the angle and length of some aspect of his subject matter.

Once you know it in your mind, you can draw it 

From there, use these point to fill in other angles.  You'll start to understand the structure of your subject matter as you realize that the line from the nose to the bottom point of the ear also touches the bottom of the eye (blue line).  

Most important, you can find points like the corner of the jaw by using these angles.  For this one, take an existing point, like this tuft of hair at the back of the head, and draw your angle with another point, the chin (red line).  Then I'll use the nose as a starting point again, and find the correct angle out from it to the corner of the jaw.  The intersection is the point of your new feature. You'll find that if you've done it right, it falls in just the right place on the face.  

Keep doing it for all the shaded parts of your subject. This is a very methodical practice, but it works.  It's perfect for proportions that give you trouble!