Lessons in Charcoal

In my last post I included a link to a youtube video showing how to use charcoal to map out a landscape watercolour painting.  I found it very inspirational and immediately set to work on a piece that had been in my pocket for some time:

This is modified from a picture I took of my daughter playing on the rocks at the stream near our house.  I felt it was a very busy composition so I used a matte that I had in my studio (for just such a purpose) to see if I could simplify it at all:

I really like the way the simplified version looks so far.  And the cool thing was it only took me a couple of hours to sketch this out!  It was incredible!!  I was so jazzed about how it turned out that I thought I'd try it out on a portrait I've been wanting to do.  

If you are looking for the image of how that idea turned out, you will look in vain.  Suffice to say that it turned out very poorly.  There's a thing in computer graphics termed "the uncanny valley".  It's when you get a picture of a face that is just so disturbing to look at because it's just "not right".  You've seen some of the talking humanoid robots that are supposed to look human, but there's something just not right about them?  That's it.  Well, my portrait looked like that.  I couldn't even look at it to fix it, that's how bad it was.

I won't lie - I was very disappointed.  So much so that I doubted my abilities and drawing sucks anyway, blah, blah, blah.  After a while, when my brain calmed down a little, I came to realize 2 things: 1) the demonstration was for a LANDSCAPE not a portrait - likely for good reason, and 2) that I need a better method of quickly sketching out portraits.  

The problem with portraits is that they need to be accurate.  There are numerous ways of getting that accuracy, and I've tried out a bunch of them.  One method I liked to date is using a grid to transfer/draw the portrait.  The only flaw with this method (other than having to draw all the lines and then erase them afterward) is that you really need a LOT of grids to have an accurate drawing - the more squares the better.  Then I watched a video by Carrie Stuart Parks on drawing animals and I found a new way - using a proportional divider.  It allows you to take measurements of say a specific spot on a small image and enlarge it proportionally to a larger drawing (with out needing to do math! Yay).  

I had no choice, I had to find and order one right away.  And now I can't do any portrait drawing until it's delivered in a few weeks :(  Whatever will I do?  Everything I can think of drawing right now seems like it would come out sooo much better with the divider!  Well...I guess I do have a map of a painting that I could do, don't I?  Hmmm.  We'll just have to see :)

Ammonites - Complete!!

I had a bit of a vacation from doing anything art-related last week.  I was finding it too stressful to do anything in my studio, so I took that as a sign to work on other things for a while.

I'm really glad I did, because it took almost no time at all to finish the ammonite piece!

I have to apologize for the quality of the image - my cell phone isn't doing the best job right now and there's too much glare to see it properly.  

If you read my last post, you'll know that I was toying with background ideas.  I decided to leave the smooth/graded background for best effect.  I ended up using conte at the very end as the charcoal just wasn't staying on the fixative anymore.

And now on to my next project :)  I have been hoping to get to this piece before the summer was over and now I will equally hope to complete it before the summer ends!  My red poppies!!  I've already got it sketched out on the paper and I've started assembling my colours (I did mention this would be a watercolour piece, yes?  Oh.  Well it is).  

After all that drawing, I'm looking forward to some painting!

Ammonite progress

Today I got to work more on the requested ammonites.  I added scrapings of charcoal to my sketch and then rubbed that in with a piece of felt cloth.  Then I applied my pen eraser and kneaded eraser to start creating the shapes.  G was very curious about the process and when I stepped away she had added her own touch to the piece.  You can see addition as the odd lines on the left of the ammonite pair.  It's nothing that can't be fixed though - gotta love her experimental spirit!

Ammonites

I know I haven't posted in a few days (okay more like over a week), and I apologize.  It's been an absolutely crazy few weeks in my house and I haven't had a spare moment to think, let alone do any drawing or painting.

I haven't been completely lazy however.  I have been reviewing the books from the library and taking notes.  I've learned a lot from them so far, including how to organize what I draw in a more useful manner.  Gurney and Kinkade recommend having a variety of sketchbooks for different purposes.  One small one for each type of subject (i.e. trees, flowers, people, clothing, etc), one bigger one for notes and thumbnails when you plan a new project, and one for notes taken from workshops, books, videos, etc.  I absolutely LOVE the concept of organizing my ideas and work in a better manner so that they can become references and resources instead of a shamble of mixed up stuff (which is what I usually have).

As well, I recently had a request to purchase my ammonite picture.  It's not a picture I'm 100% in line with though.  There were a LOT of mistakes.  Instead of selling that one, I asked if I could do it again.  Since I have no other projects on the go I started work on it today :)

A few of the changes I've made is: 1) working from the actual object instead of a picture of the object, 2) a darker shade of paper, 3) a smaller scale of paper, 4) actually fit the image to the paper.  I plan to use charcoal and conte for dramatic effect.  I hope this turns out as cool as the image in my head!

New technique practice - blending

Today I didn't so much sketch as work on a new technique that I learned in one of the library books I borrowed: Drawing Realistic Textures in Pencil, by J.D. Hillberry.

I only had 30 min and you wouldn't believe how little gets done in that amount of time!  I wanted to try the multiple blending technique he uses to create texture.  First of all, he combines things in ways I hadn't heard of or considered.  For example, he will darken an area with charcoal and then blend graphite over top.  At first I thought - why?  But I tried it and it does create a neat effect.  Mostly the graphite fills in all the gaps left by the charcoal pencil and seems to seal the charcoal to the paper a little better.

I'm sure there are other ways he could've gone about filling these gaps.  I know you can use charcoal/graphite dust and apply with a paint brush for example.  I also wonder if it would look any different to apply the graphite first and then the charcoal?

The other thing I wanted to try out were his blending techniques.  He doesn't just use a stump/tortillon or paint brush, he also uses felt, chamois, facial tissue and paper depending on the effect he's going for. And he will combine blenders for different textures (i.e. felt and chamois).

I don't have a picture of my work this time - it wasn't really anything to see anyway, just some black/grey rectangles, but I really enjoyed playing with his concepts.  I want to work some more with his techniques because I think they might be time savers!  Anything that will reduce the amount of time it takes to create a realistic image is definitely worth knowing more about!!!

Oh, and I did some research on my calligraphy pen from my last post.  Turns out it isn't a dip pen (glad I looked into that) and is meant to be used with ink cartridges (not refillable unfortunately).  I found out I can get the cartridges from Amazon.ca for $5/pkg of 4/5 which isn't too bad a price considering.  I will wait until my next book order though so I can make use of the free shipping :)

Gosh it's hot outside!

Victoria Day in Ontario turned out to be sunny and ridiculously warm (28C)!  First time in several years that this has ever happened - it usually snows :P  It was great weather for gardening and setting up the kiddie pool!

But I digress.  Back to what I should be talking about - painting the owl.  Just for interests sake, I took another look at the illustration board I painted on Friday and I noticed a distinct warpage of the board.

On the left is the board I painted on, on the right, a fresh board.  You can see the edges have turned up a bit on the painted board.  I don't particularly think this will be a problem, I just wanted to mention that it happened.

So, in continuing with the owl, I took the copy from the tracing I did last time and coated the back with some charcoal sticks I happened to have.  This will give a nice transfer to the new surface.

Then I did my least favourite thing and traced the owl (again) onto the illustration board.  Then, because the charcoal was very dark, but also very loose, I used my drafting brush to sweep the excess off the board (we meet again zombie owl).

Now, because I'm anal (and partly because I'm nervous to start painting the owl and have thought up a conveniently practical avoidance tactic), I thought I should repeat the painting exercise I did last time, but hopefully with better results.  I chose a picture of one of our lovely tulips blooming in the front garden.  This time I used a combo of natural and synthetic bristle brushes.  

I've only just started it, but as you can see I've already had some difficulty with the veining.  Ah well.  My objective isn't to get perfect accuracy for this exercise, so much as seeing just how well I can paint on so small an area, and see how illustration board will take this very wet technique.  I will continue to work on the tulip before I do anything further on the owl I think.  I don't want to rush things unduly and hate what comes out :)