There's the Rub

I have not made much progress on my seagull drawing (see prior posts on this here and here) but thought I would post what I have done so far.

The first thing I did was tape the drawing paper to a board. This gives me a solid surface to press upon and protects the paper from being damaged as it gets moved aside on my desk. As I start to work more on the drawing I will cover it, between sessions, with tracing paper as another layer of protection.
What I usually do is move it right away from my desk area so that my other desk-based activities don't impinge on it but that hasn't happened yet…

So far all I have done is colour in the black rocks. The black pencil I used is from Derwent's Drawing range. This pencil range is more like 'b' graphite pencils with a softer look and feel to them. I really like them but in tiny rocks like these, they leave too much white showing. So I went over it with another black from the Derwent Studio range. This range is more like 'h' graphite pencils which have more clay in them that the 'b's'.

This pencil filled in the small white areas without having to press very hard.

I don't like to press hard as doing so can warp the paper and will also damage the tooth of the paper.

The tooth is the texture of the paper which can be seen by lightly rubbing a pencil across the paper. The degree of tooth will vary between papers. Paper for office copier machines will have very little tooth compared with drawing papers. Some types of paper, like Bristol paper, come with a smoother finish (conveniently called smooth) and a more textured finish called vellum. 

The paper you choose depends on the look you want. That also goes for the weight (or thickness) of paper you want. There is also a wide variety of weights available as well. See it explained here.

There are no rules, it all depends on what you discover you like.

The paper I am using came from a 22" x 30" sheet and is more or less card stock weight. Sorry I can't remember what the weight is (it doesn't say it on the label).

There is another piece of equipment that can damage the tooth of a paper - the eraser. By rubbing out your mistakes with a regular hard eraser (and doing so in a vigorous manner) you can destroy the paper's tooth, as well as risking scrunching the paper and damaging the whole drawing.

In this kind of drawing I use a kneaded eraser.

With a kneaded eraser you press it into the graphite or coloured pencil to remove it. A light touch is required and it takes longer to remove the pigment.

When you are learning and want to totally remove your marks then use cheaper paper and don't worry about the tooth. If you working on a nicer picture then use light marks with your pencil so it is easier to remove them.

One of the benefits of the kneaded eraser is the ability to shape it to help you erase tiny sections such as these small dots.

I always keep a regular eraser around just in case, and for coloured pencil pieces, I use a pencil sharpener that is only used with coloured pencils. This is an item I use a lot in my drawings. I like to keep my pencils very sharp throughout the process as I feel that I have more control when I have a shape point.

I personally like these manual pencil sharpeners. They are around $1.50 - $2. This one is a KUM and has one hole with a spare blade. I have others with two holes with one of the holes larger than the other for bigger pencils. 

It is time to replace your sharpener when the blade starts hacking at the wood above the point.

Colouring In

The next step in the drawing exercise, I started last time, is to make a chart or plan of the colours I want to use.

I get all my different pencil sets out and try the colours that seem to most closely match those in my subject photograph.

I forgot about the tiny bit of yellow I'll need for the bird's legs. I don't quite have the right colour for the palest blue in the water but I can layer the blue with some white to lighten it up.

Drawing On

It is still difficult for me to spend time drawing but I miss it. So I decided to do a little at a time by splitting the tasks into five minute tasks. Eventually those five minutes will add up to a coloured pencil drawing. At least that is the plan.

First I chose a photograph. This is a 4"x6" photograph and that is the size I decided to do. I'm not a great lover of seagulls but I liked the reflections and texture of the water. Usually I chose a drawing for its challenge rather than liking the picture for itself.

Because the drawing will be the same size as the photograph, I could just trace the main features of the drawing. 

It is perfectly okay to trace an image. I know I can draw and I don't have to prove it to myself or anyone else and tracing saves time. However, if you are learning to draw then drawing items from life is recommended. Photographs flatten objects so practicing drawing from life helps you remember that objects are three-dimensional. When I was learning to draw (of course I am still learning) I would draw anything I could around the house. I even drew a roll of toilet paper once to practice a white item on white paper. Plus it is good to learn how to draw items that are very soft up to very hard.

Here is my tracing. I do have graphite paper that you can put under your tracing paper to transfer the picture onto your drawing paper. However, I find it transfers extra graphite where I am leaning on the paper but I just may be too messy

So I usually turn it over and go over all the lines before turning it back over and tracing over all the lines again with the drawing paper underneath. 

This leaves a faint image of the tracing on your paper. It is now ready to add colour to.

I should add that the drawing paper is from a larger sheet of Royal Brites. I bought this so long ago that I can't remember what the weight is (it doesn't say this on the label) but it isn't a very heavy paper. Probably as thick as card stock sold in craft shops.

Mail Memories

I was recently in this show in Canada but the on-line portion of the show didn't happen so I thought I'd post my entry here. Now the show is over, my card will be sent to one of the other participants and I wl receive someone else's card.

This is the first time I've entered a show like this and it was fun to do. On reflection there are things I would change about my piece were I to do it again. But art, like so many things in life, is about a journey where you continue to make progress and learn from your prior efforts.

Convincing

Sometimes I find it hard to choose a painting or drawing project because I can't make a decision. I don't know if it is a lack of inspiration, or motivation, or having too many choices. Sometimes I'm trying to be too serious or building up too many expectations as to how good I want something to turn out.

Then one day something drops into your lap (or post/letter box) that grabs your attention and gets the creative and fun juices flowing.

Such a day occurred for me when a promotional clothing booklet was posted to my house. I'd never heard of the company before and didn't think their style suited my beach life in southern California but I liked the book.

Inside were pictures of a model against a plain background.

I instantly knew I wanted to do something with this book but what? I kept it near and would think about it at odd moments during the days that followed.

Then I decided that the plain background was the perfect backdrop for scenes of my own invention.

This first picture was done quickly without much thought. But then I tried to match the background to an impression I felt the clothes gave off. So had there been a background what kind would the company have used?

The dress below reminded me a little of school wear.

The next two seemed to fit a snowy environment.

As you can see, the drawings are quick and quite crude in parts. I can draw very well but this exercise is not about 'proving' I can draw. It is about being creative, having fun, and doing something a little different from my usual artwork. Who knows but that it will spark an idea for something else in the future.

You don't have to have fabulous drawing skills to play in this way. Or even if you do, it is still fun to see what scenes you can create. If you don't want to draw you might cut out pictures of models in magazines and find new backgrounds to place them against creating a new 'story' than the one the magazine had originally intended.

Note: the paper in this book is not very absorbent. If I have to close the book before the ink is dry I put a plain piece of paper in that page to stop the ink from marking the opposite page.

Working Out

Some time ago, I sent a friend a card that featured a cut-down watercolour painting I'd done of bananas and other fruit displayed for sale at a market in Tahiti. As my friend is half-Tahitian, I knew she would appreciate the subject. She appreciated it so much that she chose to have it framed.

Here is the original painting which was 5"x7".

And here it is reduced to 4"x6" and framed.

Recently, my friend contacted me and asked me if I would create two more paintings on a similar theme. I was excited to do it partly because it presented an interesting challenge. I created the original painting from one of my own photographs with only minor creative license on my part. However, my friend asked if I could include certain foods which meant creating paintings from a variety of reference materials. That said, overall, she gave me free rein to do what I felt inspired by artistically.

I began by writing out her requests on a piece of paper where I could easily see what she wanted so I could accommodate them as much as possible in my planning (and to make sure I didn't forget anything). That meant listing the fruits and vegetables she wanted, specific requests about some of the food such as showing an open passion fruit, and that she wanted lots of bright colours. Equally important was the size. She wanted to frame them in the same frame as the original work so the size of the paintings had to be 4"x6". In addition the paintings were to be hung in the same room so the proportions of the objects in the new paintings had to be similar to those in the original.

Next I began collecting together the photographs that she sent me, my own photographs, as well as some some watercolour studies I'd done in years past. 

I started by doing a rough drawing of some compositions to try out ideas and see what I could fit in.

I noted some of the changes I wanted to make when I did the final drawing and what colours I would use. Not only did the compositions have to have a good balance but the colours did too. There are a lot of yellows and yellow-orange, and yellow-greens in tropical fruit and it was important to separate them where possible.

The next step was to draw the final composition, first in pencil and then in pen. You can see more changes I made from the sketches above.
I showed the (L-R) papaya, mango, and coconut open to provide interest since piles of the fruit aren't that interesting

 Another challenge was including the taro plant. It is sold with the leaves cut off but my friend wanted them included, if possible. The way to do it (as it is a tall plant) was to lie it down in the front. This also added some interest to the objects behind sitting side by side.

One of the things my friends had requested were tropical fish. As you can see they didn't make the cut. The fish are sold on ice on separate stalls so it didn't make sense to include them among fruit and vegetables on colourful cloth-covered tables.

 I made the drawings a little larger than 4"x6" because my friend lives in another state and I don't know how much overage was needed for framing.

I included the blue patch in the background in each painting to link them to the original.

I made some of the passion fruits purple for colour balance. The photos I had were yellow on the outside but that would have been too much yellow and I saw photos of purple ones on the internet.

The final step was sending images of the finished work to my friend who thankfully loved the paintings.

Changes

After painting in my studio for two years now, I have been able to fully realise some of the shortcomings of the arrangement of furniture in my easel area. As my inability to step back far enough from my work to look at it properly got more annoying I decided it was time for a change.

Here is how it looked before the change.

As you can see, when I stepped back from the easel I hit my drawing table.

I could step back further if I changed the angle of the easel. However, I would have to move the easel back to start painting again (because that angle didn't provide the right light for painting) so it wasn't a good solution. Although my drawing table was in the way, I did not want to take it out of the room. Even though I haven't been using it as a drawing table lately, I still wanted it there.

After discussing the issue with hubby, this is what we came up with.

We changed the position of the drawing table and that of my easel and taboret. I can still put my drawing table up quickly to use it for drawing but most of the time it is placed vertically to give me the room to step back from the easel sufficiently.

I also moved my taller still life stand next to the taboret. It used to be next to a desk, barely seen in the bottom left-hand corner, but it blacked some light to the desk and ended up being a flat surface for papers, books and other stuff. It is still easily accessible in its new place and I now have a greater feeling of space in the studio.

The changes did cause some new problems, so there were compromises, but my highest priorities were met and that is the most important thing.

Drawn To It

I have been having some problems finding enough time to paint because other aspects of my life have been getting in the way. When I started to paint I found myself drawing much less. It wasn't through any conscious decision, it just happened.

Well over the past few months I have fallen in love with drawing again drawing every spare minute I can. I now have several sketch books, as well as scraps of paper, piled up in my art studio with different projects in them all on the go.

One of my favourite books to draw in at the moment is a book I bought at a library sale. I've seen this idea several places including here and wanted to try it for myself.
Initially, I wanted to use this a vehicle for trying new things and worrying less about the outcome. But I like these results so much I don't want to 'spoil' my book with reject drawings. I think I am better doing my experiments on single sheets that I can save or throw away. Even so, drawing with a ballpoint pen is quite daring for me so there is some element of risk involved. 

These are pen drawings of paintings by one of my favourite artists that I did on loose sheets which I stuck in my art journal. I like to draw paintings as it is difficult at times to replicate paint marks using a pen or pencil.

Most of my art journals are simple composition books with squared paper. They are a consistent size and, as a result, fit better on the shelf. 

Another recent project is drawing self-portraits as an assignment for an online class I am taking. This was drawn in pencil first  before going over the lines with brown ink. This was drawn on some very basic sketching paper.

Good Times

I love this sign that I saw in Laguna Beach last week.

What constitutes 'the good life' is very different for each of us. For me it is going to the beach, painting, drawing, spending time with my husband and friends, reading, cooking, gardening, and going to new places.

I feel very blessed that I am able to do these things but it didn't all come at once and there were many sacrifices along the way. I still sacrifice things of lesser importance for the things I value most, keeping my eye on the long term. I value the small steps forward I am making towards my goals and I never take any of it for granted

Reflections

Just finished my latest drawing.

I've never tried reflections before so I'm delighted with the way they turned out.