Saturday, January 30, 2010

Ink and Wash, New and Old

Two days ago, I did a bit of studio cleaning. I found this old ink and wash picture I did a couple of years ago. (I believe that is the 2007 Kentucky Derby winner.) And over breakfast the next day, I wondered, why is this the only image like this that I've ever done? So I set out searching for a likely sketch to try it again.
I came across this terribly failed watercolor painting and thought it would make good practice. Unfortunately, I think I did some of the same mistakes as in the first (too much ink in some places and not enough control overall), but at least I can look at this and not cringe now. :)
Also, I'm pleased to note that my anatomy knowledge has grown a great deal since the first image!

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Snowdragon

I guess this piece of art would fall under the category of "etc." :)


The feet/claws were ridiculously fun to do.

Monday, January 18, 2010

Digital Sketch ll

Here is my second official digital sketch with my Wacom tablet and free version of Twisted Brush. I'm still trying to get used to it, but it's definitely fun!

Friday, January 15, 2010

A Plethoric Update

Well, I haven't updated my blog. Obviously. My excuse is that I've been thinking to move to a "regular" site (please note I have provided a link to it on the left), but I suppose that is no reason not to update here. So, in no particular order, here are a few sketches and such from the last...while. :) I've no idea if anyone actually looks at this, but if you do, thank you.


This is my first digital sketch, by the way. Done with a mouse in TwistedBrush (the free version). I now have a Wacom tablet, so I will be doing more digital sketches in the future.
Probably since about the time of my last post, I have been enthralled by a two-volume book set called "Drawn to Life", which is the lecture notes of Disney animator Walt Stanchfield. I could write pages of praise for this book and would recommend it to absolutely anybody. He teaches things that I never thought were even *teachable*. Anyway, one of my current goals is to do a *lot* of "gesture" drawing. I won't post it all here as a) it would be way too much and b) it's not really anything special to look at. But I'll post some on occassion, possibly with thoughts drawn from that book and maybe someone somewhere will find it of use or inspirational enough to find a few seconds or minutes to work on your own. The following are all of the same equine pose, getting slightly better (I hope) as I worked and tried to put into practice things from that book. I won't go into anything specific here, but maybe later I will.

Here is a page of gesture sketches, an idea I came up with myself based on one idea Stanchfield mentions repeatedly...the idea of what he calls "kinesthesia", or kind of "feeling" the pose in your own body/mind. I took it one step further and decided to draw my own pose by "feel" (no mirror or any other reference other than looking down at my own feet).
And, finally, a conte crayon drawing I did this afternoon (after doing a number of pages of gesture sketches, not shown).

Also, I have been very keenly interested of late in anatomy (specifically equine). I am putting together an equine anatomy model and having a ridiculous amount of fun doing it. Here are a couple of pictures of the organs I've painted. :) Gruesome, eh?