Mediums

So today I want to talk about mediums.One of my favorite mediums when it comes to drawing is a ball-point pen although it has many disadvantages,them being the fact that you can't erase if you make a mistake and that the ink can sometimes drip from the pen and leave a big dot where it should be.It is really fun to work with and I guess that's because it feels spontaneous.I tried working with a lot of different mediums (and I suck at most of them) and for painting I always enjoyed using oil,the fact that it dries really slow is probably something that most artists will find annoying at times but it just gives me the freedom to think,unlike acrylics that dry really fast.I haven't been posting a lot of work these days but that's gonna change soon.Sorry for being a bore.

The way of the pencil

As a kid I always enjoyed comic books.I loved the art,I loved the stories and the characters,I wanted to be a superhero myself(I still do) then I discovered drawing.I realized that I can create my own universe and that this real world is nothing more then a shell of an egg and that we are trapped inside until we brake out.The samurai go by the way of the sword,I guess mine is the way of the pencil.

Music

I've been a little inactive these days because of work and school and I guess I'm gonna be a little inactive for a while but for now I'm at least going to write one post.It's about music.
Music is a big part of my life and an inspiration,I always draw with my headphones on and if I'm lacking inspiration I'll sit at my piano and play something just to get my blood flowing.What inspires you?

Graffiti

Since I'm kind of busy with work I'm just going to post this picture of a graffiti done by a friend for me.No this isn't because of twilight ,those movies are crap.

Dr. Who

Just finished watching the second season of Dr. Who,I know I know I'm a bit late but hey it's not like they show it on tv in my country.It really is a great series and I'm going to start watching season 3 today,just wanted to post this and I'm probably going to draw a portrait of David Tennant,he's got a pretty interesting face.

The story

A day or two ago I posted a quick preview sketch of what is supposed to be a character in an upcoming project of mine and said I'll post the storyline here so here it goes.

The story revolves around death as a physical being and a pianist(the girl in the sketch). Death is a lonely being with a sole purpose of taking lives,without anything to protect and bored with his own ''life''. The girl is blind and alone,an orphan without a family.Her time comes and death is sent to take her life.He appears at her home,an old house in ruins.He can hear the piano,interested in the sound he goes to the room and sees the girl playing,she doesn't notice him,he stands there listening,he always enjoyed listening to the sound of a piano.Suddenly the playing stops and she points her eyes at him,he gets a flashback,he doesn't remember the things he saw''was it a dream?'' he asks himself knowing full well that he can not dream.The girl,scared,asks him what does he want,he remains silent.In all these years he doesn't remember anyone noticing him.He leaves.

That would be the beginning of the storyline,I'm still not sure what the name of the comic will be.I planned on calling it The life of Death.If anyone has any suggestions let me know in the comments.

Digital

I quick try with digital coloring with my mouse,I'm still really bad at it tho.I guess I'll have to practice more when I get my tablet back.

Compilation

Since I don't have the time to write the storyline now I'm going to post a compilation of my drawings,hope you enjoy it.

A preview

I was thinking about making a short illustrated story so I made a quick sketch of what is supposed to be the main character.Let me know what you think about it and I'll talk about the storyline in my next post.Since I was too lazy to plug in my tablet just to do a 2 minute sketch I drew this with my mouse (that's probably why it's so crappy but hey it's just a sketch)

Portraits

Since my last post was a compilation of portraits I though that today I might talk about how to draw them.

So here are a few advices about how to draw portraits.

There are are three basic stages in drawing portraits:

1.Using line drawing to get a feeling of shape,proportion and position of the face.

2.Using soft shading do mark dark spots and highlights in the drawing

3.Using larger areas of tone to unite all the aspects of the drawings


Drawing the basic features

This first step in drawing a portrait is the one where most artists make the greatest number of mistakes.When doing this it is important to have a light touch since you will probably make a lot of corrections to the drawing.

I myself begin a portrait with the eyes since they are the main focal point.The size and position of everything else is directly related to the placement of the eyes.

Drawing the outline

In this step we try to discover the size of the head by establishing the distances between the eyes and the top of the head and the eyes and the chin.A basic trick used by artists is to measure everything with the eyes.Lets say you want to measure the distance between the chin and the eyes,basically you take the size of the eye you drew and measure how many eyes there are between the two.

Building detail in line

This is the final step in line drawing.You just sketch a few details that will guide you when you start shading and adding texture,sketch some of the details in the hair,the folds on a T-shirt etc.The detail in the hair should be drawn quickly to give a natural rhythm to the hair.

Here is an example of a finished line drawing:

*I do not own any rights to this picture *

Old post,books

There are a lot of books about drawing on the market so it's hard to separate the good ones from the bad ones.Andrew Loomis is an artist and an author and I found his books pretty helpful when it comes to drawing.Of course you can't learn to draw from books but they hold valuable advice although the most important thing is as always,practice.So practice an hour a day,30minutes a day,10 minutes a day it doesn't really matter,practice when you have time and don't force yourself if you don't feel like it,soon you will see improvement.So here is a list of books that I found helpful.

Books by Andrew Loomis:

Figure drawing

Creative Illustration

Drawing the head and hands

Fun with a pencil

Successful drawing.

Books by Bridgman:

The human machine

Constructive anatomy

Books from other authors:

Vernon Blake - The art and craft of drawing

Walter Crane - Line & Form

De Laszlo - Painting a portrait

Arthur Leighton Guptill - Sketching and rendering in pencil

Jean Paul Richter - The literary works of Leonardo da Vinci (Volume 1 and 2)

There are many more and if anyone wants me to send them the links to the E-Books just say
 so in the comments.

New blog,lesson shading

This is a new blog and I will post some of the lessons I posted in my old one here today,after that everything posted here will be new.
Shading

When it comes to shading there are a few basic techniques :hatching,cross-hatching,stumping,
circulism,blended circulism.

Hatching

Basically it's building up dark values with parallel lines.This is the most basic shading technique but if done well it might be the only one you will ever need.







Cross hatching: building up multiple layers of hatched lines that cross each other at an angle. When using this technique you need to avoid square crosshatching and do various angled cross-hatch lines that follow curvatures.

Stumping: using the pointed end of a rolled piece of paper to smudge lines on your drawing.You can also use your fingers but I wouldn't recommend it because it will leave oil on your paper so your drawing won't be as clean.








Circulism: The idea is to draw very tiny circles that overlap and intertwine.This shading method is great for rendering realistic skin textures but building up tone can be tedious.







Blended circulism: It is basically the same technique but with blending.You can use anything from a tissue to a blending stump to blend and you need to blend in a circular motion.Great for rendering skin textures.







When shading,place your pencil between the thumb and the first three fingers below the palm of your hand.Avoid using your wrist and instead try using your elbow and shoulder when moving the pencil.That's it for now,I hope you found this helpful.