Life Drawing II

Had my second life drawing class this week. Would have put the pictures up after the class on Thursday but my camera was struggling to focus in the dark evening light. I've finally got around to taking the pics again in the light of day so you can see these new drawings properly. The class followed the same pattern of several 5 minute drawings, a couple of 10, a 20 minute and finally a 45 minute pose. The pics above are arranged in that order. All are in an A3 sketchbook, same one as last week.

The poses were very challenging this week. I think I only succeeded in capturing a couple of them properly. The final drawing above of the 45 minute pose was the most challenging. I spent a lot of time reworking the legs. I rubbed them out and redrew them at least 3 times. You can still see the various different positions the legs went through. The first attempt had them positioned way too low and out of proportion of the rest of the body. Still not sure they're correct but it's good to push myself.

My favorite drawing of the night is number 5. It's a great pose and I really wanted to get it right. Would have liked to have had more time on this pose. I would like to get some larger paper for my next class and maybe try using some charcoal again to loosen up my line work.

Life Drawing

 

Finally found a local life drawing class. Went along for the first time this evening. I haven't done any life drawing in a few years and it feels great to be doing it again. The class was only 2 hours but I feel I got some great drawings from that short amount of time. There was some 5 minute sketches but they aren't included above as my camera couldn't pick up the light line work very well. My personal favorites are the first drawing with the model lying back. It was a really nice pose and came out really well for a 10 minute drawing. I also enjoyed the final drawing above which was a full 45 minute pose so plenty of time to work on the proportions and shading.

Girl In The Fireplace Poster

Here is my poster for my fave episode of Doctor Who, The Girl In The Fireplace. Spent a while today working on the portrait's of both the Doctor and Renette so they would match the quality of the android. I decided I would keep pushing to get this finished and add the other elements. I cheated a little bit with the fireplace. My original version just looked shit. I also realised I should make more of a feature of the clock  that sits on the fireplace. I created a new larger element for the cracked clock face which is also an important plot point in the episode. It makes for a great center piece as anything circular usually does. Once I had that positioned it was much easier for me to place everything else. The poster could still do with some tidying up. I'm not sure what to do with the bottom edge of the portraits. They look very rough in their current form. Maybe I'll stick a soft opacity gradient on it and be done with it. I'd love to add a title and find a nice font too but for now I just want to share the image as it is. Think I'll go watch an episode of Doctor Who now...

Kayleigh

Digital Painting - 3 hours

I finally got around to doing this portrait of Kayleigh. I promised to do it months ago but had never found the time to sit and do it. I decided to use my wacom tablet for this pic which I found to be a struggle trying to get a nice blend and softness. I always find myself missing the feel of a pencil on paper or a paintbrush on canvas. I still need to find that more painterly style when using the tablet. I really want to just do some simple sketching tomorrow.

Masquerade Android

I got really into this painting. Took a few hours to complete but I couldn't stop once I started. The colours and lighting really work well and makes for a really pleasing image. The sketchy blue background line was only a sketch for proportion and placement but it seemed to naturally work into the final image. I'll be looking to put the poster together next with the different elements.

Girl in the Fireplace Portrait

Here's a first go at the portrait of Madam de Pompadour from the episode. Spent a few hours on it this evening. I think I've started to catch the likeness but I'm missing the shocked expression I was trying to recreate from the reference image. I'm not sure how I'm going to create the necklace and earrings. They're really detailed jewellery but I want to avoid getting to bogged down in unnecessary detail.

I'm looking forward to getting to work on the clockwork androids for the final image. That might be the next part I work on.

Doctor Who

Finally got around to starting this piece. I'm a big Doctor Who fan and I've been wanting to create some poster art for some of my favorite episodes for a long time. With the new season in full swing now I've been inspired to pick up this idea and get to work on it.

The first episode I've chosen to do is possibly my fave Who episode ever, entitled 'Girl in the Fireplace'. I actually grabbed all my reference screenshots a while back and they've just been left sitting in a folder. I've started with a portrait of the Doctor. Originally I was going to use a completely different pose but this one really stood out to me today. The above image is just a sketch working out the colours and areas of shadow. The sketchy style reminds me of some 1950's poster art. I'll come back to this when I get time either in the week or next weekend.

Scottish National Gallery Sketches

I'm settling into my Edinburgh life now. I've been super busy with work and have finally found some time to do some drawing work! Above a couple of sketches from the Scottish National Gallery. Decided to use a permanent pen for change instead of pencil. It's a lot easier to make mistakes but it makes for more confident marks.

Edinburgh Museum

I recently moved to Edinburgh to start a new job so it's been a while since I've had any time to get my sketchbook out and do some drawing. This weekend I went to one of the museums in Edinburgh and spent a lot of time in the animal room drawing. My favorite of the set has to be the giraffe which was actually my first drawing of the day. You could stand on the floor above and look down on this giraffe model which just allowed a lovely angle for drawing. Anyone who knows me will know I'm part giraffe or at least related to one.

Muscle Car Sketching

I've been watching a lot of Supernatural lately and I love the Impala muscle car they drive. I don't know much about muscle cars but I think their styling is fantastic. One day I'd like to drive across America in one. Until then I felt like finding out popular choices and doing some sketches of the ones I liked.

Keith

B & 3B Pencil. 1 Hour & 1/2
I had a lot of fun with this drawing. I tried to draw quickly and block in areas of tone without worrying too much about gradients. It created a nice texture to the image that I really like.

Roger Rabbit Childhood Drawing

I found this drawing whilst sorting out some old books of stuff. I drew this when I was about 12. Copied from a book I have on Roger Rabbit. I love finding these kind of pics.

Lou

B & 3B pencil. 2 Hours.

I've had a really busy week and I've finally got around to continuing my portraits. I did most of the work on this piece last week but it needed a few tweaks before it was finished. I'll hopefully find time to do a couple more today.

Swallows & Magpies

I've been talking about tattoos a lot recently and my friends told me they really wanted one of swallows and magpies. I spent some time today doing some studies. The top 3 are magpies and the bottom 2 are swallows. The first set of swallow drawings are done from actual tattoo designs where as the second are from swallow reference. It's interesting to see how the forms are simplified into a more pleasing design. I really enjoyed having some practice drawing wings and the splaying feathers.

Dan & Steve

Mechanical Pencil and B.
Requested picture. This was more of a challenge having two people in one image. Had to make sure proportions were correct to the other face aswel the individual features. Came out quite nicely.

Katie

3B Pencil. 1 Hour.
Today I felt like doing a portrait in pencils. Made a nice change to work with line and tone.

Emma

Took a while to finish this piece as my reference photos didn't come out very clear. I need to get myself a new digital SLR camera!

Daniel

This one took a long time to finish. I kept uploading it to my computer and then noticing something else that I wanted to change. I think I did that about 4 times before I was finally happy with it.

Dean

A3 Colour Pastel. 3 hours.
This one took a lot longer than any of the other portraits I've done. It was important I get this one right! Hopefully more portraits to follow today.

 Updated. I forgot I took a picture of the original pencil sketch before I added the pastels. Makes for a nice comparison to see how much it changes.

Vincent

Here's a portrait of my dad. Actually caught him smiling when I took the picture which is a rarity. This is probably what I'll look like in 20 years time.

Hannah

Colour Pastel Portrait No.4.

I went for a softer more blended approach with Han's portrait. I find it quite scary at first laying in the first colours as they tend to be very strong but pastels are great in that nothing is too permanent and can be worked to a lighter hue or tone later.

I was intending to buy a new set of pastels today as my current set is limited in some colours. It can be an advantage to have a limited set but I'm finding that I want some more variety. I also want to try working with coloured paper. Unfortunately my local art shop has closed down so I'll have to wait to get more materials.

Pete

Colour Pastel A3, 2 Hours.

John

Colour Pastel 2 1/2 hours.
This portrait took a lot of reworking to get it to a place that satisfied me. I was worried there was too much darkness in the red and brown shadows but I think it has added something different to the final outcome. Was hoping to draw a second portrait today but this one has left me feeling tired. Sometimes I forget how much effort a drawing takes.

Andy

I'm starting a series of portraits of my friends and family. My first piece of Andy came out great. I love seeing vivid colours in a face and I particular enjoy the blue hues in the shadow areas of Andy's face.
Colour Pastels, A3, 2 hours.

Modelling Showreel May

Finally finished putting together a modelling showreel of my recent 3D work. My poor pc has been rendering all day and all night for the past week. I was hoping to have this done and up by Wednesday but some shots required tweaking and re-rendering and then I decided to add a couple more shots to better showoff some of the pieces featured.

Lana Inspiration

I recently drew a birthday card with a picture of Lana Del Rey. I've been loving her album and find myself listening to it on a regular basis. Music always an inspiration to me so today I sat and did some portrait studies of her. She's a gorgeous lady and it made for some nice images.

The top image was created using colour pastels. Having a limited colour palette really helps me be more experimental and expressive. The neon blue hair looks great. I'm thinking about continuing to do more portraits as I find it a welcome break from all the 3D work. There's always a warmth in the line and marks I create when placed on a piece of paper that I miss when creating work digitally.

Colour Pastel Heart

I came across an old photograph that I haven't been able to get out of my mind. I decided to do a pastel study to at least get some of the stirred emotions down on paper. My drawing has a lot more colour than the original photo, I wonder what that says about me? Sometimes a person stays with you forever.