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.