Will Proko be the one to lead me out of the darkness?

What's new? Well, I've got every art tool I could possibly want, from a full set of professional pastels to a cool little graphite kit to colored pencils to a well-curated if small selection of paper to put it all on, but of course in order to get jump-started I need SOMETHING new, so (for that AND other reasons) I've gone out and got myself an iPad 10.5 and a shiny new Apple Pencil. More about that later no doubt. Well, I guess there's SOME doubt, but this time I'm going to stick with it.  You betchya. 

The thing that's gonna get me there this time is Figure Drawing. Simply put, I found this Proko.com site, signed up for his Premium figure drawing videos and, well, here we go.

So I start thusly.  I watched the Gesture Drawing videos sometime last week, and then again today.  He runs through numerous examples of 30-second, then 2 minute, gesture drawings. For today's exercise, I've stopped the video at each pose, done my attempt at an a appropriate gesture (not paying much attention at this point to time, but my :30 took about a minute and my 2:00 about 2:45), then watch his rendering.  

I know I need to work on single, swooping, confident lines -- these are much too choppy. 

Conde pencil on newsprint

Trees please

Long time no draw!  Or, no post anyways. I've been doing my little drubs and drabs and doodles but have really done nothing except let my supplies gather dust. Typical. 

However, I hung out with Barbara again as -- as usual -- have been re-inspired yet again. Here's hoping it sticks!

She and I got together and spent an hour or so plein air in Anza Borrego. I ended up with this:

 

which pleases me on several levels. It's unfinished, in my book -- I wanted to return to it but kinda lost the magic. I was planning on balancing it a bit better with more detailed highlights. I may still revisit it. 

Meanwhile, I've moved on to a bigger project. I'm inspired by this scene from the Hoh Rain Forest, WA. 

 

and I'm trying to apply what I've learned so far, really trying to focus on value. Well. I've started with an underpainting, in complimentary colors. 

 

I need to address the highlights w some pale yellows, then the underpainting is done. I plan on ?using some fixative (perhaps after some blending) then begin again I'm by coming in with greens. 

We shall see how it goes!  I'm hoping, as always, to stay inspired and KEEP ON IT!

Looser

More value concentration, this time doing a sketch in about 20 minutes.




This is such a cool sculpture. Anyhow, 20 minutes or so, go!

I start with blocking it out ....




If I stopped here, I'd think I might have more than a clue at this ;). But I continue, setting value a little,




Then I finish up:




I think I'm definitely making progress. Lesson learned is that yes I'm getting an understanding of value but am still off, as evidenced by bringing the photo into photoshop and "posterizing" it, which clearly shows a different value structure than I've used (the first in 6 steps, the second in 9).







I thought this posterizing was a great demonstration of where I'm misfiring. I think I've gotta sketch a bunch more!

Poseidon and stuff

Once again, it's been a while.

I've been fiddling around with digital stuff a bit. Tom got an iPad Pro and the Apple Pencil and it's freaking amazing. It's inspired me, with my old iPad and a nice enoughish Adroit stylus, and it's gotten me going.

This allows me to get into digital drawing and art. I still SOOOOOO need to work on my basic art skills (namely, use of value and color) before I get too far with the pastels or another medium, so I'm hoping that I can keep my interest up enough to get through these elementary hurdles so that I can REALLY explore whatever talent I might have. I think the whole concept of value will be much easier to learn digitally because I'm really not getting too distracted by the MEDIUM itself .... So.

I've taken some online lessons (w charcoal, pen) and that just really hasn't gelled (I'm such a slow, procrastinating starter and get sooo frustrated that I don't have the basic skill level to back up my (arguably(?sp) NOT basic talent level), so now I've got Tom teaching me and guiding me w what I should be working on.

SO! We're starting out in black and white. I've taken the photo of Poseiden here,







And brought it into the digital painting program Procreate. Please keep in mind that the following images are essentially TRACED and thus are total copies and not really indicative of any ability on my part!! This lesson is not about my drawing skills. Having said that,

.... I'm trying to focus on defining Form with Value, so I basically gave myself a limited grayscale and came up with these two pieces.








I think my next assignment is to try to add color to the image, keeping the same value structure. I'm also learning the program as I go, so that's a bit of a challenge too (tho not as difficult as fighting with pastels or paints, at this early stage).

Looking at these now, a few days after I did them, I think my highlights should be just a bit lighter in places ... They each took about an hour.

Then I did a tradition pencil value study (on paper) of the same figure; this took me a couple of hours:




and I am pretty pleased with it. I am again LOST with hair and mustache, but that's a problem for later. I used an HB pencil and, for he first time ever, used a stump for blending, I like it!

I had to stop here, even though it's only maybe 85% complete. Everything I did for this point on seemed to detract from the sketch rather than improving it, so I folded.

Latest assignments

One wouldn't be able to tell from the frequency of posts here, but I've been busy! I'm happy enough with what I'm learning from the Artist's University class so far . . . I do believe I AM learning a thing or three about value. I've also been using quite a bit of soft vine charcoal for this class; I've never done a thing in this medium before, and three or four sketches in I'm starting to get the hang of it and really finding that I like it! Messy, though (have I said this before?)

Anyhow, the next assignment is a shaded sphere. Again, do to convenience, I went from her reference photo rather than my own still life. This time we were to work in pencil. I used a 2H, HB and a B.


I HAD to stop at this point, because every time I tried to touch it, I messed it up. Mostly I think I did very well, though there's a few things odd. It would benefit from a bit more attention to the shading on the lit side -- it's pretty blandly bright white. The cast shadow is off -- I'm learning that I do NOT understand shadows in perspective. Tom is going to help me with this once I'm done with this class (I've got plenty on my artistic plate at the moment! and I'm glad to learn more places I'm missing in these fundamentals). Otherwise, not bad. I've submitted this for review, but haven't received the critique yet because I'm without internet the past few days.

Next assignment is very interesting, in three parts: Subtractive, Additive and Subtractive, and White on Black.  Working from the same still life (reference photo for me), one must:

Put all of your tones down (using soft vine)' then erase (subtract) the high key tones.


My form isn't perfect, but I'm happy with the shading!

Then, working from a gray (neutral) background, add lights and darks.


This one has led to lots of discussion around the camper! Tom has high praise for the thing as a whole, but shows me (again!) how my cast shadow is just a bit off. Now, on my own I was aware of some of this; the left 'shoulder' is obviously waaay off, this I know, but there's more stuff askew perspective-wise, plus the "lightened" reflected light part of the cast shadow is backwards! I feel good enough about it as-is to hand in for critique, but with Tom's wisdom I'm going to make a few changes and see if I can improve it without screwing it up. The changes will only be to the cast shadow. I think the rest of it is pretty damn good!

Edit: Welp, I put the second pic away for the night, and let's just say I NEED TO GET SOME FIXATIVE! There will NOT be any changes.

Ohh, but I also need to work on letting value, as opposed to lines, define my edges.

I haven't done the third yet.

(ps The core shadow really DOES do that little blip around the shoulder)

Feedback!

The instructor got back to me regarding the value study . . . Here's the critique!

http://youtu.be/KkX7Qns4eC8
(someday I'll get around to embedded video)

I'll finalize the piece to her suggestions, resubmit and repost. My first lesson (took hours and hours!) in my other class is almost complete, I'll have another post up soon.

OK, for real now this time

A recurring theme in these posts has been "gotta go start in the beginning" followed by a bunch of color stuff. Clearly, this is not "the beginning". But my lack of foundation skills shows through everything, no matter how I try to kid myself. This I know. So finally, finally! I am taking steps to rectify this.

I've started two classes. The first is a paid online course through the Artist's Network University (hell if I know how to make a link using this mobile app?) entitled Drawing Mastery: Shading. It's a four week, I think four project basic course on shading and values, just my weaknesses! Basically you pay, watch a couple videos, get a homework assignment, then submit that for feedback from the instructor. X4.

The first project was a 5-value study. Here's the reference photo, and my submission:






Although there is quite a bit wrong here, mainly the ellipse of the cup and the placement of the objects, I'm really quite happy with this. It's in charcoal, so,etching I've never worked with before. I liked it, quite messy and forgiving! I can see definitely need to work on form as well, but here I mostly just thought about values. I think I'm starting to get it, just. I'm trying to apply what I've been learning about core shadows and reflected light, cast shadows, local values.

I just submitted it today and have yet to hear the feedback on it.

I'll cover the other class I'm taking in a future post. It's VERY different.