Shading Exercise Update

It's taken much longer than I anticipated but I finished my second shading exercise. This time I wanted to compare the two pencil sets I have. On the right are the two done with Derwent pencils, a set of H - 9B; on the left I used Faber-Castell, a 6H, a 5H and a set of 2H - 8B. This is not a sponsored post. I have mostly used my Faber-Castell pencils, I was given the Derwent pencils but over all I prefer the F-C and that was reaffirmed in this exercise. I generally prefer H/hard pencils to B/soft pencils. I really like the smoothness of the F-C pencils.
As for the exercise itself, practice makes perfect, I'd like to do one more, this time I want to make it as clean and crisp as possible.

Tools of the Trade

I was working out a new design and I was reminded of how helpful colored pencils are. One grid can begin endless designs so until you're very familiar with the based pattern, it's to mark out your design so you don't forget. You can work with the colors you intend to use and see how they work or you can just use random colors.

Precision and Perfection

I've read or been taught that in Islamic art and designs, the artist or craftsman will make a mistake or a flaw in the design on purpose because only Alah\God is perfect. I am not anywhere skilled enough yet to need to include a flaw on purpose.

I generally need a lot more precision in my work and the above image is a perfect example of this. I started drawing this new design and I was a little off, I should have fixed things then but I went forward hoping for the best. I got so far off that I couldn't even complete what I was doing and it was a lot worse to try and fix.
I can still pull something out of this jumble but it won't be what I was hoping for.
Learn frommy folly! I will try and learn as well.

Drawing

I am a 2D artist, for me that means painting and drawing. I primarily work in watercolor and with that you want draw as little as possible because watercolor is transparent and your lines will probably be seen. I haven't been drawing as much. I have to work harder at my drawing and so I get lazy and stop.
I worry about my skills diminishing and so as I was reviewing some goals, etc. I decided that I better get drawing. I did some random drawing one day and came upon an expirament to start drawing again. The plan was to simply set a timer and draw for 5 minutes. After a few days I decided to up the time to 7 minutes. It may seem like hardly any time and it is, but it's working for me. I can set the timer and focus in on drawing and I can even do it while waiting for paintings to dry. It's not too big of a commitment and I can work my way up if I want.

Anyway, here's what I drew this week.

The Process

I've been working on a new painting, I haven't actually started painting it yet but a lot of work has gone into it already.

It starts off in the sketch book, I try different things to see what might work and what doesn't. The next phase is to make a study, I haven't always done this but I'm trying to get better at it rather than winging it as much. Anyway in the study I draw out what I think the painting will or should look like and use colored pencil to give and idea of the colors I want and what they might look like. Things might change from the study to the painting. Drawing out the painting is the final step before painting.

100th Eight Fold

About two and a half years ago I began this series to see if there really was infinite possibility for variety of designs from one base. I recently finished the 100th design, it is not infinity of designs but there were times along the way that I never thought I'd get that far. I'm taking a break from the series to focus on other things for a while but I have many more ideas for designs and I'll come back to them in time.
For now I'm striking off in pursuit of different designs and silly though it may be, I'm quite excited. It has it's drawbacks at times but I love the freedom of being my own boss as an artist, if I want to go one direction, I can, and can also change on a whim in another direction.

C
watercolor
9x9in.
2015
Series: Eight Fold

A portrait

I've been working on drawing more and I've wanted to see about creating portraits, with the goal of creating portraits like the grand and beautiful ones seen in museums or perhaps stately homes. This is the first attempt that I've brought to any sort of finished state. There are lots of areas where it could be improved, I used mechanical pencil rather than drawing pencils for example.

This is a portrait of my Grandpa when he graduated from medical school.

Master Studies

I've been continuing to work on drawings and to draw from the works of master artists. Here's the last weeks drawings.

From a painting by Albrecht Durer

From a study by Michelangelo

From a drawing by Durer

From a drawing by Michelangelo

A study by Michelangelo

And a drawing by Michelangelo

As the week went on I started making a greater effort to really finish the studies and not just to get lazy and call it good.

Drawing again

I believe I've mentioned but I've been working on drawing more, improving my skills etc. There are periods where I do better at this and periods when I fall off but I'm on again (hoping to be more consistent this time around) and so I wanted to share my studies of masterworks.

This is from a study Michelangelo did for the Battle of Cascina.

This is a study of Degas' painting The Tub.
They could both be better, but they could be worse. It's a start.

Studies

I'm trying to brush up my skills, I've been focusing so much on paintings and geometric designs that some of my drawing skills have slipped. In an attempt to reverse that I've made some attempts to do some studies of master's works, like daVinci and Durer. I'd fallen off of that some but I've recently had some renewed efforts. As I've mentioned I've started a drawing group and I've been making studies when I visit museums or when I see something I like. It's a small step but I'm hoping it will something I can keep up.

I'm trying to get back on track. I've been working on new pieces, reading art related books and getting back to my master studies as I've stated before. I think I missed last week on master studies but I've got a new one this week.
I think the last few drawings I tried to be really measured and precise but this time I just went for it.

I go back and forth as to whether this is to be able to perfectly replicate the drawing or just to get more practice. I looked through all my drawings and compared them to the original drawing and while I think some are much better than others, somehow the eyes all seem very upset or angry, where as I get a different feeling from the da Vinci sketch. I keep thinking that it might be time to move on to another artist or another sketch but I think I'd like to keep trying to get the eyes better at least. Eyes are a very important part of a portrait, they convey so much, or at least they can.

Kandinsky and a master study

So looking back on the dates of my master studies, I haven't done one since May... it's been a busy summer. Anyway, I decided it was high time that I got back to that. Here's my latest study, still from the same da Vinci study.

Also, I don't know if I've mentioned this but I love back to school (even though I haven't been back to school in years) and it get's me excited to get back on track after perhaps a summer of getting lax. As part of that this year I'm getting back on track with reading (pleasure and educational). I've tried multiple times to read multiple works of Wassily Kandinsky (I even own two) and I've never really been able to get much out of them. I keep trying because they came up a lot in some of my art classes. Anyway I've decided to take another stab at Kandinsky's Point and Line To Plane. I've been going very slowly and really working at making sure I understand what he's saying. So far I've been really intrigued by what I've read. I've really liked the points he's made, so I'm going to share a bit.

"The general viewpoint of our day, that it would be dangerous to "dissect" art since such dissection would inevitably lead to art's abolition, originated in an ignorant under-evaluation of these elements thus laid bare in their primary strength.

Painting and Other Art Expressions

In reference to analytical examinations, the art of painting, strangely enough, assumes a special position among the varrious forms of art expression. Architecture, for example, by its nature closely bound up with utility, consequently requires from its very start a certain degree of scientific capacities. Music, which serves no practical use (with the exception of march and dance music) and which has until now remained abstract, has long developed its theory; perhaps so far it is only one sided but, nevertheless, it is constantly being developed. Thus these two diametrically opposite forms of art expression have a scientific basis about which no one seems to feel offended."

pages 17-18

So what I get out of this (and I could still be getting it wrong) is Kandinsky's saying that visual art lacks theory, that you should be able to pick it apart somewhat, like in music you might be able to say that this is a symphony, it has this movement and that movement, etc. that it's a little ridiculous that you can't really say the same about a lot of art, here's this element of composition, or this part builds to this part. It was over a hundred years ago that he wrote all this but I absolutely agree with him. Even if you want to ignore or break the rules, you've got to know them first. Anyway, those are my thoughts.

Master Studies

Latest.

I think I took a bit longer on this one. I think parts are better but my gosh it's hard to avoid crazy eyes.

The progression of an Eight Fold painting

I thought I'd take you through the progression of one of the paintings in the Eight Fold series.
I start off with a design, I draw out the design and to keep track of the design I outline different sections in colored pencil. In this case I tried to keep pretty close to the colored pencil colors but I don't always.

Then I draw out the design on my watercolor block.

Then the colors come.

And the final piece.

LVIII

watercolor

9x9in.

2014

Series: Eight Fold

Master Studies Update

Alright, once again it's time to update the progress of the master studies. You can see the previous posts here and here. I only had one study in the last week, I did however finally take a picture of the image I've been working off.

And here is my latest study.

Side by side like that I feel like I've improved.

Master Studies continued

I have one more master study to share, though I have gotten a bit busy with other things. Hopefully I'll have some more in the future.

I tried to size this one more along the lines of the picture I was drawing from. I think on the whole this one might have been better than the others to date but I think there's still plenty of room for improvement.