Cemetery Angel in Charcoal

I'm not quite finished with this drawing yet, but I thought I'd post a little bit of the process, as you can see I've been using a multitude of brushes and erasers to manipulate the charcoal.

Looseness and use of shading

These are some practice drawings I did this weekend, from other artists work that I admire. I'm drawn to their style because of their looseness and use of shading, and I would love to be able to incorporate these techniques into my original work. I still feel you can learn a lot about technique from copying from the masters, in this case modern masters.

Drawing practice.

  I finally got a couple days off work so, I cleaned up the art room and tried to get back into a little sorely needed drawing practice. 

Strathmore 300 Series Drawing Paper Pads

I finally found a paper that I really like, " Strathmore 300 Series Drawing Paper Pads" medium surface 70 lbs. 11' by 14'  This paper just feels good, I have better control with charcoal shading and erasing, its tough so you don't have to worry about tearing it if you erase to hard.

Winged Victory cast sketch in oil

I set up my new winged victory today  to do a cast study sketch.

I hung a dark towel behind it so the light color of the cast figure would stand out, then I used a spot light from above as the one and only light source, That made the room kind of dark but it also produced a maze of cast shadows as you can see from the second picture.

Today's figure sketch

Red Chalk Drawing

Figure drawing practice, in red chalk.

Red Chalk Drawing

Saturday Morning, I got up early to get in some drawing practice, I did a bunch of loose figure sketches using Mike Mattesi's method of drawing force, then I went ahead and started shading in a few. 

Figure Drawing Practice

Mechanical Pencils

I put the charcoals away and started using mechanical pencils . With the variety of tools I feel like I have more control to draw lighter, keeping the drawing open longer so I can make adjustments and changes as needed.

Drawing Practice

Oil Sketch Practice, William Adolphe Bouguereau's Charity.

The alarm clock went off this morning at 5:30AM........ I got up, put on a pot of coffee and started getting ready to go to work .....then it hit me.......its Saturday you block head ! "I hate when I do that ".....  Well instead of going back to sleep, I slugged down the coffee and started an oil sketch. This is a masters study of one of my favorite painting by William Adolphe Bouguereau called Charity. 

Venus cast drawing practice

This is my first try at drawing the Venus cast, and I was surprised at how much detail came out of it when I turned all the lights off and just focused one spot light on the figure. 

I don’t know why I thought I could render it all in one session, because I just couldn't capture all the detail I would have liked to. I’m not sure how long I was working on it, but I just tired out and let go at this point.

I plan on drawing this thing many, many  more time using different angles, mediums and focal points. It looks like its going to be a good and affordable tool to use for drawing practice.  

Anatomy practice in oil

I've been reviewing and taking notes on a lot of the old masters drawings. I find them to be an intriguing glimpse into the mind of the artist. There is also a wealth of anatomy to learn from them as well.  Now what I really need to do is start copying  them for the practice.

Here is a arm I did a quick free hand drawing of in oil. I don’t think the drawing came out that good and I didn't even fit it all on the canvas.LOL....,but I did figure out some tricks for constructing  muscles in oil .

Skull Oil Painting

I finely got around to doing a oil painting sketch, using the LWW Plastic Human Skull ( Numbered-A21),  I got from the Anatomical Chart Company.

Self Portrait Practice, using a Mirror

Using a mirror I did this self portrait last night, as this was only drawing practice for me, I did it on a Fredrix medium texture canvas pad with burnt sienna oil paint.

 Although I have a long way to go with anatomy and aligning the facial features correctly, I have become more aware of all the shapes, angles, shadows and highlights that make up the face.

 I think this is the next best form of drawing practice from a life, when a live model isn’t available, and I will continue to practice using the mirror.

 I do have one tip to give, mark the floor with blue masking tape so you stand in the same spot, because nothings worse than a model who won’t stand still !

Anatomy drawing at the kitchen table...

I've been practicing anatomy drawing at the kitchen table, by copying pictures from the book Anatomy for the Artist by Jeno Barcsay

Professor Barcsay (1900-1988), who taught applied anatomy at the Budapest Academy of Fine Arts, offers a detailed portrayal of the human body for the fine artist in 142 full-page plates, illustrating magnificently a subject that has fascinated artists for centuries. It contains anatomical terms, details of the skeleton, joints, form and function of muscles, bones of the upper limb, joints and movements of the bones of the upper limb, the form of the arm in general, muscles of the upper limb, muscular system of the upper limb and its function, similarly for the lower limb the trunk plus muscles of the neck, the neck in movement, the bones of the skull, connections and movements of the skull bones, the facial angle, articulations and movements of the spinal column and the skull, muscles of the head, eye, mouth, nose and ear, proportion of the parts of the body, osseous and muscular system of the human body, proportional differences of the male and female body, female breast, the centre of gravity, contrapposto, movements, simple delineations of movements.

  

Woman Figure Study in Charcoal

Perfection 1056 Faber Castell Pencil Eraser

I practiced another figure drawing today using Art Models 3 on CD. I also used  the same Grisaille method as before, but this time with the aid of a Perfection 1056 Faber Castell Pencil Eraser to pull out the small lights.

Grisaille charcoal drawing technique.

Here are a couple of drawings I did at home from photo references, using what I’ll call a Grisaille charcoal drawing technique.