Life Drawing Sketchbook (part 1)

 Thought i'd scan in a few images from a recent life drawing session i did and put them up here.

I'm fairly confident and happy with my understanding of anatomy, and normally can draw from imagination well enough to satisfy my inner critic. It's been a very long time since I've done life drawing, possibly close to 20 years, and i was faced with the realization that this was actually kinda tricky... i felt pretty retarded trying to draw the person before me, and not fall back into the unconscious habits of drawing a posture from my imagination.

I was also , really trying to get my head around foreshortening, and in some instances fairly extreme foreshortening, and life drawing really helped with that.

Feet too; i was looking for feet. I just can't get them right most of the time for some reason, and again, this really helped. That being said, i haven't uploaded many of the feet ones i liked... maybe next time.

Same Thing Every Year

Another pencil in sketchbook piece.

Not sure what the thing is on his head is - possibly a leech, or a hat with teeth.

Terrible scan though. Will have to try it again...

Submitted for Illustration Friday topic: Perennial.

The Smallest Gesture

The feel of lead dragging across good paper. Love it.

Another sketch that began with no real direction while sitting around.  The location of the ears was helped along by my 3yo who found the pencil and sketch pad while i was out one evening, and drew one of them in. I had been thinking about placing them low, but i guess he helped finalise the decision....

Submitted for Illustration Friday topic Gesture.

It Is Not A Toy.

Taken as far as i can in the small sketchbook i have, the next step is possibly trying to colour it up some how.Kinda like it like this though....

Submitted for Illustration Friday topic: Toy.

It Is Not A Toy. (work in progress - 2)

Got a bit more time at it last night while watching telly.

It Is Not A Toy. (work in progress)

Good Lord! Is it late March already? I haven't put up anything since before Christmas.... after a very dark and long winter, filled with flu after flu being passed on between the 2 kids, the missus and myself (we all nearly drowned on the amount of snot pooling in the house), it would appear all is clear, the sun is back, and the finger has been pulled out.

So to ensure people that I haven't died, I thought i'd put up a sketch i'm working on, more of a doodle really. It began yesterday when the Girl was asleep (finally) and i had a hankering for drawing, but couldn't leave her alone in case she fell off the couch.

This is not digital, by the way.

It's been quite some time since i used pencil for anything other than scratching out ideas for complete works - really rough sketches - so i took the time here to feel the lead on the surface of the page, and just see where it took me. I'm still not sure where it is taking me, other than i know i probably should have started this in a larger notebook... the spiral bind is going to stop me being able to finish the top of the head, and  the chin may loose out too. ~sigh~
Let's call this a work in progress; I'll put up more as it progresses....

Limerick Vs Kerry (GAA)

Piece for Limerick Post.

Looks like Limerick hasn't won the Munster Senior Football title in 114 years, and they're going to give it a shot this weekend.

Kind of bizarre that Limerick hasn't won in that long, and for the Irish that's just how long it's taken, but as some one who is relatively new to Ireland and really knows nothing about the sport (other than the suspicion it's where AFL came from), it struck me that Limerick haven't won this title in about half of the history of Australia under white settlement.

Seems much longer to me now....

Australia Vs Ireland (Rugby)

See how i put Australia first?

Limerick Post piece, for the Australia Vs Ireland Rugby match played same day as edition. Needless to say, the picture, though dawn in advance, with the brief "Asutralia are gonna kick our arse" - or words to that effect, does reflect the gist if the match.

Ireland did play quite well, but unfortunately though numbering only 2, Australia were about 10 times the size, and looked like a couple of brawlers....

Cork Vs Limerick (Hurling)

Limerick take on Cork in the hurling, and are up against Aisake o hAilpin.

This is quite possibly a true representation of the difference in height between the average Limerick player and o hAilpin... not that we should let that lead to the assumption it will be an old fashioned arse-kicking.

Again.

Used in the Limerick Post newspaper (and online edition) for article about this match.

Ripple (Death By Oil Slick)

New one for Illustration Friday topic: Ripple.

The word was chosen to coincide with a fund raiser to help with the Deepwater Horizon Catastrophe (Oil Spill), other entries can be found here.

My first response to the word Ripple was, as usual, puerile and mildly perverse, but then I figured it could give me a chance to do something that I hadn't done before, which was using the Water Colour brushes.

It was also nice, as they requested a particular size, which gave an added limitation to the piece.

What began as doodling away with the pencils, ended with some subtle colour washes and fiddling around, and I'm kinda happy with the way it turned out. Makes me feel all arty....

Ireland vs New Zealand (Optimistic)

It was suggested i do something for the upcoming Rugby Union match between Ireland and The All Blacks for Ireland tour of Australia and N.Z.

The possibility of it being used in a Limerick newspaper prompted me to pick one of Limericks most recognised and celebrated of rugby players, not to mention the current Munster captain, to use in the image.

I wanted it to be a Ireland supportive take of the match, with the giant man, O'Connell, towering over the kiwi's.

Later I learned that a) Paul O'Connell isn't on this tour, and b) Ireland are likely to be completely hammered by the apparently far superior team, the All Blacks.

I really should pay more attention to these finer details.... There's still time; i might have another go.

Girl And Bear

Saw some pencil work recently that reminded me of how wonderful pencil work can be. I particularly like pencil for soft toys and children so, in an attempt to get away from using Painter's Artist Oils brushes and have ago at the Pencil brushes, I went with doing a bit of both.

But as i have been doing a lot of fairly straight ahead nice work, I couldn't help adding a little bit of blood to this one...

Update: Submitted this for Illustration Friday topic: Trail.