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.

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.

Cock Fight

It is what it is. Two giant cocks battling it out to the death, in a desert dust bowl. Two cocks enter. One cock leaves. This is the way it has to be....

The title, based on that weird bird blood sport, was the obvious inspiration for this painting, but as i was sketching it out in the sketch book, i decided that i wanted to work on painting monumental scale, in a kinda fantasy art wankery way.

Last year sometime i saw some of the artwork done for that abysmal film Clash of The Titans. It was the Cracken emerging from the water,  and while the film was crap, this image was awesome, and the sense of scale of the beast was wonderful, and i kept in in mind while working on this.

The other thing i was looking to study was getting  movement in dust and atmosphere a little more, as the cocks would be rising up and thumping down and twisting like two snakes fighting, kicking up debris, and dust.

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....

Process Diary: Commission

Thought I'd upload some of the bits for the commission I'm working on at the moment - November has been a very slow month for blog updates! The image has a pile of animals, and getting the particular coats "correct" has proven to be a challenge, as has getting the personality of the critter too... great fun though. 

I'm having to split the job into different parts, as the required resolution and the size of the final output is giving my computer a nervous breakdown, and it's already teetering on the edge. 

For now, however, time is ticking.... 

Waiting

A piece that was put on the back burner some time ago, as it all seemed too daunting a task for me - an actual landscape scene (of sorts).

Mostly i draw characters or cartoons that may or not be in some sort of environment, but with this one i was actually aiming to paint the environment, with the figure being a secondary consideration. It started with the mushroom on the tree, and the rain lead to the mushroom providing shelter, hence the figure.

Other opportunities of study for me in this work were the concept that objects in the distance are somewhat hazy, ill-defined and much paler than the middle ground, and the foreground objects darker and slightly out of focus too - all these aspects helping to achieve a more convincing 3D space; and using a somewhat limited palette of colour. I've used many colours now, and also have a history with black and white, so it was a fun challenge trying to limit the number or colours used.

I'm reasonably happy with this study, and somewhat relieved to have it finished...

Here's a still's animation of the process. Not great quality, but maybe next time.

Nymph In Milk Bath. In The Snow (Normal Lindsay Made Me Do It)

I was looking to try out some more Water Colour brushes, and as i've never really tried to draw a female face i set out to do so. It seems i was unable to pull very far away from the cartoony faces i normally do, but managed to get closer to a 'pretty' face - though i'm not completely happy with it.

The ears turned up along with the hair as i began to be reminded Normal Lindsay's nymphs and playful nudes. If you don't know what I'm on about, look it up.

I needed to put her in some sort of context, and as i wasn't really in the mood for f*ck-arseing around concentrating on clothes, i just worked down the body til she appeared to be partially submerged. And i wanted to draw some boobs. Lets call it an exercise in painting buoyancy....

Still Life With Frock

I once hear a man lovingly refer to his annoying wife as pear shaped woman. It was at my wedding i think, and no, it wasn't me....

Alternate titles for this might have been:

"A pear, even in satin, is still a pear"

"Yes, but it looks good on"

"Satin 1. Pear 0."

There's something about this shape, and it's need to be draped in satin, that has a similar allure as a flame might for a moth.

Why? I have no idea.

A study of reflective cloth, and fruit skin. That being said, i didn't actually dress up a pear in a delightful lavender number, rather the scars on my brain, from witnessing outfits such as this, on nights out in Limerick, provided all the reference i needed.

Submitted for Illustration Friday topic Artificial -

"Sick of the artificial women in the media? Behold: the real shape of things to come."

Used in local rag's New Year's Resolution article.

He Was All Like "Wha...??"

Quick sketch. Trying to capture a kind of confused look of the face of the hunter about to become the game.

Then i gave him ears like that...

There's a screen capture too i'll put up in a while.

Home Early

A quick study of skin, weight and shame....

No real reason for it, other than for the laugh.

Comrade!

Was just flaffing around, and ended up with something that was a cross between people i saw on a recent trip to Krakow, Poland, and a russian strength guru i've come across in my quest for fitting in exercise around small children.....

Ripple (Watch That Flubber Fly)

This is another Illustration Friday piece - a quick Oil Pastel sketch of what i initially thought doing of after hearing the topic - "Ripple", but before i read about the oil spill fund raiser thing....

A fat man slapping his flab. I have done this myself.

This was just for the laff - the proper one is here....

Bi And Large (Volume Study)

This began as a pencil sketch of a stereotypical representation of some of the people one might meet in the streets around where i grew up. It was very a colourful, and flamboyant kind of area where one's gender had little to do with it's presentaion. Wanted to get used to creating volume and mass in colour, and also play with some fleshy tones.

French Man (Attitude Study)

Shortly after Ireland were knocked out of a position in the soccer world cup 2010, when the ref failed to notice Terry Henry molest the ball with his hands, i found my self in France to attend a wedding. I had 40 minute train ride to spend doodling, and thanks to a fellow facing me on at an opposite window, i manage to capture the perceived attitude of arrogance the Irish were assuring me the French had. The man didn't look like this or have the attitude, but he was French.

Boy With Match (Reflection Study)

Along the same lines as the reasons for the Bluebottle Boy picture - children and dangers - this came after my boy manages to lock me out in the backyard.

This is the imaginings of him locking me out, then finding a match. It was also an attempt at getting a better understanding of painting reflections.

Limerick Woman (Attitude Study)

It's weird in this cold dark country how the women seem to have evolved to utilise make-up foundation as a way to change ones own skin tone to another. Many women walk through the shopping malls in their best pair of pyjama's, with an iridescent orange face - presumably designed to give off the impression of a healthy tan. But the tan stops at the jaw line, the concept of 'blending' having been bred from the gene-pool along with shoulders and good teeth.

What lies beneath, from jaw to cleavage, is the natural pale blue if Irish skin. A pale green eye-shadow is often selected to complement this and heavy black eye liner ensures the look of an infant at mummy's make-up table is complete. Add large gold hoop earrings and you're nearly there.

Lastly adopt a look of aggressive distaste one might use after stepping in something nasty.

Say No To Altar Boys

The first piece of graffiti i saw upon arrival in Ireland was in a toilet stall in Shannon airport. It said "Say No To Altar Boys". I was amused if not a little perturbed at the advice presented to me, given the near terminal levels of Catholicism i was wading into. 5 years later the 'revelations' that paedophilia actually exists within the catholic church, in an attempt to capture a feeling of clerical serenity, i painted this picture.