Paul’s 100 Day Challenge; Sketchbook

[PaulDidier]

Thanks Ramona. I’m a big believer in doing studies of artist’s work who I admire. I love gestures and when it comes to really dynamic gestures you can’t beat good comic book  artists. When I think I’m getting good at gestures I do a page of studies like the one I posted to get humbled.

[PaulDidier]

Thanks Shazad. I’m finding that doing animal drawings is helping my figure drawings. I seem to loosen up doing animals and it translates over to my figures.

[Zach]

Paul your studies look fantastic! I love how alive your figures are, super dynamic!!

[Paula B]

Beautiful sketches, Paul! Love the lighting study on day 13

[PaulDidier]

Day14. Here’s my gouache studies for yesterday. Trying to get on a solid sleep schedule so when it’s time to knock off I’m trying to do it. So I didn’t have time to scan and post his last night.

Just experimenting on blending and textures. Combining wet-brush blending with dry brush blending and also trying to get a better feel for the paint thickness. Not paying much attention to reference, (the plane has some proportion issues). The arm and glove were done very quickly and I think turned out much better. The plane I spent a lot of time trying different blending techniques which was educational but the paint seems to lose it’s freshness when worked too much.

 

[Peihong Jiang]

Wow, I really like the blending texture on the airplane!

• This reply was modified 4 years ago by  Peihong Jiang.

[Lucas a.k.a “Roams”]

hey paul, looks like you’re starting to get the hang of using gouache. these look cool

[PaulDidier]

Thanks Peihong and Lucas. I actually think I’m getting a feel for gouache! Amazing! For so long I felt absolutely clueless. I really think this challenge is the reason. It’s causing me to work in it almost daily and I’m getting a real sense of what the thickness of the paint should be, (I never had a feel for that before), and of how to mix the paint without messing up the four or five initial tones I’m using to get the other values. That really helps me not to get lost when mixing and remixing values since the value changes so much when the paint dries. Don’t want to jinx it, but I’m feeling a bit optimistic. And it’s becoming fun!

[JadZeitouni]

was following up on your challenge , Very nice idea , sketching is improving , you will end up with a brilliant sketchbook . I think I will do the same , I need to improve my drawing skills

[PaulDidier]

Sounds good Jad. There are several people doing sketchbooks on this challenge. Glad to have you join in.

[PaulDidier]

Here’s today’s sketchbook page(s). I missed a couple of days so I thought I’d do a little extra today. I’ll post the two pages separately to avoid any upload issues.

The first page has some studies of one of my heroes Joseph Clement Coll. Some people on this challenge have been kind enough to say some nice things about my pen and ink drawings and specifically have mentioned the hatching. Well, doing studies of Mr Coll along with other masters like Heinrich Kley have been a big part of any skills I may have acquired with pen and ink.

 

 

 

[PaulDidier]

Here’s the second page for Day15. One of my favorite models on NMA, Rajiv. Pen and ink, charcoal and gouache.

 

[Lucas a.k.a “Roams”]

Yeah man this challenge is great ive definitely seen some improvement in my own work too. im thinking i might just make it a 365 day challenge for life xD. yeah the tones changing sounds alot like acrylics haha. also great sketches man love ur ink stuff

[PaulDidier]

Thanks Lucas. Yes, acrylics are also a challenge because of their color/value change after drying. But at least they are permanent once dry. With gouache when you paint over a dry layer of paint, the under paint will soften and partially mix in with the new layer. It can easily become kind of a cottage-cheesy mess. Makes for some very frustrating efforts to blend what you think are colors of the same value when in fact they aren’t at all after they dry. Hoping I’m finally on the right track to getting a handle on this challenging medium.

Thanks again for the kind words and encouragement.

[Lucas a.k.a “Roams”]

ah right ok that interesting i didnt know that, ive never tried gouache. i saw the price and that was the end of that xD ah you’ll figure it out for sure mate 😀

[Author]

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