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Day 85

Thanks so much for the kind words, Mariano.  It really means a lot to me.

I did more blending on the mural. I worked for a long time trying to establish some depth on the sea floor with wave reflections going back in perspective.  It didn’t turn out as well as I would like.  I only have the lift for two weeks, so I have to decide if I want to spend more time to try and get it right, or move on.

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Congratulations!  I had to do this one 3 times before I got it right.  It is indeed a bear!  Now do it again and change the eye level and station point. (LOL)

For reference points, just remember that all parallel lines recede to a common vanishing point.  For example, if you have a figure and you draw a line from the foot to somewhere on the horizon, then draw a line from the head to the same point somewhere on the horizon, you have created a parallel plane that is the height of your figure all the way back in space (or the width if the figure is lying down).

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I like the blue rim light on the eye and cheek.  Can you bring that into the forehead and nose as well?  That would make it more consistent with all of the left facing planes.

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I could see wanting to practice shading without overlapping the contour using a pen or brush, but for graphite or charcoal, you can overshoot the contour and use an eraser to create hard or soft edges. It makes you think more like a painter.  Remember, drawing is painting, and painting is drawing.  The more your can meld the two, the more you will learn from doing each one.

If you have your pencils sharpened correctly, you can hold them so they are almost parallel to the paper and create a wide tone using the side of the pencil as well as back and forth hatching on the tip.

On the cube, do a gradation on the dark plane and medium plane (darker on top) to show reflected light.  To get the gradation, you can either lift out from the bottom using a needed eraser, or add more tone to the top.  It will give your drawing more sophistication and depth, then  you can apply this to all box forms.

I admire how you are spending all of this time working on geometric solids.  That will serve you very well in the future.

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Day 84

Worked a little more on Green Tara putting in more shadows and atmospheric perspective, and more on the Soap Bubble piece.

 

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Day 83

Thanks Natasha.  Now I am really switching gears.  I have been wanting to do a Thanka style painting for quite some time, so I thought I would go ahead and start one.  Instead of starting from scratch, I did a study from an image I found on the web, to get used to the shapes, and proportions.  I added subtle modeling, and shadows which is something you would never see on a traditional Thanka.  This is Green Tara, the bodhisattva of compassion and action.

 

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Day 82

I did a Rembrandt study and then tried to apply what I learned.

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Day 81

Thanks Gordan.  I usually use Golden artist acrylics.  In this case, because of the gradients in the background I needed something a little more spreadable.  I’m using Sherwin-Williams Acrylic latex house paint for the background, and my regular Golden artists acrylics for everything else.

I forgot to plug in the lift when I left yesterday and it was dead this morning.  I had to block in the head while it was charging and then paint the background around it.  One more pass on the gradient background should do it.  I hope to finish it before my hand falls off!

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Great work as usual Natasha! I like your color digital piece.  You are a natural!  I’ve been doing digital for a while, and I still suck at it.  It is not my primary medium though, I mostly use it for composition because you can scale, move, and make other changes so quickly.

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Proko has a really excellent demo on shading a sphere.  It might help you out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=7&v=R6LL4qP5z5U&feature=emb_logo

 

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Nice work Nick.  Are you using references for everything, or is some from imagination?  My drawing from imagination still suck, but as Joe Weatherly says “It really shows what you know and what you don’t know.”  Give it a try, and it will help cement some of those concepts about the forms of the hand in your head.  Also, think about line quality and where you can make thicker or thinner lines especially on the contour.  Thick lines with hard edges can indicate shadow, or bone near the surface of the skin.  Thin, or broken lines can indicate the light side of  a form.  Soft edges can indicate roundness, etc. When I watch NMA videos, the instructors can all vary their line quality so well as they build up their drawings.  I still have to make a separate pass through my drawings and just think about line quality.  I find that it is worth the time and effort to be more descriptive and intentional with line quality, because it really brings life and character to your drawings.

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Welcome to the Challenge Mariano!  Nice sketch.  I love working on toned paper, but haven’t toned much by hand.  What paper did you start out with and what did you tone it with?

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Close up of shark

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Day 80

Thanks Deborah, I’m all better now.

The scissor lift got delivered at the other site, so I had to pack everything up and start the underwater mural.  I was dreading doing the gradients on such a huge wall, but I think I have it all figured out now.
Painting a shark jumping out of the water 25 feet in the air on a lift is fun!

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Day 79

I was very sick for a few days so I got nothing done, but I am up and running again.  I started the Red Hawks mural. Primed the wall, did the drawing and went over the line work with airbrush.

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