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More Gestural Sketches
I suppose I apply a wide definition of what a gesture drawing is – if the spirit of the drawing is meant to be gestural, even if the end result becomes too detailed or tight, I think it still counts. While drawing these pages, I was thinking of the “not this / this” photo that is on Proko’s How to Draw Gesture guide. I agree that the action lines are the quintessential nature of a gesture drawing. I just don’t always accomplish them, hah.
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Gesture Drawings to the Rescue
I was really struggling to get started drawing tonight. I opened my sketchbook, sketching and erasing the same figure like 10 times before just sketching and inking a couple of face studies. Those also felt sloppy and forced. Fortunately, given I didn’t want to stay up too late tonight, the time crunch pushed me towards some quick gestures instead. And I really like how they turned out!
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Refilling the Well
Taking the time yesterday to just relax and have a nice date night was much needed. I’ve been pushing myself to post here every day, and while I want to post as often as possible, there is a balance in creating and then resting to refill the well of inspiration. And coming back into the practice, I sunk into a nice intuitive painting: free from any plans or expectations. Leaf shapes are still my current artistic comfort-food of choice.
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Embracing Sketchbook Messiness
If I want to finish my current sketchbook before the end of spring, I calculated (a couple of days ago) that I need to finish an average of 1.5 pages a day. Is doing that calculation a sign that my need to control chaos is creeping into my art practice again?
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Digital sketching progress
I think daily practice is starting to pay off a little. Two months ago, whenever I tried to sketch directly in Photoshop with my Wacom tablet, it felt so awkward; I scrapped drawings a few times in frustration. Tonight I worked while using a photo reference, but the sketching felt must easier. I was able to softly erase lines like a kneaded eraser, layering up an under sketch until I had the line I wanted. Then I would solidify those lines to be darker while erasing the rest. I worked on a single sketch layer. I also really like making the background layer something other than pure white – it…
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Digital painting practice: coffee and sweets
Living out my coffee shop fantasies through painting. Or maybe I’m painting my baking aspirations, in the case of the cookie. Tonight was another night where I had about an hour to paint. I found some photos on Pexels to study and then went to work, while watching the latest Critical Role episode.
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Marker practice and some quick digital drawing drills
Followed through and finished adding marker to yesterday’s line art. I wasn’t sure how well the Ohuhu markers would blend, but I’ve been pleasantly suprised by how nice they work. They bleed all the way through the mixed media paper, though, which is a shame. Similar to Copics, I think they’re better suited to Bristol, marker paper, or even printer paper in a pinch. Mixed media paper is usually closer to a toothy watercolor type paper and absorbs more marker than necessary. At least, that’s what I’ve observed.
Art with a dash of old school blog rambling
