Ari Cat from Life

Ari Cat from Life

8" square Tombow grays on sketchbook

I'll probably add more cat gestures to this page or something, he moved before I could get his body in. This is a typical life pose. He turned his head twice looking to the side and I had to wait for him to look back, then got up and walked away to eat. After all I was only drawing him, not offering yogurt or reaching to pet him. He's not always that keen on posing!

But he will sometimes come back to a pose again and again. I don't think he really minds it either, just knows I need to learn to draw fast!

Pines from Memory

Pines from Memory

Tombow dual tip brush pens on sketchbook

Another fast pines study in Tombow pens, playing with shapes and strokes. I added a contour sketch of a group of pines behind them to complete the page and a bit of water to the right, lake or sea that's calm. Not unhappy with this one, these tree studies. Sometimes less is more. I considered doing something in the sky and decided against it. Maybe next time.

Weather's been doing a number on me and the heavy activity of the past few days was more than my back or hips could take. So I've been taking it easy since I went out that much, the stairs wrecked my knees and the weather's picked up the theme with erratic pressure changes. All adds up to some recovery time, during which sketchbook is a major achievement.

Nanowrimo stalled and choked due to chronic fatigue but I'm not worried, it's still early in the month and always goes this way.

Pines and Fall Foliage

Pines and Sumac 8 1/2" x 11"

Tombow pens on sketchbook paper, memory 

Fall Foliage, 8 1/2" x 11" photo by BeeG on WetCanvas

Tombow pens on sketchbook paper

Yesterday was a good day, sketched in the morning with another lesson for my email student on pine structures skeleton and loose rendering, plus some red sumac from memory because I love it. I used the Muted Palette again for this one and liked how it came out. These full page sketches are bolder and a lot of fun.

Then in the evening wrote not one but two short chapters in my Nanowrimo novel, a vampire non-romance titled Forever Mine. Basically it's about a bad relationship and in the early chapters of their hazy limerence, some warning signs are already there. I'm about one day ahead already and that's great, the novel writing challenge is well in hand.

This morning I decided to work from a reference and liked the scattering of bright leaves in BeeG's Fall Foliage photo reference. Changed it to add more pines behind the tree and in the far distance, another demo. Love the way these big bright pages go fast and bold, it's not like doing little sketches in pencil that don't always show up on camera.

Today is Voting Day and tomorrow I've got my appointment, that's going to be a lot of exertion without enough rest in between. Plus this week the exterminator's supposed to be coming to fumigate and clear up the bug problem in my room. That'll take a lot of prep and everything on the shelves needs to get bagged and set aside, some serious disruption both in art and life. Not going to be fun and I'll very likely lose some days to stress and exhaustion in it. There's a limit to what home healht care people can do to help with my art supplies, some stuff I need to pack down myself and hope to get it done before they show up.

So wish me luck on all the overexertion. I may wind up sleeping like my cat when it's all done.

Harvest and Hand Page

Harvest and Hand Page

Tombow dual tip pens in sketchbook, 8 1/2" x 11"

Today tried my second new ten-color set of Tombow pens, the Portrait Palette. I was a little unsure of the pale colors, but very happy with them now. They're quite pale highlight colors. One's yellower than the other, perhaps I should have used that for the overall fill since my hand looks a bit pinkish. But the value range is very nice and I was happily surprised by how well it came out.

I've drawn my own hand from life many times. I get very self conscious of it, sometimes my hands get swollen and puffy from joint problems or other health issues and that irritates me. Today wasn't that bad and at the same time I've gotten much better at sketching - enough that I was surprised at how well it came out after getting true to proportions. On bad days if I drew my hand accurately it looked like a caricature. 

It's also minus a number of errors I used to make on hands. When I got right down to it, sketching my hand was no different from sketching a rose or my cat's leg or anything else. Well, maybe a bit more of an unfamiliar object, my cat's leg and anything else on cats is so easy now because I've done hundreds, maybe thousands of cat sketches first. Still it feels good to recognize all that practice in other things helps in tackling a difficult subject!

Yeah, my hands are funny looking, but I would not trade that for normal hands that couldn't draw this well!

So if you have trouble drawing hands, don't give up! Your best model is the one you aren't using to draw with. The more often you try, the better results you'll get until one day this happens - and your results look like a recognizably human hand! Never mind any sausage fingered successive approximations, the more you sketch, the closer you will come!

Also try to put your hand into a cool pose when you do it. Just splayed flat is a good way to get a blobby starfish with off proportions and weird squiggles for joints. Practice on a lot of different shaped objects just getting the contour line right, then go back to your hand forgetting it's a hand. Don't think of them as fingers and thumb, think of them as shapes of shadow and light, contour lines, overlapping forms. Really don't move your hand till you're done with the outline either, it's hard to get exactly the same pose if you move. Do the contour line first and then any shading or details.

I darkened most of the contour lines to make the drawing show up on a light background but could as easily have sketched a dark background around it. Either way works - and using a background is a way to fix if you get the line a little too wide somewhere. Just carve into it with opaque background color.

Have fun and try this at home!

Harvest foods in Tombow pen

Harvest

Tombow dual tip pens on sketch paper

Last daily sketch of October, just decided to do a harvest theme from imagination and memory. I used my new Muted Palette set, think the pumpkin came out looking a bit cooked but otherwise reasonably happy with the rendering. Had fun with the wheat, really didn't want to do the cliche of putting corn with it. Tossed in cranberries and currants because I like them. Best item in the whole sketch is that knobbly gourd, really had fun doing that one.

Might play with some of these later or with a real setup next year when harvest decorations for Halloween are a thing from truck stops! But this completes a second month of daily sketching or drawing without missing even one. The 48 hour rule really works. I get lull days after doing something good sometimes, or just the weather catches me before I'm done. But if I just give it that extra day to catch up, I do it.

Now doing that while writing a Nanowrimo and editing a previous one is a huge challenge, so wish me luck! Might sketch for a warm-up, do a lot with these Tombow markers. Cooked Pumpkin color might work for Tawny Sabertooth fur.

Tree in Mist in Tombow markers

Tree in Mist, 8 1/2" x 11" 

Tombow dual tip pens on sketch paper

Another tree demo for my email sudent. This time showing how to pull some branches forward and push others back with color and value. There's a bit of mist but still enough directional light for distinct shadows in this, also I was describing how grass under trees really gets when it's not on a golf course. Patchy with lots of bare spots and mud puddles, little clumps and hummocks of plants rather than smooth flat color as if perfect bright green sod just got laid.

That sod will yellow in close shade too, especially after the trees leaf out.

So often we learn to draw in kindergarten but are doing so in specific grade school symbols - a brown stick with a green ball or blob on top, maybe forked with a ball on top. Stick figures. Horizon line based on the lines you write on - all the drawings lined up on the horizon line. 

Accurate drawing means letting go of these things and finding new ways to simplify the ridiculous amount of detail in the real things. You can't paint every blade of grass but you can get the mower stripes on the lawn and people can see that's a lawn.

Cat and Big Cat Sketches

Ari Cat from life and Ocelot face

Tombow dual tip pens on sketch paper 

Tiger skull and snarling face

black Tombow dual tip pen on sketch paper.

Caught up with yesterday's art, actually did four sketches today but not counting ahead. Three are exercises from a book: "How to Draw Animals" series by Franklin Watts UK, volume "Tigers and Other Big Cats." 

The snarling tiger was drawn from an interesting half and half example with a tiger's resting face and snarling face. I tried to mirror the snarling side just by hand, with some success but not well enough to satisfy me. That was surprisingly hard. I'm used to getting good symmetry on things like vases that demand it, but this time I really had a hard time mirroring the expression - and in my mind was also slightly disappointed in the drawing I copied, especially the nose expression and forehead wrinkling that were very simplified. No markings on the tiger in the example either, so I had to add a couple of oversimplified stripes.

Eh, they're just sketches off a book. Some days are about taking it easy and going back to basics - but it's easier to do big cats from a good reference than someone else's drawing! Not so used to copying any more!

Animals ATC Exchange Project

This post won't have images of my art. Only the images of eleven beautiful small pieces friends have sent me in the "Animals" ATC exchange. It was limited to 15 people and started January, 2015. I've gotten eleven of them and am still waiting for three more. Sadly, life interfered and the project of doing mine to send them out got held up by health and some money problems. It's not the first time that something got put off by forgetting about it till reminded. I meant to do and send all of them at the same time for that reason, not play favorites.

 Some ATC supplies - 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" watercolor paper, archival soft sleeve

and an Ultra Pro archival Top Loader protective display envelope.

Six "Animals" ATCs from friends, top left a lion, below that a cat's face

center row a cormorant on a rock, center bottom a sea turtle

right top a cheetah above a card with a seagull. 

Five more "Animals" ATCs - top row left two chicks, right a tiger,

bottom row a raven, Ari Cat's portrait and a male lion profile.

So at long last, I've gotten started on doing mine. I'm sure the other three latecomers will do theirs too or have done some but just not gotten to me yet. All of these are much brighter and richer in person than the photo. I love them and spread them out to motivate me.

So far I've finished six cards, nearly half the set. My goal is to finish and mail them out this month. I was getting close anyway, finally got to eBay to get the Top Loaders for sending them when I got a gentle reminder from the organizer. 

Mine are all in water media, so far one dog (pet portrait) and one white egret, plus one cat portrait, two Ari paintings and today's is a painting of my daughter's enormous black cat Armand. He's a 20lb long hair who likes camouflaging himself on black furniture or floating around the house like a small bear. I might add some big cats to it or some other animals, just doing whatever creature I think of next. But it's going well and while I can't post them, wanted to update and let y'all know I have painted steadily the past four days! 

Lots of sketching too. I participated in a Weekend Drawing Event on Friday, Saturday and Sunday with Tombow dual tip brush pens in 8 1/2" x 11" sketchbooks, one my good Stillman & Birn hard bound Beta, te Tombow ones in a Target drawing book I got in my Christmas package.

 Black cat from a reference and red geraniums from memory, 8-14-2015

This is the one in archival markers on S&B Beta journal.

Greek waves from a reference by Qty on WetCanvas 

Ionian Sea rock near mouth of Acheron, Qty reference 

Some Greek street cats in an abandoned campground, Qty ref. 

Character "Musky" from my Pleistocene animal novel, Elder's Pride. 

The book is still in editing stage.

White Rose on green foliage from Qty reference, Ari sketch at bottom.

I should have posted the sketches as I did them, but didn't think of it at the time. Will start updating more regularly as I do other projects. Once the ATCs have all gone to their respective new homes I'll post those as batch. I'm having fun laying them out as a group, they vary a little in style and technique butt so far all are in archival pen with watercolor on the same Stillman & Birn "Beta" paper. It's now available as loose sheets as well as in the journals, which rocks since it's my favorite watercolor paper.