Collecting dust

I have two neat Strathmore toned gray sketchbooks. They're collecting dust because...
Just because...?
Because I'm a wimp and I'm terrified of a brand new sketchbook that needs to be approached differently from what I'm used to do with my common white paper.
One day I felt especially daring and I decided to violate mr. Gray.

So a few weeks ago I found a nice reference photo in my folder (a very stereotypically handsome guy wearing make up - I was actually more interested in the lighting and the sharp cast shadows). My previous attempts at using charcoal were miserable, but here I realized what I was doing wrong.
I was holding and using the charcoal as if it were a pencil! Nice and tidy and precise.
Then I remembered something Shaddy Safadi said during one of his digital painting tutorial videos:

"Be bold!". Be bold with your strokes.
I dislike quoting people, and while the painting process was definitely interesting, I didn't agree with a bunch of things Shaddy said. But his explanation of what being bold means resonated with me.The moment I tried to hold the charcoal stick differently, the moment I said to myself "well who cares if this gets really rough and messy!" and meant it, a lot has changed.

I had fun!
I actually relaxed and enjoyed this new medium, how it can be rough and pasty, but also so soft. It allows me to shade in a way that feels so much more comfortable and natural and fast than pencil shading. I don't care if the outcome is any good. It is a big improvement since last time and I was so happy while I did it. 

So, what have we learned?
- BE. BOLD.
- I had fun dammit, this is a huge step forward!
- This took very little time. Not even one hour. No excuses: I can actually make one portrait like this every weekend almost without sacrificing time. One hour is nothing to an organized person. Which I'm trying to become.
- I AM capable of shutting my brain off. I can be bold and have fun without paranoias. It usually happens at random times, but it's a matter of time before I learn to control and re-create this state of mind.
- I can't flip the page (or use the skecthbook for that matter) until I buy a fixative because charcoal is going to smudge and get every fucking where on the back of the next page :D
- Hence the bad photo. I can't put this thing into a scanner.

Park test

On to the equipment!
I sat down and did a quick study of my backpack and bag. Might as well practice at drawing inanimate objects, which I've been ignoring for most of my life. It shows.

My cellphone was in my pocket and my money & documents were tucked away in my bag: they were virtually weightless and I didn't count them in the overall weight.
Both pieces were very small and light and I could barely feel the pack on my shoulders. Splitting the weight was a good move, especially if I can avoid having it all on one shoulder. My spine thanks me kindly.
Finding stuff was not confusing because everything I needed to use often was in my shoulder bag.
Although. The ideal condition would be dumping the unnecessary and only have one bag with me.
A waist bag would be perfect, too bad I don't have one big enough.
Until then, we'll see how I can refine my packing strategies so that my back doesn't get hurt and the stuff I need is ready to be plucked out of the bag at any moment - which is not going to happen if I'm only carrying a backpack.

Anyway, I sat down again and tried to paint the meadow and ruins in front of me. I know I have a problem with large, deep fields of a single color. I struggle with depth.

Yay. Just one week before I'm finally able to replace my old scanner

I had a hard time beginning this because I couldn't place the objects correctly. I needed to frame the scene with my hands and then my camera to see it more clearly! Sheesh.
There was a hint of blue sky, but my scanner is flipping the bird at me and some color and detail got lost. I have a couple ideas to make this thing better next time:

- I should choose a place where foreground, middleground and background are more evident. I feel the need for a foreground to frame the image
- Perhaps a path in the grass, going off to the background, could help communicate better perspective and depth?
- I'll use a dry brush (or I'll use the brush sideways) to get a more randomic, leafy shape for the trees

There were lots of huge colonies of those cute red "little devils", as we call them. I noticed there was a more slender, "tattooed" type and a fatty variant with less black markings. I thought it was because of gender (especially funny considering the rounder variant has some kind of bikini top marking!), but turns out the fully tattooed ones are adults, while the others are not fully developed.

Firebugs. Firebugs everywhere.
And this was the smallest patch I could find.

I didn't do much more. I had a fast walk, some stretching and a good book. The bag and backpack never felt heavy, so I guess I can go ahead and try a proper field trip.
I noticed I didn't feel comfortable using the gray sketchbook for landscape sketching, and I might as well bring less pencils with me anyway. I should be able to reduce the weight if I focus on watercolor only, and I prefer copics to pencils for gesture drawing and tonal sketches.
That's all for today!

Plein air

Lack of motivation hits hard, but I've got to the core of the problem.
I'm setting two new goals for myself, and boy do I need to achieve them for my own well-being.
I'll talk about it later - now have some watercolor stuff I painted on the spot.

Prunus log. My grandma's garden in the countryside is always my favorite place to be when I need a break from technology.

Still flat, but I feel I'm improving in rendering volumes and textures in watercolors.

A red house I could see from the balcony at my grandmother's house. A sudden storm drove me away sooner than I hoped. I struggle with trees A LOT. I'm so inexperienced at drawing buildings, but I'm starting to put more time and effort into the sketching phase. I really can't afford to paint directly with such an alien subject.

A sleepy old man I sketched on the train and painted later while relaxing in Verona with my boyfriend. Lovely trip if somewhat short!

This was painted on bad generic sketchbook paper so yeah, the texture sucks and the colors look so dead. Watercolor paper is so expensive

Watercolor week

An apple a day...
I've decided to start a simple training program to practice on the kind of stuff I need to improve on: one exercise from reference per day, for a week. I had a fun Watercolor Week and I plan to start a Clouds Week soon. 

Clouds are nasty. 

Speedsketching at the library

• I'm proud I was brave enough to try my hand at interiors. Though the results are debatable
• I'm getting a better handle on working with fast blotches of color and leaving white paper areas
• Gestures aren't too stiff

• Stuff looks sloppy without that black pen outline 
• Something went wrong with the perspective down there. It's weird because I was very careful when sketching the scene - I must have relaxed too much and messed it up during the painting phase

Experience gained: 4 points!

- I MUST do this again, especially with interiors. The amount of skill and confidence gained when painting from life is extremely valuable. I need to think about color and light conditions on the spot and note things down for future reference!
- When geometric perspective is involved, do NOT paint until the sketch makes sense
- I'll mix in less water and more pigment. I need to manage strong, saturated color to make my sketches really expressive and bright and, most of all, not in need of a pen outline :v
- Drawing with a friend helps so much. It's incredible: I was always scared to show my stuff to others, but having someone to work with extensively helps exorcizing, in a way. I feel brave and careless and it's so new to me

Wintertime sketching

From last October. Some of these were made at Piazza Santa Croce (Florence), some while sitting on grass at the nearest park.

I tried to combine the fat tip of a Tombo marker and my usual Staedler fineliner, hunting for a different result. So:

• It's a super fast combo - I can get shadows down quickly without actually drawing the outer lines, and the fineliner's thin tip fixes the general look. Very helpful if I need to practice on solid shading and strong contrast

• Well, I suck at sketching buildings! :D 
• So much sketching... and I can't seem to reduce the amount of linework yet

Experience gained: 3 points!

- I need to be more effective with less detail. I guess I'll pick up my notes from Louis Gonzales' workshop on gesture drawing - it was a gold mine
- I should train my eye with buildings and perspective - it's so intimidating to me, but this must be the right way to break the ice
- Blocking in shadows with a fat marker is a process I enjoy and will probably help me improve on many levels. It's fast, rough and unforgiving

More naked people

Beach and post office - what to do when you're bored as heck. 

Summer was coming to an end :( 

This batch of sketches was done during the same day as this one, so I guess there's nothing special to report in addition to what I wrote there.
What? No I'm not lazy c:

Hello watercolors

Why hello - here's a watercolor sketch I made roughly two years ago. Finally introducing some colored traditional stuff! Now for the sad part: I haven't touched watercolors since this flamingo.

Let's see here:

• My beloved fineliner seems to cooperate with watercolors too. I'd like to try different media and/or ink colors for the line drawing part
• It doesn't look too dull for a watercolor sketch

• The face part looks confusing - too many details when a few wide blothes of color would have worked fine
• Colors need to look more lively. I want to see more contrast (duh) and clash 
• I probably worked with dirty water and slightly murky colors

Experience gained: 4 points!

- I want to practice more with mixing various media and watercolor. I like the outcome! I'll experiment with different ink colors, too
- I need to work with wide areas of base color before jumping into details (its face D: )
- Some consistent speedpainting from reference should help me manage tones and values better
- Be clean, Dev. No murky water! You want your watercolor paintings to be bright

I miss the beach

I decided to slow down and post three times per week. With the current post format posting WILL become more time-consuming, and with academy and all I guess I should focus on good in-depth posts instead of quantity :B

So! here's a sketchbook page full of beach people from last summer. Some of them are amusing.

• I'm glad I could use all the available space in the sheet. The year before I couldn't squeeze in as many sketches
• Poses and shading seem to work fine - the bodies are less stiff than last time

• The linework is often insecure and messy - NOT the good kind of messy
• Anatomy and proportions, as always. I seem to struggle most with legs and sitting poses

Experience gained: 3 points!

- I don't mind a cluttered page. I lovelovelove saving space and drawing tiny helps me cope with fast-moving bad people
- I definitely need to work on legs and hips structure
- The lines are more complex and messy than last year. I can't tell if it's a good thing quite yet D:

I definitely need a hand

Part two of my brief but intense hands session.

Some improvement here, I think.

• Anatomical accuracy and technique improved since the last batch 
• Midtones look better 
• The inking style is a little on the decorative side - I'd like to keep like those "patches" of parallel lines

• Those hands would look overdetailed on a full illustration in this style - the illustration itself would look stupidly overdetailed in this style
• I'm still far from a decent decorative solution 

Experience gained: 2 points!

- I'm going to try with some better thought-out hatching. I'd like the strokes' direction to be actually based on the surface of the object and how its "facets" tilt
- I realized I need some background color to make the "lineless-with-shadows" idea work - or, as "background", what should be part of a full illustration besides hands :v

Need a hand?

 Hands are evil and since my last exam I realized more than ever I lack some real knowledge of their structure. So in July I gathered some reference pics and produced some quick practice sketches.

Staedtler fineliner and Copic markers - I was coming from a week or more without grabbing a pencil (or pen tablet) and my strokes were ugly and unconfident and hairy ugh.

I used my trusty fineliner and the fat brush tip of a black Tombo marker on this one.
Let's see:

• Fat black marker and fineliner are great for quick sketching
• I improved a lot by making more and more of these - the next batch looks a lot better!

• Fingers often look off
• Not drawing for a while is bad. It shows
•  This first batch of marker & fineliner sketches look horrible. The black areas are unrefined and uneffective
• Those parallel fine lines as midtones look awful  

 

Experience gained: 4 points!

- I've been having issues on this. I need to draw hands more often and study muscles and bones properly

- Tombo and fineliner are great mediums I'll definitely use again to get more confident on large shadow areas

- I'd like my inked stuff to look good without those outlines that are exposed to light. In other words, I'd like to find a solution to make subjects look believable by just inking shadows and a little hint of midtones, without the need for outlines

- I need a solution for midtones. I can't figure out how to reproduce them properly when using inks yet

Discoveries

During summer 2012 I found out fineliners and copics are practical and fun sketching media. Here are my first attempts at portraying chubby models at the local beach.

... there's something disturbing here.

• Fineliner & Copic markers are easy to carry around and look effective
• Quick merciless sketching without the luxury of an eraser is VERY useful
• I've learned new things about cast shadows

• That little girl
• These look pretty stiff
• Perhaps a hint of context would make them better

Experience gained: ? points

This is from one year and a half ago so I don't really remember what meaningful lessons I drew out of it, except that I need to get faster and less "clean" if necessary. And

FOR GOD'S SAKE IMPROVE ON CHILDREN AND SMILES 

Cold days

First post. Let's not formalize this too much, I'm already quite tense thank you. 

These are from last winter, Florence.
Staedtler pigment fineliner and copic - my favorite for sketching outdoors. Not being able to erase makes everything harder (as well as better, faster and stronger, I promise).
It's nothing short of a trauma at first, yet it's great for training my confidence, styilization and space planning/management. This is something I'll go through more accurately in a few future posts, showing how my strokes and general sketching style changed (for the better? We'll see) from my first attempts at this techinique to the more recent ones.

Notes:
- I need to improve my stylization of foliage. I have a hard time synthetizing leaves and branches. I'd like to lean towards a slightly decorative solution - especially with tree bark. About that, I'm gonna put together a few snaps from the local park and analyze different surfaces a lil' bit.