Ink and Wash Figures

     After watching Vilppu’s little DVD on fountain pen and wash sketching, I thought ‘That’s the thing for me.’ It’s loose, it’s chaotic, it’s quick, it’s clean, and it looks great. But after buying Rohrer & Klingner Sepia India ink (supposedly India inks are washable) and an extra-fine nib fountain pen, I set to work on my first sketch on the rough 80-pound paper I’ve been using for figures. Something about this combination doesn’t work. It looked promising whilst wetted with the water-filled brush pen, but the next day I realized the ink hadn’t washed at all. Not one to make the same mistake twice, I searched around more and replaced everything: the pen with a broader nib, Noodler’s Ink (as recommended here: http://www.inknouveau.com/2011/06/beyond-pen-fountain-pen-ink-as.html), and a pair of watercolor pocket drawing pads. 

     Since watercolor paper is rather expensive, I decided to try out Daniel Smith Watercolor Ground, a sort of paint-on watercolor primer that works on just about any surface. It smells like paint, and that’s a problem for me. I’m overly sensitive to that sort of thing. Gasoline and bugspray give me headaches, and I’m uncomfortable having a similar chemical hanging about the room in which I spend my days and nights. I sealed the pages in a box to hide the odor. The ground warps the paper a fair bit, but not enough to make it unusable. The real problem is the texture. Put primer on a wall and drag a pen across it. It’s like sandpaper. This isn’t good for fountain pens and can’t be good for brush pens. If I were working with normal brushes and pigments, the ground might work. But it’s odious, expensive, and the bottom line is it simply doesn’t work for my purposes. It’s disappointing, but I’ll make the most of the watercolor pocket pads.

     The “Resurrection” picture was my third attempt on grounded paper. You can tell it came out rough. Now I’ve got a drum of ground that won’t be used for a long time. Oh well. A good artist needs to experiment, and experimentation is costly.

     I can see myself getting into an ink collection like Vilppu; experimenting with different mixtures. I hear bad ink combinations can damage pens, so I guess I’ll have to start up a collection of those, too. I’m on a budget at the moment, so this will have to wait. Counting the recent purchase in transit, I now own four fountain pens, a brush pen, and four different inks. But the only things I’ll be using them for in the near future are quick sketches. I quite like the look of copic markers, but after seeing the price of these buggers I’ve decided it’s best to build up my skill in other media first. I will be trying them out someday, though. Next year, perhaps.

     These figures were done with a Pilot Penmanship fountain pen (extra fine nib) and Rohrer & Klingner Sepia ink. The ink won’t wash (I'm not using the watercolor ground), so I put some diluted ink in the brush pen. You work with your problems.

 

10/06/2014

Resurrected

The heat of the summer incapacitated me, but I’m ready to pick up where I left off. I’ve decided to pace myself by posting every other day.

Graphite Composite: La Femme Nikita (1990)

If you had told me a year ago that I'd be sketching composite screenshots, I wouldn't have believed you. My art seems to develop in bursts and I wonder if that's true for anyone else, but such is the subject of a later post. Not that any of these are particularly good. Her expressions are incredibly subtle and I can't seem to capture them properly. Drives me nuts how a few light strokes can drastically change the feeling of a piece, especially with the mouth. In any case, good film. If you haven't seen it, I'd recommend.

07/21/14

Portraits 1

I'll have to concede that drawing non-digitally (I might say "analogue") is more precise. Hence, I'll be doing portraits (but not still lifes) in graphite-- perhaps complimented by ink. The top four portraits are of random photos done about three inches tall in 0.5 mm 2H lead. Top right was first, as you might be able to tell. I'm beginning to notice my own style in these images, and I don't like it. For the next few weeks, I'll be studying impressionism to force myself to get sloppier (and blend colors). Oh, and I hope you recognize the final portrait. Maybe it's just easier to draw people one admires, but I can already see improvement.
 

07/19/14

Heads 1

I've decided it's best to draw the whole head rather than each feature individually. These aren't very flattering mixtures of Vilppu and Hampton's techniques, but they'll do for a start. Learning which contours deserve ink and which can be understated is a matter of trial and error (and lighting).

07/16/14

Digital Experimentation

Artists like Matt Kohr and Sycra have repeatedly emphasized the importance of still life drawing to get used to measurement and construction. The first time I drew still life was in an art class senior year of high school (~2009). I have a few art pencils and charcoal sticks in a 21-piece artist set and gave it another go last week.

Measurement was made difficult by my proximity to the subject (my own legs are in the drawing, so you know it's close). Having so many dispersed objects without a uniform vanishing point makes this extremely tedious, which is why most artists 1) Carefully set up their subject, 2) Stick to either geometric or organic shapes in a piece, and 3) Step back. The way objects warp towards and then away from the viewer is the reason I decided early on to study Field of View and lens behavior. But this is a technical subject I'll have to study later on. In any case, that isn't the problem. The problem is medium. Graphite is messy, and I like to keep my hands clean (you may notice the smudge marks on the monitor screen).

So, I've decided to stick to digital painting-- at least for now. When I start classes again, perhaps I'll have the skills to draw in lectures like I should have done last year. Below is my first attempt at a head drawing in Photoshop CS6, using Digital Painting Techniques (Masters Collection: Volume 1) as a guide. I've practically memorized proportions; my emphasis here was on texture.

 The first attempt, with effort, came out half-decent (though I hadn't thought as much at the time). Coming back to it two weeks later, my second passing attempt to master the brush techniques I've seen so many artists and speedpaniters use ended in failure. The bottom painting was a semi-success, but herein lies the problem: Success should not be a matter of luck. I will not consider myself a fully trained artist until even my failures are passable. I wish I could work on that and then speed, but the two are intertwined. My technique is flawed, simply put. It's going to take a lot of effort to cast off my own bad habits and adopt the better techniques of the masters.

And as for continued still life practice? I think that is what progress comes down to. Everything else (without a visual subject, like the paintings below) is play.

06/26/14

07/12/14

07/12/14

Skull Rotations

Alright, month-long hiatus is over. I've been getting used to Photoshop CS6, but it's slow going. With the help of several digital tutorials, I'll try to learn the ins and outs as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, I'll post a few paintings from the past month.