Days 60 to 62 – Sketch, Ink, Watercolour – Coffee Shop #1

Another observational sketch today.  This was done in pencil in my notebook…

A few days later I decided to ink the drawing…

I left the pencil shading in.  I like the mixture of ink and pencil.  🙂

Then, after a lot more thought, because I really like ink drawings as they stand, I coloured it using watercolour.  I did it mainly, I think, because I need the practice.

Here’s the final image… (I cropped it too because I didn’t like the balance of the original.)

 

At school when we ask the children to evaluate their work we ask them to think of ‘two stars and a wish’ which means two things which are good and something to work on.  So, if I were to do that here I’d say, I like the ink with pencil work I’m doing, I like my attempt at reflections on the table and I wish I could paint with watercolour in a way that I like.

(Oh help – I’ve got more wishes than stars really – I also wish that I could learn to see value accurately in coloured images and I wish that I could choose better colours.)

Days 32 to 34 – Sketchbooks and portraits

Since I started drawing regularly on a small sketchbook which is more the size of a notebook (13cm x 21cm) I’ve found it much easier to draw than before.

 

I don’t really know why.  In my big sketchbook (I have an A3 and an A4 so they’re not really that big) I worry about wasting paper and I get the feeling that everything has got to be good.  Both of these things make it more difficult to draw freely which is what I’m trying to do.  In my new little notebook style sketchbook it’s so much better.  I can always find something I want to draw and I’m much more able to take risks and try new things.

In this portrait I was really aiming for a loose feel to the linework and to just get a feel for my subject visually.  This is a lady who sometimes comes to our church and has a remarkable face.  She looks so calm and regal and I really want to make a painting of her one day.  She has given me permission, but I’m still at the sketching stage.

Here’s the sketch – it’s done in pencil with some fineline ink outlines.

Once I’d scanned my drawing into the PC I also had a go at adding some colour using the cell shading technique I used before.

 

 

PS:  Apologies about the handwriting on the top of this portrait.  I still have this blooming chest infection so I’m taking a lot of Ventolin which gives me hands the shakes.  I can manage to draw with some difficulty when this happens but my handwriting is terrible.

Days 29 to 31 – Animal Managery

I sketched out some animals in my notebook and used their shapes to kind of fit close together (ish).  Here is my line work:

Then I shaded them with pencil..

 

I really liked this effect – with an ink outline and the shading in pencil.

For ages now I’ve been looking for a way to illustrate in a comic style which I like and am happy with.  I’ve been playing around with different styles for years now.  However,   I just spent a few hours colouring the above  ‘Animal Managery’ drawing .  I did this in Photoshop and used a cell shading style with a mid, light and dark version of each local colour.  I did it straight over the top of the pencil and ink drawing – setting the drawing layer to multiply.

Here’s the result…

I think I’ve stumbled onto a style which I finally really like.  I’m going to follow up on this!  🙂