Still a life

Something a bit different. Made the most of the midday sun with a still life. The aim was to try to master the satin material. Interesting exercise though apart from the fact that it takes a long time I'm not sure what I learnt. It is all good practice. Three hours, acrylic on 14"x11" canvasboard.

The material was less green than this and more bronze though the sheen was green.

Structure of the head

After having less success than usual in a portrait life session I tried some more practice. These are the better ones though it does niggle me that there are still some fundamental proportional issues.

Faces and figures

Not particularly happy with any this fortnight but it is all practice. Also the scanner is cropping parts of the drawing which is a little annoying.

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First one I was trying to capture the tension of the pose rather than end with something static.

I think this worked out well, particularly the hand gripping the support the model is resting on.

Drawing two models has its problems but also advantages. With all the overlapped shapes it is very easy to see when things are wrong.

Scanner on the blink

So here are some very poor photos.

Line and tone

Wow, where did the summer go. Need to post more. Still from photos

     

Plodding on

Finding it difficult to motivate myself. Most of the drawings are poorly constructed and have bad proportions. I'm questioning whether drawing from photos really helps. Next time I should do still lifes or landscapes. For now here is the best of the fortnight's drawings.

Scraps

Not posted for a long time (health and work interrupted). Here are a few from the last month. I wish I knew what to do to "progress".

 

Just horsing around

I'd taken some photos of a horse display in China (attack of the Mongol horde) but had real problems when I came to draw the horses. So I got a copy of "The Artist's Guide to Animal Anatomy" by Gottfried Bammes and had a go at some anatomy/structure drawings.

First sketches of the stages of a gallop.

Back and front legs

 

Then some practice from a book on Arabian horses

When it came to adding a rider I couldn't get the proportions right and ended up with something more like a lego figure.

Bits and bobs

First a couple of wonky portraits.

Then shapes and stuff with a little shading.

Finally a couple of structure drawings.

Structure (again)

Not sure if anything is improving but I know that not drawing will mean that things get worse. Early ones from this week were too simplified. The last one my scanner manager to change (not sure how).

 

 

Mixed bag

Slight changes in technique material (and still a dodgy scanner). Just trying to keep practice. First one from before Tuesday's life session. Couldn't find a pencil (that wasn't in a bag) so used a ballpoint pen. It worked really well though I must confess the pose is one of the simplest (and a favourite).

I like the next one as it was quite a complicated design and the chair added its own curves.

Couldn't get the man's hand right in the next though it is a more finished drawing that most of the ones I'm doing (managed to make a pretty woman ugly too).

A couple of pictures of people falling down (I though the poses were interesting and some interesting shapes/foreshortening).