7 posts tagged “made by me”
Here are the sketches I mentioned in the previous post.
I took Aubrey's suggestion and decided to try charcoal. Unfortunately, there was no charcoal around, so I took an 8B graphite pencil and did a few doodles. I wanted to get an idea of the horse's anatomy before attempting it in brush and ink. I've decided to be a little honest and show you the trial drawings as well.
The first is one of my favourite horse positions, which I used to demarcate the three basic parts of the body (you can see the pencil lines clearly.) The second was merely some doodling to get a feel of the horse's shape and posture, and the last was to get an idea of how the neck and chest muscles would "knot up" when a horse rears.
Of course, it's easier said than done. When I finally attempted the inkbrush sketches, I floundered. Gaaah.
This was an attempt at a perspective (note the foreshortening of the front left leg) which turned out ... er ... not so correct. While I think I got the musculature and roundness right, the front legs have gone wrong somewhere. I like the way I captured the movement though - especially in the swishing tail.
The poor animal looks like he's on steroids!
I tried the rearing pose again. I didn't get the back legs quite right, maybe because I hadn't any space left at the bottom of the page.
At last. Something close to what I wanted.
The other versions:
And finally a random sketch, this time not so happy:
But the glumness belies some good news: one of my oldest internet friends (we go back three years!) was blessed with a baby girl on Saturday the 5th! We've met only twice or thrice, and I couldn't even attend his wedding in June last year. But I'll hopefully get to meet him and his wife and newborn this June! I'm so happy for him! Wheeee!
So I tried out some more stuff yesterday. But this time, I avoided the fountain pen completely.
Lauri was right - cats are harder to draw because of their fluidity. Even when they're still, their sinuous lines give the feeling of constant movement. So I decided to paint my favourite animal since childhood - the horse. Since the horse is such a large and powerful animal, and its structure and musculature smacks of solidity and sturdiness, I figured it would be easy to capture a horse that is not moving.
I've always believed that horses are the most beautiful creatures on earth. The very sight of a horse running with its mane trailing behind and hooves kicking up dust is enough to keep me on the edge of the seat, covered in goosebumps all over. (No wonder I loved the film Seabiscuit.) When I want to feel invigorated or refreshed, all I have to do is visualise a jet black horse, untamed, unsaddled, galloping along a beach as the waves thrash against the shore and a strong breeze fans his mane and tail. It works.
Unfortunately, my rendition does not live up to my art-geekery.
Here's the darker version. I think the darker shading makes the horse look more statuesque,
but not necessarily alive. More like a granite sculpture.
Once I finished the sketch, I realised that a standing or still horse is best captured in a solid medium like pen, charcoal, or with more viscous paints such as oils or acrylics. I suppose the ink and brush would have worked better if the horse was in motion. It's not necessarily a rule of course - it's just that, to do justice to an animal as beautiful as a horse, it's better to use a medium that would complement the horse's action in the best possible way.
Bah humbug. The simple truth is, I need to work harder at my brush and ink rendering.
But on the bright side - I sketched another girl, and it turned out marvellous in comparison to the earlier one.
And the dark version:
I experimented with some more brush-and-ink techniques yesterday. I'm not a trained artist, and I used ordinary Sunlit Bond paper which made it hard to blend the strokes, but these two turned out reasonably okay. I did these from imagination, which is why they don't look real, and there are a couple of light strokes which are hard to see in the scanned image, though they're visible on the actual paper.
I used a #00 round brush to draw the outlines and filled them in with a # 6 round brush. The ink was ordinary black fountain pen ink, with varying degrees of dilution. I added a few definitions with a fountain pen containing the same ink.
I love how the folds of the girl's dress have turned out and I particularly like the way I've fleshed out her lips and upper left arm. However, I still need to work more on the lighting of her face, neck and hair, and I think the use of fountain pen to detail her eyes and nose bridge was a bad idea.
For the tabby, I used a #8 flat brush in addition to the #00 and the #6. I'm not happy with the overall appearance of the cat - the proportions have gone awry - but I still like the ambiguous brush strokes around the edges that give an idea of the fur's thickness. I also like the variation in the darkness of the markings, and the whiskers on the cat's right have turned out well. Again, I used a fountain pen for a few details, but, like the case of the girl, maybe that wasn't such a good idea.
I darkened these a bit on Photoshop to see how they look:
I think I need to get over my fear of using raw, loose brush strokes. My previous inkbrush sketches were much better, though I admit I was very emotionally involved in them when I did them, which may have made a difference.
These two are my favourites:
All said and done, I love sketching, especially with brush and ink. The fluidity of the medium is very liberating. I'd love to receive tips from any watercolour experts/ enthusiasts.
I deliberately chose the song and the film and put the words with the scenes. Hope you like it.
(Here's the Google link in case Youtube doesn't work.)
Warning: Spoilers included.
... more photochopsuey.
Today's your lucky day, peeps. Since I'll be busy on Valentines Day with my upcoming animation, I'm giving out free Vox banners today itself. Bwahahaha.
Yeah, I'm a cynic and I usually hate Valentine's Day (too damned commercial for my liking, and mostly just plain silly) but today I'm strangely lovey-dovey. Whatever. Make hay while the sun shines. (It's raining here, but whatthehell.)
They're not great, of course. All 5-minute Photoshop jobs, though the last one, my personal best IMO, took nearly 15 minutes. And since I did the drawing too on photoshop, the drawing quality is icky - I'm a pretty good artist and my lines are much better with pencil than with a damned mouse.
Here they are, from "worst to best". If you do take them, out of ill-judgement or pity, leave a comment. ;)
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