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Red Head

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

INKTOBER!
Been so busy with work and life it's hard to carve out time for sketch exercises.  And I'm really feeling it.  It's truly important to keep that hand loose and even more importantly, the mind engaged in observing.  Most people think that the hand eye coordination is the utmost important aspect in practicing drawing but as I get older, it's more the mind.  Draw it in your head first.  The hand and pencil are just the tools~like using a computer.  Be deliberate.  What do you want to say?  What's the story?  What is the attitude?  What is the mood?  Many young artists agonize over finding a "style" but it comes from this type of practice and asking these questions.  With these I am drawing from vintage black and white photos of actors, stage and theatre from the past.  I love the costumes and the tonal gradations.  Here I study the shadow shapes and how they set a mood, describing an era in history, to design the character.  These exercises will prep me for paintings, traditional or digital.  In an illustration, I will start with a thumbnail concept (several), then a rough drawing, then a final "tight" pencil ("tp", not toilet paper, ha, ha) and then start the painting with the shadow shapes, as I learned from Sean Cheatham.  I have to know that the shadow shapes (choosing a light source and it's caste shadows, soft edges and hard edges) work from the get go.  If the tonal exercise has strong presence, and it must, then the illustration will be sure to have power when color is applied.

Monday, October 26, 2015

INKTOBER!  Drawn with my favorite trusty tools~Tombow and Faber Castell brushpens and my Blackwing pencil on a  Strathmore sketchpad, 6"x8".  These pads are great for travel~they are lightweight, can handle paint and take a pencil line nicely, a bit of texture.

Monday, October 12, 2015

San Juan Capistrano

Check out the rich palette, color harmonies and perspective.
Taken at the Mission

San Juan Capistrano

Took a drive south, headed to San Diego, but there was bumper to bumper traffic.  The consolation prize was ending up in beautiful Doheny beach and visiting the Mission at San Juan, first time.  Was struck by the partial remains of the basilica near the gift shop.  Beautiful warm and cool shadow shapes and textures on the fascade.  20-25 mins here, heat wave, hotter then Hades.  If I stayed on this exercise, would've missed the rest of the Mission