Pick Of The Week

This was drawn by Richard. I like the use of lighting on this one.  Also good use of architecture to  frame subject. Could do with a bit shadow more on the face, but over all a good effort.

Sept-Dec 2001 week2 - 4th Oct

A good start I think to this term so far.
Mohammed, good progress since last term. Keep it up.
Ok, here are the last few stages of last week class. As you all  seem to have got three quarters of the way through, you will only need  a recap on the finishing stages.

I think most of you have the base layer of pencil down, so apply another darker layer to the inside of the cape to lift the body out from the cape.





















and then blend the pencil work using either a blending stump or by wrapping some tissue around your
finger. Avoid rubbing directly with your finger as if there are any traces of grease on your skin it will leave an oily stain than will be difficult to remove.

Create the hair strands but using a sharp HB pencil and swift lines.

Create highlights with an eraser , applying them to the hair, the outer edges of the body suit, the straps, buckles and armour. Use the fine edge of  good quality eraser. I use staedtler plastic erasers or the eraser found on the end of an steadlter pencil often does the job. Alternatively , mould the edge of a putty rubber into a point or flat edge.

Finally go over the drawing applying a fine crisp line with a very sharp HB pencil to tighten the drawing and add definition.

End of Term Review

Well done everyone for your commitment and hard work this term. If for some of you, the progress might seem small, just remember that each term is only 10 weeks and it is all down to how much time you spend drawing in between classes that will determine your progress.

But as we discussed on Tuesday, you all have made notable progress and that's the main thing to focus on.

Ash

I think you have some good ideas and I hope you develop the confidence to explore those further. I didn't want to post any of your character designs here in case anyone takes them to develop further for themselves.

I suggest you continue with these concepts and work them through. Continue to focus and your figure drawing and these concepts will be all the more powerful for it.

Gary

Your work is slowly starting to show signs of maturity. Keep this up. Focus on your figure drawing. If you got chance to do a life drawing class, that may also help your development.

Keith

Nice biro sketches.

I think your recent pencil work is your best so far. Your comic panels are coming along nicely - but I think you still need to focus on anatomy especially hands and foreshortening. Looking forward to watching your oil painting progress.

Mohammed

Good effort this term and good progress.

If you can, try to fit in more practise with your figure drawing. Nice work on Week 10's exercise so far.

Orazio

Good work this term.

As mentioned in class, I think your own ideas produce your strongest work. So I hope you develop confidence to explore more of your own ideas.

Stacey

Consistently solid work this term, but I think that following the exercises too closely is conflicting with your own natural style.

As I mentioned in class - stay true to the style that is more natural to you, that is a truer extension of yourself and you will make great progress.

You just need to develop focus and discipline to get a decent body of work produced.

...and finally

Here is the completed drawing for this weeks exercise.

As you know I cannot upload the development stages as these are to be published later this year in a book (which I will post details of later).

Bernie Wrightson

I was introduced to Bernie Wrightson's work back in the 70's reading SWAMPTHING. I wish I still had those comics. What attracted me to Wrightson's work was the same thing that attracted me to Mike Ploogs work. In my mind they were the masters of the macabre as far as comic books were concerned (I am sure some one out there will want to contest  who was the greatest at horror comics, but I stand by Wrightson).Wrightson's work had a big affect on me, although I don't think it is evident in my work..

But what really blew  me away was his work Frankenstien

You can read about it here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Wrightson's_Frankenstein

For those who are not aware of his work I thought I would post some plates from this book. I don't have time today to elaborate on the quality of his work , but  just looking at it makes me feel inadequate in my own drawing skills.

you can buy the book here

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bernie-Wrightsons-Frankenstein-Wrightson/dp/1595822003/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1310475717&sr=8-1

There are many videos of Wrightson on youtube, so go watch and  learn from the master.

Week 9 - Flukeman Haunts Armley Canal

Continuing the theme of using existing environments as backgrounds to place the weird and freaky, this exercise (which is done with coloured paper and 2 markers) uses a stretch of Armley Canal that runs under the iron bridge on Canal Road. There is a really interesting derelict timber structure on the canal bank which has a kind of creepy look about it.

And I thought it would be perfect to use as a back drop for my favourite X-files monster, Flukeman.

This drawing was produced on some blue card/paper using Faber Castell pitt artist brush pens, and ultra marine marker and a cool grey 5 marker and white gouache ( or a pentel correction pen).

Fig 1

Start by plotting the layout. The vanishing point will disappear right off the right hand side of the page.

Fig 2

Start to define the body shape and develop the face. Roughly sketch out the shape of the bushes and begin constructing the building.

Fig 3

Begin to add detail to the skin. The skin is kind of worm/maggot like and saggy in places.

Fig 4

Shade in the areas to be solid black. The shading on the figure is a bit of a cheat as given the position of the moon, the figure would be mostly in shadow, but as the background will have a lot of solid dark areas, the figure will stand out more if it has significant areas of light.

Fig 5

A Faber Castell Pitt artist brush nib pen was used to ink this drawing.

Fig 6

An ultramarine copic marker was used for the sky.

Fig 7

A cool grey 5 copic marker was used for the mid tones. Notice how by applying them to the background helps throw out the flukeman figure while at the same time still keeping some interesting detail in the background.

Fig 8

Permanent white gouache was used to create the highlights. A pentel correction pen will do the job just as well!

Finally...

Here is the same building drawn by Lolita Zhang, you can find her on my friends list on Facebook. I think her drawing is spookier than mine! She has some other nice building sketches posted on Facebook in her random sketch album - go check them out! (You may have to ask nicely - I'm not sure they are all on public view)

WEEK 8 28TH JUNE 2011

This weeks class exercise was inspired by Gene Colan's  blend of the natural and the unnatural.Colan's relaistic style set you up for a more eerie and unsettled feeling when the supernatural  elements were introduced in to the frame. So I thought it would be nice to use an existing setting , in this case St. Martin's church on Coney Street York,  to set the scene for this gargoyle sketch.

It's a good idea to have a camera with you always whether it be on your phone or a small basic digital camera so you can take snap shots of surroundings, whether it be architecture or whatever you think are interesting or that may be useful as reference for future sketches.
One thing to bare in mind when using photography is that if you decide to trace you photographic reference you will have to make sure that whatever you are incorporating into the image , it will have to be drawn to match the existing perspective or camera angle or you will end up with an unconvincing drawing.
Often you will find the best way is to use photography as a reference point only and reproduce it to your own layout. You will find this less restrictive.

This exercise is another quick sketch on coloured paper using a spot colour. This sketch should only take you an hour tops. The ploting stages have been drawn on white paper for the purpose of scanning so you can follow the stages clearly, but if you are using coloured paper, have a go at drawing straight on to the coloured sheet. Alternatively, draw it on white paper and then trace it through onto the coloured sheet.

Step 1.

start by plotting the composition.

Step2.

It may help to plot this using perspective grid. the vanishing point will be way off the paper, so you may need to tape your sheet to a drawing board or larger sheet of paper to plot the grid, or you can simply guess the perspective.

3.loosely sketch out the architectural detail.

4. Fleah out the shape of the gargoyle

5. mark out the areas to be  shaded  solid black.  In this case a bit of artistic license  has been used because in reality , with the moon directly behind the  gargoyle, the figure would be pretty much a silhoutte.

Now apply the ink. A Fabre-Castell pit artist pen, brush nib was used for this sketch.

A white penci lwas used to mark out the moon.

Inking tips.
If you are using a Fabre-Castell pit artist pen, brush nib, use only light pressure (I used hardly any at all),and drag the nib across the surface of the paper. This  will give you a nice line that will suit the craggy stonework and gargoyle very well. I avoided going for a consistent  smooth line as I felt it would not suit the nature of the drawing, rendering it too technical and precise. If you apply too much pressure to the nib you will end up with thicker line work an may look clumsy. Draw a few practice lines first to test control over pen strokes. The less pressure the finer the line, the more pressure , the heavier the line.
Notice on the short clips below how the pen flows across the paper.
The inking is being applied to a blue line print on coloured paper

here is a nice clip by Carly Lyn using exactly the same pen. This clip is obviously shot with a higher spec camera.

A Copic B29 Ultramarine blue marker was used for the sky.

The moon needed some white in it to  brighten it up and also to create some relief to separate the gargoyle from the sky.

Finally, a pentel correction pen was used for the rain and highlights.