Eagle-eyed

Finished this just in time for the 4th July. Hooray for fireworks.

Done!

I have finally finished my seagull drawing. 
The main changes from last time are darkening the background especially in the lower portion. I also darkened the seagull's reflection to make the white areas look brighter.
I am really happy with the result. I will leave it a while before going back to take a last look to see whether it needs any tweaking. If not I shall mat and then frame it.

Laying It On

The first layer is done. Standing back from the drawing the reflection looks better than it does close up. Six to eight feet away is the optimum distance for viewing artwork. Sometimes I forget this and fuss about how a piece of work looks until I leave the room and see the work anew as I come back into the room.
I think the reflection will look even better when I put another, darker layer of blue on the drawing. If you want something to look lighter then put something darker beside it.

Not Quite White

I am continuing to work on my seagull drawing. 

I am not too happy with how the reflection looks at the moment. I began wishing that I had done this drawing on toned paper (perhaps a grey) which would mean I could use a white pencil to put the white in. Because I am using the paper as the white it is harder to see how the white will look until all the blue and grey is coloured in. The white in my source photograph is very bright and the paper may not be bright enough to express that.

It is important not to make a negative judgement too early so I intend to continue on and see what happens when more of the blue is added. Although it is harder to erase coloured pencil than graphite, I can erase or lighten some of the reflection colours and make adjustments later on.
It is in the struggle that you learn to become a better artist even though that struggle is often discouraging and/or frustrating.

Gullible

After constantly telling myself that I would get working on my seagull drawing this day or that, today I finally did. I worked mostly on the bird although it is not finished yet. 

However, I feel I have overcome whatever it was that was blocking me from working on this drawing. Instead of feeling frustrated and dwelling on the challenges, I tried to just enjoy the experience. It worked.

Prior posts about this drawing can be seen here, here, here, and here.

The Art of Travel

It always takes me longer to sort myself out after a trip than I would like or is even reasonable. But it is the way it is.

I have made very little progress on my seagull drawing mostly because I couldn't draw for a long time (and then not for very long) due to my accidents (yes there were two). So I am out of the habit.

I took my drawing with me when I went away and as I sat down to work on it I found my sharpener wasn't sharp enough to get the point on the pencil that I like for my drawings. A sharp point gives me more control on how and where I place my marks. The dull blade on the sharpener was ripping at the wood below the pigment. I didn't have a small screwdriver to change the blade so I thought I might try to do what I could.
Not a good idea. Every step I took just made matters worse.

Focus and looking at what is there (rather than what you think is there) is important when working on a drawing like this and for whatever reason, I jumped in and wasn't paying attention. So I made a mess of the legs by putting  yellow in the wrong place and not concentrating on the shape of the bird's legs. 

A combination of dull pencils, lack of focus and less than optimal lighting. 

What I need is one good positive session with this drawing to get back on track and feel motivated to continue on.

While I was away, I was lucky to catch an exhibition of religious art at Brigham Young University's Museum of Art called 'Sacred Gifts'. 

Some of the works are on loan from Churches in Denmark, Norway and New York. My two favourites can be seen on the flyer below. The first is 'Agony in the Garden' by Frans Schwartz (top far left) and the second 'Christ and the Rich Young Ruler' (bottom).

You can see all the paintings and learn about the artists here.

Rub a Dub Dub

I have not made much progress on my seagull drawing (see prior posts on this here and here) but thought I would post what I have done so far.

The first thing I did was tape the drawing paper to a board. This gives me a solid surface to press upon and protects the paper from being damaged as it gets moved aside on my desk. As I start to work more on the drawing I will cover it, between sessions, with tracing paper as another layer of protection.
What I usually do is move it right away from my desk area so that my other desk-based activities don't impinge on it but that hasn't happened yet…

So far all I have done is colour in the black rocks. The black pencil I used is from Derwent's Drawing range. This pencil range is more like 'b' graphite pencils with a softer look and feel to them. I really like them but in tiny rocks like these, they leave too much white showing. So I went over it with another black from the Derwent Studio range. This range is more like 'h' graphite pencils which have more clay in them that the 'b's'.

This pencil filled in the small white areas without having to press very hard.

I don't like to press hard as doing so can warp the paper and will also damage the tooth of the paper.

The tooth is the texture of the paper which can be seen by lightly rubbing a pencil across the paper. The degree of tooth will vary between papers. Paper for office copier machines will have very little tooth compared with drawing papers. Some types of paper, like Bristol paper, come with a smoother finish (conveniently called smooth) and a more textured finish called vellum. 

The paper you choose depends on the look you want. That also goes for the weight (or thickness) of paper you want. There is also a wide variety of weights available as well. See it explained here.

There are no rules, it all depends on what you discover you like.

The paper I am using came from a 22" x 30" sheet and is more or less card stock weight. Sorry I can't remember what the weight is (it doesn't say it on the label).

There is another piece of equipment that can damage the tooth of a paper - the eraser. By rubbing out your mistakes with a regular hard eraser (and doing so in a vigorous manner) you can destroy the paper's tooth, as well as risking scrunching the paper and damaging the whole drawing.

In this kind of drawing I use a kneaded eraser.

With a kneaded eraser you press it into the graphite or coloured pencil to remove it. A light touch is required and it takes longer to remove the pigment.

When you are learning and want to totally remove your marks then use cheaper paper and don't worry about the tooth. If you working on a nicer picture then use light marks with your pencil so it is easier to remove them.

One of the benefits of the kneaded eraser is the ability to shape it to help you erase tiny sections such as these small dots.

I always keep a regular eraser around just in case, and for coloured pencil pieces, I use a pencil sharpener that is only used with coloured pencils. This is an item I use a lot in my drawings. I like to keep my pencils very sharp throughout the process as I feel that I have more control when I have a shape point.

I personally like these manual pencil sharpeners. They are around $1.50 - $2. This one is a KUM and has one hole with a spare blade. I have others with two holes with one of the holes larger than the other for bigger pencils. 

It is time to replace your sharpener when the blade starts hacking at the wood above the point.

Drawing Out a Task

It is still difficult for me to spend time drawing but I miss it. So I decided to do a little at a time by splitting the tasks into five minute tasks. Eventually those five minutes will add up to a coloured pencil drawing. At least that is the plan.

First I chose a photograph. This is a 4"x6" photograph and that is the size I decided to do. I'm not a great lover of seagulls but I liked the reflections and texture of the water. Usually I chose a drawing for its challenge rather than liking the picture for itself.

Because the drawing will be the same size as the photograph, I could just trace the main features of the drawing. 

It is perfectly okay to trace an image. I know I can draw and I don't have to prove it to myself or anyone else and tracing saves time. However, if you are learning to draw then drawing items from life is recommended. Photographs flatten objects so practicing drawing from life helps you remember that objects are three-dimensional. When I was learning to draw (of course I am still learning) I would draw anything I could around the house. I even drew a roll of toilet paper once to practice a white item on white paper. Plus it is good to learn how to draw items that are very soft up to very hard.

Here is my tracing. I do have graphite paper that you can put under your tracing paper to transfer the picture onto your drawing paper. However, I find it transfers extra graphite where I am leaning on the paper but I just may be too messy.

So I usually turn it over and go over all the lines before turning it back over and tracing over all the lines again with the drawing paper underneath. 

This leaves a faint image of the tracing on your paper. It is now ready to add colour to.

I should add that the drawing paper is from a larger sheet of Royal Brites. I bought this so long ago that I can't remember what the weight is (it doesn't say this on the label) but it isn't a very heavy paper. Probably as thick as card stock sold in craft shops.

Day by Day

Finally I am posting about the calendar one of my photographs is included in.

The City of Dana Point produces a calendar every year with either historical or recent scenes from around the city - specifically the harbour and coastline.

I took my photograph of a great egret while on a walk beneath a cliff at a location called the Point.

Egret Success

A photograph I took of a Great Egret in Dana Point, has been chosen to be included in the 2014 City of Dana Point calendar.
I'm very excited because many of the other people chosen are professional photographers with fancy cameras. This means that you can do good things even if you don't have expensive equipment or extensive training or experience.