Young Love...

Sketchcrawl 42

Supreme Court Tower and Dome, late afternoon

Initial painting with iPad Brushes. Finished with Corel Painter. Wanted a loose, soupy feel.

Hyde Park Deer Sculpture

Loved the greeny porcelain look with a light glossy spray wafting from the fountain behind it.

Sketchcrawl 38

A Japanese garden lantern done at my folks place. What I love about extremely wet days is how dark and blue plants get - they almost glow. It was also a good experiment in low key painting. Done with Holbien watercolours, scanned and fixed in Corel Painter. So do hashtags and mentions work on this thing now +UrbanSketchers ? #sketchcrawl

Worldwide Sketchcrawl 35 - Sydney

Last weekend was my first Sketchcrawl in Sydney and there were 30 artists, young and old, whipping out their pencils and drawing. Having done Sketchcrawl's in Melbourne for so long, I was inspired (and secretly jealous) how large the community was here - to see how eager they were to sketch the world around them.

The group went to Cockatoo Island, a relaxing 15 minute ferry ride from Sydney. It was a beautiful and alien looking place. Old machines, warehouses and buildings over looking the Sydney skyline. The one above is yet another iPad sketch. I was barely on Cockatoo Island when the scene just grabbed me. It was an overcast morning and a little damp, this seemed to saturate the colours on the cliff faces. Yet right next to it was a giant, man made warehouse which was coloured a fading sky blue. Rarely in the modern world, I think, would this exist anymore, nature would just get mowed down. But here they seemed to co-exist, frozen in time.

The sketches below are from a more traditional media known as "pen". They are shot on a more prehistoric thing called a Nokia phone camera. Unfortunately I don't have all my equipment here so for now, this'll do.

Please do yourself a favour and check out the brilliant work of the other Sydney sketchers. And while your at it, the rest of the world!

Sydney Town Hall - iPad Plein air

This was done on the iPad again on the Brushes App in front of Sydney Town Hall. I was lucky enough to get it on a gorgeous day.

Sydney isn't a bad place at all. Great weather, beautiful landmarks lots of inspirational places to sit and draw. Here I sat inside the Kinokuniya book store opposite Town Hall painting for about 2 hours. The security guard was sussing me out every 15 minutes trying to figure out what I was doing. Although it's on iPad advertising now, I guess painting is not what normal people do when they visit a bookstore. Looking forward in seeing what else Sydney has in store.

Video here:

David Beckham, OMG

When one of your boyhood heroes rocks into town, there's really no stopping the childish giddiness associated with it. Late last year, David Beckham came into Melbourne in what would be described, a lacklustre game with crowd engagement at an all time zero. That didn't stop me however, from printing a portrait I did of him and holding it up in the crowd like someone would care.

Specifically for digital painting I wanted this roughness and bite to it that's rare in printing. After talking with the printers for awhile we settled on a paper called 'Breathing colour - velvet'. And although in photo form it doesn't show up very well, in reality the texture of the paper really lifts the stroke work. So I would recommend giving it a go. It may not be the cheapest thing to do, but it's certainly rewarding having something tangible to hold.

And for reference, here is Becks at the game. If I could just say, everyone writes him off being a superstar and only caring about his image - but on the field, my eyes fixated on him - I thought he had brilliant presence and sense that he actually cared about the team. Not to mention that he still has those skills.

iPad Painting from Live Model and video

Keeping things fresh by changing the process for this one. Colour is one of my favourite subjects and I saw a technique by Jeff Watts where he'd first lay down 'abstract notes of colour" - ie anything he feels like. I guess it harks back to Harley Brown's book where he talks about making sure you aren't timid about your painting from the get-go.

Mucking up the painting up from the start did relax me, I must admit, but since it was on the iPad there was always a thought in the back of my mind that I could undo this. So...not as brave as I could have been.

The video of the process is below. I firstly did a sketch before a 2 hour live model session and scanned it in, Placed it on a layer, and went ahead.

Done with the Brushes App.

NuPastel on Hemp Paper

So I have some boxes of NuPastels which I mail ordered from America and until the end of last year, never really gotten to around using them. Nor have I never really liked them.

Although I hate pastels and charcoals, NuPastels are alot more gritty and more transportable. I carry alot of materials in my bag and I just hate it when there's vine charcoal dust everywhere.

And maybe it's the paper, but I really love the final effect. And you can use your kneeded eraser, stump and even water to throw it around. It's very forgiving (I find).

So yeah, this is a life drawing session predominately NuPastel and a bit of conte.

And here's a nice lady explaining the virtues of NuPastel

iPad painting from Live Model

Recently I spoiled myself and got an iPad. Painting digitally on a Nintendo DS was alright but the allure of a bigger, shinier screen was all too much.

This was done with the Brushes App and tidied up with Autodesk Sketchbook Pro for iPad.

I was reading in some forums that the colours are off and require you to edit them in Photoshop but for me, the difference wasn't all that much on my calibrated monitors. Maybe it was because I did this indoors, but we shall see when I go out an about with this thing!

Dr. Sketchy's Anti Art School Melbourne - 19th Oct '09 Part 1

Dr Sketchy's Melbourne was, as always, alot of fun. I think they realised I was a regular there and bought me on stage to pose the models. Not that that's something I want to show off about. It was rather embarrassing - "errrr sit there, aaaanddd ummmm yeah yeah, that's good". Met some interesting people from different industries too, so I think the ball's beginning to roll. Particularly as we lead up to summer!

I have two more pics I'd like to share, but for today, I thought I'd share these two, touched up in PS. I remember seeing a video of some master artist dude using traditional, scanning them in, and then going over the top of it digitally. I'm beginning to understand why. It's sooooooo much easier to make those 'happy accidents' with traditionals I reckon. And it makes it enjoyable wondering what would happen. Here is a charcoal based image and another one using coloured pencils! I don't think I've used as something as primitive since, like, primary school.

I wonder what you guys think about using traditional media?

Life Drawing - 07 Oct '09

Done with NuPastels (as apposed to Old pastels) imported from the good old USA. After trying to look all over for them in Melbourne I had to get them online on DickBlick. My verdict...meh, not so much different from the ordinary stuff but mmmmmmmaybe, just maybe, pastel relies on the surface more.

Pastel and Charcoal have been my mortal enemies but a few bloggers have inspired me to pick them up again (at least on the occasion). Ben Lo's life drawings for example are just...gorgeous. My dream is to get to the dexterity and richness of Bill Cone's stuff ....a dream, a dream...

Life Drawing - 30 Sept '09

Little bit of fun today - whipped out some ink pens, exaggerated form etc. Good to change it up a little once in awhile! woot!

Dr. Sketchy's Anti Art School Melbourne - 20 Sept '09 Part 1

Dr Sketchy's in Melbourne has moved to 'the Order of Melbourne' if you saw my photo on Twitter the other day! It's a really good move I reckon, more accessible for people like me who can only take the tram to places.

And to celebrate, there were not one but TWO models to draw and draw inspiration on. So much so I decided to paint one of the quick sketches I did on that day. It was probably the most quirkiest poses I've seen for awhile so I tried to do it justice! I may colour it in one day, so stay tuned, or not. And for reference, here is the quick 5 minute sketch. Couldn't get as much info down because there were two models, but I just got enough!

Life Drawing - 16 Sept '09

A very inspired artist

Behind some people and drawing on the floor. Good times.

Life Drawing - 10 Sept '09

I kept hearing 'Oh they have life drawing at QV' and never knew there was space for a studio. Let alone life drawing in such a posh building. But I'm happy to report, life drawing at No-Vacancy is awesome. A trendy vibe, big glass windows, with young people wandering past thinking what the hell is going on. They started again last week in Melbourne and held every Wednesday, so come along if you can!

Also, Dr Sketchy's AND Sketchcrawl is coming soon. Pondering if there's enough interest out there. But again, give me a buzz and we can join hands like kindred spirits!

(top drawing is 20mins, bottom I think was 2 mins)