Clay Sculpting

Clay sculpting from a live model over the last few weeks. No matter how many times you draw/paint/sculpt a portrait, it's amazing how many new things you discover. Progress sculpts after the jump link.

Worldwide Sketchcrawl 39

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 37 - Flinders Street

Holbien Watercolours + LAMY Safari pen

I have a new LAMY pen... yeah those ones that exist inside a glass cabinet signifying that they are somehow more superior-er.

The flow is really something else - I'm guessing catered for connoisseurs of calligraphy. It comes out dark, and stays dark even if I applied watercolours on first.

Not to mention, I sat in the rain doing this. The drops splattered my page but it gave it a nice effect.

Here are some other sketches from the day after the jump. Started off at Starbucks (as you do) and then some heads on the train back.

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!

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.

31st Worldwide SketchCrawl for Japan

The 31st Sketchcrawl was dedicated by Pixar's Enrico Casarosa to the victims of the recent Japanese earthquake and tsunami.

He also set up a Sketchcrawl fund with Give2Asia. So please give generously if you can.

The death toll from the earthquake and tsunami stands at 13,700 and even more are missing. It's sad to even think what the surviving are going through.

Not to put a downer on this blog, this is the Melbourne Sketchcrawl once again, and relatively speaking, the weather has been rather kind! In Melbourne terms, it's a miracle. Yes I'll even go as far as saying that.

For this special Sketchcrawl, I wanted to do something cool, so I figured I'd take the iPad out behind Federation square along the Yarra and began painting using the Brushes App. I lost my stylus so this is 100% left finger - It cramped after awhile.

These other sketches are from earlier in the day in a cafe and the outdoor area of Federation square where a month long comedy festival is happening. Lots of atmosphere and a great day to be drawing.

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

Worldwide Sketchcrawl 30 (and other drawings from life in 2010)

First 3 are from Sketchcrawl 30 which was done yesterday. And the rest are a few select ones from other Sketchcrawls and Dr Sketchys in 2010.

There is nothing like drawing from life. And as many artists have said, there really is no better teacher than nature.

Not only are there obvious aspects like, design and drawing skills and all that, but you learn intangible things. Like understanding your sensitivities towards your subject. Improvisation. The experience of actually being there. They all contribute to how you understand yourself, the world and your work - and therefore you improve.

I remember a Craig Mullins presentation where he talked about the value of doing sketches. Although he makes it look easy, he said he would do tonnes of sketches over and over and over to understand how he works. He would take his experience from one sketch and apply it to the next one and sooner or later, different experiences begin to bolt together and eventually he found a way that works for him. There's no one way of doing it.

So in conclusion, sketching is good.

Winsor Newton Artisans

Lately I'm falling in love with Winsor Newton Artisans Water soluble oils. It's a mouthful to say, and I'm not here to endorse a product, I'm just not sure if any other maker supplies such a unique paint? Let me know if you know.

And the reason I wanna talk about it is because I really can't find much information about it on the Internet. I'm not even sure what media to use it on! I'm finding on linen canvas, where ordinary oils are king, Artisans tend to slip off. Instead I'm finding paper that can hold water more exciting to use. Here is my very basic palette.



I'll be posting my thoughts on how they work for me in future. But if your looking for something with the convenience of gouache but the guts of oils, get out there and give these a try! Then come back and tell me how to use them properly!

Anyway have a great weekend.

Oil Painting stuff

Before I roll this one away, thought I may as well post, (what turned out to be) , a colour sketch done in a day of a beautiful figure in oil. I did this at a workshop with Maxwell Wilks - great Australian artist.

I keep walking up to it thinking I have to finish this, but alas, this will remain just as it is, until the next time I can whip out those oils and smell that lovely turps whiff. Or maybe I can scan it and finish it digitally. Who knows! More posts are on the way!