Well…this isn’t really a plein air painting, but it is my digital attempt to learn the plein air trade. Actually, I’ve continued my exploration of Procreate by following along with an Andy Dolphin plein air painting video I found here. I plan on doing a few more of these and hopefully continue building up my confidence to the point that I can begin producing original work. But for now, I’m learning a lot and having a lot of fun.
Here’s another one I tried by the same artist found here.
I’m just going to keep doing these and posting them here. I’m loving it. This was done with the iPad Procreate app following along with this video from the Watts Atelier.
Here’s another one:
I’m still really digging this Procreate app on the iPad. It’s enabling me to practice painting tutorials much quicker than it would if I had to get out my paints. Of course, it’s not a replacement to working traditionally, but it fits with the time constraints of my life right now. So that’s what I’ve been doing. Today I followed along to a short video by the Watts Atelier. The video can be found here.
Fitting art making into my life is a bit of a struggle folks. Three kids and a full time job means that by the time I’ve made it to “art time” (those precious 2 hours after the kids go to bed and before I pass out) I’m usually exhausted and spend all of my time staring at my phone like a zombie–just looking at other artists’ work. This is why I try to sketch a bit everyday. It’s something I can do in the midst of life that doesn’t involve setting up paint, or cleaning up paint, or scanning and coloring on Photoshop, etc. So, today I decided to download Procreate onto my oldish iPad. I immediately began using it to sketch and paint and I’m in love. I think that, just like sketching, I should be able to use this program to make art in the midst of my life. And in the process, over time, maybe even create some more “finished” pieces.
The sketch above is just a sketch, but it was the first thing I tried in Procreate. It was done as a study based on a tutorial for high-contrast painting studies on the blog of James Gurney. I found these quick sketches he was doing to be really inspiring and I’ve always been drawn to these chiaroscuro style paintings. It was fun and I can’t wait to explore more.
This morning during church I was sketching a guy in the pew in front of me. I enjoy sketching in church–it actually helps me concentrate, plus its a good opportunity to draw people who are sitting still:)
Now, these aren’t great sketches or anything, but I wanted to post them here because I wanted to share what I learned doing them (shout out to my 17 month old son Ethan for his wonderful coloring work, and my horrible misspelling of the word “palatable”). All three profile sketches are, again, of the same dude. The one on the top right and bottom left were done first. They were done quickly, and have the feel of caricatures. In both cases, the eyes are high up on the head and the upper lip is elongated. Both of them were drawn starting from the top: forehead line, nose line, upper lip line, lower lip line, chin, etc. This kind of drawing has a way of stretching things out for me because I’m not placing the features on any pre-existing form. I don’t mind these caricatures. I think they are fun, but honestly, this wasn’t the intention.
On the final drawing I didn’t slow down, but I simply decided to draw two major guidelines to help my profile–the line following the forehead down to the nose, and another line following the nose down to the chin. If you look closely you can see them. This simple step helped me to quickly place the features within this structure, thus ensuring the eyes are correctly placed, the upper lip, lower lip, and chin properly recede, etc. The result is clearly the most accurate drawing, and this process was a helpful reminder to me–not only in building a structured drawing, but also the importance of warming up. You need to get your brain and hand working together. You need to sketch a bit before you’re in the groove, or the flow.
So, in summary, 1) build a structure to put details on, 2) warm-up, and 3) sketch in church:)
The artistic journey has a lot of stops. The week started when I got Burton Silverman’s amazing watercolor book Breaking the Rules of Watercolor. It’s an invaluable book and I hope to get a watercolor or two done soon for this space inspired by his technique, but it became clear to me in looking at Silverman’s work how accomplished of a draftsman he was. Of course, painting and drawing are very interconnected, and in fact, watercolor has often been thought of as a drawing medium. Silverman’s brushwork is an extension of his ability to be able to draw what he sees. I knew that in order to paint like Silverman, I needed to be able to draw like him…so, as always, back to the drawing board.
I decided to do some sketches of Rembrandt portraits because the way he often lit the face created such wonderful shadow shapes. So much of what I see in Classical Atelier artist training involves rendering form by mastering these shadow shapes. I think of them kind of as a shorthand for form. If I can grasp the shadow shape, I think it will translate into my painting–or at least this is the theory. I’ve done about 8 or 9 of these now and they’re very gratifying. I would recommend it.
Apparently it’s Aquavember, which I’m not officially participating in, but that doesn’t keep me from joining in the fun by doing a study of one of my favorite artists–George Pratt. I came across George Pratt‘s work a few years ago while I was studying art in Kansas City, MO. Not only is George an amazing artist, but he is one of the most open artists about his process (at least on the internet) that I’ve come across making him a great resource for me as I’ve attempted to learn techniques and get art supply recommendations.
Pratt’s watercolor is in the style of Burton Silverman. He applies color washes and when they are about to stabilize he wipes away parts of the wash to create mid-tones. In this way, he’s able to build up a watercolor painting in a more loose style than the traditional way of structuring a watercolor painting.
The painting that this sketch is modeled after is posted in stages on his website here along with a lot of other in-process watercolors. If you’re interested in learning how to watercolor sketch I would recommend checking that link out.
As I mentioned in my previous post, part of the cool thing about doing Inktober this year was getting exposed to some amazing artist. Artur Sadlos‘ Inktober work blew me away for a number of reasons: 1) his sense of composition and design; 2) his creation of a sci-fi/fantasy world (which I’m always into); and 3) the simplicity of his quick sketches which had me believing I could actually try out his technique. His entire 2015 Inktober collection has been posted here on Artstation.
I’m definitely in the copying phase of learning right now. I’m trying to really build up my visual drawing vocabulary through live sketching and copying the work of others. Of course, I do venture away from these practices from time to time, but it’s scary:) I’m comfortable with it and I’m learning a lot. I think this is the quickest way for me to improve right now. So…I decided to try my hand at copying Sadlos’ Inktober work. Over the past few days I’ve done some sketches in my sketchbook and they’ve been hella fun–the kind of thing that keeps you going back to the sketchbook. I hope you enjoy checking them out as much as I enjoyed doing them and hopefully they can introduce you to this great artist.
Artistically speaking, this is kind of a big time for me right now–not because I got a big break–not because my art career is taking off (I’m not even sure if that is a goal). It’s a big time because it was around this time last year that my friend Jeremy Dale passed away unexpectedly at the age of 34. Jeremy was a comic book guy. Not only did he live and breathe the comic book world, but he also had built himself a nice career there. When he passed away, it made me want to do art. I wanted to honor him in some way…carry on his legacy a bit. My goal in trying to get better isn’t really to “make it” like Jeremy had. My goal is to carry on the legacy…to just draw.
So, last year I started drawing, and over the past year I’ve filled up three notebooks. And more recently I participated in the annual Inktober–a tradition started a few years ago where folks are challenged to do an ink sketch every day in the month of October. Not only did I find some amazing artists sharing their work like Karl Kopinski and Artur Sadlos, but it also got me into ink–pushing my brush pen, dip pen, and traditional brush inking in ways I probably wouldn’t have on my own. Even though a lot of my work ended up being quick sketches inspired by the work of others, I was able to fit in a couple original pieces that I’m proud of:
As well as a couple pieces I liked that were inspired by movie stills:
Well, I’ve got three more notebooks sitting around that need to be filled, so I guess I better get back to it:)
Photoshop has always been one of my glaring weaknesses as an artist. Sure, I took the “intro” class on the Adobe Suite in college, but for the most part I’ve focused on traditional media.
So, today, I decided to take a low resolution cell phone picture of a quick sketch I had done a couple months back while hanging out in a coffee shop. I threw it in Photoshop, and with the help of a lot of Youtube videos and online tutorials, I attempted to color my line drawing in the style of Guillaume Singelin. You can see his coloring work I was mimicking–as well as the line drawing I used, below. I put some mysterious text on it just so I could post it as “sequential art”:).
