Bucket of Wotsit

Days 16-20. I’m feeling extremely discouraged. Even the...

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 19:03:02 +1000

Day 16

Day 17

Day 18

Day 19

Day 20

Days 16-20.

I’m feeling extremely discouraged. Even the Disapproving Stick-Figure Guy can’t raise the snark to comment.

A summary:

Day 16: I’ve been playing Ghost Master recently (my main computer died and the old computer can’t handle modern 3D graphics sufficiently) so I got it into my head that I might try to do a Ghost Master pic in this style. Boo (the main signature character). Result: sucks.

Day 17: A bunch of heads. Largely stupid. Don’t mind the girl in the lower right corner. For the most part: sucks.

Day 18: A cross-eyed pig. No more comment necessary.

Day 19: I sat down in bed and tried to do a study of a statue of Demeter (Ceres). I don’t mind it but the scale is too small to really get into making the cloth work properly. Then an earthquake hit the region (5.3 magnitude, strongest in this region in 100 years) which shook the whole house. I was sort of entertained and alarmed at the same time.

Day 20: spent some time watching Trixalla paint in Photoshop via Livestream. Fantastic stuff. Decided to try doing some small studies of Bronzino’s Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time - didn’t get very far. Watching (vastly) superior artists work can have downsides.

Thoughts?

Days 13, 14 and 15 (thoughts?)

Sat, 16 Jun 2012 00:46:18 +1000

Here we go.

Day 13: Watching two of the Terminator movies (the first and third, to be precise) I decided for no good reason to try drawing a skull, throwing in a bit of the style I’m trying to develop. Here’s the result:

I’m not too unhappy with it. Skulls can be pretty hard to draw. There ARE examples of skulls within illuminated manuscripts and similar decorated works of mediaeval times so I may copy a few and see how mine compares. Considering I based mine on an anatomical chart of a skull I found on Wikipedia I’m guessing it’d at least be more physically accurate - though art isn’t always about physical accuracy, but more about mood and symbolism.

Anyway, before I start waxing lyrical on the nature of art and am summarily accused of ‘hipster bullshit’ or some other similarly inaccurate term, here’s Day 14:

Yep, it’s a curtain. If my handwriting is too scrappy to read, the lines down the bottom read: Curtain from the portrait of St. Matthew, Lindisfarne Gospels

And that’s what it is. As I’ve mentioned before I’ve always had a hard time dealing with cloth, and the way it’s treated in the Lindisfarne Gospels, as well as a few other manuscripts, blows me away.

Note that one of the lower folds doesn’t have a line leading down from the gathering loop in the middle. It did but I erased it. Why? Because it doesn’t have one in the original. I’m not sure why it doesn’t but there are examples of ‘intentional mistakes’ on several of the Lindisfarne pages, so one assumes it was very intentional in this case.

Day 15:

Not the happiest of subjects, nor the best-executed. Perhaps it’s the size. Remember, if you will, that I’m working on A6 paper (105 x 148 mm - or, if you’re American, 4.1 x 5.8 inches).

I’m still having trouble with cloth; I’m not sure if I’m ever going to get the hang of it (har har, the hang of it, geddit?).

I’m also not great with foreshortening, but one of the legs is indeed foreshortened. I’m not too displeased with the result.

Days 11 and 12 (Thoughts?)

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 07:00:38 +1000

Okay, my artistic efforts have been flagging recently, so I’m determined to break that cycle. Whether I’ll remain determined long enough to manage it is the test.

Lost for ideas of what to draw on Day 11 I prowled about Tumblr for a while and found some items of clothing - skirts.

First thing you’ll notice, apart from how generically sucky the drawings are, is that the pictures are weirdly blue. No, it’s not a different sketchpad. These were taken during the day and this tone, apparently, is what my iPhone picked up on. <shrugs> I don’t claim to understand it.

For the most part they’re fairly rushed. I wanted to get something down. Making cloth look dynamic is something I’ve always struggled with but I think I’ve dealt with the ruffles and such pretty well in this case.

Day 12…

Well, on Day 12 I drew while sitting in a car. That’s when I took all three of these photos which is why they all came out blue, but that’s neither here nor there. Not wanting to do skirts still (apart from putting DSFG in one just to learn ‘im) I was flailing around for a subject when some guy - a quite normal-looking guy - in a beanie walked by my car.

So I drew the first thing that came into my head:

Now, to point out: the guy was of normal weight. I drew a line in the wrong place trying to mimic a jumper (you Americans call them sweaters) and decided I liked the effect. So, as you can see around his belly, I enhanced it a bit to make it a rather expanded beer gut.

And so, in the way that my brain has of running with an idea quite out of control, I give you…

Saint Bloke and the Holy Football.

On days 7-9 I’ve been driving, visiting, lifting, hauling,...

Sun, 10 Jun 2012 23:15:08 +1000

Day 7 - Vampire Duck and DSFG

Day 8 - Too Tired.

Day 9 - Noseman and Redundant Birdthing

Day 10 - Sleeve Studies

On days 7-9 I’ve been driving, visiting, lifting, hauling, putting a home gym together, momentarily babysitting and generally being far too busy. Now? Now I have a cold. >.>

Day 10 was far less busy but I’m still feeling like crap so… cloth studies. Not too much, not too little.

Note that the Lindisfarne Gospels have more complex cloth than the Book of Kells. I haven’t a clue as to why that might be; simple stylistic change, perhaps (there IS about a century between the two). Either way they both deal almost exclusively with robes of varying kinds (presumably denoting the clerical status of the figures involved; it Wasn’t Done to depict the saints wearing Y-fronts and old t-shirts).

Day 6 - Kells, Lindisfarne and... a Hoodie?

Wed, 06 Jun 2012 22:52:03 +1000

Today I dug out my little book on the Book of Kells. Here’s an interesting thing…

The faces are somewhat simplified in comparison to the Lindisfarne Gospels. not a great deal, admittedly, but a little. They follow the same basic pattern but the influence of the eyelid lines around the eyes proper is noticeably less. In addition the upper lip is given more of a bow shape, less of a simple semicircle.

Noses, when viewed front-on, look a bit weird. The nostrils become small circles but the whole thing remains, more or less, a nose.

I tried drawing a smiling face. Then I tried giving the smiling face a border around the cheek and chin. That developed into meeting the point of the ear, then the neck begged to be drawn and… Well…

The Reader. The text on the side reads: ‘Smiling young man in a hoodie and loose pants, with a book.’ Note the lack of Disapproving Stick-Figure Guy; I assume his failure to make an appearance means I’m reasonably happy with this drawing, or that DSFG is on a holiday. Attempting to frown when you have no face is probably tiring.

These illustrated manuscripts never cease to amaze me with the grace and detail of their feet and hands. Indeed, they’re a treasure trove of fascinating artistic detail.

Note the lines on the feet - in the original manuscripts these represent, I believe, sandals. This whole picture is really just an adaptation of St. Matthew from the Lindisfarne Gospels, but it required alteration of the right hand and a few other points. Adapting the older drapery-style representation of robes to suit a hoodie and loose pants was particularly enjoyable.

I once used the same pose as the basis of a self-portrait, too; this picture, if you’re curious, is most certainly not a self-portrait. It just sort of… happened.

And, I have to say, it was fun.

Day 5 - Lindisfarne Refresher. Thoughts?

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 23:51:12 +1000

Dragged out my mini-book on the Lindisfarne Gospels today (it’s about the size of an A6 page). Got to reminding myself how the faces are constructed:

The ‘eye symbol’ is extremely persistent. Even the cat uses it. Likewise the lips are more or less consistent (on human faces, at least) right across the board.

I really need to work on larger paper, though, and probably when I don’t have a headache and an intense desire to go to sleep.

And I REALLY need to work on the noses.

Day 4 - Freaking dates...(?)

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 11:42:55 +1000

Why am I putting a question mark in the title? Because it lets people ‘answer’ the post.

Guess what? I’ve been putting the wrong date on things. It’s June, not July, so I’ve been marking everything with 07/2012 rather than 06/2012. Sigh.

Anyway, with that issue solved, here’s yesterday’s post:

I’d planned a huge page of different facial proportions but I had a headache. I’m a bit surprised I kept drawing through it, actually; I guess I must really want to do this.

I had to give DSFG (Disapproving Stick-Figure Guy) a bit of action so after a few rough faces I decided to do one for him. I must say his facial proportions are far easier to get right. Then, of course, I decided to do facial proportions in a circle rather than an oval. Go me.

And of course to round it out I whacked in a saying that’s been bumping around in my head: ‘Everyone has a cross to bear… But for some people it’s a St Andrew’s.’ I might put it on a t-shirt. Most people won’t get the reference but that’s fine with me.

Oh! And! The eye/nose in the centre of the picture is something I’ve been thinking of reviving for a while. Back in Uni I started doing a study into the Lindisfarne Gospels, the Book of Kells and similar illuminated manuscripts. Never took it further than a self-portrait, though. Maybe it’s time to work on it again…

Day 3 - 03/06/2012 - Proportions (thoughts?)

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 19:36:00 +1000

Day Three - Proportions.

Basic proportion study of both the human body and the human face (primarily male for both). Here’s how I’m doing it:

The average adult body is about 7.5 heads high. Infants are about 4 heads, 6 year olds are about 6 heads, 12 years olds roughly 6.5 heads. Obviously there’s no one universal Head Size; these are proportions, not absolute measurements.

For the adult (all rough approximations):

Top head: scalp to chin
Second head: chin to armpits (and slightly above the nipples)
Third head: Armpits to waist/solar plexus (a little above the navel)
Fourth head: Solar plexus to crotch
Fifth head: Crotch to mid-thigh
Sixth head: Mid-thigh to mid-calf (with knee halfway between)
Seventh head: Mid-calf to ankle
Final half-head: ankle to sole of the foot

Does this look right to you people?

Moving on to the head:

Rough size of head ‘oval’: 2x3 (2 wide, 3 high)
Eyes: halfway down
Bottom of nose (nose-line): halfway between eyes and chin
Bottom of lips (lip-line): halfway between nose-line and chin
Eyes: split the head into fifths width-ways, eyes are the second and fourth fifths (putting them exactly one eye-width apart, the ‘third eye’)
Nose and mouth: draw a triangle from centre of the third eye to the lip-line, the lower corners at the width of the centres of the true eyes; this defines the mouth width (slightly less than that of the centre of one eye to the centre of the other) and also the nose width (slightly more than the width of the third eye)
Ears: a bit above the eye line to about the nose line
Hairline: about one third of the way down the head

Man it’s been a long time since I’ve done any of this. On an interesting note, Disapproving Stick-Figure Guy is about six heads high.

What? Day 2??

Sat, 02 Jun 2012 21:33:31 +1000

Gasp!

So, okay. It’s maybe not that exciting. Here we go, in any case…

Sometimes the brain comes up with weird stuff. In my case that’s often puns. Bad ones.

At least I didn’t draw Foxanne.

Disapproving Stick-Figure Guy disapproves.

Reflections on Day 1 - 01/06/2011

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 19:55:00 +1000

So, my reflections on Day 1…

Something I’ve always struggled with is creating a sense of volume in my art. All of it looks pretty… flat. I was never any good at ceramics, either. Now, for some styles of art a lack of depth isn’t too much of an issue. For some you can fake it by placing the focus in context (ie. an environment, such as a background) and faking depth with things like smaller objects set behind the focus.

Proportion I was (at one stage) passable at. Perspective has always been a bit of a bugbear for me.

Distortion is an interesting element, I find. It can be used to incredible effect when used sparingly (like some of Van Gogh’s portraiture), or it can create a harsh, extreme kind of feeling if used a lot.

There’s a certain skill, though, in making distortion look intentional rather than just badly drawn. Making it look intentional and good is another level of skill entirely, and one which I don’t think I yet have.

Where to go from here? I’ve no idea. I might dedicate a few days to proportion study. Maybe some to perspective as well.

—-

If anyone’s curious, Australians denote dates with a DD/MM/YYYY system rather than a MM/DD/YYYY system. 01/06/2012 is the first of June, not the sixth of January.

I’ve got to admit… pretty discouraged right out of...

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 19:35:51 +1000

0.5mm/0.7mm/0.9mm test

365 Days of 'Art' - 1st of June, 2012

I’ve got to admit… pretty discouraged right out of the box.

What we have here is… Well, it’s a start, I suppose. After hanging about most of the day going, ‘Augh! What should I draw??’ I decided to just start with comparisons of the three mechanical pencil widths I’m using (0.5mm, 0.7mm and 0.9mm) and see where it takes me.

Where it took me was back to university.

My understanding of proportion isn’t what it used to be. I once had a quite reasonable grasp of proportion study; not so much any more. I need to work on that.

I never really took my study into distortion anywhere - drew a few figures, had no idea what to do with them, dropped it. My lecturers hated that I couldn’t pin down a style and develop it. I kept bouncing around all the time.

So… anyway. That’s day 1 of this 365 Days of Art thing. I was going for more ‘Anguish’ and less ‘Woman Being Attacked by a Rogue Octopus’, but oh well.

2B? HB? WTF??

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 13:54:52 +1000

It occurs to me, somewhat belatedly, that the grades of pencil hardness I’ve grown up with might be unfamiliar to others. By ‘others’ I mean ‘Americans’, as America seems to be the only country that doesn’t habitually use the H/F/B scale.

The basics are these: H means Hard and B means Black. F is right in the middle, it means Fine and it’s not all that common.

The scale runs from 9H (extremely hard and, therefore, extremely light) through to 9B (extremely soft and dark). There are twenty grades and most aren’t in common use; the hardest and softest tend only to turn up in specialist sets (such as artist sketch and drawing sets, like those made by Derwent).

When I was in University I primarily used 2B to 6B, and it wasn’t common to find odd-numbered grades (so that gave me three options - 2B, 4B and 6B). I didn’t find myself using anything lower very commonly. After I dropped out of Uni and was doing art primarily for my own sake I’d stick to 2B mechanical pencils, and that’s my preference these days. Maybe I’ll get used to non-mechanical pencils again; there’s a Derwent drawing set I’ve got my eye on…

The American scale appears, from what I can tell, to run from #1 to #4. Rough equivalents are (according to Wikipedia):

#1 = B
#2 = HB
#2½ = F
#3 = H
#4 = 2H

Do you guys not like dark pencils, or something? I admit if there’s a greater range to this numbering system I don’t know about it. Feel free to enlighten me!

Anyway, there you go. When I say ‘2B’ I mean ‘darker and softer than a #1’.

Last minute purchases! It’s the 1st of June, 2012. I have...

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 13:25:27 +1000

2B leads - 0.5mm and 0.7mm

Very tacky Bic 'Matic Fun' 0.9mm pencils

Last minute purchases!

It’s the 1st of June, 2012. I have no idea what to start with. But! I needed to go buy a good stock of leads, so I got myself a pair of 2B sets, one 0.5mm and one 0.7mm.

I also saw, of all things, 0.9mm HB lead. After a long search of the shelves at Officeworks I found some Bic ‘Matic Fun’ mechanical pencils, the only 0.9mm pencils in the store. Amusingly enough they weren’t the same brand as the leads I’d found (which were Staedtler Mars). These pencils have leads in them but it’s not stated what hardness they are; that usually means HB, which I only use under sufferance. Still, I’m interested to see how they go. I should be able to source some softer leads on the Interwebs.

Enthusiasm or Impatience?

Sat, 26 May 2012 09:30:28 +1000

It’s the 26th of May, 2011. Around 9:20am here in AEST.

Here’s an interesting thing about me. For a long time now I’ve had this kind of… anxiety when faced with a blank page. It’s the start of something - the start of everything, really - and there’s such tremendous scope for failure or success. Over the years I’ve debated which would be more unnerving.

Art block, writer’s block, stage fright, freakin’ annoying, call it whatever you like. Most people out there will know what I’m talking about, I think.

Nonetheless I find myself anxious, now, to start this Year of Art. I keep looking at the calendar and contemplating this project, wanting to start it, subtly considering how I might alter the few day-long events I have in order to put time aside for drawing.

But why? Is it enthusiasm or impatience? Am I eager to start because I anticipate enjoyment, even fulfilment? Or do I just want to get the start over and done with so I can work out whether I’m going to fall flat on my face or not?

On a potentially related note I found a Bic Quantech #2 mechanical pencil (0.5mm) that I’ve been looking for. Sitting next to my blue 0.7mm mechanical pencil I feel subtly more ready to start this task.

Yeah. This is the staggeringly wide range of art supplies...

Fri, 25 May 2012 20:28:40 +1000

A5 art journal

A6 journal, 0.5mm fineliners, eraser pen

The Ol' Mainstay! BiC 0.7mm mechanical.

Yeah. This is the staggeringly wide range of art supplies I’ll be using (to start with)…

Quill A5 art journal (120 pages, 125gsm)
Quill A6 art journal (120 pages, 125gsm)
J. Burrows 0.5mm fineliners (black)
Faber-Castell eraser pen
Bic ‘Pencil #2’ 0.7mm mechanical pencil (not sure what lead it has in it, probably B or 2B)

I do have more - I used to be quite fond of dry pastels and I’ve experimented with watercolour pencils before - but I’m not actually very good at using colour and it’s been a long time since I last drew anything much. Baby steps.

A New Bucket...

Fri, 25 May 2012 20:07:44 +1000

I’ve been inspired by people’s Tumblr pages to undertake a certain Something.

I particular I’ve seen a bunch of extremely good blogs around regarding the combination of a Moleskine journal and the creation of art - Moleskines aren’t that common in Australia, though, and I don’t live in a large city where they might be found.

So instead I’ve hunted down some more basic journals, some fineliners and an eraser pen (love these things). In addition I’ve pulled out a long-neglected mainstay of what little art I do - or, more accurately, used to do - a mechanical pencil.

In a mad rush of enthusiasm for some of the art I’ve seen on Tumblr I’ve decided to make an attempt at the whole 365 Days of Art thing. I’m not overly familiar with it but I understand English and the name’s a bit of a giveaway.

Here’s what I’ll be doing: I’ll be starting (I hope, Life pending) on the 1st of June, 2011. I’ll be attempting to do at least a small sketch every single day for a full year.

But there’s a trick: I’m not very good at art.

I used to be better at it. Not enough to actually be good, mind you, but at least better than I am now. I even went to University to study visual arts, majoring in printmaking, but I dropped out without finishing the course. Since then my skills have fluctuated but I haven’t done any kind of written art in a very long time - several years, at least. Most of my personal expression is through the written (well, typed) word. In any case, please note that I didn’t decide on the title of this blog entirely at random.

Here’s another issue: I’m thirty-six years old.

Why is that a problem? The days of easy learning are behind me. When you’re younger than I am (not that I’m old, precisely) your mind absorbs information hungrily, like a sponge. It’s quite possible to learn right up until you die - downright healthy, in fact - but it becomes less automatic as the years go on. After the age of about 25 learning (or re-learning, as the case may be) is trickier. It requires more effort. I’m eleven years past that mark, a little more than halfway through my fourth decade of life.

My point is that while I expect to see significant improvement from one end of the year to the other I don’t expect a miracle. I’ll probably never earn my fortune selling quirky Jon Carling-style sketchbooks on Etsy.

But maybe - just maybe - my scrawlings will become more comprehensible (or at least more interestingly incomprehensible) and I’ll have some fun on the way.

As a few prior warnings:

I don’t have a great track record of finishing projects like this. I may not get all the way through it.
As I said, I’m not a very good artist. A lot of this material might not be worth looking at.
I don’t guarantee that I’ll actually post everything I scribble down. I’ll certainly try but if what I’m drawing turns out to be… well, too crap, then I might ‘forget’ to post a picture or two.
I probably won’t be able to post every day. I’ll try, but life happens and contrary to popular belief I do have one of them.

Anyway. That’s enough from me for now.