Sketchbook Thread of Fooxoo aka Edite Kirse

#11

U sing yourself as a model is one of the best things to do at times. I dod it all of the time when I preactice facial expressions. Keep up the good work. Your skills will continue to grow.

#12

i wud go with loomis books to learn the head structure.

i don’t like hogarths books,but thats only my opinion.drapery one is good though.

#13

Hey there all. :slight_smile:

Sorry no drawings this time, have been a little bit ill, with flu and back problems (had four vertebrae popped into place).

Well, but I do have something for this time. A bit of a treasure in my hands. It s a book! I think Rebbeca might know it. This is a first edition book, published in 1924 (81 years old!!!).

Here it is Bridgman’s Life Drawing :smiley: It s very very very cool!

#14

fooxoo,

Wow!! I am green with envy! :eek: An original Bridgman book…now that is a treasure!!! I have paperback copies of his reprinted works, but have never seen the original ~ thanks for posting that! :slight_smile:

He’s a great source for learning how to break down shapes simply. Alrighty, I look forward to some Bridgman exercises, then! :slight_smile:

Cheers, :slight_smile:

~Rebeccak

#15

New project. I m going to try and do this in acrylics on canvas. If anyone can give me advice on acrylics, I ll apreciate it greatly. :smiley:

This is the sketch (cleaned it out). I am still going to work on the lower legs and their possitioning. I wonder how I ll transfer this to a bigger canvas O_O

#16

fooxoo,

This is a well~done drawing ~ I would recommend for scaling it up / transferring it to canvas, gridding off your drawing in small squares that are at a 1:2 ratio (or some other set ratio) to the grid squares you can draw on your canvas. (You can put a piece of tracing paper on top of your drawing with the grid drawn on the tracing paper).

Acrylics are tricky. I recommend using white bristle flat brushes in a variety of sizes ~ medium ~ large at first to block in major areas.

Materials:
Paints: Alizarin Crimson, Burnt Umber, Ultramarine Blue, a Dark Green, Burnt Sienna, White.
Pallette: Butcher Tray if they sell them there ~ otherwise use a disposable pallette.
Brushes: White flat synthetic brushes of various sizes / widths, from Large > Medium > Small.
Bucket for water.
Lots of Paper Towels.
Gesso / Large bristle gesso brush or foam brush.
Newspaper to put under your work and to protect your work area.

Start with a dark wash to cover the entire canvas (you’ll most likely want to gesso it first if it’s not already gessoed. Don’t paint until your gesso is completely dry. Don’t paint your gesso on either too thickly or too thinly. Use a big foam brush to paint your gesso onto your canvas on a flat surface). Mix your blacks out of Alizarin Crimson, a dark green, Ultramarine Blue, and Burnt Umber. Do they sell butcher trays in art stores there? These are white ceramic flat dishes with edges that prevent water from getting everywhere. We used these as pallettes in art school. Thin your mixed black with a lot of water, and make successive thin, transparent coats on your canvas to create a dark all over wash, allowing each coat to dry before applying another one. Don’t build up the paint too thick, as this is just your base wash. I would recommend sticking to a limited pallette at first. Use your mixed black, the colors listed to make your mixed black, white, and burnt sienna, and that’s it. Build up your painting strictly in terms of values. Do this until you can read the figure with very little color information. Later you can add glazes using acrylic medium and water to achieve color information in your painting.

Remember to build the paint up gradually ~ if you paint too thickly, you’ll just end up with a plastic glob on your canvas. If you paint too thinly, however, you’ll never get anywhere. It takes practice to find a good balance. You might want to test a smaller canvas first to get the hang of it.

Work from Dark > Light. Build solid (but not too thick) dark values, and work your entire canvas at once. Don’t get caught up in details at first. Get the major values down, so that if you squint your eyes you can make sense of the forms, even if they’re loose. Then hunker down and refine value relationships. Never use just the pure paint ~ mix it to give it a lighter or darker value / gray it down, especially at the beginning of a painting.

Good luck! Post photos of your WIPs, it will be cool to follow your progress! :slight_smile:

Cheers,

~Rebeccak

#17

Thanks so much for advice Rebecca :smiley: Very much appreciated. I ll try to post updates when I start on it :smiley:

Here s a quickie no ref doodle on A4 I did some 10 mins ago (and did it in 10 mins too :stuck_out_tongue: )

#18

fooxoo,

A few materials I forgot to go along with the acrylics materials list:

Yellow Ochre (paint)
Viridian Green = dark green
Water spritzer / Water sprayer
Saran / Plastic Wrap

Paper towels ~ to be folded in 1/3 and placed at one end to the Butcher tray ~ you can spritz this with water from a water bottle to keep it moist. Then put your paints on this moist paper towel. Periodically spritz your paints to keep them fresh.

When done with a day’s painting, cover your remaining paints on the paper towel with saran or plastic wrap and stick the whole butcher tray in the fridge. Wipe up your mixed paint with a paper towel and throw it away. Then you have a fresh tray and fresh paints for the next day. Just make sure not to get acrylics on the fridge! :slight_smile:

Cheers,

~Rebecca

#19

Doodlin around today, image no1 is a quickie exercise from the Brigmans Life Drawing book, image no2 is a no ref quickie just for fun :smiley:

#20

fooxoo,

I think your Bridgeman copy is quite good ~ I recommend doing more of these, as I think they are highly useful. Plus, you can learn from an original edition!!! Yippee!!! :bounce:

Cheers, :slight_smile:

~Rebeccak

#21

Special for Rebecca :D:D:D

A bit of Hogarth, my first try at his stuff :stuck_out_tongue:

I m really sorry, I m a messy sketcher, i cant do those nice Hogarth lines … so it s all smudged and stuff :stuck_out_tongue:

#22

fooxoo,

Very cool! :thumbsup: Great to see you back…I quite like this study! Hehe, no need for apologies…the main bit is to get down the structure, which you’ve done quite nicely. Hope to see more of these drawings from you! :slight_smile:

Cheers, :slight_smile:

~Rebeccak

#23

A quick block sorta human study I did today while drinking tea. No refs.

#24

fooxoo,

Very cool! I quite like this sketch and it’s structural / blocky quality…looking forward to seeing more! :smiley:

Cheers, :slight_smile:

~Rebeccak

#25

Erm, I did a lil bit of David and other stuff today :stuck_out_tongue: David is a quicky 10 min doodle (I got a bit frustrated, ran outa paper … soooo has no head or feet …) I m putting only the David here for now, as other sketches are on A3 and I still have to figure out how to scan that on my A4 scanner.

#26

the thing is, you draw a few help lines to make sure
everything fits there and you don’t run out of paper later on :thumbsup:

#27

fooxoo,

Finally I can post to your thread! I don’t know what it is, but sometimes I am not able to reply to certain threads…darn computers! :scream:

Good to see your study! :slight_smile:

I really recommend for you this book:

“The Artist’s Complete Guide to Figure Drawing” by Anthony Ryder (artist).

As posted on the BOOKS thread:
This is an excellent book, and not too expensive. The artist is a traditional artist working in pencil ~ his work is HIGHLY realistic and beautiful. He also describes a method of blocking in the figure so that it fits on the page properly.

Hope this helps. :slight_smile:

Cheers,

~Rebeccak

#28

(sorry not anatomy, but thought I d post anyway)

Ok - painting, acrylics, MY FIRST TIME AT ANY KIND OF WET MEDIA (if you dont count kindergarten or smth like that), so be gentle!! I know the casting shadow is absolute 100% crap (had two light sources, thats why the yucky gray blob around the mug and tangerine), I know it, and I ll never do that again took about 2.5 hrs, with all the preperation and cleaning up …

#29

fooxoo,

Wow, nice work! I personally think (and I think most people would agree) :slight_smile: that still life painting, landscape painting, and figurative painting are all closely related, so I think you’ll be okay here. :wink:

It’s great to see this first acrylic painting! I think you are handling the materials quite beautifully ~ would definitely like to see a little series of these!

I think perhaps the introduction of a bit of subdued / grayed down blue might be a nice touch in the shadow areas. Generally it’s nice to introduce the complementary color of the light source into the shadow area ~ you’re right, avoiding bland colors in shadows is a must! :slight_smile:

Cheers, :slight_smile:

~Rebeccak

#30

fooxoo,

One method you might try in another painting (and you don’t necessarily have to do it this way ~ it’s only a suggestion) :slight_smile: is to prime the canvas with a layer of burnt sienna or burnt umber ~ not too thick ~ then let that fairly thin, but not too thin, coat of paint dry. This becomes your base coat. The benefit of doing this is that it establishes your midtone value right away. From there, you can do a drawing in either pencil or black paint (not too thick) and from there, begin to build up your lighter values in successive washes / layers of paint.

You might also try painting on hot press illustration board. This is the medium we used as a surface as Illustration students. Typically it is cheaper than canvas, and since it is basically a kind of compressed thick paper, almost like cardboard but with a nicer surface, it is flexible and responds nicely to the touch of the brush.

Typically what we would do is to take a sheet of Illustration board and tape off the edges with 1" masking tape ~ that gives a nice border to the image when carefully removed. You can clip the Illustration board to a masonite drawing board and prop that up on an easel if you like.

Hope this helps. :slight_smile:

Also, here’s an article about acrylic painting:

Cheers,

~Rebeccak