Mastering Left-handed Sketching!

Well 'mastering' may be too strong a word but I have managed to finish my first sketch done with my left-hand. Having injured my right I'm endeavoring to continue my quest to sketch daily, now with my left hand, although admittedly at the moment it's more like once or twice a week! Not deterred by this, today I finished the left-handed sketch of one of the gargoyles from Merton College in Oxford. I've been using my favoured mechanical pencil and my Strathmore medium surface sketchpad.

 

Taking another look at the sketch I realised that the tonal values were not broad enough, I needed to have more tonal values and a greater distinction between the lights and darks. To do this I went back over some of the areas I'd already shaded and darkened some and then used the small eraser on the end of the mechanical pencil to gently lift off some of the lead in the lighter areas. Usually I would use a putty or kneadable eraser to do this but the mechanical pencil is all I have to hand and to be honest, it does an okay job given that my left-handed sketching is no Rembrandt!.

So hopefully you can see the difference in the tonal values between the two images. I think it makes the form look more solid. I'm still having to turn the sketchpad regularly to be able to shade at a more comfortable angle but I'm noticing that I have a little more control over the fluidity of my wrist movements so I'm not turning the pad as much as yesterday. Another noticeable difference in the sketch itself to those done with my right hand is the pencil marks are more visible; by that I mean the blending is rougher and so you can see the individual marks that make up the shading more easily.

 

I'm leaving the sketch as it is at this stage, I think to sketch in the hood would lose the form of the face as the tonal values are way too similar. It could be that my brain and my left hand are a lazy and easily bored combination and I want to go onto a new subject! On the whole I'm very happy with the results and well on my way to mastery!

Learning to be a Leftie

Disaster struck this week. One of the worst things for any artist - I broke my index finger on my right hand. I didn't just break the bone, I managed to get the finger crushed as well, so my right hand is pretty much out of action. I can just about hold a pen to write my name, yep, I'm right-handed, but it's so uncomfortable that sketching with my right hand for the next week or so is out of the question. So today I'm learning to sketch with my left hand. I have had to do this before, many many aeons ago when I was a student and badly cut my right hand (me, accident prone?!) but it wasn't a skill I kept up so I'm back to square one.

So to make life a little easier on myself I've chosen to sketch one of the gargoyles from Merton College in Oxford. The reason for this is that the weathering of the stone face gives it a softness and simplicity of form that should hopefully make it easier to sketch given that my left hand is not used to even drawing a straight line, let alone creating fine detail.

It takes me easily twice as long to sketch the basic composition of the face than it would normally do, but with patience and perseverance I mange to render a pretty good likeness.

I can see already that things are a little 'off' from the original, the nose is not quite the right shape, the eyes are too simplified and I've got one of the fangs slightly too far out, but on the whole I'm impressed with my efforts so far. I'm discovering that as I'm thinking about sketching the lines my right hand is almost twitching to get at the pencil and paper. It's a very strange sensation. Maybe it's the frustration of not being able to effectively control my left and produce the fluid lines I'm so used to. Or maybe my brain's just lazy and wants the easy road!

Adding the shading means that I am constantly turning the sketchpad around to an angle that seems to suit my left hand best. I can go one way smoothly but not the other, so turning the paper allows me more control over my shading.

I'm planning on finishing this sketch tomorrow, although getting to sketch daily is not proving possible at the moment, it's something I really miss now when I don't get to put pencil to paper. By this stage of the sketch I'm almost 'in the zone' and don't even notice the time passing although I do find when I've stopped that I'm a little tired. It's not easy but it's definitely a challenge that I'm going to enjoy and hopefully I'll see significant development in my new leftie skills!

Fantasy Head - Skull with Horns - Finished!

Finally, today I got back to the fantasy drawing I've been working on for a while. I've been letting the sketch take me along with it rather than carefully planning out the whole concept before I started. So today I decided at the last minute what exactly would go in the skull's mouth.

First I had to finish around the mouth, this is where I left off last time...

 

Blending the new pen lines in to the old part of the sketch can be a challenge; applying too much pen will change the overall tones of the drawing, so I apply the pen very lightly, allowing me to carefully build up a shade to match the pen already laid down days ago.

 

With the white of the paper showing through in the mouth you can see just how dark the whole image is, which is the effect I wanted, the use of extreme light and dark (chiaroscuro) to create a dramatic form. The writing inside the mouth had been to put a reptile inside the open jaws but I couldn't think how to update this much-used image so I chose another creature...

... a rat. I still wanted to make a reference to something sometimes considered creepy or repugnant, to keep the imagery dark or sinister. The challenge is to create a visible image whilst still maintaining the correct shade values, the rat would be in deep shadow but still needed to be seen.

By creating the deep dark shadow in the mouth surrounding the rat I'm able to determine the shade values of the fur so that the rat is withdrawn from the light but still visible. I decided to leave a sharp highlight in the eyes, I'm sure the focus of the picture will be divided between the skull and the rat in the balance that I'm after.

 

I think the rat head looks good but it's still a little bright and so the focus shifts onto it too easily, it's distracting. It's at this stage I realise I've forgotten the shading in the left cheekbone, doh!

So having shaded in the cheekbone and darkening the rat's head but leaving his eyes sharp with a bright highlight I think I've got the balance right. I'm happy with how the whole image works and I've finally finished!

Fantasy Head - Skull with Horns Part 3

Today I was back sketching on the fantasy head I started almost a week ago. I sketched the head's outline with a mechanical pencil using a 0.5mm lead on a Strathmore Drawing pad with a medium surface. I then started to fill in the shading to create a three-dimensional image using a black Biro pen.

I've been sketching this image without any definite plan, just going with the flow up until now but I had decided I wanted the image to use chiaroscuro - the dramatic use of light and dark to create the perception of solid form, so the darkness of the black pen seemed ideal. You can see as well that I've been playing with the idea of something being inside the skull's open mouth; I often make notes on my drawings so that I can remember the ideas I've had.

I'll need to fill in the background to create the sense of darkness to offset the light hitting the head. And there's a lot of background! If I use anything other than the same pen I think it will look odd so I'll have to persevere. I could add some faint detail to break the background up but I think I'm going to keep it simple.

The texture of the horns has to look different from the texture of the skull, so I make different marks with the pen, more scoring than gentle shading, although when I have built up the detail I do go over the whole horn lightly with the pen to reinforce the form with shading.

Most of the detail is built up with hatching and cross-hatching pen lines, often then blended to hide those lines but at this stage the hatching lines are clearly visible. I'm also laying a sheet of paper over the sketch, only revealing the section I'm working on so that I don't smudge the pen's ink and ruin all that work!

The form is really starting to come out from the paper now. I may make the shadows darker, I'm not sure yet. My plan now is to complete the detail over all the paper and then see how the shading values play out together before I start darkening any of the drawing I've already done.

 

So I'm going to complete the other side of the head and the other horn and then I will fill in the detail in the mouth. I'm doing it in this order because I'm still not sure about what will go inside the mouth so it'll give me a little more time to decide. There's so much more to do but it'll have to wait til another day!

Fantasy Head - Skull with Horns Part 2

It's been a few days since I've been able to pick up my sketchbook and any kind of drawing implement but thankfully I was able to get back to the fantasy head I previously started. I never really had a plan for this drawing, I just wanted to sketch and let the ideas flow.

I decided to break up the symmetry of the image and sketch a shorter horn on the left. I also wanted the horn to twist at a different angle making it look more natural. I've been sketching the image with a mechanical pencil, laying a sheet of paper over the sketch so as not to smudge it.

I like the asymmetry of the horns and it doesn't detract from the overall image, I think it strengthens it by adding more interest. The head does look a little 'empty' though, I think it needs some eyes to give it more character.

 

I'm not worried about the anatomical accuracy, the fact that the eyeballs are floating in the sockets, it's the imagination behind the image that's important to me. I am aware that the eyes do need to look like they belong to the skull though, that it can actually see, rather than it looking as if the eyeballs have just been placed into the skull.

I'm not sure about the development of the teeth, but at this stage I'm going to leave them as they are now and come back to them later and decide then.

From the outset I've seen this head in my mind's eye in a very dark setting with a strong light, probably influenced completely by my love of chiaroscuro - the strong contrast between light and dark creating a strong sense of three-dimensional form and drama. I love the eyeball - it looks really solid, like you could pick it up with your fingers!

 

Using a black Biro pen I create hatching and cross-hatching lines with a light touch on the paper where the light hits and building darker and darker layers of lines where the shadows are deepest. The white of the paper is left bare where the light is strongest.

I still haven't finished sketching the details on this image, I'm still deciding what will fill the open mouth, but the shading I've added has no impact on that part of the sketch. There's a lot of work still to go into this drawing but time's not being kind to me at the moment! I shall return to it another day.

Fantasy Head - Skull with Horns

I've not been able to sketch for a few days, evidently I still need to work on my time management skills and keep sketching as a priority. So when I got some time today I did some quick warm-up sketches and then settled down to sketching a combination of some of the anatomy studies from previous posts and sketching from my imagination.

I'm still working on sketching the head from different angles so I decided to start with the skull, tilted back and with the mouth open.

I'm sketching the skull from face-on and I want symmetry to play a role in the design

I'm not sure yet if I'll leave the head completely skeletal or whether I'll add on muscle and tissue. At this stage I'm just enjoying sketching and letting my imagination take the image wherever it can go.

The shape of the skull can be a little tricky from this angle and I'm finding I'm having to sketch and re-sketch the jaw bone to get it right.

I've sketched and sculpted many interpretations of Aries characters in the past so I think that's influencing this sketch. I also love the process of sketching the patterns of grooves and lines that build up the form and texture of horns because I don't have to be accurate with it, I can just make it up freehand!

Time has beaten me again, but at least I got started on another sketch and this is one I'm looking forward to  returning to - I have no idea where this one will take me right now!

Anatomy Exercise 2

Continuing the anatomy sketching from a few days back I'm focusing on the head and neck today. Using the mechanical pencil that I carry with me I wanted to do a few quick sketches of the head from different angles.

Having sketched the skull repeatedly I've noticed I'm not only quicker at drawing the basic head shape but also far more comfortable with the positioning of the facial features from a variety of angles.

With the practice I can quickly render the head but I realise I'm still lacking in my knowledge of the muscles of the head and neck.

This understanding of the muscles is imperative when forming facial expressions and so my ability is still greatly limited by the gaps in my knowledge.

The reference materials I have made studying the spine a challenge, they are not entirely clear and nothing beats being able to draw from direct observation. But I can still glean a lot of information just by trying to re-create what I see, my mind has to analyse how the bones may fit together.

 

 

I'm keeping in mind a concept for a future sculpt so really getting to grips with the form and structure of the spine is going to be important. 

Having a variety of sources of reference can help piece together what you may not automatically be able to see. One source I try to use are picture reference books that contain photos rather than other people's drawings, so as to limit working from someone else's interpretation.

So now I have another go at putting the skull on top of the spine. I'm not sure how anatomically correct my sketch is at this time but my drawing's become more confident!

Next time I shall go back and look at the muscles in this part of the body and try and establish a better understanding of the bones that make up the top part of the spine. But in the meantime I'm noticing I have a far more comfortable approach to sketching than I had when I first started the blog. By trying to instill some discipline in sketching on a regular basis, and committing to putting the results up on the blog, I'm definitely seeing the benefits within the first two weeks.

Quick Character Sketch

Just a couple of quick sketches today. I thought I'd revisit one of the character heads I've sketched in the past for a sculpture. As I've mentioned before I had a habit of merely sketching the heads from only one angle - face on - and filling in the blanks with my imagination as I sculpted the character in 3D. So today I decided to quickly sketch the head from four different angles.

So I start with the outline of the basic head shape, measure out where the facial features sit, remember to put the eyes halfway on the face, although the eyes are disproportionally large; this is intentional.

I sketch the lines across the paper so that the next sketch lines up with the first and the measurements remain consistent. This time I sketch the head at a slightly turned angle.

I had a tendency to misalign the features when the head is slightly turned but the practice is paying off, I only have to re-draw the mouth, everything else gets put in the right place first time!

Again sketching the measuring lines across the page I sketch the head from the side this time. This angle is an easy one. I won't sketch it from the other side because the hair pretty much blocks out the face.

The back is slightly trickier because I'm trying to show more structure and form in the hair, but I don't think I've represented it accurately.

 

So that's the quick character sketch from four angles.

Skeleton Heads

After beginning to work on what will be a series of anatomy studies to improve my figure drawing and hopefully, in turn, my sculpting, I continued today with sketching skulls from different viewpoints.

 

By trying to draw the skull from a different angle I’m trying to build discipline into my sketching, pushing myself to be able to design characters from all angles rather than just sketching them from face on and resting on my imagination to fill in the gaps.

By working up the tonal values on each sketch I reflect more on the form of the skull, the planes that make up the 3D object and how they translate onto the 2D sheet of paper, more so than if I just leave it at a line drawing. 

By sketching and re-sketching the skull over and over again it does become easier to place the skull in space at whatever angle I want, I’m not as adept as I’d like to be, but the practice is paying off.

 

The drawing looks more relaxed and I’m finding that I have fewer tendencies to distort the facial features when I change the angle from face on. It’s not perfect but there’s definitely improvement, which one would hope given I am sketching almost daily now!

Feeling a boost of confidence I decide to go for it! I’m placing two ‘Skeleton Heads’ interacting, a sketch to be worked up into more of a drawing. I’m creating the line drawing using the mechanical pencil that I’ve been getting more comfortable with, but I’m not sure yet what other drawing materials I’ll use to work the drawing up with. The sketchpad I’m using is a Strathmore 300 Series Drawing pad with a medium surface (11” x 14’ and 104 g/m ²).

The second skull is a little trickier than the first and I think it’s because the viewpoint is from slightly below, another Achilles’ Heel I seem to have when it comes to drawing! But by keeping the pencil marks light and sketching, erasing and re-sketching the lines, eventually it looks better.

I’m using the whole sheet of sketchbook paper, a much larger drawing than I’ve done so far so that I’m not trying to draw the detail in cramped spaces. I worked out the composition beforehand, keeping the sketch simple in design.

Hands are not my strongest point but I want more interaction between the two skeleton heads than just their eyeline so I decide to put skeletal hands into the drawing. I’m not sure about their proportions compared with the heads now that I look back at the sketch, but if you knew how long it takes me to draw hands you’ll let that one go! Hands are on my anatomy ‘to do’ list. 

It may be clichéd but anytime I think of scientific study of skulls I see spectacles. I wore spectacles my entire childhood before I discovered contact lenses and everyone always commented on how ‘studious’ I looked, so maybe that’s where the mental connection comes from.

The spectacles were definitely in the wrong place, and as I’ve already asked for some consideration on the over-sized hands I figured I should correct the spectacles!

So that’s the basic composition sketched out, I don’t think it needs anymore detail added so it just remains to work the drawing up in tonal values which will have to wait until tomorrow.