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!

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!