Colour – Page 3 – Stuartdraws

Lanzarote, February 2016

Feb 19, 2016Stuart4 Comments

Or, “How much can you sketch in 1 week?”

I was on Lanzarote in Costa Teguise for 9 days and took along 4 sketch books.
I used 3.

1 Hahnemühle DINA5 sketch book soft and rough paper (good for biros and colour pencils) 40 pages (10 sheets), I think it cost 1.99€
1 Moleskine pocket size watercolour sketch book, 60 pages (12.99€)
1 Moleskine DINA6 journal (cahier pocket), 96 pages (three for 6.90€)

I had a travelers’ pack of watercolours (12), a mixed hair paint brush, waterbrush, colour pencils, biro, Derwent Graphik Line Maker 0.1.

And I drew and drew and drew.

2016/02

A Brace of Models

Jan 26, 2016Jan 26, 2016StuartLeave a comment

Stuart: Oh, look we have two models tonight!
Torsten: No, she made a mistake, it’s ok, she’s going now.
Female Model: Hi!
Stuart: Hi, Female Model! Great, two models tonight!
Female Model: Yeah, I don’t mind. But it’s too expensive.
Stuart: Well, if it’s only about the money … we have enough.
[Stuart approaches Torsten again]
Stuart: She’s willing to stay. We can afford it, can’t we?!
Torsten: Hmm, but some of our artists already have enough on their plate with one model.
[3 minutes later, Female Model is undressed on the little stage]
Stuart: Hey, Female Model, you can thank me for this!
Female Model: Yeah, you can call the poses!

Oh, I love my Life Drawing Classes, but tonight was my last one for months. I haven’t registered for the next course, because SBS and “daily” gesture sketching is taking up enough of my precious time.

But here are the results of tonight’s “brace of models” and also a sneak peek into my second week at SBS.

So, what’s this with the paper … looks like a calendar. Yes, it is a half price Moleskine weekly calendar. I wanted something that feels and looks great, but is not too “precious” and can still, just about take watercolours (it was still expensive, for half price: 10€) .

One last pic tonight in a small, absolutely lovely Moleskine watercolour booklet (10 minutes):

20160126-1

OK, this is the stuff I took to Life Drawing Class tonight:

20160126-9

Oh, look, there’s even a picture of me in there.

Now to SBS. Well, I am absolutely blown away. I can’t believe how much of my hidden creative seam has been mined in these 12 days.

I’ll just give you something of mine to look at from this last Klass with Jill Weber … it’s all about telling stories and making books.

20160123

20160124-3

20160125

The Tools of Kreativity

Jan 19, 2016Stuart4 Comments

Well, the first week of SketchBookSkool (SBS) is well underway.

I’m very impressed with the channels of creativity it has already allowed me to explore. The videos are short, but wow!, they are incredible. I’ve had a sneek peak of Felix Scheinberger painting a little comical bird in 3 minutes with a water brush (and lighter!/Feuerzeug). I’ve been hand-lettering (thanks to Koosje’s lessons) at work during meetings.

I just sat down and did this (hey, why am I doing all that gesture drawing practice anyway?):

20160119

Tools in use:

pencil (B)
handcrafted (turned) nib holder (from the Siegburg Weihnachtsmarkt)
Heintze&Blanckertz “G” nib
“Dirk Weber, Bonn” Indian Ink wasserfest
Koi water brush
rag (old vest of mine, sorry, I was sure you wanted to know that)
Winsor&Newton Colman traveler’s watercolour set
1917 Leuchtturm sketchpad

Since the course started on Friday, I sketched all of this:

16/01/2016

15/01/2016

17/01/2016

I wonder what Ed (mostlydrawing.com) will say about my interpretation of Hokusai … ?

blauw blau blue bleu

Dec 1, 2015Stuart2 Comments

20151201_evening-1

I’m not sure, what to think of these pics from tonight’s Life Class.
Lamy fountain pen on 190gsm, A3, and Faber-Castell Albrecht Dürer pencil.
I’m sure my pen has moved more fluidly on past evenings, but building up tone with the Albrecht Dürer pencil was very therapeutic, even if not always too easy, what with the lighting conditions we have in our Life Class room.
It’s interesting to see that I only have 1 1/2 hours of drawings but the evening is 2 1/4 hours long. So we spend 45 minutes chatting and relaxing somewhere along the line.

Snow, Rain and Life

Nov 24, 2015StuartLeave a comment

[Stuart arrives at Life Class]
[Outside it’s raining, snowing, and sleeting]
Richard: Hi Stuart, the tutor called, he’ll be late, but the model’s already here.
Stuart: No heaters? No Life equipment?
Model (teeth chattering): I need those heaters, I’m soaking, need to get out of these clothes.
Stuart: Well, bad luck, get on that stage now … 10 minutes ok for you?

20151124_evening-1

[Tutor arrives]
Tutor: Ok, hi folks, let’s do a pose and then I’ve got an idea for you.
[Heaters are set up]

20151124_evening-2

Tutor: Hey, the next half an hour, we’re drawing blind.

Stuart: Yeeees, this is what I’m talking about. What a great experience! The result isn’t important, but the act of looking at the model becomes so intense.
Tutor: Now see if you can use anything you learnt in the past half an hour.

20151124_evening-5 20151124_evening-6

Stuart: Well, I’m not complaining, that was really fun. Used my Lamy Safari “F” nib, Blue/Black ink, in a rough surface, 110gsm, A4 sketch book. The paper really soaks up that ink.

Life Class Impressions

Nov 18, 2015Stuart2 Comments

Another evening and an attempt with a slightly different tool set:

Faber-Castell PITT artist pen “big brush” COLD GREY
Faber-Castell PITT artist pen “B” COLD GREY
Faber-Castell PITT artist pen “S” BLACK

Faber-Castell Albrecht Dürer watercolour pencils

2015/11

The “big brush” was a bit unhandy and hard to control for me. Later in the evening I moved back to the Albrecht Dürer pencils, which I enjoyed working with. It’s time for me to return to the daily gestures.

The Sustained Study

Nov 10, 2015StuartLeave a comment

Before I left for Life Class I picked up my copy of Kimon Nicoleides’ “The Natural Way To Draw”. I read through the section “The Sustained Study” (section 13, pretty far into the book). OK, I’m not going to see any sustained poses in the Life Class, but this section mentions:

“Make a decision as to what you will consider the main source of light [..] and attempt to use only the one set of shadows which indicates the one source of light.” – Kimon Nicoleides

So today I thought, I’d go with my wax crayons and Albrecht Dürer colour pencils and give this shadow and light source choosing method a go.

In Class, the teacher gave us some additional ideas to make things more interseting. We were to add lines, boxes or whatever to create the sense of environment, perspective and play with it a little.

The wax crayons are not easy to control once the tip has rubbed down, which is pretty much straight away. But it was fun, if a little challenging to try a new tool out.

Tea time

Oct 8, 2015May 23, 2026StuartLeave a comment

Spent the day in town with my wife and my Polychromos pencils.
Packed in a bunch of browns today, too (sorry, I just see it was ochres: Brown Ochre, Burnt Ochre and Light Ochre, and a Van Dyke Brown).

In the Tea Room after our Syrian meatballs and cold starters, I signalled to my wife it was reading time for her as I retrieved my pencils and Leuchtturm1917 DINA6 sketchbook from my mens’ purse. I’d decided to attempt capturing my last cup of tea.

I began with the background (negative space), outlining the cup and saucer with Van Dyke Brown, Scarlet Lake (red Teapot in background) and Burnt Carmine. Then I went for the shading with Light Grey (too light) and Sky Blue. Had trouble with the gold plated rims. The tea itself was built up slowly, whereby I had noticed the cup’s rim reflecting in it and that the colour had a somewhat consistent shade, but still managed to change tones in places.

What I can say is, it is simpler for me to work with the dry medium at the moment when out and about. I have noticed in one of the books currently on the top of my pile (Tommy Kane Sketches The World: An Excuse to Draw) that the author also seems to use coloured pencils a lot.

I haven’t turned my back completely on watercolours yet. I certainly heard more “Aaahh!” and “Ummm!”-ing when using the watercolours while in town.

Monschau in the Eifel

Oct 7, 2015May 23, 2026StuartLeave a comment

We spent a few days in Monschau.
I took along

Polychromos colour pencils
Albrecht Dürer watercolour pencils
Twelve Colman half pan watercolours
Da Vinci mixed hair paint brush, size 6
A Copic 0.3 fine liner
Small Moleskine watercolour sketch book
DIN A6 Leuchtturm1917 sketch book (190gsm A6)
… and a few other little things (pens, pencils, sharpener)

Well, it was too much. Perhaps it was the weather’s fault (mostly drizzly) or all the walking we did. I’m considering only taking one medium (probably dry) next time. Having so many possibilities, I felt overwhelmed, as if somebody was expecting too much of me. Had even taken some cheap paper and my George Bridgman “Bible” with me to do some practicing for figure drawing.

2 sketches came out of this trip.

A sketch of my wife reading at the Rur-Cafe. (Watercolours in Moleskine, 20 minutes) .. When I look at this, I realise I may have been watching too much rugby lately. No, seriously, I’d decided to paint my wife reading, and then her “salad on the side” arrived (what am I trying to say here? … I hope my wife doesn’t read this blog. Lena, are you reading this?).

And a sketch from the Kräutergarten on the slopes overlooking Monschau. Here you see Monschau castle residing above the old town centre. (Polychromos pencils in Leuchtturm1917) (20 minutes, with some colour “depth-corrections” in the following days.)

The last few hours, we spent on the Hohes Venn (High Fens). Beautiful yellow-browns with some violett-purple hints of bilberry bushes, ponds reflecting the complete bright-greyness of the sky. I’ll attempt to capture that tomorrow from memory. Some watercolour techniques could come in handy.

When we leave for our next trip, this Sunday, I’m just taking dry mediums with me: