Monday, December 9, 2013

Figure Drawing Demos And some Figure Drawings

It has been awhile since I have posted any new charcoal figure drawings. Here are some of my more recent favorite drawings. The demos are about 25 minutes long and the other drawings around 2-3 hours. I feel like my ability to demo is getting stronger. Teaching has been a lot of fun and its quite rewarding.











Sunday, November 24, 2013

Two New Dog Portraits

New dog portraits I recently finished. The top one is named Mr. Darcy, my friends new puppy, super soft and fluffy, and awesome. The 2nd dog is named Sam, a friends dog from their childhood. I had to do this drawing from an old and small photograph. The photo was scanned and blown up, but not a lot of details to work worth. I had to fight hard for my edges and figuring out the shapes and details. I am quite happy with the end result with what I had to work with and what I turned it into!






Sunday, November 10, 2013

Long Figure Drawing - Big Beard

Here is my newest long figure drawing. I would say around 30-40 hours went into this one. This is definitely my best long figure drawing yet. The drawing was a bit of a struggle to get through, but in the end I feel like it is steps above the last 2 that I have done. When you have an interesting person to draw though, it can add so much to the drawing itself.





Thursday, October 31, 2013

Happy Halloween, Zombie Dog!

Well its the scariest time of the year. I did a drawing of my roommate's dog as a zombie to celebrate. Even though I made him look pretty freaky, I feel like I caught his likeness quite well still. I have been doing a lot of pet portraits lately and have created an Etsy shop for anyone interested in getting their own portrait of their pet, http://www.etsy.com/shop/MattDrawsStuff. You may also order from my blog just click the "pets" tab.


Monday, September 23, 2013

Two Cats And A Meerkat

A few recent drawings that I have done. The 2 cats are named Zook and Zena and the meerkat is from a photo I took at the San Diego Zoo. The meerkat was from a direct light source, the sun, creating nice clean light and dark shapes. Zook too was direct lighting from the sun, but it appears to be cloudy, as the lighting looks more diffused, creating softer shadows. Zena was the most difficult. She is being lit from behind by the sun, so I am assuming that her face is all light from bounced light. There were a lot subtlety going on in the lighting, making it hard to figure out. When you understand structure and form in general, and you understand what is going on in what you are drawing, it makes handing difficult lighting situations much easier.




Friday, September 6, 2013

Spike The Parrot

My second drawing of a parrot, this one though is a pet from someone I know. Similar to my drawing of Grizzly, there is no direct light source on this bird. From the photograph I drew this from, it appears to be a bright sunny day, however the parrot is in shadow, so all the light that is hitting it is from reflected light. I guess you could still say that it is a direct light source, being that its bounced light from a surface, its just a bit softer than you would expect from being directly light from the sun. It is good eye and brain practice to draw from different types of lighting. Sometimes you may even find it easier. Many times when I have done a drawing from life and we set the lighting up differently, the shapes and edges become clearer to me, making it easier for me to draw them.


Tuesday, September 3, 2013

More Dogs, Arf!

Two dog drawings that I have finished recently, Grizzly and I believe the other is named Abba. I am quite happy with the drawing of Grizzly, because it was done from a photo with overcast lighting. Overcast lighting (cloudy day) there is no direct light source, shadows tend to be soft and non existent, making it difficult to see form. A lot of highly trained artists love to use overcast lighting for the challenge it provides. This is my first attempt at drawing something in overcast lighting and I am happy with my results.



Sunday, August 25, 2013

White-crowned Hornbill

Drawing I did of a White-crowned Hornbill that I photographed at the San Diego Zoo. These birds have a real interesting beak. The biggest challenge I had with this drawing was doing the white feathers on its head. Even though the lighting is not intense in this image, or in the photograph I shot, the feathers were blown out and I had to do some inventing/guess work. I am quite happy with the way my drawing turned out.


Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Reggie

Drawing I did of my sister's dog. I thought the drawing was going to take a lot longer due to all the curly hair. I had a lot of fun trying to design it all out, it is definitely a challenge, but a fun one, as it provides a good opportunity for interpretation. As long as the design doesn't destroy the form, there is a lot you can do with hair like this.


Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Parrot

Drawing of a parrot I did the other day. The park up the street from me, there are people outside that always have parrots. I think they are a bird adoption group, anyways, whenever I walk by and I have my camera, I photograph the birds. I like this photo in particular so I did a drawing of it.





Friday, July 26, 2013

Long Figure Drawing #2!

Here is the 2nd long figure drawing from class. This was a total of 40 or so hours, I lost track at one point. 15 hours in class and the rest from a photo. One thing that I am really happy with in this drawing was that I thought more about my edges, not exactly what I saw on the model, but what could I do to manipulate the edges to create a stronger/more interesting drawing. Often times I am too accurate, where I will make something look how it is as I see it and not always think of the image as a whole and I felt like I got away from that a bit, I could have done it more so still. I am currently working on a long portrait study, where I am thinking about my edges more so, I am curious as to how it will turn out. Will post it when finished.






Monday, July 1, 2013

PACT: Professional Artist-Client Toolkit

This maybe the first post I have ever done with out any artwork. PACT is a group of professionals trying  to raise the standard of living for fantasy and sci-fi Illustrators. They have started a fundraiser to raise money to create a website and hire lawyers. I am not affiliated with them, but I believe in their cause and have donated, being that I work in this field as well and would like to continue to grow in it. Here is a link to their fundraiser,  http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/pact-professional-artist-client-toolkit.

Thank you!

Friday, June 28, 2013

Long Figure Drawing

Here is a figure drawing I finished a month or so ago. Finally got around to taking some pictures of it. This is the best drawing I have ever done, of course I did spend 30 hours on it, so it should be! I spent 12 hours in class and finished the rest at home from a photo. I really love the Russian drawings, and it was nice to be able to take some time and try to do the cool calligraphy that they do in their drawings. Graphite is one of my favorite mediums, it can be really relaxing to use. This is also the second time I have photographed drawings with my new camera. This time it was much more successful, not sure if I had it on a different setting or what. I will have another long figure drawing posted soon hopefully.





Sunday, June 23, 2013

First Oil Painting In Nearly 2 Years!

I haven't done an oil painting in nearly 2 years. Most of the work I have been doing has been pencil renderings or other black and white stuff. At first the painting was a real struggle, it took a few days until I got the hang of it again. I am real happy with the way it turned out. One reason why it is successful for not painting in nearly 2 years is from all the learning I still have done in graphite. The same principles apply still, its just trying to figure out how it works in paint. While I am happy with the painting, the frustrating part is know how much better it would have been if I didn't stop painting for 2 years.

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Dog Portrait And Figure Drawing

Here is a graphite portrait drawing of my roommate's dog, Harper, that I finished the other day. First time I have ever drawn someone's pet. We took him to the dog park a few weeks ago and I took a lot of pictures of him in natural sunlight. He is a hyper dog, so getting him to sit for a photo shoot would have been difficult. I still had to be quick with shooting pictures, I just didn't have to worry about lighting him as the sun took care of that for me.

Next is probably the best 3 hour figure drawing I have ever done. I don't have the drawing anymore. I gave it to the model in exchange for a photo shoot. I am thinking about having her pose as a zombie/monster slaying bad ass ballerina.





Friday, April 26, 2013

Lots Of Figure Drawings!

Here are a bunch of figure drawings that I have done in the last 4 months. Some of these are 20/25 minute demos that I did in class. The drawings here range from 20 minutes to 3 hours. I felt like I had lost something in my drawings, its hard to explain, but my drawings have been getting too up tight. Slowly, what I have been looking for is starting to come back.