Today: another sketch done with the brown-bag figure drawing group at the U of U.  Quite a large drawing, 18X22 inches or thereabouts, done in roughly two and a half hours.

I had a bit of an off morning, and spent way too much time on the face, which I never did get right.  The rest of the figure, to the extent that is is finished at all, was finished in quite a rush.  All that aside, it turned out OK in the end.  Next week I will work a little smaller in an attempt to actually complete a figure.

I spent most of the day beginning to work the color onto the under-painting on the new canvas.

The photo is a little grainy, but will have to do for now. I have to say, it felt good to have the real oils under the brush again.

One last digital oils sketch. Click for a full sized version.

It’s a little over-stylized, but that is mainly due to my painting it without any reference material. This one took around three hours. I will return to the good old analog sketching tomorrow. I think where these digital painting tools will eventually come in handy will be in the composition phase for a real painting. I should be able to much more quickly and easily do color and lighting studies this way.

OK, so this isn’t exactly a sketch, or at least not in the pencils/charcoal sense of the term. It is, perhaps, an oil sketch, though a digital one…done once again in Corel Painter. As I become more familiar with the almost limitless options and degrees of control the software allows, the more I am convinced that for any application where the original artwork is not paramount (illustration of any kind, prints, digital art etc.), there is probably no more powerful media available. It will never replace oils for my personal, professional use, but it is seriously, almost ridiculously fun to play around with. I can’t wait for my 6D art pen (should arrive this week), which will allow me an additional degree of control over the natural media (real bristle brushes, etc.) through the supprt of 360 degree barrel rotation of the brushes.

This little illustration represents around three hours of work.  No brush cleaning, no mess, no cost for materials, an undo button!?!, what can I say?

This little sketch of Sam was done entirely in Corel Painter using three colors and the ‘Hard Charcoal Pencil 7′ tool. I am working on my laptop which has a 17 inch screen. I have to share the screen real-estate between my work area, my reference photo and the Corel Painter interface, so at times it can feel a bit crowded. Surprisingly, the 8 X 6 inch active area of the Wacom tablet I am using doesn’t feel cramped at all, and it is not nearly as distracting as I had imagined to be drawing in one place while watching the image take shape in another.

I am feeling much more comfortable with the interface (especially now that I have figured out how to change the pressure sensitivity of the pen), but I still have considerably less point control than with a real pencil and feel pretty clumsy in delicate areas such as the face. Still, I am really impressed with the software. This drawing took me around 40 minutes, roughly twice as long as it would have taken to do with old-school ‘analog’ media…but hey- no pencil sharpening!

There was a wee glitch in the U of U figure drawing session this morning. The model called 10 minutes late, from Logan (an hour and a half away), to say she wouldn’t be able to make it (obviously). Eventually, two of the attending artists graciously volunteered to split the three hours between them as models, though in various states of dress. I had but one sheet of paper, and this is what I ended up with after around an hour with the first volunteer (who was actually an excellent model):

You know the drill…click to enlarge.

And now, my first little dabble into the world of Corel Painter. This somewhat eerie little drawing of a very young Asher is the result of around an hour last night spent fiddling with a number of different “media” including several varieties of charcoal, chalk, pastel, and a few “blenders”. It’s muddy, over-worked and more than a little clumsy, but here it is:

Obviously I need more practice, but it was surprisingly fun to mess around with. All in all, a good first impression, though I still lament the inevitable fact that no matter how great an image is produced with the software, there isn’t a physical painting or drawing sitting there at the end.

Another more in-depth drawing today: around 14 X 14 inches.

Click above for a larger version.

I think I’ll be going back to the quick sketches again tomorrow…not that these last few haven’t been fun. Just time consuming.

Here is the finished drawing from the previous post. Sara is up late working/studying, and I just couldn’t leave it alone.

Click above to see a larger version (roughly actual size…12X12 inches)

Today’s sketch go a little out of hand and became more of an unfinished drawing.

I’m recycling some of my earlier sketch-scrap now that I’m working a little larger.  I may come back and finish the arms later tonight.  If so, I will update the image.

Here is today’s sketch:

This one took a bit too long.   Just an off day I suppose.

I managed to get my hands on Corel Painter X.  Once I have a suitable pen tablet to go along with it, I will try posting a few digital sketches.