Merry Christmas!!

Yes, I know, it's not original as a text... but anyway I made this simple illustration in a hurry, because I wanted to leave some hand made cards to my closest friends and kindred. I succeded in doing about ten cards like the one I post here. I used carbon paper, watercolor, ecoline and fineliner. Everyone is a bit different. In this I tried to write with a nib pen and red ink but the result was poor... partly becuase the tool didn't just fit (the watery ink and the rough paper) and partly because I suck at hand-writing... Anyway, I still have to begin to deliver these effort.. who knows the reactions!! :P

Oil painting demo at Russian Academy in Florence

Hello, this November I had the positive surprise of noticing that the Russian Academy of Art of Florence shared some workshops on Friday evenings. It was convenient for me with my work timetable, so I was glad to take part of some of these worksops, and some of them are still to come.

The first...

Sketching Sunday

Hi all!! I want to share some recent sketches I made during the last Sunday. It was a sunny day, a bit cold in respect to what we were got used to during this Novemeber, but I enjoyed a bit of sun in the neighbours of my house. Here it is a study of a bush (dog rose)

Life drawing at FAA 29/10/2015 and 05-12/11/2015

Hello!! During the last week, I succedded in attending free figure drawing session at the Florence Academy of art. In this post I want to round up the last three drawings I made. And the pictures chronologically:

The height of the figure is about 20 cm. I'm quite ok with the right side, where the light gives up to the shadow. As usual, I had to struggle a lot with lower limb, and  no time to study the belly in depth.

Drawing Course 6

Here it is another post about my old drawing course. The exercise is basically the same. We had to make a copy (sorry, can't remember the author), but this time we inked it with fineliner (about 0.1, 0.4, 0.9 diameter). The original is a beautiful etching of a villa:

Sketching nature in October

Here they are some recent sketches done on location. October has been warm and temperate, and also November seems to be the same. These are all from the surroundings of where I live:


A study of a tree, the way to render foliage with fineliner, and some zoom-in of the leaves and seeds (some sort of maple).

Life Drawing 22/10

Hello!! New year at the Florence Academy!! They are so kind that allow external people to attend a couple of hours of a posing model. This time I tested spolvero paper with a set of hard sticks brown pastel from Lyra. I should have drawn the entire body, but I preferred to make a portrait, because I was in a favorable position in regard of the model's face and also I wanted to warm up with something I'm more confortable with, that is the portrait. So first hour I was standing in front of the easel drawing the head, second hour I was sitting and sketching the whole body..

Still life

Here is a still life I made with charcoal (pencil, powder and sticks) some years ago (late 2010 or first months of 2011), It was done from life in about three hours. Some dark were added after using a spray fixative a couple of time. I like the settings, this are familiar objects, and after all I like this drawing, my eye was better traind at that time... but the base of the "tripod" object is wrong. Anyway,  charcoal is a good medium because it's forgiving, it' similar to (monochromatic) painting but easier to set up and cheaper. For me maybe can be hard to obtain details and little nuances with this medium, but this can be an advantage ad you can't lose yourself in details ;)

Drawing course 5

Another lesson from the old course. This lesson was self made, in the sense that I missed the class, and I totally made it without teacher's guide. I took advantages to experiment with carbon pencils and sticks by Cretacolor.It was a more loose and fast copy, but fun anyway. I advise you to change the material you use. It's true that's enough a pencil and a kneaded eraser to explore such a lot of worlds, but even changing can nurture and renew the passion in drawing. Beside the brain is stimulated by new and different possibilities of a different expression.

The original

Plen air oil sketch

Hello!! Here I post a plan air I made in August 2014.

Figure Drawing 14/03/2015

Here it is another figure drawing at the Florence Academy of Art. I tried sanguigne in pencil and a red pastel in stick. Here is work in progress after about an hour.

Drawing Course 4

I'll share today another couple of works I did in my drawing course.

Here it is a portrait from Giovanni Bellini "Men with turban". The reproduction I was copying from was as bad as usual. I think I missed some proportion, some features are off, and the chin is a bit diferent.. anyway, the portrait is something good to train yourself, because the similarity is hard to achive and dipends on the correct placement of every feature and every wrinkle, But initially you can't get lost in details, you have to focus on the main shapes, like the skull, the jaw, the gesture of the neck, the cheekbones, the height of the nose, of the eyes, of the eyebrows, of the mouth, and so on... There are some kind of different approach to drawing. As you can see from the lines on the copy, when you draw from a photo and you have to learn, you can trace some lines that lead you to reconstruct correctly the image. The accuracy of the measure estabilishes the similarity. It can seem like a boring surveying, but it's important when you begin to keep accuracy and patience to train the eye and the end. Even when you have done lot of exercise, you can do sometime this kind of copy to keep the habit. The "original"..

Riomaggiore digital

Hay ya!! Here I introduce a digital sketch of a landscape made during a recent trip to the Cinque Terre. Here I was in Riomaggiore, the first of the villages on the sea of this handsome region. It's really rough and it'd need a lot of refinement..the colors are quite different according to the screen. I'm not confident with the software yet. This is done with Sketchbook pro.

Plen air sketch: Monte Albano

Here's a recent plen air sketch. Done in watercolor on spot in about 45 minutes. A child and his father stopped by me while I was sketching. The child was curious, and was also full of question which is a great thing I think... the photo has an uneven lighting because some sun rays were filtering through the branches of the pines. The dimension is about 20x15 cm on Fabriano watercolor paper.

Train sketches 4

I share some sketches I made on the train. What's new with these? I made them with Autodesk Sketchbook Pro ® for android, on my new tablet Samsung Galaxy Note 8 ®.

From an advertisment

This is quite old drawing. This come from 2010, the time of the drawing course. I copied a picture from a well-known commercial.. I hope I'm not violating some rule here >_<
I used charcoal pencil for the rocks. Chalk sticks for sky and water (only few primary colors), sanguigne and sepia pencil for the red rocks. I think also some touches with few oil pastel, diluted with turpentine. I tried to reproduce the fog effect with white pastel, but only got a burnishing effect. I forgot the boy is in marker.

Drawing Course 3

Hallo!! Welcome to the third lesson!! Today another good exercise I made in my first drawing course. You need a pencil, better a couple or three (I had HB, 2B, 6B at that time). Perhaps you can do it also with  mecanical pencils too. And you need time and patience: I think, it took me 6-8 hours to do this, maybe 10. Don't hurry!! Stick on't!!
Another time this is "life size", in the sense that the drawing is the same size of the model. We had copy af an engraving, but I don't remember the author. You could complicate the exercise making the drawing a scale of the model: double time bigger, or smaller, or even a third bigger. This is no fun for me but it forces you to become more acquainted with measuring, and it also sharpen your scaling ability. For me the best part is rendering, so I simplified the drawing part.
Still today I think that I should go back and revise the measuring technique, make some paintaking life drawing measuring everything.. but hardly ever I keep this aim..
I suggest not to go as you can; work middle tones, layer after layer. Usually it's better a light sign than a heavy one. Of course you can go darker then...

June Sketches

An eucalyptus in Empoli:

Watercoulor, waterbrush and watercoulor pencils.

Drawing course 2

Here it is the second lesson. Unfortunately, we left life drawing and we began to draw from scruffy copies. But this was exhalting anyway!! And I was able to practice at home.

This is an etching from Giorgio Morandi

Drawing Course 1

Aye!! Today I want to post some very old drawings. To tell the truth... they are the first after a long time. In fact that's the drawing course which turned on the passion for drawing and painting...after the long sleep after the middle school courses. Ahh.. such a sweet time... It was the beginning of 2010. To tell the truth the passion for art was instilled after I took up a course in pottery.. but that's another post.

San Miniato

A windy day. 8th March 2015. Still cold, even if you can see the coming of the spring in some buds and and canes. I was able to see white rushes and the snow on the far Appenine. I went to Corniano, on the southern side of San Miniato, with my new Schmincke Horadam watercolour.

I know.. The city with the famous stronghold isn't in my sketch... but it won't be the first time that I ignore buildings... Maybe I need more patience and precision, and I relax at best with painting natural object. But it could be a field were I pick up. And also I could try to paint the tower and the town someday.. Let's notice: too color density on the near hill. But I had to test the glazing with this strong watercolour brand. You can get almost a guache effect, and that's good for me, but need practice obviously. Pehaps, for the sake of watercolour, it's better to stay away from high density, but I think that finally the attention is focused on San Miniato hill, and that's not bad, because we have a stronger subject.

REFLECTIONS & Some sketches in the field

Here are some sketches of 2014. I'm not particularly proud of them, perhaps I shouldn't post this (and the photos are horrible too), I could make an effort on it); but I think that this can be tought and said for every post. So I will tell the world this sketches, but mostly as a "backup" sketchbook. Maybe is  cushier to collect picture here, I can see what are the worst part and think about correction, and also I can contextualize the picture, and evoke a particular mood without having the need of looking up the originals spread out somewhere in some drawers. I hope this will help me keeping motivated. If you have any comment or critics... feel free to post!!

Present for a collegue

Sometime ago, some year actually, a collegue saw a drawing of mine in wich was portraited a woman. That woman had a scarf on her had; the collegue was very fond of the picture and I gave her that little pen sketch. After some year, in wich our paths have risked to fallen apart, we are together again, not in the same office but near. So she asked me to make a St. Joseph, beacuse that scarfed woman reminds her of St. Mary. So, after some research, I found a Rembrandt's pen sketch wich was a study for a St. Joseph. I made a copy for her but also a photo (and a copy) for memory.
Here it is..

Sepia Pitt Pen on a watercolor base of ochre and  burnt umber.

Figure drawing at FAA

Another Figure drawing of May 2015. Experimenting with Blue pencil, like the ones used for comics. The blue is cool, more vibrant  Nevertheless not enough contrast for value, but the model was good for anatomy.

and a further step

Critique: usual trouble with feet. More attention to line weight and economy. Not satisfied with middle tone espressed with volumetric line. The core shadow on the left shoulder is ugly...

Train Sketches 4

Pubblico qualche altro ritratto fatto sul treno a Marzo.

I love making portraits.. Basically the sketches I do in the train are all portraits, some happier than others. Here they are four of the more recent

E già che ci sono uno studio di un torso maschile:

And also a male torso, copied from Loomis:

Figure Drawing 12/02/15

Sessione di disegno libera con modella alla Florence Art. Questa volta ho preparato un foglio Fabriano (33 x 48) con un mezzo tono a polvere di carboncino. Ho così lavorato priva verso i contorni, poi le parti scure e quelle chiare, sempre con carboncino, e pezzetti di carbone (salice e varii). Partire dai mezzi toni facilità un po' lo svolgimento: da una parte non abbiamo più il foglio bianco, dall'altra possiamo percorrere due strade per ottenere ciò che cerchiamo in termine di tono.

e in fine dopo qualche ritocco a casa...

Life Drawing 5/3/2015

Altra sessione di disegno dal vivo alla Florence Art Academy. Due ore di posa, grafite su carta Fabriano ruvida per schizzi da 120 gr, dimensione 297x420 mm.

e il disegno finale. Con tracce di carboncino e pastello, per vedere l'effetto nelle zone più scure.

Paesaggio in Ormicello 2

Sabato ho fatto un acquerello ispirato allo studio che feci a Ottobre (qui). Ho provato il nuovo acquisto: gli acquerelli per artisti Horadam Schminke (set da 12 + 12 posti vuoti). La qualità è buona.  Io ho provato solo i Cotman della Winsor & Newton, che comunque fanno il loro lavoro. Rispetto a questi però ho trovato una maggiore uniformità nella stesura e una più agevole sovrapposizione nelle velature (per i colori più trasparenti).

Last Saturday I made a watercolour inspired by a recent trip I did some months ago. I tried my new watercolour from Horadam Schminke. The quality is good! I've only tried Winsor & Newton Cotman. The colors are livelier and less granular. The overlapping of transparent glazes leads to a better result in terms of color richness.

Acquerello su carta (circa 35x25)

Fra l'altro ho cominciato anche un lavoro ad olio sempre ispirato a quel bozzetto..

Besides I begun an oil painting from thi study.

Train Sketch 3

Sketch treno

Ecco un'altra paginetta:

Alberi sul fiume Arno

La domenica pomeriggio di sole, febbraio: cosa meglio di un giro a godersi l'aria e i colori del tramonto? Ed infatti eccomi a giro con sketchbook e matite acquerellabili..

Sunday afternoon, what's better than going sketching ? ;) The air is already sweet with the sun... I collected watercolor pencils and normal color pencils and went out on the river Arno. 

The spot on the river, but with the sun already down

Life Drawing at Florence

Life drawing session at Florence art Academy!! I prepared a toned sheet with a watercolour payne's gray basis.

And the final result:

The model posed for a couple of hours. I used graphite, sanguigne and sepia. I have to pay more attention to the lower part of the body, and foreshortening in general. But fun with some color compared with the use of sole graphite.

Sketch treno 3

Uno sketch a penna

Scketch treno 2

Stamattina un altro volto del treno:

Sketch treno 19/01/15

La mattina (o anche la sera), se trovo qualcuno che mantiene la posa, non c'è miglior modo di cominciare che dedicarsi ad uno sketch! Sono un paio di anni che porto avanti questa abitudine e la consiglio a chiunque abbia la passione per le arti figurative. Purtroppo anche io non riesco a farlo tutti i giorni, perché effettivamente devo trovare qualcuno che dorme o al limite è immerso in una attività che lo distrae ma allo stesso tempo lo tiene fermo... infatti ancora non riesco a sketchare con poche occhiate e mi vergogno un po' a destare l'attenzione di un "malcapitato" modello... Comunque una buona pratica! Alcune volte i risultati non sono presentabili, ma comunque ci si allena.

Un omaggio

Sto leggendo 'l'Arte della felicità' di Alessandro Rak. Molto bello, una storia semplice ma che arriva diritta al cuore.. per ora gli dedico un "Sergio" fatto a memoria un po' per provare del materiale.. Bella storia, belle atmosfere, poi toccante...

Life drawing at Florence art academy

Oggi sono tornato a disegnare un modello dal vero; erano un paio d'anni che non disegnavo una posa tanto lunga: due ora con pause ogni venti minuti. Ecco gli avanzamenti:

Non escludo di portarla una altro po' avanti. Di sicuro cercherò di tornare al figure life drawing!