Still life

Here is a study I made recently during a collective drawing session. It is from life, in about three hours. I practiced measuring and chiaroscuro. I hope you enjoy. It's about 25x30 cm, pencil, charcoal pencil and white chalk on toned paper.

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

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...

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.

Still life

Ecco una natura morta di un po' di tempo fa... se non sbaglio.. autunno 2011.

Here is an old still life: autumn 2011 I think. Oil technique, about 25 x 35 cm. It was done in one only session, in about 3 hours. The backgroud was added later, just to experiment some colour, but the effect is nice.

Scudo di Capitan America / Shield of Captain America

Ecco il risultato di un altro tutorial che trovate qui. Si segue bene e mi sembra utile per quello che facciamo: in pochi passi e usando filtri e texture già "pronti" si può ottenere un'immagine realistica.
Con questa impostazione si ha la sensazione (l'illusione?) che lo scudo sia ondulato, ma è interessante anche così.

I made this shield of Captain America following this tutorial. After a couple of year, I can say that this can be useful to know this kind of design with photoshop, but not much pratical, unless you make a lot of practice... but anyway, it's an experience.