ArtCtrl

William got a 7' Android tablet.  It’s not a Samsung but it does the job. The following images are created in sketchbook,  an app that in the past William used for digital painting.

RedditGetsDrawn is a helpful resource. Usually William works digitally from the site, creating color or grayscale paintings. Sometimes the tablet will be dropped and replaced with pencil and pad. In his previous pad (the a5 landscape, black bound, white pages) he produced a series of works from reference found on redditgetsdrawn. The following images are in the new sketchbook, which is a similar size to the previous. The paper quality is far higher. The off white look is appealing. Full figures are more fun to draw than portraits for William. The idea of creating a character in a world works better with a full figure over a portrait. HB pencil was used. William swears by his clutch pencil. It doesn’t go far from his side. If it does, he’s looking for it. He’s likely stressed and worried that he will have to buy another.

It’s a rare moment when William takes his pencil drawings digital. He has been focused on working from photo and imagination. That’s something that needs to change - a balanced approach. On Tuesday he imported two photos of pencil sketches that he had drawn during his time in Wellington. This is the result.

The line layer. He believes the pencil line looks more professional and there is more control. But he’s use to producing the digital line. It may serve some use in the future.

The tone layer. As usual William has used a range of brushes in order to show texture and variety in the work.

I have a new sketchbook. It’s likely the most expensive paper I’ve used. Slight texture, but nothing too major.

Here’s drawings from around Wellington:

The waterfront. In the distance on the left is containers being loaded onto the dock. Traveling across to the right is land. Lines above represent clouds. This was drawn in the morning. 

The right side of the page. I decided to mix up the scene by drawing the majority of this side in a different area than the previous drawing  This allows me to work on more detail and not get frustrated with lack or detail and information - especially on the second page when I often get tired.

Sat on Coutrney Place for this drawing. Looking up at the lights , buildings, and vegetation surrounds. 

Reading Cinemas sign. Another view from Coutrney Place.

Bucket fountain on Cuba Strett. The figure was drawn earier and I worked around the figure with the drawing of the water fountain. This included the grass on the ground. Focusing on a small area and getting it right is aften better than looking at a large area and getting it wrong. 

View looking out to the water.

Lights, sky, flag. 

A scanner Darkly. Book by Phillip Dick that I recently read. It’s great I’m reading more - I want to illustrate novels. 

Another quick city drawing.

I’ve been wanting to complete some digital paintings for days. I’ve been busy with other art related activities. I have so much work to sort though. Create a portfolio book and get it printed. So far it contains pencil portraits from 2008.

Here’s two paintings I did last night. Both in GIMP. The first - RedditGetsDrawn

Brother and Sister portrait. Close to being a full body shot. Cut off at the knees! I did two drawings of these two. The first is in the center - cropped down. It’s been awhile since I’ve used the Wacom Tablet (4 days I believe) so felt somewhat rusty. The facial area is especially messy. I could have been more gently. Oh well. Onto the tone. 

And tone added. Range of brushes used. Messed up with the layers and painted over a line layer. Didn’t realize this till later. 

Line layer. For this drawings I didn’t use RedditGetsDrawn instead a photo I had taken on Cuba Street.  The figure in this drawing was a child that was running. He jumped in front of the camera yelling, ‘Take a photo of me’. Tone added. Somewhat simple and minimal feel. Layered up the figure with a range of tones.

I’ve used my new Kobo for more drawings. I used my ipod touch to look at reference photos on RedditGetsDrawn and then sketch them on the Kobo. No color and such for the Kobo but at least this is a portable way to get the line layer done in my drawings.

Character in the foreground with a landscape

Drawing from life, a pillar 

Reference for this was a print by Dan Ross. I noticed it on his page and did a quick digital drawing of the work.

Two portraits from RedditGetsDrawn.

Another RedditGetsDrawn. Here a painter is painting the gnome. Doing the job he loves.  Sideways portrait. Sorry.

My plan for these is to take them into GIMP and work on them further - adding in grayscale and color

I now have a Kobo Mini. At 5 inchs it’s small, but it does the trick. I downloaded free epub files for it at first. But now I’ve uploaded a collection of epub files that I had sitting on my laptop. I now want to send wordpress/rss to epub and sync via calibre.

Drew the text/images from the milkshake container. Experienting with text. Larger brushes and the ability to change the opacity would be wonderful.  Character with a line behind him. Maybe the start of a landscape.

The format for this Kobo file is 600 x 682. At least this is larger than the ipod touch… just feel restricted by the lack of brush options.

After finishing that previous painting I had to start another. I choose to work from life (something I rarely do with digital) and paint the view in front of me. Here goes

Two woman chatting in the corner. Captured then quickly without worry for detail. Focus was taken for the perspective and scale of the scene. I like how I’ve worked my laptop into the painting and painted the painting.

Grayscale tone. Again like the previous painting I’ve been working with a range of tones scatted about the work. Sometime I pick the tone, but other times I’m just pick a random number on the slider. It’s important to have a range though.

Color. I never finished this color layer. For the color I looked at what colors were there and went with that. The walls were a red so I used my usual red. For the yellow around the edge I color picked a new yellow. There is something satasfiying about Starbuck View