ArtCtrl

It is Sunday morning. I havn’t done anything today. But here’s a blog post to get started. The place is tidy. It needs to be tidier though.

Yesterday I tidied. Though I went though some older posts and turned the drawings into digital works.   It’s been a long time since I’ve done life drawing. I use to do it often. There are several life drawing classes I’m interested in doing next term - including Rogers week one block class. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday are all 6 hours of life drawing. Dan and Catherine also have a life drawing class during the term - as a weekend class.

The JPG file. Quality is better than GIF but GIF has the advantage of creating animation. It would be nice to create GIF with JPG quality stills.

These drawings were all quick gestural works - breaking the figure down to cubes and basic shapes. I’ve explored these shapes and developed them further over several months. 

Gary Johnson. This was a warmup work - just wanted to get looser with the tablet. It’s been a long time since I’ve drawn/painted political figures. I would take my sketchbook into BackBenches and Sketch people.

Several digital paintings. Pencil sketch to GIMP paintings.  Airport sketch thanks to Netscrolling. Exploring areas of color further - what shapes can I make?  Do the buildings and people need color. Maybe I could try a silver or grey on it. I’ve used grey somewhat in my other works - especially at the beginning stages of building a painting up.

Westfield. I want to take the majority of my pencil sketches into GIMP and develop these paintings. This can only help my knowledge of compossion and environments…. The final painting. I guess I shouldn’t really call it a final though. Because anyone is free to take my work and develop it on a new path. Just let me know :)  A digital painting from several months ago. Decided to take it into GIMP and work over top using the same colors.  I’ve been having a look over my older blog posts and noticed lots of life drawings that I could take though the digital stage. There is likely lots of life drawing work not uploaded - I should work on getting these uploaded as I can then turn them into digital paintings and such.

Some more drawings of Auckland during my visit. Most of these are around Westfield New Lynn Mall.

Top half. HB Pencil on white paper. This is mostly the ceiling.  Working vertical, gives an interesting perspective. Much more detail in this area then the roof. People were blocking areas so I had to work around that somewhat. Attempted to capture the wood bark texture on the containers - spreading it to other container structures. I’ll do a paint over of these works tonight or in the morning. 

Left side of mall outside sketch. Sadly the other half isn’t scanning. stupid scanner.

Digital works that I worked on last night. I have the flu so havn’t been drawing (or even leaving the house). I’ll keep warm and recovery should be fine.

Here are some JPGs and GIFs….

This was originally created in Printmaking in 2010. Several lithograph prints were created from it. I decided to open it in GIMP and produce a paint over. Though it’s the same process as the sketchbook to digital works I’ve decided to use a different yellow - to explore greens.

The GIF. The first frame is the original print, followed by white, blue, yellow, and line.

Sketchbook development here. Interesting mix of trees and buildings. No blue. Maybe it should be added.

GIF of the work. Sketchbook, white, yellow, green/light gray/mix gray, line.

Cuba Street. What interesting shapes can be created?

GIF of the work. Sketchbook, white, blue, blue (I did the background twice), gray, green/yellow, line.

Taken several of my sketches from Auckland and produced a paint over. There was only one new idea here - using the eraser in areas to help tonal value

New Lynn mall. I need a new nip for my pen. It’s grinded down and is scrapping on the tablet. It may be part of the problem of unable to get straight lines - my hand has been very jerky. Frustrating. 

Working on this I wished I had taken a photo of the scene - the line was fine - but I had no information for the tone - so just made it up. I guess it works, but it doesn’t feel right.

I  used the eraser tool for the blue - capturing a more transparent background. It’s been awhile since I’ve explored these ideas.

A selection of drawings from my trip to Auckland. I picked the Sketchbook up from Ponsonby and began to fill it with views from around Auckland. Although I picked up two new colored pencils from the French Art Shop as well I didn’t end up using it - I’ve been finding it easier to work with just pencil then adding color at a digital stage. 

Auckland waterfront. There were several fisherman out. I sat on a seat and just enjoyed the view. I enjoyed drawing this because it offered me several layers of perspective - something thats important when capturing the scene. No tone either - praticing that line. Once I’ve taken this into GIMP I’ll work on painting Lynn Mall. During the time I was locked out of the place I was staying in New Lynn I hanged out in the local Lynn Mall. There were several place to sit and draw. This is near the entery of the building.  Train. The train takes an hour from New Lynn to Britomart. One hours a long time to work on a drawing, so every time I took the train I was able to get a drawing done. I was happy with the train system in Auckland - it was certainly cheaper than Wellington.

And last another view from the waterfont. This time it’s the huge machines they use on the dock. These were lined up in perspective so I struggled somewhat with attempts to capture the scale.

There are more drawings of Auckland that I need to scan and upload. But this will do for now. Enjoy.

More digital paintovers of sketchbook pages. Also included are gif images to show the layers I’ve been working with.

Beach in Levin. Again I focused on the blue for the enviroment and added some yellow for the car, GIF of the same image. The first layer is my pencil sketch - then white (background) - blue tone - yellow tone - black line. Opacity of brush is 80%

Protest in Waihi for Ann, There were over 20 people that showed for the protest. I spent most of the time holding a ‘It’s a health issue, not a crimr’ sign with my feet and sketching.

The GIF. Again the process is the same

Self portrait that Janelle drew for me - I took it into GIMP to do a paintover on it. 

Here are drawings from a protest in Waihi and Aucland.

I love my new landscape sketchbook - the pages are long! These drawings are all in my A4 visual diary.

Sketch of Janelle protesting across the street. I held my sign with my legs and just sketched, multitasking. I did several drawings of Janell in my sketchbook - and in return she drew a portrait of herself for me. 

A merge of the ‘Fuck the system’ badge attached to Janelles jeans and the massive hole at Waihi - Mining! The view was incredible - shame I didn’t have my normal pencils - only this yellow. The line is much heavier than pencil.

Portrait that Janelle drew in my book during the car drive up to Auckland. I always like it when someone gives me a piece of their own creative lives. 

Henderson drawing. This was at the train station - observing an intersection below. Aucklands been fun to explore with my sketchbook.

The drive up north with Gary. I tried to fill in perspective - by using both the view outside the car and the interal of the car. Roads were a large focus of this - attempting to capture the scale and rotation.  Candles. Where I stayed with Gary. This is the view from the kitchen table- Again working with perspective - candles in foreground and shelf in background.

Where me and Gary stopped for the break on the trip. It was a beautiful view so I did a quick sketch. I included someones van for added scale.

Here is a digital beach. Vechial is Rogers.

I am currently in Auckland, weather has been decent - allowed me to get outside and sketch lots. Here are some digital works I did when in Waihi - reference is recent drawings in my sketchbook. 

A new color induduced - Green. This was a doodle page, but I was able to paint over it and extract the information I wanted. Blue blue blue. Similar idea to the Auckland painting - but this time mighty Levin. I have to do one of these of Auckland. A blue shade of Auckland. 

Catherines Character. Just a simple paint over. My lines are improving. It’s important that I work on that line every day - especially with digital, harder to make a perfect line than traditional.

There is a digital camera here so tomorrow I may photograph some of drawings of Auckland and get them uploaded. Tonight I’ll work on some digital paintings.