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Ludum Dare Pencil Sketches

Here’s thress pencil sketches that I’ve done recently. DSC_0708

This is the view from outside my home. I was racing around on my Fathers hand wheel chair and decided to draw the view. A fold up chair would be handy as I’m always having to draw scenes that involve a seat!
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I have been using a 2h pencil. It’s a wonderful pencil and I could not go back to HB. No smudging, and takes awhile to blunt – shading still works alright with it.

This was drawn well walking down the road – starting sketching ideas for Ludum Dare – but ended up writing down ideas for a podcast I’d like to start with my friend Matt. I don’t know if it will go ahead because Matt is very unreliable – I might be better to just organize something myself.

DSC_0712Sitting outside the library. Again – another Ludum Dare logo, this time I sketched the lamppost and large pillar – adding in clouds, figure and tree.

 

Cuba street fish

I had a request today to upload some art. I have a new sketchbook that I have started to fill. Always buying new sketchbooks. So many half finished.
Here’s a pencil sketch from Cuba Street, Wellington. H pencil.

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I had drawn this scene before. I remember because of the hook icon on the building.
Cuba Street is one of my favorite spots to draw in Wellington. I’m able to sit, focus and produce some great drawings.
These last few months my drawing has been minimal. Around Levin I don’t draw like I use to. Whenever I visit Wellington – my drawing sparks.
I still feel sick and cold though.

Napier gouache paintings

Blogs been neglected somewhat. I’ve been busy with Python lately – creating stuff with pygame.

Here are paintings I did from life during my time in Napier.
draw-hello

Everyday I went for a walk when I was in Napier. Majority of these walks were into town – to the waterfront. It was very hot during the day so the evening was the best time for me to be outside – it didn’t get dark till late. 
napiour-watercolor-deco

I painted the same landscape multiply times – the view was South. This was one of my first ones – where I’m still warming up 
nap-watercolor-deco2

This was one of my first paintings I did in Napier. I did this outside a suburbs shops – so not directly in town. The paper only handles one layer of paint – I really should be using thicker paper. 
nap-watercolor-land

My least favorite out of the lot.

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Right side of the previous painting. Capturing the trees scaling into the foreground. A nice blue would help. 
nap-watercolor-street2

One of the major differences I notice with painting is the lack of detail I’m able to get – with drawing I can capture small drawings – painting tends to be more of a impression. I think I will always enjoy drawing more. 
nap-watercolor-street

Another street view. Paints great with how quickly it spreads. Roger always said ‘painting is easier because it spreads quickly’ when comparing it to painting. Very true – I can cover more of a area with paint than draw and not get tired. 
nap-watercolor-landbest

This was a favorite landscape. The reds in the sea helps. 

That’s all for now folks.

Napier

Back from Napier. Visited my Granddad. I had my laptop with me but no internet – I noticed several shops in the CBD that offered free WIFI. I didn’t worry – instead spending the time offline on my laptop and watching CI, Sky Sports (cricket),One News and the horse racing with Granddad.

I got out each day and drew. Here are the street works from around Napier:

 

draw-hello2

Square. I sat here several times and drew. This was a favorite piece of mine. I’m looking forward to taking it into GIMP and painting over it. With the line I attempted to create a range of marks in order to show the texture.

 

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Waterfront. Sitting on a bench and looking South. It was beautiful weather – especially in the evening. This is the left side of the page… I continued it onto the second. nap-e

Plant in the foreground. I captured someone walking but – mostly to give proportion to the image. Thinking about it now – I really should of checked on life drawing classes. Oh well, I enjoyed the drawing on the streets. Plenty of people on the street that I was able to capture.

napiior-aThis was on Friday night. I sat near a car park and drew the church and plants across the road. They had a water fountain that I especially enjoyed drawing.

napior-bSecond page of the church drawing. Less detail in this one – just quicksb-lvnpol.m

Before the trip. This was drawn in Levin.
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This was a night drawing. I sat on a street that reminded me greatly of Cuba Street. Looking out towards where I walk to my Grandfathers home. It’s quite the wak, but I got out at least once a day.

nap-draw-waterWater front drawing. I started with Gouache (work I’ll post in a future post). People liked to come to the waterfront, many sitting and eating fish and chips. In this piece two figures sit and watch the hillsnap-draw-landscape2

Yet another waterfront drawing. One major difference I noticed with painting was the problem with catching small details – rather impressions of the area. I’ll try to work with goauche more but /i do enjoy the life drawing to digital painting process.

 

I look forward taking these works into GIIMP.

More drawings and start posting paintings later.

Levin Tower Seq

I haven’t been happy with the latest digital paintings I’ve been doing. It’s been a struggle. Oh well. I got Dads scanner working on my laptop so I can go back to scanning my sketchbooks in.

I did one street pencil drawing today – but spent the evening working from photo reference in my sketchbook. I’ll get these images uploaded over the next few days. For now, a mash up of my drawings in a attempt to turn it into a scene..

This is the reference  I started with. I just imported the drawings into GIMP – scaled down – and decreased the opacity. The opacity is around 60%. In the background is a mid gray tone texture that I will use for the tone stage.. For now – line.

Line. Still sticking with the red. I prefer it over the black. It’s interesting mixing these drawings together – it’s allowing me to work with drawings that are lacking detail. I’m not sure where I will go from here – but I feel I’m progressing with creating more complex and interesting scenes.

Gray tone. I recorded the painting up to here but forgot to torn the screen recorder on for the color. I was frustrated with myself – normally I’m really good about recording all my digital painting.

Like I said earlier  I struggled with this painting. And this is the stage I had problems with – more so than the line stage. It feels empty and lacking depth. My favorite area is the clock tower in the center. There is something about the tones working together – other areas lack the detail. I thought taking it into color could help fix this emptiness I felt – it only made it worse at first – but towards the end I started to get somewhere.

Color. It certainly helps create a base. I still feel it’s lacking.

 

Levin Tower

Awake early this morning - 5am. Wanted to get straight into the digital painting. I first checked Reddit SketchDaily – Free Draw Friday. Fantastic – can just do a street scene.

I mashed together three drawings I did in Levin. This system of mashing drawings together is working out well – it’s allowing me to cover more ground and use the drawings that I may not have used otherwise.

The inking. I choose to use a brown over the black. It gives a more natural look over cartoonish. That’s what I want. Having the lines in the first place is wrong, but it’s been helpful for me to develop my work into more detail. 
Gray-scale tone added. I used three brushes – two custom made flat brushes for the objects/sky and a vegetation texture brush for the vegetation (leafs). I should have added dark and texture to the sky. And color added. Same colors as the previous works like this.Not much happening in the foreground – focused on the background further by using a dark red in the clock tower in order to push it back. My favorite areas are the left and the clock tower.

Check out this artists work

And finally, the video of this paintings process:

 

Sketchdaily Monsters and Digital Street Dev

Nibs for my Wacom tablet arrived on Tuesday so I’ve had a couple of days praticing… oh boy it’s nice to use over my old one. So much control. I’ve been focusing on taking the Levin street drawings into GIMP, using them both as reference and paint overs. I’ve been trying to take the computer out of the house more as well – setting up in the local library and at my brothers place.

Though I haven’t done any of the SketchDaily themes these past few days (busy with Python and the street paintings) I plan to get back into them’

Here’efs some recent work:I

This was with my old tablet. I did this over the weekend, before my new nibs arrived. The reference I used for this painting was a drawing in my sketchbook I did in the new Levin library, looking outside.

Now here’s a painting I did with my new wacom. Notice much of a different? I used much the same techniques as the previous painting but get a much nicer outcome. For this work I took a digital painting I had done and worked on it further, something that I need to do more. I could even scale this down and extend the painting further. I think this scale down technique will help me develop detail in my works.

This is with the old wacom but I have managed to get color in there. I like to use the multiply brush effect. It allows me to layer up those colors without losing the grayscale tone underneath. In the past if I wanted to show the under layers I would drop the opacity or use the eraser and cut back into the painting  I’ve been using the screen option as well, but not in this one.

Zombie girl for skethdaily. I got some feedback for this:

louisecyphre

So, do you want some help with your painting?

I don’t know what you’re drawing with, do you use a mouse, a trackpad or a tablet? If you use a mouse, and can afford it of course, switch to a tablet. If you already do, you’re off to a good start.

I’d try to reduce the palette. Choose three to four colours and stick with them. Keep a neutral background, so far the black background smothers all the details you put in. As far as I can see you use Gimp for your paintings. That’s totally okay – at least it’s a lot better than Paint! If I were you, I’d try using a smaller brush – or even a pencil tool. Start by learning to draw outlines, do colour as a secondary step or not at all. But for the sake of practice, I’d abstain from using colours until you get the basics down.

I don’t mean to offend, but so far one can’t really make out what you’re trying to paint. As I can see in your videos, you do have an idea you want to put down, but ultimately struggle with the outcome. Some more refined edges would help in the long run. Try using bigger areas of colour, if you must. As far as I can see, you also always use the same brush size. Use bigger sizes for the foundation, and smaller ones for details! Right now, everything blends together to a conglomeration of similarly sized lines, which lack definition.

Anyway, keep doing what you’re doing! Only practice makes uses better!

 

They made some good points. In terms of the comment about brush size, using the new tablet has this feature so won’t be a probem now, it’s also much easier to draw with it. I need to use more of a range of brush types in my paintings. I guess that’s one thing I’ve been working on. Maybe release a brush pack once I’ve made a few.

Since I’ve been getting back into using Python again it’s time I wrote scripts for GIMP. One script I had in mind would do this. Open a file, divide it up, export the divided pieces as brushes. This could be a great way to produce 50 or so brushes quickly.

Here’s the final SketchDaily – Demon:

I used a World of Warcraft reference for this. Again multiply color brush used over the grayscale underpainting.

Levin Plants and Cars

I’ve taken a break from the digital painting till my new nibs arrive later in the week. Instead I’ve been working with Python – Pygame and Autopy. Something different.

Still trying to get out and draw everyday –  have had some beautiful days here. Here’s some of my drawings that I’m planning to take into GIMP in the near future.

No traveling currently so all these are around Levin…

Levin North School again. Sat in a similar place I did as last time. The perspective of the steps was certainly a challenge – I still struggle with it.

These stripes are used to show the bump in buildings. Helps with the directional feel to the image.
A quick shop in New World before this one – rice crackers, humus, and a creaming soda. I was able to relax in a chair well drawing this scene over looking the New World carpark. Burger King is new for Levin. I hold no interest in it but the sign was fun to draw.

New World billboard on the left. Mountains in the background which I’ve covered with a 45 degree shading movement. Couple of plants peeking out in the bottom.

Sitting out front of my old High School – Horowhenua Collage. VIew of the start of Bath street. Powerpoles, fences, gardens. What more could one want? That first page is nice after looking at this garbage. Carry on.

Sitting outside the swimming pool drawing the building behind the skate park. I’ve been trying hard not to mess up the scale of items, it’s just about taking your time and really looking. Any fast moves and it’s all over.

 

The mall carpark. Cars are becoming more frequent. I don’t think anything is harder than something else, it’s just about looking. 
Plants plants and more plants.

I do enjoy drawing those plants. In the past I had just focused on the branches but those leaves are becoming more frequent.



Levin Street School

After uploading so much digital works lately I thought I’d better scan in sketchbook works. It’s important to me that I can out of the house everyday with this sketchbook and get two drawings done. Not everyday this happens, but when it does I feel good. These works are all from various locations in Levin. Old letterbox in my Mothers backyard. It was a beautiful afternoon and I sat on the deck with my sketchbook, drank a beer, ate lemonades, and sketched. This is one of the more zoomed drawings I’ve done recently. The box was painted with spraypaint by me. The ‘No Junk’ is a Russian font I found on the internet and copied. View in the new library. I sat on the 2nd flour and drew the view looking outside. Lights were the main focus. Some vegetation/cars outside can be seen. 2nd part of previous drawing. Not so much detail as the previous page. Lights hanging down are plentyful though. I focused on scaling the lights in order to show the prespective of the room. It was certainly refereshing to draw a different scene over the usual light pole and trees. View of the Levin mall that I’ve drawn several times before. Focus this time was less on the building and more on the trees and car.  Front of the car, trees and vegetation in the background. Again, not alot of detail in this one. View of Oxford Street. I like how I’ve rendered the plants, It’s created quite a mass of information  The top left is certainly missing information .. maybe I should of added clouds to this area. During this drawing I talked to a man called Rex. He has a video production company in Levin. I need to get in contact with him and visit his studio – should ring tomorrow.

Scale! Light pole scaling off into the distance. I talked to Rex for sometime so headed home shortly after. Strugled somewhat with the right side. I’m really happy with the left though. so I guess it makes up for it. View from a seat on Queen Street. I’ve drawn this scene many times before, but it’s always a new experience. This was drawn at home, in the tunnel house. I don’t normally draw at home but it was a sunny day and I was relaxing with a Double Brown, talking to Dad and some friends from down the road.

This drawing is of the wooden pillars in the tunnel house and a chain holding up a plant.

Queen Street. My sister came for a walk with me and I brought her lunch. Sadly I had forgot my clutch pencil – it was a disaster. I was going to go home without drawing – oh the horror. But I decided to pop into a shop and buy a pack of two HB pencils. These were ok but I still preferred my clutch. I found it once I got home, we were reunited.

Typical scene that I have been drawing recently, Subway is on the left. For the tree leaves I just made

The right side of the page. This was a disaster. I got the perspective wrong and added the car in – when really the car is much further to the right. I tried to fix this by attempting to change the car into clouds. The poles scaling down are correct. Holley was getting cold and wanted to head off so I gave up on this one. Happy with the left page though
I need to draw in a variety of locations. I get sucking into drawing the same scenes several times, which isn’t a bad thing, but it is refeshing to draw something new, and keeps me on my toes.

This scene is a drawing of a local school – Levin North School. I attended this school in the late 90s. It hasn’t changed and it was nice to sit on the field and draw the buildings. Many wonderful memories here – mostly role playing television and movies characters with friends (Batman and Stargate SG1)

I’m especially happy with how the building on the far left. It’s working well. Looking forward to taking these drawings into GIMP and producing paintings.

Church Levin Mall Sketch

Pencil Sketches from various locations in Levin. This sketchbook is taking me sometime to get though. I’m only using reference in it – majority are these pencil street drawings.

View from a chair in a local Church. I attended with my Father and Filipino family. The view is the inside corner of the church and windows. Someone stood in the view for sometime so I was able to capture them – certainly helps with the scale. 

Top left is a painting on the wall. Two figures. Below are curtains and such. I didn’t have time to finish this off – the scene changed somewhat when people were packing up, curtains were closed etc. I lost the scene I was drawing and stopped. I guess this is why I enjoy drawing those street scenes. Nothing changes.

A view of the swimming pool in Levin. Here you can see the hydra slide weaving down.

The rights side of the hydro slide view. Mostly trees here. People often tell me they like my tree drawings

View of Levin Mall carpark. Some tone added in areas – the pole and mountain. I’ve drawn this scene many times before, but every time it’s very different.

On the right tis a sign telling people to drive carefully. Behind this, plants and trees. to the left a stop sign, and part of a mountain continued from previous page.
I’ve really started getting back into tone here, covering the tree on the left, pole and mountains with it. This is a view of sitting on Queen Street.

Lights scaling off into the distance with branches of trees behind. Plants and a car at the bottom.

Something that isn’t Levin. This is a view in Foxton. I went to Foxton with my Father to help a friend cut down trees. This is the view when I was having lunch. I was looking down towards a church.

The 2nd half of the Foxton church view. Not so much information in this. Wire stretched across the page.

Quick sketch I did at my Grandmas place. I didn’t get much artwork done when I was there, spending most of my time playing Torchlight 2 

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