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Artwork of William Mckee

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life paint gouache – brendon

November 5, 2012 / / Comments Off

I’ve photographed both of my current journals I’m working on currently. The first – a A5 shaped, rip able, thick. It’s perfect for watercolor/gouache.

Here’s two paintings I’ve done in it so far:

This started as a life drawing in Christenas class on Wednesday. I was happy with it. There was nothing that annoyed me about the image – it was a life drawing that captured most of the body, it had tone, it worked.

I brought a red watercolor and white gouache in Wellington and had several colors of gouache

On Sunday night when I arrived home from Wellington I decided to have a go – I used my large flat watercolor brush. I quickly worked over the drawing – similar to how I work with my digital paintings.

Here’s a landscape I did with the goache and red watercolor. Again, this is a very quick work with just minimal thoughts.

Maybe more of these worked in the future – I’d like to transfer some of my street drawings into watercolor. It was a suggestion from Roger Key – though he would prefer me to use oil paint (which I should really do – I’ve had oil paints sitting here for over a year not being used.

Life Drawing OctNov TLC

November 2, 2012 / / Comments Off

Busy week of life drawing. Last time I did it was over two months ago. Refreshing to get back into it. It will likely be sometime before I do it again. I should try to make it to Life Drawing in Palmerston North.

Here are digital works I did in Christinas class on Wednesday and Rogers Friday. Christina had very quick poses – and Roger long. I enjoyed both classes. I used pencil in my sketchbook

Works for the whole day. The poses were extremely quick so I didn’t have time to capture tone or full figures. Instead I just focused on capturing areas of the body – like I use to. There was one longer pose (top left) that I was able to add tone and color too. In Rogers I extended this idea further.

Rogers today. Geogetete was the model. She’s a fantastic model to work with – stays still and interesting curves. For all the works I went with a chalk brush. I’ve used this for my landscape works. I didn’t bother with experimenting with other brushes but rather just concentrated on capturing the lights and dark of the model. 

This was a longer pose that allowed me to capture the whole model and even color it (see next piece). Areas of this still need some development – most notable the foot and calf area. The portrait could do with tonal values as well. 

Color added. I started with the yellows – light and dark. Afterwards I added a red. Roger noticed the red and said it helped the work. This piece reminds me of the acrylic life painting I use to do in Dans Friday drawing class. It’s got that expressionism feel to it – mixing the tonal and line together. A range of colors helps. 

I started this piece with a yellow background instead of white. This allowed me to use a light gray without having to worry about lack of contrast. I used a mid gray for the darks, and a black for the hair. The hair wasn’t working so I covered it mostly with a light gray. For the negative space I used a light blue I had used in previous works. 

Color added to the figure. A red multiply brush was used first. This allowed me to preserve the under-layers. Yellow was then added as an overlay. This gave the image a very bright, and glowing look.

Georgette Monday Cloth

May 22, 2012 / / Comments Off

Georgette was the model on Monday. I found my 8b chunk of graphite so used that – especially helpful for warming up. Oil pastel was also used throughout the day, and plenty of dragon killing during breaks.

Next week will be the final week.The theme was clothed, which I wasn’t expecting. I’ve never been a fan of clothed model sessions. In nude I trust. I’d be interested drawing costumes but I felt the cloth that Georgette was using just covered her body and didn’t add anything. Disappointed.

That aside I tried to make the most of the model

No colored pencil. Instead using oil pastel for the tone. Oil pastel is fantastic, it spreads quickly and doesn’t smudge or cause problems.

I’ve been playing Skyrim. Good times.

Dan noticed these and said they were really working. The figure on the left is looking too muddy, I don’t like it.

I really wanted to practice techniques like this. Capture full body, and using tone fill in lights and darks. Typical color scheme

Strong portraits. Must be that pratice from Saturday night. Cmpletely different style then the portraits. This is my favourite work of the day.

For the last part of the day the model hid areas of her body behind a sheet with light behind. This cauesed an interesting shadow effect.

The drawing on the right is drawn from imagination. I’d like to practice further with recalling poses and such from memory.

Not as much life drawing as normal, but I hope you enjoy it anyway.

Charcoal Colorzz – Friday model

May 20, 2012 / / Comments Off

 

Life drawing. Lorraine was the model. I had her for a model last weekend so it was great to have her again on Friday.

I didn’t use any graphite today, instead a charcoal pencil.  Got it in the morning on Friday – It’s been a long time since I’ve brought a new media so thought I’d give it a go.

Charcoal pencil is 4b – Soft. I’d rather a harder charcoal, maybe HB? Might check French Art Shop or Gordan Harris.

Anyway. Here is 6 hours of Life Drawing Dans Friday class - Experimental Drawing.

 

I’ve kept with the theme of working with shapes, exploring straight lines in this one. T

he charcoal is dark so the drawings are clear. I have problems with the lighter graphite, especially HB. It’s got to have colored pencil added be notable. 

More of that same page. This was one of my larger figures of the day. I’ve been working smaller recently…. but exploring a range of sizes. Easier to fit everyting in!. This shading techniques on this image is quick straight lines. Areas that are dark I’ve made a harsher mark. With the direction of the marks attempted direction movements in order to create

depth and 3d.

Color! Kept with my recent color palette with a slight switch Yellow for the lights, blue for the negative space. For the darks I’ve switched to a brown grey colored pencil, no dark reds.

I really like the line work on these. Some areas arn;t working right though. Far left figures shouders need a sharper line – it’s currecntly just curved and has no impact. Maybe because of the shading on the arm, may help with more contrast (notice the middle figure and the contrast between charcoal and blue). The legs are strong on this figure. I’ve been spenting time on Concept Art looking at Pencil Sketchbooks.

Again, these lines are working. I’ll keep working on that S and perfect those curves. Along with a strong straight line \, will create a wonderful contrast in my drawings. 

Free oil pastels! Just cheap ones, but I was quick to grab several colors – including a white!. Here I’ve used white and blue together to color the figure. I’m looking forward to more oil pastel as I started it at the end of last term with the plan to keep it going this term – but switched back to colored pencils. Whatever media I feel like using I should do it – don’t let planning take over

Oil pastel again, this time two yellows for the lights and darks. Charcoal was built up over the pastel which is one advantage over graphite.

I’m happy with how this figure turned out. It was great to get back to working with the oil pastel.

More pratice with those curves.. few doodles here and there. 

This page started with a drawing of megan (middle lower). The pose wasn’t working for me – lying down with only back visible. Makes it hard to draw those limbs… so I drew Megan. I had to use the orange for her hair and the theme continued in the drawing of Lor

and the final, gesteral works. Again, just exploring techniques I’ve covered in this post.

Life drawing tomorrow., Georgette is the model! I plan to use charcoal and oil pastel… see what happens with the colored pencils – used them lots drawing portraits at Matchbox last night.

ra1nz weekend life drawinz

May 14, 2012 / / Comments Off

Dan had a weekend class – Figurative Expressions. He mentioned he liked it call it this rather then drawing as people are free to explore other medians – like paint and sculpture. Knowing Dan – he won’t mind if you paint during a experimental drawing.

We had two models. On the Saturday – a male, and Sunday – a female. Both Days were a success, partially the works on Saturday and final works on Sunday. Longer poses didn’t go well surprising. 
Action poses. From Saturday. I constructed the model out of shapes. I don’t like measuring these shapes, they are always estimates.  I wanted to practice creating perspective around the model – this is why I used simple lines to contract an environment.
 
These are more developed – color! I stuck with yellow and blue for the negative space. On the Saturday the focus was on line so it was hard to capture tones – so I’ve just given it a flat color. Again – using lines in the negative space to construct an environment for the figures.

 

 
The drawing on the bottom right is working – torso, upper legs, and knees captured. I’ve been practicing the ‘S’ shape – in order to create a fluid line – I focus so much on straight lines – it’s important that I can produce other types of line.

These were some of the final drawings of the weekend – and some of my favorites. Dan was impressed by the scale change of the models/ I wanted to line up a character\.

And the final two from that sheet. As you can see I’m working landscape apposed to horizontal. It’s a habit I’ve picked up with all the brown paper drawings with life drawing. I enjoy it.
More pratice of the ‘s’ mark. I partically enjoy those legs that I colored around with blue, Forms really working. I’ll like to develop this further.
Need to create better lines.
I dared to use some promarkers. They just don’t do it for me.
This created an interesting perspective – leaning backwards while lying down. The few shapes I used created a basic idea of the shape of the model.
okk, im tired so this will do. overall a wonderful weekend life drawing. I’ve been rather useless on the computer lately – i think i need a break. but any computer work I do will be – Blender. Still more to learn. Need to render more material, expand particle systems further. 
gamedev. I had a blast with Hammer tonight. It’s ok, but really what I need to do is import my blender material into Hammer. I’ve had a go with Unity3d, importing a .blend file. Though, no success it’s something I could use Youtube and find tutorials. 
programming. I made a basic roguelike last week with python, I’d like to explore this further. Especially look at ideas that would allow me to create a 3d Roguelike. 
Maybe writting more. That could always be helpful.
I hope you like the life drawing. More will be happening this Friday. I’m not sure who the model will be. But it will be a female! I’ll be using pencil and colored pencils again – lifting off where Sunday left me.

Russel Friday Life Drawings

May 6, 2012 / / Comments Off

Friday went well. Russel was the model again. I wasn’t happy with the works I drew on Monday – just wasn’t in a good space. Friday was much better!

My surface to work on was large. I turned a fold up table on its side and used it as a backing board! I had pre-cut most of the paper so the size isn’t larger that I’m working on – though I was able to fit more figures along the page. Wish I had taken photos! I’m planning on doing it again (maybe even on Monday if there is room) so will be able to upload photos of the setup. People were impressed!

Here’s the drawings from the day. All completed with 4b pencil and colored pencils:

Gestural, warm ups. I’ve been exploring turning the figure into shapes in order to capture the complete model quickly. Enjoyable. The pencil has been nice to use – I spent so much time with colored pencil, the detail and feel of pencil is different… strange really.

This was a final pose of the day. I had asked if we could do a series of poses. Each pose was two minutes – and I’d get the model to spin around on the spot – holding the same pose. This allows me to capture the front, side and back. Russel misunderstood this and choose a new ‘action’ pose each spin. I really love this one though – maybe I’ll have to ask other models to redo this pose. Bringing a gun (toy of course) to class could work well.The word for this pose was dance. Again – I could see this working well for a spinning pose. All it really needs is better lighting so I can capture the lights and darks quickly. Flat lighting is hard.  

With this Russel held the same pose in each turn. Can totally tell that he’s turning around. I’ll take this into Blender/3d and model it out. Wish it had color! 

Gestural works. Lots of experimenting with scale. I think I spent an hour working on the same paper so build up a large amount of figures on the same page. I’d like to work with more of those two min poses – collecting a large amount of model rotation poses. All on the same page would be impressive. 

Color. Different. Using green as a line 

Longer poses. I wasn’t happy with this pose – back poses like this always give me very little to work with. I had a go with my white charcoal – something I havn’t used since the beginning of last term

Another longer pose. I’m not sure if this is working – it seems broken and incomplete.Another turning model pose. Again I’ll take this into Blender and model it out. I had time to capture some light in the pose but would like to have a better lighting setup so I didn’t struggle so much. 

I quite like how this came out. Exploring perspective with both feet – especially the one that’s close! Dan talked about the negative spare – mentioning how some of the lines are working and some seem off. 

This is tidyer. I like tidy. Even though my bedroom is a total mess. I like clarity in my life drawing. The left foot is working well – got positive comments from Megan and Dan about this. The middle portrait is my favorite portrait of the day. Dan mentioned – It’s very Russel. The shading technique – straight lines is new for me and I’ll explore it further. An exercise Dan got some of the class to do was straight lines. I was impressed by several works in the class. Including Megans – who was using promarkers to draw. I’ve used promarkers once for life drawing and struggled. It could be good for me to give them ago again – pencil dominates so much of my work. It was good I used oil pastel for Christenas block class at the end of

An last – the final of gestural works. These are mostly done with my right hand (I’m normally left handed). These other hand works are working better then normal. So simple but creates a effective line. Maybe I’ll work like this further. COLOR. RAWR,

Figurative Expressions Russel

April 30, 2012 / / Comments Off

It had been a week since I’d been into TLC. Today was Dans life drawing class. The model was Russel. The class wasn’t partially full, a decent amount of people but still enough room to move about without bumping shoulders.

I used colored pencil for the majority of the day, with a small amount of 4b pencil in the afternoon.

Here’s the work

These are the warmups. All are around 20 seconds. I’m rather happy with these. It wasn’t my most successful life drawing day but I feel I started well and ended on a good note.

Fifteen minutes were spent working on these quick works – so able to get plenty of figures down. And If it’s not the best pose – Don’t have to wait long till it changes!

The left side of the page. Photo was taken close up in order to get a decent view of the art. Lots of line!

Series of three poses in the morning. These were 10 mins each I believe. The right is my favorite., it’s got the most going for it. Others commented about it as well including Dan, Leah, and Rachel.

Turning the model into ‘basic’ shapes. A new way I’m looking at the model – this will make it easy to take the figure into blender.

Afternoon scribble. 4b pencil was used. Some tone used in the arm and such – line has been a focus in my work. 
Here I’m looking at the same pose from multipy angles in order to try to understand the 3d form better.

I said to Dan that I’ll like to paint on Friday. I havn’t painted for a long time, I strugged drawing for 6 hours today and I’d like to relax with paint for the day on Friday.

I’ll work on different angled figure poses in the Monday class and paint on Fridays.

Fail First

April 23, 2012 / / Comments Off

Still no drawing or painting to upload despite making a return today to TLC. In the morning we watched slideshows and talked about life drawing. It was much the same as normal for  the class. Good to catch up with old faces and met new ones though! Gonna crash Marcy Marcs on Thursday.

In the afternoon Dan modeled for the class (clothed). I felt horrible so went to the common room and played Half Life 2 and did a bit in Blender for the rest of the afternoon. Just wasn’t the time. I’m hoping next week I can get into the flow – it was quite a depressing afternoon thinking – geeze, why don’t I have the motivation to draw. Setups also the other. I didn’t plan out to draw today.

Here’s a drawing I did in bed the other day.

 

This was all done in colored pencil. No reference, just sketching down ideas. I think this is really important. Too often I get trapped into using a reference and it’s just nice and free to work out of my head. Especially using it as and exercise to get to sleep!

The Robot inspired head I animated. I’d like to create a talking model in Blender – especially a robot like this one. I might take this idea into Blender tomorrow and explore.

That’s all for tonight. Goodnight.

Christena Wednesday Drawings

March 21, 2012 / / Comments Off

No more Roberts for the week – Instead I’m in Christenas. She created a block class as there were a bunch of foundation that weren’t told about signing up for classes and there was an overflow of students.

Christina is lovely and allowed me (and Angelique) to join into the class for the rest of the week.

I wanted to carry  on with ideas that I had been developing since Friday. This meant continuing with oil pastel. Focus was on capturing light and dark. The lighting was brilliant – dark room and spotlight on the model. This made looking for the lights and darks easy….

I started with how I started the other sessions this week – with quick 30 second drawings with a 8b graphite pencil. A large focus of these were hands – I’ve wanted to improve my skills in this department.

Slowing down to one minute poses – chance to add tone into areas. It wasn’t much but happy with some of these works.Christina liked this arm so I thought I better take a photo of it. I didn’t get a whole lot of feedback from her – but I enjoyed her attitude and enthusiasm to the class. She is certainly a life drawing ‘tutor’ and helps people greatly with their work. A balance with expressionism and studies I found.Oil Pastel. Similar colors and ideas that I’ve been working with these last several days. The light today is partially good – strong contrasts between the light and dark allows me to capture it easily.

Something a bit different. There was a skeleton model setup in class and for this pose the model and the skeleton held the same pose. I started with the skeleton and drew in James over top. Working the skeleton and model together is something I’d like to explore further. 

The drawing on the right is working well for me. The black helps the contrast well. I’ve applied a white over the black to help with blending. Progressing from earier sessions I feel.

I’ve done 21 hours of life drawing since Friday and have another 12 to go. Out with a blast – it makes me happy!

Robert Tuesday – Term 1 2012

March 20, 2012 / / Comments Off

Six hours of life drawing with Robert. Normally it would be three hours on Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday but this term it’s switched around. Fine with me as I get the chance to jump into Christenas class for the rest of the week. So much life models – but great to end the term with a bang

I spent the day carrying on with oil pastels – seemed fitting to keep the development and exploration happening.

Graphite 8b warmups. Some tone is applied to areas. Alot of this is done blind which I feel I’ve been neglecting. Good practice. I like the strong straight line work on some of these. These were just warmups and I switched to oil pastel for the rest of the day.

Color scene is similar to yesterday I focused on limbs – looking at the light and dark. Those feet on the top left are looking better! It’s certainly something I have to focus more on – feet and hands.

This is a good example of a work I started but never had time to finish. You can see the pencil lines. More curvy lines are used in areas – and they work. I’m always worried that the curvy lines wont look at good as my normal straight lines. But I wont know unless I do them!

Sitting pose. This was the only time I used white crayon – I used it more yesterday. Rachel said she liked this one, but I don’t think much of it.

I talked about the chair with Angelique – I found it helpful using the chair for reference in measuring the anatomy. The proportions are certainly blown up here.

Another couple of pieces that I’m not happy with. Something it just doesn’t work.

Here I’ve progressed from yesterday and decided to use a black. This was a hard choice as it destroyed the color somewhat – I got around this by using a cloth and smudging the black into the work. This gave it a more painterly effect and wasn’t so over whelming,

When black is added to yellow green is often created. This happens here. I’m not too sure about this color. It’s getting quite muddy.

This was the long pose. It was spose to go all afternoon (3 hours) but people didn’t want a pose that long. Instead this went for 1.5 hours. I’m happy that I got a long pose in that really allowed me to develop the drawing.

I started it how I started the rest – with a pencil outline of the figure and features. Then went in with red for the darks. Yellow for the lights. I covered reds with yellow as well. This helped give it depth. I then added a white – especially on the yellow areas – which hadn’t had any layers yet. This gave a interesting texture and of course depth to the piece. Finally finished it off with black – used a hand towel and rubbed into areas. This really brought areas forward. This is the suggestions that Roger would of given me. I wish I had him there today to help!

Tomorrow I may work in my visual diary – I’ll switch to pencil and colored pencil if so. Or I’ll keep working on an easel with brown paper and pastels. See what happens at the time!

 

 

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