Over the past year or two, as mentioned in other posts, one of my daily routines is to make at least one digital sketch. The subject matter has varied from newsmakers and celebrities to copies of drawings by past masters. Sometimes the drawing exercise was an attempt to understand the method of a master, sometimes to practice a particular drawing style, and sometimes just for fun. Over that time I made perhaps 300 drawings. Here are a selection.
Early last year I drew my granddaughter Della, using Sketchbook and my Cintiq tablet. This particular drawing is based on a personal snapshot that shows her beautiful smile. At age two you treasure those. It was an attempt to use the pencil tool and a warm dark tone to create depth in the Sketchbook digital program. At the time I was using a plain white background.
Not long after the portrait drawing above came this figure sketch of the artist
Brice Marden, an abstract painter who has done mostly rectilinear work, from an online photo. Mr. Marden just turned 80 and still occupies a prominent place in the art world. This particular sketch was done using the same equipment and program mentioned earlier. Mostly I was interested in his somewhat sour expression and the gesture of his draped arm. Omitting unneeded detail is often an effective device when sketching.
Occasionally my interest in doing a digital morning sketch has more to do with improving drawing skills. That means practice at drawing all sorts of things from human faces to the tracery of tree branches. Improving drawing skills in turn improves overall visualization, understanding of structure, organization of values, and considerably more. This particular digital sketch was mostly for the practice of drawing cyclists in all kinds of postures. It is based on a news photo of a bicycle event--not a race--that occurred on city streets. The only interest I had was the cyclists so any detail that pertained to the city or buildings is omitted.
In this drawing from early 2018, two particular ideas were competing. First, there is an intentional homage to Edward Hopper's "
Early Sunday Morning," an oil from the early 20th century depicting a deserted New York street. Second, I wanted to contrast the differing but regular shapes of the facade, from squares and rectangles to half-moons, against the irregular and unpredictable trees and branches. The shallow depth of field, raking light, and desertion in this particular sketch are all stolen from Mr. Hopper.
The the time I made the image to the right--"Flying"--I had begun to experiment with background color and with main drawing colors. This is another family drawing. The woman is my niece and the man is her husband. Together they are
The Owl and the Pussycat, an internationally-known aerialist team. They will be competing in the
Monte Carlo International Circus Festival this month, and we expect to spend time there for the event. This drawing was done from a reference photo taken by a friend of theirs. This particular piece was done for practice and to learn the program, but it turned ot well enough to keep.
The last drawing here was done from a mugshot published online. In this one my interest was in attempting to replicate the traditional black and white drawing on toned paper. Digital programs make that really simple. The min key is to make certain about texture and of opacity of the whites. Although this particular person didn't have yellow eyes, touching up the white made them stand out that way, so I left them undarkened.
In summary, daily drawing has been a good thing for me these past several months. It's like stretching before a workout, gets the art muscle warmed up and ready to go.
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Previously
Digital Drawing
Drawing Digital Dailies
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