Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to everyone who should read this blog.
Lets hope that 2009 isn't as bad as they say it will be, and if it is remember there are more important things than the size of your bank balance, so instead of wishing my family, friends and any readers of this blog a prosperous 2009 I wish them all a very very healthy New Year......

Robin

After not picking up a pencil for two weeks, I thought it was time to get back into the drawing habit, As we attract a lot of Robins into our garden I thought I would give one a try, total drawing time was around 6 hours, drawn on bristol board using a 2H HB and 2B clutch pencil, image size is approx 3x2 inches, reproduction has let the image down again giving the white paper background a grey look.

Sunday Morning Walk Take 3

Yet again I have re-worked this drawing, I have lightened the hedge top which was to dark, and also the centre tree base to blend it in more with the fog effect. Any comments as always are welcome

After reading comments on here and other forum pages that I show my drawings on I decided to work on the middle ground area and darken the figure down a little, Ive also worked on the mist in the centre of the drawing, I think that this has given the whole drawing more depth, let me know what you think.

Sunday Morning Walk

A larger Landscape than normal, this one being 9 x 5.5 inches. I wanted to give this piece a strong forground which I hope I've achieved.

Misty Morning

Another little landscape, size is approx 5.5 x 3.5 inches, the church in the distance is called St Mary's and is approx 1 mile from where I live, 50% of the landscape is true the rest is from my imagination.

Morning Walk

My first attempt at a landscape, 3.5x3.5 inches on Bristol board, influanced by the work of Trevor Grimshaw and John Waterhouse. I have quiet a few images of the local country side which I would like to draw in this style, so I think I may be posting a few more in the next week or so...

The Lookout

This started out as just a head study and grew and grew,the finished image is around 7x8 inches, drawn on Mellotex, I started with the eye and just worked out from that point. once again the reproduction is in my opinion nothing like the finished drawing, the scanner gives to much contrast and the photograph gives a blue green hue, even after playing around in photoshop, also a lot of the detail has been lost. I hope to post a better image in the next couple of days. A big thank you to my mate Paul for re-scanning the image and getting a better result than I ever could.

Hippo!

My latest piece of work, measuring 7 x 2.25 inches, The letter box framing suites this image well I think, I have tried to get the feeling that this Hippo has just emerged from the river and the water droplets are reflecting in the sunshine. Again the problem has been the scanner which gives a high contrast effect which I have tried to remove in photoshop, I would prefer not to manipulate the image once finished as, I think there is a danger of ending up with an image that is not true to the original drawing.

Golden Eagle

I've been working on this head study of a Golden Eagle for the last couple of days, yet again the scanner has let me down so I have had to take a photograph and download the image, this has done no favours to the actual drawing, size is approx 5x4 inches, all comments welcome.

Tree Sparrow

I have been working on this drawing for the last couple of days, size is approx 5.5 x 5 inches, I started with the eye and worked my way out from there, nothing was pre drawn, the background was achieved by painting graphite onto the paper with 1/4 inch acrylic brush, and re-using the waste graphite in my rotating sharpener. hope you like him.

Asain Lion take two

I've played around with this drawing to try and loose some of the flatness, I wanted to lift the Lion away from the background, I dont think that having to photograph the drawing, and then transfer it to the computer does the final image any favours.

Asian Lion

Here is my first attempt at a large cat, this is an Asian Lion taking 40 winks before dinner! image size is 5.5x3.5 inches, I'm not to happy with the finished item I think I will give it a little more work later, the right hand side of the body needs to be darker, and I think the overall finish looks flat, so I may work on the background to try and make the lion stand out a little more. My apologies for the quality of the image but my scanner gives everything to much contrast, so I had to take a photograph which again doesnt give the greatest of reproductions even after messing around with it in photoshop, if I manage to achieve a better image I will post it here.

As a life long Pink Floyd fan, I was saddened to hear the news that Richard Wright passed away on the 15th of September 2008. I first heard Meddle by Pink Floyd being played in the common room at college,I was only 15 and from that moment they changed my appreciation of music, I have every album they have released some more than once, I've been lucky to see them in concert 4 times. Wright always more in the backgound than Waters and Gilmour so his contribution to the group was often undervalued, yet without him, Meddle, Dark Side of the Moon, Wish you Were Here and the later albums after Waters departure would not of been the classic Albums they became. Things will never be the same to all Floyd fans, but the music lives on for ever, think I'll go and put Meddle on to make me feel better.

Here we have the finished drawing of the Ring tailed Lemur, size is approx 8x6 inches, as with all my drawings I'm never 100% happy, but that makes me want to improve next time.

As you can see a little more work has been accomplished, seem to be learning a little bit more every time I put pencil to paper which is what it's all about I guess. I hope to have this completed within the next few days.

Thought I would post this update on the Ring Tail Lemur, worked a little more on the tail, and staretd on the right handside of the body, also a little more detail added to the face, still not getting the effect I want, but practice makes perfect as they say!

Work in Progress

Having been away for the last few days, I thought I would pick up a piece I have been working on but never managed to finish, as you can see it's still work in progress, Ill post more over the next few days. all comments welcome Grahame

Swan

I finished this over the weekend, the problem I have is that the scanner hasn't picked up all the detail on the wings etc, so not to happy with the finished image, but thought I would post it anyway. the overall size is around 5 x 3 inches, the water effect was achieved by blacking out the paper and then lifting the desired amount of graphite off until I acheived the ripple effect I desired, I have to say that i think this needs more practice!

This drawing was one I did about 2 months ago, it was only drawn as a practice piece, and so it's not a complete drawing but just attempts at textures and shadings.

I drew this a few weeks ago after watching this mouse in our garden, he comes out each evening to eat the apple cores we leave him, I'm not 100% happy with the way the leaves came out, but I'll know better next time.

So far my favourite drawing, the size is 5 x 3 inches approx, drawing time around 9 hours. my aim is to draw as realistic as possible, so I've a long way to go I think...