I thought I would show how I set up my new works for drawing, I like to have a colour and black and white image to work from, the black and white image shows me tone and balance that I'm trying to achieve, the colour image shows the lights and fur direction better for me than the B/W image, I also use these sheets to rest my hand on to protect my work as I draw, I always work with mechanical pencils normally HB 2H 2B and sometimes 4B & 6B, the paper is Bristol Board or Mellowtex, I have a putty eraser which I very rarely use except for cleaning the tips of my pencils after sharpening, and the one thing I wouldn't be without is my ball of Blue Tack. Not sure if any one else is interested in any of this but it's sometimes interesting to see how other people work.
9 comments:
Grahame, I'm certainly interested in learning all that I can about the process used by others.
Presently, I have my laptop set up on a bench close to my canvas, which allows me the luxury of zooming in on my digital reference photos when necessary. This is a great help, however, I'm finding that depending on the degree to which the screen on my laptop is tilted, I see different values and colours! I can see I'll need to have printed images on hand as well in order to have the best of both worlds. Having black and white and colour versions is a great idea - thanks!
Hi Peter, I also use the laptop as reference, but as you say depending on how it is tilted and also if any other light sources are hitting the screen, you do get different colour values, but I'm all for anything that helps you in improving your drawings.
Thanks for you comment on my chipmunk Grahame. I found it interesting on what you use for your pencil drawings. A friend of mine that is also an artist gave me good advice about getting those little white garden gloves and cutting out the first 3 fingers and the thumb. This way your little finger is completely covered and so is the palm of your hand so you are not touching the paper with your hand. But your hand doesn't really get sweaty. I do have a question though, what are you using the blue tack on your art for?
I use the print outs for hand rests too, wouldn't be without blu-tak but I use my bloard flat on my lap and although it makes my neck ache, I've tried every other possibile position but it just doesn't work! Very interesting to see how others work, love your new header by the way
Grahame, I love your work. I tend to work the same way you do. One thing I do is get a matte photo paper to print out my pictures on as it gives a good crisp image to work with.
Hi Judy, thanks for your comments, not sure if i could get on with the rubber gloves but I can see the advantages of using them, I use the Blue Tack for lifting layers of graphite off the drawing, it will only lift one layer at a time so when I have made an area to dark it's easy to take it back a layer, I would recommend you gave a look at Mike Sibley's site under Tutorials, and them indes to Tutorials. Thanks Grahame
Hi Karie, pleased to hear you like the header, sounds like your drawing technique is a pain in the neck...lol
Hi Wendy thank you for your comments, thats very interesting about the matt photo paper, I will give some a try, love your cat and bird drawing by the way.
Hi Grahame, the white gloves are those little light cotton ones not rubber. Rubber gloves would be awful wouldn't they. Thanks for your info on the blue tack. I didn't know that and I have some here so will try using it like that. I also will take a look at Mike's tutorials. Thanks
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