Light & shade

preliminary pen sketch

Often I will see something in the lightening, or a scene, a person or a photo that just portrays things perfectly. often I will have to scratch around, doodle and sketch till I understand what I saw.

Once I can see the inspiration developing on the page, the picture usually comes together quickly.

adding a watercolour wash

adding shadow

beginning in pastel

Finding the Light & Shadow

 

Gesture Sketch

gesture sketch #thedailysketch #artwork #torso #watercolour #pen pic.twitter.com/8uf9m9wqAr
— norton elissen (@sighclone) February 3, 2015

Torso 5 - Bringing it together

“#Drawing is not the form; it is the way of seeing the form." ... Degas http://t.co/th38kumbzS pic.twitter.com/nq45EX4MxT
— norton elissen (@sighclone) February 5, 2015

I'm back sketching each day, a torso each morning, and it great for the soul as well as honing my technique, Seeing the light and translating that into tone in a wash or pen line at an edge is an essential first step but I do like using pastel to be able to add or remove the light and finding lines, perhaps more sculptural than drawing/painting

You can see the individual scans on my tumble log

The Shy Torso

“Photography is an immediate reaction, drawing is a meditation." H Cartier-Bresson #artwork http://t.co/sMdyz3Dchm pic.twitter.com/yf3bbk2AEH
— norton elissen (@sighclone) February 3, 2015

 I painted this a while back and I fiddled with it for a while, I realised less is more and a lot of oil and pigment was lifted off, and then glazed over. Still I was pleased with the feel, although this photograph of the art work does seem flat it does hint at the delicacy I was after. I'm surprise how many think this is a photo not an art work! That wasn't my intension

Torso 3 The Rubenesque Torso

 I have not really been putting in much effort to submit a daily sketch into the #thedailysketch hashtag (eg, on twitter or google+) however it is good to have a little project to do each day to extend my art. Torsos are not only a traditional subject but they also offer the opportunity to do those fast gesture sketches (aka doodles).I suspect I learn more about shadow and forms with just a simple wash and perhaps a pen to "find" some detail.

Many sketches never get scanned, or taken through to a final art work (like below) but a lot of the benefit is not so much as a visual guide but more as a performance practice. That hand eye coordination that is so seldom mentioned in the art world. I like to think of my eye directly moving my arm and wrist without to much analysis, the body language of the model translated back into my body language.
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Acrylic on Board

Torso 2

The Proud Outstretch Torso

Begining a new torso series

Red Stocking Torso

Mixing up the media again

Chalk & Pastel Layout

I  am doing a few ruben's inspired torsos at the moment, mainly for a sketchbook on tumblr (don't think many people are looking at them)



Anyway I've had some fun experimenting with media, like developing a compositional sketch in acrylic & gouache over a chalk layout on coloured canvas board.

Acrylic & Gouache on canvas board

Starting the New Year with a Pastel Torso

  

The Smiling Selfie

Watercolour & marker pen

Pastel on Paper

Did you miss me?

Its been over a year since I've visted here, thought I'd better get rid of the cobwebs. I can see a lot of links are broken (c'est la vie) but I thought it is time to get posting some sketching again. I have begun over on twitter with a shortblack series most days I will post a simple quick gesture sketch. and if the work out I might post them on flickr in an album called short black & inspired

#shortblack and #torso #sketch #pencildrawing WARNING #nudity pic.twitter.com/5RRQoh1vd9
— norton elissen (@sighclone) June 23, 2014

See you around

Hello ..again

It has been a long long time since I posted it here. Too long! I'd moved to pastels some time ago and loved them as a rapid medium, you sketch and paint at the same time but... I could never get the detail I wanted and I always seemed to struggle trying to finish them, and instead I would ruin them with overworking. So my pastels where put aside for a while. Recently I have been inspired to return to the 2 minute torso idea, ok this is more of a gesture sketch (taking a fair bit longer than 2 minutes) and figured if I started smaller and didin't get fixated with the gradient of skin tone and detail, and more importantly stopped before it was to late I might have a chance of doing better and I must admit I am charmed by my fist attempt at a 10 minute toso pose and a shy first time model.

experiments in skin tone

It would appear every artist has their own recipe, often kept very secret, to getting decent skin tone. I have previously blundered along doing everything in "full colour", sometimes a little luridly so. Lately I'm becoming taken with the idea of many washes in similar if not the same colour/tone. I feel it brings a luminosity to any watercolour. The great master of the many washes was John Sell Cotman and the more I read about his work the more I love the technique. Recently I bought some of Windsor and Newton's Cotman Range, they may only be "student" quality to some but they do definitely have beautiful coverage in washes, and particularly the yellow ochre, which I think bring a delicious goldenness to skin tones and at the same time doesn't muddy the other colours (which I have found previously in more expensive paints) Anyway I've been experimenting and I think I have come across a set of four colours that really do give great skin tones. I trust John Sell is not turning in his grave. Another watercolourist I really admire is Norman Lindsay, but no one yet has come out with a range of his colours, that I'm aware of.

Long time no post

I must apologize, it has been so long since I posted here I had forgotten how to do it. Maybe it was made harder by changes in google+. No worry. Its time to get inspired by the torso again and do some serious art. Here I have a wonderful model and I have been experimenting with more and "thinner" washes.In this case i got the paper so wet it crinkled badly as it dried, maybe 130gsm next time. All the same I like the delicacy of tone that comes with more than one wash is the same basic colour.

Not a 2 minute torso by any means, but one I am proud of. all the same

Winter inspiration

My twitter friend Dee doing a swirling dance infront of the winter sun.

Just the inspiration I need to restart my posting on the interwebs again.

two minute torsos ...some more

Whilst pastel doesn't lend itself to ultra fast sketches (the tones need to be worked and blending reworked before the pastel looks rich!) I still like the two minute torso exercises as a way to lead into a fuller exploration of gesture & posture & composition & ... the list goes on and on ....what is working well for me at the moment is to do this quick torso sketch in watercolour ...then begining of the pastel ...I have even rubbed pastel over a watercolour ...life is to short not to exploit and enjoy it ...even when painting

dark torso

I've started to find my own way to work in corel painter essential ...I like to start with a little bit of "borrowed" colour into a quick background wash,(broad wash brush) then add a few tiny little details (using the edge cloner brush) or just tracing some free and easy fine lines (using the 2B pencil brush and purple colour) and splash or two on the nipples for interest. Still not quiet 2 minutes but getting faster and freer. Hard to image it is done on the computer ...or am I pulling my own leg?

Auto vs manual

I've had time to review the tutorials that come with Corel Painter ...and i've tried out their auto paint and trace features ... the three images about were created in only a minute or two using avrious auto-paint options ...look they are effective but in the end I am unimpressed. The colours are nice in the modern painting example in the middle, close to those I might choose. But sadly the auto Van Gogh of the right is an embarrassment to the poor guys reputation, particularly the colours, also the watercolour sketch on the left lacks the transparency and delicacy that makes watercolour such an appealing medium.

Ok could I do better? I choose this photo, of a flickr friend, for a "two minute torso" exercise, that I have found enjoyable and a way to test out new techneques or just shapen up my work. so here is my first computer generated two minute torso (ok it did take more like 18minutes because I was still learn and doing a lout of s)

I used the chalk and pastel brushes because the marks they left where close yo want I get when sketching. So I started with my favorite pale blueish purple to start the shape of the mid tones, adding a couple of colours in the darks. When sketch I also often just have a few reference smudges or colour patches over on the edge so I can judge the relative tonal values

Next I added strong colour using a wide and fast infill squiggles. Then I got the blend tool and smoothed them into the previous areas.

I have repeated these last two steps several times, building up the form ...and i do like how it lets me do that ...however I gave up at this point ...normally about know I would put in a few "detail" lines with a pencil, generally with a quick open flourish ... just to bring a few key parts into detail ...alas my detail line work is still a bit clumsy and I was consigning all my work to the place (where ever that is)

So my final conclusion is I actually love the my bamboo fun tablet (it won't stop me painting of sketching conventionally) it is a terrific tool. Expect to see more or my work created with it, Yt I am unlilely to start selling my direct computer art anytime soon.

what is art?

I get asked this question a lot ...as if i should know the answer! ...welll i suspect art like beauty is in the eye of the beholder not the object or the action ...so I can labour and toil and call what i di art, but i would be lying ... i think my art is a gift of inpiration or joy to the viewing ...a gift i may never seen given ..but one i give in honesty and full knowledge that it may not be recognized of generate income of bring fame ...but is a gift all the same.

Alas poor twitpics....

i liked the way the badge or widget or whatever it was from Twipics worked (just on posting the last item I had uploaded to twitpics. All automatic and no code to copy and paste ...something that tests and old bloke like me) ...but alas it has disappeared without trace and I have to do some editing and such to show my work here ...such tedium

Time to look for a new photo to twitter methods : )

By Bye Twitpics ...was nice while it lasted