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

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

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

A Wash First

A number of folk who should kniw these things that my work might stay looser if I start with a wash and then add the sketch detail (just where it is needed rather than getting too detailed). Well They might be right!

first wash (tone & form)

sketch in detail (and refine composition

start a new sketch/wash

Its hard to get the composition right the first time but ... i might be onto something

the selfies continue ...

 

Another Day Another Selfie to Sketch

marker pen on paper, composition sketch

Keeping it soft, Pastel on coloured paper

The Spring Carvinal is On

Looking for Trouble

Time to have a day at the races and wear a little (but expensive hat)

Pastel on paper

Pastel Play

Keep on sketching

Sketching is good for your health

The social networks have changed a lot while I have been giving them a rest, they seem to be a heck of a lot of ego and stalking rather than a place of collaboration and conversation, but it might just be me missing the point. However I have found the discipline of sharing one sketch a day (well almost daily) very rewarding and should I think it is better for my health. That 10 to 15 minutes of concentrated seeing and mark making and appreciating a good coffee has done good thing for my blood sugar and pressure, but perhaps less so for my waistline (ok I am exercising as well, weather permiting)

You can watch me on twitter @sighclone or on Flickr in my short black & inspired album.

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.

Two Minutes, plus a few

I've started back seriously sketching again (best therapy there is for a broken body & soul) but alas the flow is taking a while to arrive. My attempts at 2 minute torso are taking more like 20, and I am muddying the colours, BUT it is ART. I love doing ART. Long Live ART.

The view from my window

It has been a few weeks since my accident and I can not remember much of that time but I have become very attached to the view from the window beside my bed in this rehab place. It is my one contact out into the real world. Hospitals are not my favorite places, and the daily routine is becoming torture. So it was a big achievement to sketch, the shadows of the world outside. It was an even bigger achievement to figure out how to scan my sketch and then post it here.

Well I have to thank an anonymous gift, of a niffy android phone. This phone, its camera and its apps (still discovering new things) has let me escape from the plaster and bandages and be out side maybe not in the real world but in cyberspace.

Thank you however you are.

a long standing party trick

A long standing party trick on mine, is to do quick sketches of my friends and others ...candid ones while they talk, laugh and dance ..the sketches are just that quick pencil, pen or brush squiggles ..a bit of fun ..and normally well received. I've even been brave enough to attempt a few on the computer, using my bamboo tablet ...trouble is I'm still learning the rope and my computer prowess (or lack of it) detracts from the spontaneity ...well last night a young friend showed me art rage, and even where to download a starter version for free. ...I was away, it made immediate sense to me ...especially when one of the ladies stripped off to pose nude for me ...the whole thing only last two minutes but it was talked about all night.

more computer art attempts

In a busy house tonight, lots of coming and going ... and getting ready to go out ...must be time to try out some rapid sketching in corel painter. The watercolour is nicely like a real wash, and those washes can be dried at the click of a button :) and ...and it is a big AND ...the felt pen tool can be any colour, even a light pinkish purple that has strong coverage over the underlying image ...wow such artistic freedom.

giving it a red hot go

Its winter here now and has been cold, rainy & cloudy for a few days ...great time to stay inside by teh fire and watch the rain ..and maybe practise with my hand at painting on the computer ...I have a new wacom bamboo tablet with corel painter ...still in the learning stage ..those demos & tutorials make it look easy but ...but ...ok there are lots of buts ...and hows? ...and arhhhh! So there I was with a blank canvas and staring out the window with a bad case of "painters" block ...just as the sun was setting it was beautifully silhouetted against a large banksia tree and some dark clouds ...strongest of warm colours (almost the colours of the aboriginal flag) ...I had to go for it ...and it was easier than I expected. Choose the brushes (impasto followed by opaque arcylic), select & mix a couple of colours and wow ..you can push the colours around on the canvas just like real paint...not as hard as the instruction seem to make me believe.

I think I could get used to this!

Joanie sketch

Quick sketch, not exactly a torso, but close enough to two minutes. Testing out some new Neocolour II water soluable wax crayons, with some pencil and wash as well.

That is some cyber woman

You would have to admit that the cyberwoman on tonight's re-run of Torchwood, puts those cyber nasties on Dr Who to shame.