Friday 15 May 2009

SYLVESTER McCOY



A fair while ago I went through a phase of drawing portraits just to keep my eye in whenever work was slow or non existant and this is a pencil drawing of Sylvester McCoy. I know what youre thinking here: 'Please, not another Dr Who!'

Sorry about this. I've always felt that one good way to learn to draw is by drawing the things you're really keen on and I've been a bit of a Dr Who anorak since I was about 5. And as a young man it was easier to get hold of pictures of Dr Who than it was to get hold of pictures of girls I liked. Sadly.

This drawing has been cropped because he was wearing a hat and that turned out to be a disaster. I'm ok with faces, more or less, but hats are a right pain. Especially straw ones.

Tuesday 12 May 2009

BEAUTY AND THE BEASTS SKETCHBOOK ROUGH



This is the rough of the Beauty and the Beasts post I put up on 2nd May which I did in my little A5 sketchbook. After I'd done the initial rough, I decided bits and pieces needed changing or improving. With this in mind I did corrections on a separate piece of paper and stuck them over the parts I wasn't so keen on which you'll see if you look closely at the picture.

I also added extra little details to make the composition more pleasing and fill the space better. Once I started on the final drawing I continued to add further small detailing to improve the illustration and make it more interesting.

Wednesday 6 May 2009

CHARCOAL AND WASH FOOT DRAWING



Here's another attempt at a foot drawing and this time I've added a Quink wash over the charcoal to get some tonal variation. Again, as with the previous foot drawing I posted, this is a fairly large piece of paper I'm working on to accommodate my fairly large feet.

The washes were applied by holding the paint brush between my toes. As before, very little control can be managed by doing this but that makes for a more interesting mark I think. I find it's quite refreshing to do a drawing like this just for fun with no pressure to get it right and to have no preconceived ideas as to how it'll turn out.

Tuesday 5 May 2009

PATRICK TROUGHTON



I must of done this around ten years ago and I'd completely forgotten about it until today when I saw one of my favourite actors ever, Patrick Troughton guest as a villain in an old episode of The Sweeney. So I fished the drawing out and thought it didn't look too shabby for something I did that length of time ago so I'm posting it.

Done in HB pencils, I think some of the drawing is a titchy bit crude here and there in comparison with the way I'd do it now but every drawing is a valuable learning process and that's why you should never throw any work away.

I've always liked Patrick's wistful pose in this drawing and I think he was supposed to be looking directly at you but I went wrong somewhere along the way. Y'know, as usual.

Saturday 2 May 2009

BEAUTY AND THE BEASTS



The sole intention of this blog was to keep my children's book work separate from my other drawings but I've caved in a little bit and thought that maybe one or two wouldn't hurt from time to time, if only to add a big splash of colour.

I've always had a huge fascination with monsters but although I love the idea of them, I wouldn't want to be stuck in the middle of the woods with them. And I really wouldn't want to be eaten by them, having my leftovers left dangling in the branches of the trees for the birds to pick at. I just wouldn't fancy that at all.

Not that there would be any leftovers, I'd be a juicy bit of monster fodder- and far too tasty to waste.