Latest Artwork

[Jimd]

Just finished this for a customer. 8x10 in pencil. I've been corresponding a little with Dick Kramer, and he gave me some pointers that I incorporated into this drawing. That guy's great! Enjoy...

[ozspyder]

Awesome pencil work..... what grade are you using there ??? 6B ? Your shading techniques look a bit like mine

Cheers
Dan

[Jimd]

Awesome pencil work..... what grade are you using there ??? 6B ? Your shading techniques look a bit like mine

Cheers
Dan

Thanks, Dan, I use some of everything! For the vast majority of the drawing, I use a plain ol' #2 pencil. For the darker areas, I often use up to a 9B.

Dick Kramer recently took a look at a few of my drawings, and suggested that I darken in the shaded areas a bit more than I have been. He told me to go bold, so I did on this one. Seems to have come out a bit better using his advice than if I'd done it my "old" way.

How about posting some of your work here, I'd love to see it.

[ozspyder]

Hey Jim,

I prefer pure charcoal and for a bit of 'cleaner' work I like charcoal stick or EE or EB pencil. I sometimes use the 'grey' pencils 6B/ 9B, but I find them too light for most of my drawings. I don't know Dick Kramer, but I like his wods of advice.

Jim, try using EE or EB or charcoal pencil or charcoal stick. Go DARK, and I mean it. Once you go dark you can really express the forms a bit better. Go full black on the deepest shadowed areas, and work your way out. Your use of white space is good, now go over a copy of that drawing in full black and go DARK DARK DARKER....and if you can get your mate Dick Kramer to have a look at your darker/ moodier version I'm sure you'll surprise him and yourself.

Problem with some of the darker/ moodier ones is that they can 'sometimes' get a little sombre. Not good if you are selling product. But great for pure artwork. You can really express more dimension to the subject and really pull it away from the background and foreground.

I'll see what I can dig out. Haven't had the chance to do much artwork over the last few years with work and kids and all.

My favourite mediums are charcoal, pencil, watercolours, coloured pencil, pen, ink & wash.... and photography being related to it all. Having been in architecture I used to doodle/ design all the time an also managed to do so during art history/ architectural history lectures....one of my tricks is to draw projection slide images using a 2mm ink pen as quickly as possible as the lecturer is talking Gets you to train your brain to take in as much detail as possible and train your hands and eye to pick out only essentials of the image.

Keep up the good work.
Dan

PS: Another trick I like to use when drawing still life for use as pure illustration or artwork is to exaggerate the perspective ever so slightly. Call it artistic license if you will. It gives the piece a bit more drama and sense of life.