Fake Dane’s Portrait

Read about Fake Dane’s request to Jana to make his portrait on the Every Day Matters Yahoo Group and off I went to Jana’s to check it out. She’d mentioned that there was an invite to join in. It looked tough and I thought that I’d give it a miss. But the thing about digests is that when the next person jumps on board you get to read about it again and then the next. I went and checked out the photo references on his blog. This time I decided to give it a go. Here’s my version. I’m writing asking for one in return and I hope he will oblige. Shall update this post when I hear from him.

Update: Mar 28, 2007 : I heard from Fake Dane earlier today and he liked my version too. Here’s the link to the post on his blog. He dabbles in photography, film and not drawing as so has decided to give making mine a miss He’s looking out for more so if you’re interested download one of his photo references from the links above and give it a go.

Quite a few people have asked me about these “digital scratchboards”.   I’ve put down my process below. I have to admit that I haven’t used a scratchboard IRL as I haven’t located one in the art shops here.

1. I’ve used Art Rage 2 to make this and the earlier digital scratchboards.

2. The first step was to create a template for the background. I used the roller tool set at 34%.   Black paint was applied with horizontal strokes overlapping slightly followed by similar vertical strokes.  This is the process I follow for applying gesso on canvas.

3. With this one I made a slight variation. After saving a copy with a new name I added another layer and made a rough sketch with a red marker tool.  This stood out very well against the black background and also would not interfere with the white lines I was going to erase.

4. I then went back to the original layer and used the eraser tool at 1% width to erase using the red lines as reference.

5. mistakes were filled in with the roller tool set at 1%.  the only problem was that it looked darker than the shade made with the larger roller tool.

6. for the background the eraser tool was changed to 8%.  In retrospect i think I would’ve liked the lines to be spaced out more.

Few thoughts for the next attempt.

to check out some scratchboard samples on the web to see how shading negatively is handled.

to draw out a value scale of 3 or 5 prior to starting the drawing.  this area could certainly take a lot of improving

to add another layer for making the background.

If you have any other suggestions or advice please do leave me a comment.

Another Scratchboard

Sujata, a friend from Delhi, has sent me some lino boards, cutters and ink and I’m thrilled.  Hoping to try out some print making soon.  Until then I’ve saved a digital template of a prepped scratchboard.   This was made from a photograph that I took yesterday.  And while it is incomplete, I like the effect – lines and all.

Yesterday, at around three in the afternoon, two friends and I drove along the road from Dhaka to Ashulia to look for our subjects.  We spent and enjoyable hour taking many photographs of quite an enthusiastic bunch of people.   We were surrounded at each spot fairly quickly.  Some even came forward and asked us to take their pictures.  They were all thrilled when they saw the results on our digital panels.  We made several stops.  You can see some of the photographs here and here.

Restating Lines

It was after reading Danny Gregory’s website that I took to restating lines with a pen without a care and have now grown to like them. Soon after, I joined Every Day Matters (EDM) the group started by him. Without doubt this is one of the best groups that I belong to. The members are knowledgeable, helpful and encouraging. I have learnt a lot from them and the exchanges that take place. Some of it has got absorbed and is now a part of the way I draw and paint and the rest is on its way to being assimilated.

This pen & ink wash of the boy holding a flag is from a fabulous reference taken by one of my favourite photographers on Flickr, Ashit Parikh. I know that it bears little resemblance but I have now reached the point where I’m not fixated on getting a likeness at least that’s how I feel today!

Rotring : Brown ink : Watercolour Pencils : sketchbook : 8″ X 10″

Some quotes that I’ve fished out on Perfection from Robert Genn’s The Painter’s Key website

It’s always necessary to seek for perfection. Obviously, for us, this word no longer has the same meaning. To me, it means: from one canvas to the next, always go further, further… (Pablo Picasso)

No one is perfect. It’s not interesting to be perfect. (Lindsay Lohan)

Exactitude is not truth. (Henri Matisse)

Have no fear of perfection. You’ll never reach it. (Salvador Dali)

The artist who aims at perfection in everything achieves it in nothing. (Eugene Delacroix)

Being happy doesn’t mean everything’s perfect. It means you’ve decided to see beyond the imperfections. (unknown)

sorry for going overboard but here’s a last one

Perfectionism is the enemy of creation. (John Updike)

Digital Scratchboard

Had some time on hand and did not want to do the painting exercise I’m meant to Decided to try out something new digitally. Made a scratchboard and erased out a friends portrait. Need to do a few more before I get the hang of reversing the lines.

Along with my art resolutions I’ve made a personal one to lose some weight.  I’m hoping to start walking a couple of times a week starting today. Wish me luck!

Right side up

I’ve been postponing trying this out right side up. Finally got around to it earlier in the evening. I find that my lines were looser and more confident in the last one that I made. In this one there is more of a likeness. I’ve used brown ink and a Rotring 0.7 technical pen. It’s approx 8″ X 10″ in my sketchbook.  Doesnt look brown as I havent cleaned out the pen!

Work on my art resolutions has begun and I’m very pleased about it. But because of this finished pieces and posts will be far fewer for a while.

Another Upside Down

One of the art blogs that I consider a must read is Katherine Tyrell’s “Making a Mark“. I visit it often. It contains all kinds of useful information and links for artists. A couple of days ago I followed a link from there to Margaret Stiefvater’s post on “How to Juggle and other Parlor Tricks“. The post struck a chord in me and if you too have been procrastinating and need to give yourself a swift kick in the rear to get going, go read it! I’m hoping that the effects last at least a few days. I’m sure I’ll be heading back in a few days to refresh my conveniently failing memory.

I started a couple of watercolour portraits of Andrew Wyeth yesterday. Just the first wash layer has been put in. And this morning [wonder of wonders!] I made another upside down Pen & Ink drawing. I used brown ink in the Rotring and black drawing ink for the wash. It doesnt resemble the artist, Maqbool Fida Hussain, who I was trying to capture but I do like most things that I make and this one is no exception. I will give it another go but right side up. In the meantime, keep your fingers crossed for me to succeed in my goal of doing some art related activity everyday.

Digitally Done

Project Andrew Wyeth continues….  I just cannot seem to resist drawing Andew Wyeth from his photographs.  He has so many interesting lines on his face most of which i could not capture and so this is going to stay WIP until I learn a bit more on tackling lines and wrinkles.   The first one was made a couple of days back.

Made digitally with oils in Art Rage 2 .

Upside down

I did my first upside down drawing following instructions in Betty Edwards book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. It was a line drawing by Picasso named Portrait of Igor Stravinsky. I liked what it looked like and that encouraged me to proceed with the other exercises and my drawing and confidence improved. We moved cities whilst I was in the midst of working on these exercises. This was in mid 2004. We eventually settled down in an apartment of our own some 10 months later and by then I’d moved on.

After viewing two fellow EDMers’ (Penny Hackett-Evans and Joyce of Draw Daily ) posts where they had displayed their portraits attempts in Danny Gregory’s style, I knew right away that I was going to be joining them. Both mentioned his recent post with a demo video showing him making a portrait. In it you can see him draw a portrait with a Koh-in-noor Rapidograph and then fill it in with a wash of Sumi Ink all the while keeping his sketchbook upside down. It was very exciting and inspiring watching him draw. After which I immediately set off to make mine. This is my attempt.

Andrew Wyeth is the chosen Master for the months of Mar/April in project over at WetCanvas!. I had been downloading images of him and his work last night. I grabbed one of his photos turned it to black & white, increased the contrast and rotated it till it was upside down. Turned my sketchbook upside down too and started drawing with my 0.7 Rotring Isograph. I think a 0.3 was recommended but I dont have one. The drawing was like a semi-blind contour as that is what i’d spent a good half an hour doing, last night. I finally broke open a large sealed bottle of Chinese Ink bought in 2000! Seems to be working fine though it pongs quite a bit. I find that the portrait is much narrower than the reference I used and doesnt look like Andrew Wyeth but I still liked it and so did my husband and so here it is! I’m now planning to make the same portrait right side up

8″X10″ Pen & Ink wash in my sketchbook

Reference used for the above drawing – Photograph copyright Jim Graham

What kind of an artist are you?

Found the link to this great article on the blog, The Accidental Artist. David Pink has written a very interesting article “What kind of a genius are you?” for Wired. It is about David Galenson’s research on creativity and how he sorts people into two types, essentially – early geniuses (conceptualists) and late bloomers (experimentalists). Galenson has concentrated on the field of art. His research focuses on artists, their work, the money they commanded and the age at which it peaked.

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) – Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. 1907. Oil on canvas.

Paul Cezzane (1839-1906) – The Smoker. Oil on canvas. c. 1895-1900. Oil on canvas.

Picasso and Cézanne represent radically different approaches to creation. Picasso thought through his works carefully before he put brush to paper. Like most conceptualists, he figured out in advance what he was trying to create. The underlying idea was what mattered; the rest was mere execution. The hallmark of conceptualists is certainty. They know what they want. And they know when they’ve created it. Cézanne was different. He rarely preconceived a work. He figured out what he was painting by actually painting it. “Picasso signed virtually everything he ever did immediately,” Galenson says. “Cézanne signed less than 10 percent.” Experimentalists never know when their work is finished.Galenson says. “But from very early in my career, I knew I could do really good work. I didn’t know exactly how, and I didn’t know when. I just had this vague feeling that my work was going to improve.”

You can see few artists listed by type. If you read the article let me know if you think you veer towards either of these types. Since I cant be a young genius at my age, i’m hoping that I’m an experimentalist