SKETCHING WILLIAM

Some months ago, Ann at http://sketchingwilliam.blogspot.co.uk/ sent me lovely little painting she did of Snippet and, ever since, I've been trying to get round to reciprocating. Ann does a sketch of her lovely Lurcher William every day and it's a great blog to visit, especially if you need cheering up. So, today it is TIPPING down with rain and I have all the lights on. I am totally preoccupied with worry about a friend who has given birth to her baby two months early. He is not at all well and I needed to concentrate on something else. So here is my sketch of William. I'm keenly aware that I'm barely drawing at the moment with all sorts of stuff taking precedence, so it was nice to do something creative rather than administrative or emotive. 

Thanks to those of you who have submitted you favourite Christmas card options on the last post. I could do with more, so do please have a look if you haven't already. Fascinating which ones are winning but more data would be appreciated:

http://dartmoorramblings.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/christmas-cards-anyone.html 

Until next time, when I hope to be feeling a bit sunnier, here's a picture I took more than a week ago in a brief respite from the fog and rain: a yellow Buddleia which sits in a wilderness on the way down the drive. It could be a different world looking out of the window today.

DRAWING JOHN GREY'S DOGS

A few weeks ago, I drew John Grey's dogs William and George. If you don't already follow his blog, you should - disasterfilm.blogspot.co.uk. They were great subjects and, yes, here's one of those progression of a drawing posts. William first..........a more suitable candidate for pencil than pen.

When I started, I felt like I was drawing a teddy but he gradually came to life. 

Eye first, as usual

That little black nose with a tiny bit of light shining on it.

William's coat is curly so many squiggles were required.

Wrist hurting from squiggles, a break for the tail.

Lots more squiggles - sorry -maybe I should be more technical in my description, but I don't really think about it when I draw; squiggles work for William.

Filling in and defining the shadows.

Finished squiggles and more definition. 

A bit of colour....

.....and background for the finished drawing.

George next - a perfect candidate for my pen. Snippet-like so I don't think I could have done him in pencil in the same way as I've never captured Snippet that way. He was considerably quicker to do, more sketch-like and consequently I forgot to take many pictures.

Quick outline.

Eye and ears.

The face begins to appear.

Red of the collar and his lovely scruffy coat.

Finished!

Still no luck on the friend for Snippet front. Looking at William makes me hanker after a Welsh Terrier but there aren't any around here. We either have to get a young dog SOON or wait until we've been away in August and then get a puppy. We made the mistake of getting Snippet in late October and I spent the whole of November standing in the rain saying "have a wee" every half hour. It worked but I would really prefer to do that in more clement conditions. 

Until next time, here are the scans of the finished articles again. Thanks for the great models John.

EVOLUTION OF A DRAWING

Yesterday I sat down to draw one of the ponies from the day before and was reminded, when I read an email from a friend who sent me a few quilting blogs with advice, that these people often take progress photos as they construct one of their beautiful quilts. So, I thought I might do the same with a drawing, in case anyone would be interested to see the process. Unfortunately, I thought, looking at the little camera screen without my reading specs, that they were all beautifully in focus. Needless to say they weren't so some are a little woolly looking despite much sharpening in PhotoShop. So here goes......

First I start with a very basic outline which is the bit I find most difficult to get right. If it's wrong, the whole thing is going to look wrong. I use an HB propelling pencil usually but often used an F in the past....more difficult to get hold of the leads!

I usually go in for the ears and eyes first to get a sense of the face. They are usually the darkest points too and I can work out lighter shades from there. Here I was also trying to get the fluffy feeling in the forelock.

Sorry - this is a dreadful picture! You can see I'm putting the nostrils and bone structure into the head here with areas of shadow. I've also made a start on the very strange dreadlocky mane he had, with curly ends.

Filling in the areas of deep shadow again here where the mane separated and flopped over the other side of his neck....avoiding getting to those curly bits. 

Attempting the curly bits and trying to get the impression of the matted nature of the mane.

Reasonably happy with the mane so onto shadow areas again and just starting to build up the muscle tone in the legs.

Here I've started to fill in the big areas of shading on the belly. This pony was very dark bay with strange bright-ish brown highlights in the curly bits of that pesky mane.

Building up the grass around his fetlocks(fiddly!) and into the dark shadows again before....

.....darkening areas to show muscle definition on the hind quarters and legs.

Finshing off the hind legs, working on the light and shade in the bone and muscle structure and avoiding the tail! Even the grass around the hind fetlocks was preferable.

Here I've finished off the markings and shaping of the belly and made a start on the tail with it's fluffy top.

Tail finished, it's onto starting the rather long process of the surrounding grass. In this case, I decided on quite a lot of sky or I would have been hunched up over the desk all day. It's an A4 sized drawing for once, so lots more background than normal.

A rock and a few flowers.....

.....and finally some colour, starting off with those little tormentil flowers in yellow.

Here I've highlighted the brighter brown areas of the mane and tail and started building up the various shades of green in the grass. Also, I suddenly felt the urge to sign it rather previously!

More grass, a slight wash of dark brown over the pony and beginning with a greyish blue on the sky.

Sky blue done to be followed by a grey over the whole lot for brutal realism....there was NO sun that day and hence no shadow either. That's a shame as I always think a defined shadow helps enormously. However, I'm not going to make one up as it would be bound to look wrong! So finally, here's the finished drawing again:

Dark Bay Dartmoor Pony July 2012

A note to Bovey Belle regarding getting photos bigger....this is the best I've managed to do so far, by right clicking on the image and selecting 'extra large'. I don't think this is quite as big as you were wanting though....sorry! Till next time....