Tag Archives: black & white

Out With the New. In With the Old

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So I found a ton of old drawings from school that I had set apart to be photographed at some point in time. I don’t remember how I came about them all I remember is how I felt when I did… inspired (not to sound cocky or anything). I never had a very good camera so I never took the time to photograph them and never had the time, money, or drive to go get them professionally done. Fortunately, my girlfriend now has an SLR camera so I dropped everything I was doing, set up a little photo shoot in my garage and got started. I still have to manipulate them a bit in Photoshop, but I’m so excited that I have to share the few that are done. First up, is a mixed media painting that was done in I-don’t-know-what class. When I found it, the painting was very unfinished, as are most of my other class assignments, so I took all day yesterday and experimented on it. I took out a brand new box of pastels and went to work. Here are the before and after photos.

The base was done in watercolor and I added chalk pastel, used a paper stump to blend, and at the end I decided to get a really small spotter brush and do some line work with India ink. Then made some adjustments in Photoshop and added text with the help of Illustrator. I’m pretty satisfied with the results considering the under-painting was done a few years ago. I’m mostly satisfied with the experimentation because I think I found a style I like for now. Next is a portrait I did in a Heads & Hands class. This was a 3 hour pose I believe done in black and white charcoal pencil on Canson toned paper. No smudging was used, the instructor, Chris Newhard, wouldn’t allow it (I now respect him so much for this). It was all just based on pressure and charcoal pencil softness and hardness. Yadda yadda yadda here’s the drawing.

18x24in Charcoal Portrait

18x24in Charcoal Portrait

… and an 1 hour ink wash drawing done in the same class.

16x20in Ink Wash Portrait

16x20in Ink Wash Portrait

Critiques are more than welcome.. they’re encouraged :)

Its A Deer! Its A Horse!… Its A Unicorn?

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this is one of my most satisfactory creations done in my creature design class. i think ive said this a few times before. but the focus of this class is to correctly and believably combine the features of two or more species of animals into a mythological creature. this one here is a unicorn based off descriptions in the book “the last unicorn” by peter s. beagle and “the book of beasts” by t.h. white, which mostly describe it as a thin, slender creature more like a deer or antelope than a horse. also, ive incorporated a new way to post my black and white art. this one here simply has a thin frame with a copywright stamp on the bottom. ill be posting another drawing soon where you can see more of what im talking about with this new presentation format… so stay tuned!! errr stay online or whatever

ps. i would also like to give some credit to eliot goldfinger for his amazing book “animal anatomy for artists.” this book has been my primary animal musculature and skeletal reference

8.5x11in each. graphite & ink. photoshop

Fungulates?

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these are a few ungulate head studies i did in preparation for a unicorn design. its all for a class assignment. im striving for at least one A before the semester ends. A’s are really hard to come by nowadays. for me at least. anyways, doing the studies definitely helped in combining the anatomy of both a horse and antelope/elk. this class stresses realistic creature anatomy so instead of just throwing say a goats head on a human body, (the most common way of drawing mythological creatures) were supposed to morph the anatomy in a way that evolution might make possible. the best example is the common mule or donkey. it has the combined features of a domesticated horse and a wild horse. pretty interesting when you actually study it. okay enough with the schooling. depending on how the unicorn turns out, i might post it.

graphite/ink sketches

Animals, animals, animals…

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so i present to you the best of my drawings from 2 semesters of animal anatomical studies. i really messed up on the eagles talons :( but i really liked how the wings turned out.  i would post all the drawings i have but they just get so repetitive after looking at a few, but like i said, these are the best… i hope.

Harpy Eagle

Harpy Eagle

8.5x11in graphite & ink, photoshop

8.5x11in graphite, ink, photoshop

Ashy

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here is a black and white charcoal pencil drawing i did in class. this particular day the instructor had us do the drawing using only hatching, no smudging. it was interesting because it forced us to learn the amount of pressure to put on the paper and apply the hatching along the structure of the face, which ended up giving the drawing this overall ashy look which i really like in b&w drawings. i still have trouble with deciding where to put stronger lines. like the form shadow under his cheekbone is a little too dark and distracting :/ practice makes perfect

18inx24in b&w charcoal pencil on toned paper