Tuesday, April 22, 2008

My Studio



This is where it all began: where the brain synapses germinates into an idea, to a visual concept, to an inspiration, to an execution, and then to an artwork. This is the working room, my studio. I got some of my works posted up on the walls. I love to stare at them and find flaws-there's always be something. I love to have my fav books within reach whenever I need it, that is why there's a bookshelf in that corner. My guitar and other instruments are my refuge if I have to take a breather, so I always like them in my studio. I love music so much that when I am busy with my artwork I always have the music on. There won't be a moment of silence 'coz music is like the air I breath; take it away, I can't keep my concentration--I'm dead. When I'm slacking, I try to perk myself at the treadmill to juice me up for the day's task. I try to have everything I need in this room so I won't have to leave. I could stay inside for days, weeks, months, perhaps, years without the sun. Different folks, different strokes; just as a mechanic would bury his greasy hands and head under the hood all day long and he'd still be happy to give you a wink.

"Taboret"


Here is my version of an artist's taboret, "a movable stand to accommodate brushes, palette, and miscellaneous tools". I usually let it stand near my easle for easy access--check the wheels. It's made of maple wood; yeah, it's a bit heavy. I got a good deal on this baby from IKEA. It is supposedly a kitchen island; the height, it's top space and mobility is just what I need. As long as it works perfectly for me, it's all good.

Monday, April 21, 2008

Self-portrait

Black and white charcoal on brown paper. I could have made the tonal rendering better if I kept a sharpened pencil tip till the end. I rushed on doing this work and ended up extending time on correcting it; did it in about 2.5 hours. The concept is there, but the rendition is obviously off. Even the lightest part could have been finer if the pencil was pointed the whole time. I'd definitely will make another one like this.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Go figure





Black and white charcoal on 12x18 brown paper.

Gandalf


Black and white charcoal on 12x18 brown paper. I did this one 15-20 minutes tops. I should do more of this medium. I have never used white charcoal this much, I'm glad I did this little experiment.

Old works, old favs...



Charcoal on 9x12 paper.

Old works, good times.






Charcoal on 9x12 paper. Yesterday morning I was going through my old stuff and I dug on this old sketches I did, dated 1994 (it even got the name of places where I was at that time). All of them were copied from books, magazine, practically from any publications I could get my hands on, where I could find decent pictures good enough for a sketch. It was one of those times when I just got to do some doodling and get that "expression" out of my chest. I find these works interesting as they reminded so much of the good times, and so I decided to post them.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Study of a seated lady.


Oil on 12x16 canvas. I still struggled on this one that I have to stop for some time and get back to it, but my mind is telling me to stay on it. I stopped anyway. I thought that maybe I'm tired. Then I got back to it and forced myself to finish it.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Materials I'm using...




Derwent pencils are ideal for drawing when I have to emphasize the rendering and hatching effect that I want. It makes drawing a tedious work to cover the shadow areas because of their property of having more adhesive binding the graphite compare to charcoal pencils, making graphite pencils hard less smudgey than charcoal pencils. They have this luminous effect on paper; and they come with many grades from 9H, being the hardest, to 9B, the softest. I tried to collect all the grades and experimented each one of them as to what certain grade can do. I like them always sharpened. For the hard ones I use a regular sharpener, and for the soft higher grades I use the cutter instead because they break easily. The paper I am using for this type of perncil is the Canson 90 pd- they come in different sizes. They're good for charcoal, pastel, and pens,too.

Materials I'm using...



Try to organize your pencils in a jar (or can) for easy access, care, safety of the materials--the sharpened leads will stay pointed. I put the compressed charcoals and graphites in a used gum cans to keep them from breaking-- don't forget to mark the cans to avoid confusion.

Materials I'm using...


Strathmore Newsprints -Rough are ideal for practice drawing like quick sketches. I used them a lot in figure drawing class when the model is up for short poses. The rough surface of the paper are good for rendering tones and and shadows with a Conti Piere Noire pencils. This one I'm using is a 33 pd 50-sheet pad, 18x24 inches.

Materials I'm using...




Conti Pierre Noire are excellent for sketching. They pretty much have the qualities of a charcoal pencil except that they are not darker. However, they are smoothier and more fluid to draw with. They come in 3B, 2B, and H, but they are not popular in art stores; what they usually have are the Conti charcoals. I like to use the Noires for quick sketching with the Strathmore newsprint pads. Always keep the tip of this type of pencil sharpened and the best way is by using the sand pads.

Materials I'm using...


Vellum Bristol are the kind of paper I use for charcoal drawing. It has this rugged edge on the surface to hold the charcoal in place. They are perfect for other mediums like watercolor, pastel, crayons, airbrush and others. They're 100 pd 2-ply laminated, pretty stiff for a paper. Each pad comes with 20 sheets.

Materials I'm using...



Charcoal powder is another essential tool in drawing. With the use of bristle brush, it speeds up covering the background with powder, instead of rendering it with pencil. Besides, it gives an atmospheric effect on your drawing. I used them in preparing my paper before I start sketching. Don't forget to wipe them thin with a piece of chamoise or cotton from excess, or you end up with a messy artwork. I always spray my finished artwork with a Matte fixative to prevent smudges and finger marks. The matte type makes the artwork look like nothing has been sprayed on it, but it gives that protection from smudges.

Materials I'm using...

The vine sticks is another essential tool I am using, mostly for my initial sketch for they could easily be erased or smudged. They come in soft, medium, and hard; they vary in tones to very dark, dark and light, respectively. Vine sticks are good for final retouches, instead of using charcoals. They're messy on your hands, though.

Materials I'm using

General's Charcoal pencils are ideal pencils we used in school. They come in soft, medium, or hard; but I used only the soft and hard ones. On the upper left and right are the kneaded erasers which is a perfect invention for an eraser that you could mold it like clay to a pointed tip or a blunt end. I used them also in pick up spots to create highlights.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Study of a woman's back


Graphite on 14x17 Canson paper. When I did this drawing, I thought of planes, tones, lights and perspective to form my subject. It's the same way when painting, painters don't outline their subject all through out like using a pencil. This reminds me when I look at sketches of the masters, I noticed that the way they draw is not much of outlining; they form their subjects by rendering tones and thinking planes. Try exploring it your way and see how you like it.
I remember reading somewhere, that for an artist, it is not always good to be well versed in anatomy, lest that so much knowledge acquired will get drawing figures too technical. Moreover, artist should only draw what they see and not what they know. On the other hand, some artists are saying that you can't see and draw what you don't know. Hmmm, both sides have a point. I always get in between conflicting theories like this.

Sphere of tones


Oil in 9x12 canvas. Another tonal study on the dramatic effects of light when it hits a sphere. This was done from plain imagination, no model, or a compas to make a perfect circle; simply brush and paint. I just thought of doing this exercise once again to have a feel of the volume of a mass like this. As simple as it looks, the experience it brings is undeniably powerful.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Michael





Oil on 8x9 board canvas. Above work was a 3-hour pose of Michael, one of the regulars at LAAFA. With this one, it felt like I know what I am doing except that I need to get used to getting everything right in a limited time that I could have done it only through so much of practice. Most of my early works I did in this class were just haywired, unfinished and looked terrible. The difference of what I did this time is to have a clear plan, a more concrete understanding of the visual concept, and that is, in respect to composition, tone, and light. The rendition as a whole was a bit off and awkward, but I did beat the time. The most important of this stage is, I was able to come up with a clear rendition of the play of light on the subject by starting with a clear visual concept. Form is easy to remedy. The following work is a retouched mainly on form. It's a lot better now.