I have been learning a bit about different techniques for drawing and have figured that one of the fundamental techniques for pencil art is hashing. That’s a very effective technique to create shades. When using charcoal, the technique is primarily smudging (and it is messy). Hashing is interesting because one you can get the idea right, you can work out detailed shading with 1 or maybe 2 pencils. This is also a useful when sketching with ball point pens too.

Here is a take on a nice image I found on the Internet. I found hashing shapes a bit tricky but I suppose the idea is to blend various micro hashes to show subtle gradations and shapes. I have not got the highlights too and lost the 3D’ness of the image. More practice is in order.

Landscapes are tricky, as I mentioned earlier. The trick I am employing is to isolate individual elements and try to practice drawing them. I looked through the list of images and managed to narrow down to a few with very harsh lighting. The nice thing about harsh lighting is that there is very little gradation in the shades  you have very deep blacks and very bright whites. The image I chose to draw at the end was a early dry tree (more like a shrub) titled San Rafael Reef. This is also from the set of excellent images in the Ancient shape of man.

I have isolated the plant from the slightly more complex background. I guess I could have worked a bit more to showing some of the environment but decided I would keep it for future projects. The sun seems right overhead, The photographer has employed much skill in determinng the right exposure and developing / printing the image. It is usually very difficult to bring suble shades with harsh afternoon light but the image manages to do that. Was a nice challenge to see if I can get anywhere close to the actual print.

Another image from this excellent book. I have to mention that the book is primarily landscapes. There are fewer than 4-5 nude images. I have chosen to try them for drawing since I thought they are a good place to start. The tone is even and that lets me focus primarily on the shapes and lighting. I suppose landscapes are more simpler for some but to someone starting out, the varied textures, earth, sky, trees, leaves, rocks make it very challenging. I am not sure how I can bring the variety of textures using pencil / charcoal.

Seems to me that the nudes are more a neutral place to start as I have to bring out only the skin tones. I am not pleased with the outcome yet as the original image has a very nice sheen in the highlights… Maybe with  more practice and trial, I will get to understand how to make the shine work.

The images are not very clean as I drew them using charcoal on paper and took a picture with my iphone in fluoroscent light.  Not the best of conditions but atleast, I can share the latest work.

Recently, borders book shop had a sale in Expo. I was there to collect the race pack for my marathon (will write about it another day) and happened to ‘find’ the sale going on. Not one to miss a good deal and given I have been hunting down good sources for drawing ideas, I hopped in and after a long search through many aisles of paperback fiction, cook books and Guinness record publications, I was about to give up the search when I passed through the ‘reference’ section.

They had a large pile of encyclopedias and I found some hardbound photography books buried under. I found 2 good photo books:

• Fragile Earth: A collection of images showing changes to the earth due to natural events and some due to human intervention. A great coffee table book (though I don’t have coffee tables).
• Ancient shape of man: A beautifully printed set of black and white images. The prints are great and images grand. I think this is probably one of the nicest photo books I have. I think I would start collecting good ones if I can. And I am not complaining the price either, I got it for literally 5 USD

Monochrome is a great medium to admire textures without being distracted by colors and I suppose that is one of the reasons I would like to learn and understand building images in mono. Inspired b yone of the images, I tried my hand at depicting one of them here.

I am reading this book called “Drawing on the right side of the brain“. The book is pretty nice in assuring that ‘anyone’ can draw. Which is my belief too. Like I mention earlier and often, this does not mean that one can immediately be creative. However, it is possible to pick up the technical aspects of trawing and the ability to see what is out there and be able to put it on paper.

One of the exercises was to create a baseline before reading the book. The author asked the reader to draw 3 things, one of which was your hand. It stuck me that there is very little reason to go around hunting for complex images to draw when we have one literally at the end of our hand (heh). The play of light and teh complex shadows it creates makes it challenging to draw it properly. Well I have tried and may be by the end of the book, I can do better.

Note: My hand is naturally crooked with too many bends. Come to think of it, I wonder how I can function normally with fingers shaped the way they are…

Found another tutorial here. very nuce step-by-step procedure for drawing a face. I think I am generally getting the structure of the face but have not nailed the eyes. I think I am getting to see how the perspective affects the eyes and in this attempt, I have managed to retain the gaze but I think the symmetry is lost. Well a lesson learned and I will keep it in mind.

I am also slowly getting used to the concept of drawing and erasing is getting to be a core component of the drawing too… I am less afraid now to draw what needs to be drawn and then do some fixing by eraser. The concept of detailing through the negative space seems to be central to drawing and more importantly when it comes to lighting. if it is just time to master techniques, I am more than willing to spend it… However, creativity may remain elusive. duh…

trying my hand again at shading. I got a nice reference to draw from here and I figured I should put earnest effort in trying to shade…

I am pretty sure I am not doing it right, Either I am putting too much pressure on the tablet or may be not using the right brush size or gray shade… My tablet is showing visible scraches. May be I should put on a layer of some protective material to keep the stuff safe. If anyone uses a graphics tablet and knows how to make durable use of it, I would like to hear comments.

Spirited away is a charming animation from Studio Ghibli and was possibly my first introduction to Miyazaki’s comics. I was not previously aware of Japanese animation and their style. Spirited away was possibly their most successful venture (worldwide) and I am sure has been a window for many people to have an appreciation for Japanese anime.

Post spirited away, I have been obsessively getting to know more of Ghibli’s works and have since seen most of their movies. My favorites being Princess Mononoke and Totoro of course. Most recently, Ponyo hit a very high mark in my list of top Ghibli movies. If you get to watch their movies, pls do take time to enjoy them.

Got a reference from here. So I decided to try it out with some shading. Pretty poor job, but I need to learn shading and lighting, which is probably a 400 level course for me. Will come to it when the time comes.

Can creativity be cultivated through training? I am not so sure, but I guess we can let the imagination run wild and see where it takes us. Try to wonder like a child and see what comes out without forcing thought. I guess I am not traveling far enough. But tried sketching an idea of love at first light (sic) just for the heck of it. Enjoy or suffer the outcome…