Old drawings/paintings

Some old drawings/paintings, done this year, many based on the Virtual Instructor tutorials.

This old beaten up car was done using watercolors, pen and pastel pencils, I really liked trying this out, since it was first attempt with mixed media.

This a watercolor painting that took ages to complete, but at the end I was quite happy with it.

And finally two draings done with watercolor pencils.

New goodies - A mini haul

I have bought some new materials to try out. You know art materials are never too much, so this is what I got recently:

A set of Conté Carré pastels, two blocks of Hahnemühle paper (one for watercolors and the other for sketchs) and a set of 60 Rembrant pastels. Let's see then how they behave.

Inktense Sketches

Still learning how to work with Inktense pencils, but I was quite happy with these two small sketches.

In the first one I also used some watercolor for the background together with the Inktense pencils.

Both drawings were done on Clairefontaine Paint On paper and they took more or less one hour to finish.  

It's hard to find tutorials on these pencils online, but Lisa Clough from Lachri Fine Art youtube channel has some great tips on how to work with both Inktense pencils and blocks.

Tinted Charcoal from Derwent

I have been experimenting with these Tinted Charcoal Pencils from Derwent lately. I have bought them after seeing some amazing work from Graham Brace and David Cook.

This is my second attempt with them:

It's still a bit weird to work with them, but they look like a great medium for sketching.

Derwent also has some great tips in their website on how to work with Tinted Charcoal:

http://www.pencils.co.uk/en/gb/4388/a/187093/tinted-charcoal-ten-top-tips

Sunday Sketch on toned paper

This is my delayed Sunday sketch on toned paper, I'm trying to make one each week to practice my values and drawing skills. This is a sketch of more or less 45 mins of Miss Selina Kyle from Gotham series.

It was done on Clairefontaine Paint On Multi-Techniques Naturel paper, with a Cretacolor Negro Pencil and a white charcoal pencil (from koh-i-noor) for the highlights. I really like the effect and I will definitely be using this style for future portaits.

Update - Works in Progress

Maybe I'm being too ambitious, but I started three different drawings/paintings during these last weeks. Two of them are in watercolor pencils, since I'm trying to get the hang of the medium.

Here is the first landscape:

And the second one:

They are both inspired in drawings from the book "Water Soluble Pencils" by Carole Massey, she does some beautiful pieces with watercolor pencils.

And the other one is a pen drawing of a foo dog (I think that's what you call these statues), that's probably going to take forever to get done:

Hopefully I can finish at least two of them until the end of the year.

Sunday Sketch on toned paper

Decided to initiate a new "series", I'll try to make a sketch on toned paper each Sunday. It's seems quite good practice for getting values right. So, here is the first one...

Dear Prismacolor I'm done with you....

So Prismacolor...great brand?Best on the market?Artists quality pencils?

Yeah,...well not really.

After hearing so many people praising Prismacolor I decided to give it a go. I first bought a set of 24 pencils and I was more or less happy with. The colors looked great, the pencils layed down the color very well but some of the pencils had the core broken (on this set it was just two of the pencils).

So I though maybe I was just unlucky...

I decided then to steak to Prismacolor pencils, instead of going for Polychromos for example, because so many people praised them so much, so surely they had to be good! I just need more time to work with them and learn what I was doing wrong.

So I bought the 72 set...Big Mistake. This was just a waste of money, below are some images of what has occurred in nearly all of my pencils (and when I say nearly all I'm not exaggerating).

I stopped counting how many of my pencils came with a broken core, seriously this is absurd. It's impossible to work with these pencils, they break all the f***** time!

I have tried sharpening them with a normal sharpener, I've tried an electrical one, I've tried even sharpen them with a knife...Nothing works.

So dear Prismacolor, I done with you! Next time I'm buying Polychromos (or any other brand honestly) and I advice anyone to do the same if they are thinking about buying color pencils.

Experiment with Derwent Graphitint Pencils

So I've picked up these pencils - Graphitint from Derwent - after hearing some good things about them in several websites. I have used them to complete some tutorials online, but I haven't yet tried them on my own so to speak.

First I applied the pencils dry with a light application, just to see how the colors worked out on the paper. Then I applied water to the whole thing and the colors became a lot brighter, it makes a huge difference (the pigments seem to be quite good).

After that I added a few more small details with the pencils and wet the drawing again. Finally just added a few more touches with the dry pencil.

I really like how it came out and I think you can get very fine detail with these. They also make a good medium for sketching. Overall a great buy, Derwent never disappoints!

Venetian Door Knocker Finished

Well, it took some time but I finally completed it (a few months ago actually). I'm quite happy with the result and will be working in this style again.

Work in Progress

Graphite drawing (in progress) of a venetian door knocker, done with Faber-Castell Pure Graphite Pitt pencil and Derwent Onyx pencils.

Faber-Castell Pitt Artists Pens Review

I have been using Faber-Castell artists pitt pens and I really like them!They have a very consistent, dark line. The set I bought comes with 4 nib sizes (see the image) below:

The ones I end up using the most are the S/B sizes (S for fine work and B for more broad strokes). By the way the B size gives some really cool effects. I don't really use that much the other sizes but still is good to have them, just in case I need to fill up some large areas.

Here is a drawing I made with them in combination with a white color pencil:

Overall these preform really well and I didn't find them that expensive. 

Review Van Gogh Oil Pastels

Hi!

So after some time drawing almost exclusively with graphite/charcoal, I decided I wanted to try to apply some color on my drawings.

I was inspired by this oil pastel artist on youtube: TylerArtShack. Unfortunately I think he has left YouTube for good, since the last posted video is from  2 years ago...

And so I decided to buy a set of oil pastels without wasting a crazy amount of money (yes I know Sennelier oil pastels are the best but they are also too expensive). After a few searches on the web, and particulary after seing Robert Sloan's guide to oil pastels* I decided to go for the student grade oil pastels.

The image above is a landscape I have done based on one of the Virtual Instructor tutorials, I think it came out pretty good and I thought using oil pastels was not as difficult as it may seem on a first impression.

Now, concerning the oil pastels themselves I've got to say they are quite nice, especially considering the price I paid for them which was around 16 euros (for 60 oil pastels! In dollars is something like 18 $).
My two only complaints so far is the card box and the fact that they produce a bit of "crumbs", The card box is not very handy and sometimes it's kind of difficult to take the oil pastels out and off course the "crumbs" are sometimes quite difficult to take off which can be annoying.

Overall they kind of deliver what it's promised and perhaps even a bit more: student grade oil pastels at a competitive price, they don't claim to be artists grade. Also most of the oil pastels are actually lightfast (I believe you can get a chart with the properties on the official website) which is great. So I would recommend them if you are a beginner or want some cheap oil pastels for sketching for example.

I was also working in a flower painting, here is close up from one of the details:

When I get a bit more practice with oil pastels I will then perhaps invest a bit more money and buy a more expensive set of artist oil pastels. But for now these ones do the job just fine!

*Robert Sloan's Guide to oil pastels:

http://www.explore-oil-pastels-with-robert-sloan.com/vangogh-review.html

He also has some very usefull tips on how to get rid of "crumbs" in here:

http://www.explore-oil-pastels-with-robert-sloan.com/crumb-control.html

Virtual Instructor Website:

http://thevirtualinstructor.com/

Hello!

Hello and welcome!

After almost 7 years of not drawing at all I decided I wanted to get back into business. I started by trying to complete a sketchbook (a very small one indeed!), and here are some of my sketches:

I will try to share drawings/paintings on a daily basis (if I manage). Probably some reviews on art supplies too and whatever I feel like it.