Digital Art

Hi all,
I am pleased to report that I am still enjoying my venture into digital art; it has opened up new possibilities for me. It is great for doodling and even better for attempting something decent. It is still early days for me yet because I'm still feeling my way around the software.

Here is a loose painting of some birch trees in the snow. I wasn't trying to be proper realistic, I just wanted to see how one could create depth in a digital painting.

 It's only a small painting but it proved to me that a sense of depth was easy to achieve in a digital way by using a different layer for each depth of the painting. It is possible to reduce the opacity of the whole layer or just when using a brush so it is very easy. I also like the fact that any mistakes can be undone easily.

I recorded the painting of the birches and posted to my new Youtube channel called "The Armchair Artist." If you would like to see how the painting was created here is a link to the short video
Please have a look and let me know what you think.

The purpose of creating the channel is two fold. Firstly it will record my progress during my journey with this new media. Secondly, there may be other traditional artists out there who are, like me, disillusioned with normal art and fancy giving the digital a try. Giving most new art forms a go isn't difficult. If you fancy having a go at pastels for instance, like I did, you can just buy a small set and some paper and have a go relatively cheaply. (Then, if you have as much success as I did you can shove them to the back of the cupboard, never likley to be used again.) The point is, having a go digitally is an expensive business, so perhaps by seeing how I'm getting on others might or might not risk their money and have a go.

So far it is all going to plan and I'm more than pleased with what Ive managed to do. In my next post I will try to explain why I am going digital and what I didn't like about traditional art.

The dark side

Hi all,
So, Christmas and the new year have passed us by again. I'd like to say I had a great time but I didn't. Still, I won't go into that. The new year is well a truly here so there is a lot to look forward to now that the false expectations of Christmas are behind us.

I am going to carry on with my pencil work, but this year I'm determined to give digital painting a decent try. There are several reasons for this which I will go into in future posts but for now I'm  excited to show you how I'm getting on.

I treated myself to an ipad pro 10.5 inch for Christmas and my mother in law got me an apple pencil to go with it. After a lot of research I also purchased a app called Procreate which is about as good as painting apps get, in fact it is marvellous. I can't believe what you get for a tenner.

This was my first step in digital art, so I started off with something I could do easily with a pencil or paint. I had a quick go at doing a clematis flower.

This was a very quick sketch and I was pleasantly impressed by the ipad and the app. So, I thought I'd do another, this time a cherry.

Now considering I hadn't got much idea about what I was doing regarding the app, I was again very pleased with the result.

During my research about digital painting I came across an artist on youtube who had here reference photo on the same screen that she was painting on, so I thought I'd give that a quick try. I popped into the garden and picked a cyclamen leaf and photographed it. I then imported the photo into procreate to see if I could copy it.
The leaf on the top left is the photo and you can see my attempt at a quick copy.

Again this was just a quick sketch to see what could be done. If I had taken longer I'm sure I could have got a very close likeness.

So, obviously my first impressions of doing digital art are very good. I am hoping that I can give anybody who is thinking of taking the plunge into this media, a  flavour of what they can expect.

The cost of entry into digital is very high, for me it was almost £700. However, the ongoing costs associated with digital art are very low. Brushes, canvases, paper and paints etc will be no longere be required or will any of the other mirade of accessories we artist think we need.

There are lots of other benefits that go along with digital art and I'll tell you about some of them in a future post.

For now, please take a look at this picture. I did one last year in watercolour and the other a few days ago. Which do you prefer?

                                                             

 The one at the top is digital and the other is watercolour.

I have also started a youtube channel so that I can record my progress. Here is a link to my introductory video. I hope you enjoy it, any questions or comments please let me know.

Clematis on Trellis

Hi all,
I finally finished the last drawing in a series of of pictures I was doing of flowers growing on a trellis.
I have shown a Clematis (montana) and bindweed in the last post so here is the final one.

It's another clematis but I not sure which one. It is probably my least favourite of the three that I have done but I still pretty pleased with it. They make a great group where they are hanging in the hallway and give me a lot of pleasure. I have taken prints of them a hung them in recycled frames from a charity shop. It is too dark now to photograph them but I hope to show you a picture of them together in my next post.

There is something else I have to report on the art front and it is quite exciting. Over the years I have had a longing to have a go at digital art. I have used it for design purposes but not for proper art. I did have try using photoshop, but the learning curve was extremely steep and I lacked imagination as much as I lacked the skills.

Anyway, I decided to give it another go and bought myself an ipad for Christmas. Well if I don't treat myself nobody else will. I've had a bit of a dabble and I am really impressed by the potential, what's more, I can do it while sitting in my favourite armchair. No water, no mixing paints and all mistakes are instantly rectifiable.

It is my intention to post my efforts on here, warts and all, so you can see how I get on and judge for yourself how and or if I improve. If anybody else is thinking of going digital I will be pleased to answer any questions. I won't be going over to the dark side completely so you will still be able to find normal artwork on here.

Just one last thing. To Celebrate the start of the new year I am giving away downloads of my book "Bossyboots."

It will be free to download from Amazon and you can go straight to it by clicking this link .
Please download it and have a good laugh. I am removing this book from Amazon's "Select" programme so this is prabably the last time you will be able to get it for free.

Clematis and Bindweed

Hi all,
I am concentrating my artistic output at the moment on graphite pencil. I don't know why, but for some reason graphite is floating my boat. I also like the fact that there is no need to mix colours. The materials are simple, I just use five pencils, an erasure and some blue tack. It is very simple and satisfying.

The drawing below of a clematis is the first in a series of 3 images that I am doing which will all feature a flower growing on some trellis.

 I have been drawing on Bristol board because I find it easier to get fine details, but for this drawing and the rest in the series I'm using Arches hot pressed watercolour paper. I can't get the same level of detail with this paper but I can get darker blacks. For the darkest tone I have used a Derwent 9B. The other pencils I used were, 3B,B, H and 2H.

I am hoping that Santa brings me a set of Steadler Mars 100 lumograph pencils for Christmas and then I can get back to the Bristol board and hopefully maintain a really dark black. There is nothing wrong with the Derwent 9B and Archies combination but the deatail isn't quite so sharp.
Here's the second drawing in the series of some bindweed.

I hope you like the drawings, any comments or question are welcome..

I'm Back

Hi All,
Its seems like ages since I did a post on here but I'm now back for another run. The reason I have a break in my art posts is because once the weather gets warmer I want to be doing stuff on my lathe or I'm busy doing stuff in the garden. The main problem is that I like to be creative and want to do so many things. Woodturning, woodcarving, pyrography and gardening all take up a huge amount of time in the warmer months. However, once the cold weather arrives those activities take a back seat and art takes over.

I'm a bit on the nesh side so sitting in the warm doing some artwork really appeals to me. So here we go with another 6 months of  regular posts.

This season I intend to concentrate on pencil drawings with an odd colour full piece now and again.

I have just finish a drawing of a clematis on some trellis and I can tell you now that I'm very pleased with it.

In fact I'd go so far as to say it is my best drawing so far. If you compare it with one of my last year's pieces it is easy to see the difference. Here is a drawing from last year.

Now don't get me wrong, I like this drawing too but it is spoilt by the lack of background colour. Basically, it is a competent drawing, but it doesn't look finished.

The clematis drawing was done with 3 pencils made by Derwent, 9B, 3B and H I also used an electric erasure in places. The paper I used was also interesting. Until now most of my drawings have been done on Bristol board and I have always liked it. To be honest over the years I have used all sorts of paper for drawing. This included cheap art sketching pads, cartridge paper and sheets of copy paper from my computer. The results were always mediocre but when I tried Bristol board the quality of my drawing increased dramatically.

If you have just taken up drawing or sketching and you are using any of the papers I mentioned above, please do yourself a favour and get some Bristol board. Winsor and Newton do a small A5 size pad so give It a try and you'll never go back to the old stuff.

Having said all that, for the Clematis drawing above I actually used Aches hot pressed watercolour paper. It has slightly more tooth than Bristol board so it allowed me to get a deeper tone of black and provide a bit of texture that suited the subject matter.

Right, that's it for now. Any question or comments please let me know. I am looking forward to showing you my next drawing soon, I've just got to figure out what it will be and do it.

To celebtate my return one of my fishing books," Learn From The Tips And Laugh At The Tales"

will be available for a free download from the 27th of November until the 1 st of December. To get your free download just click this link and it will take you straight to the page on Amazon

Roses

Hi all,
Following on from the drawing of the iris, I thought I give myself a challenge and have a go at some roses.

Sorry it is a bit twisted and the background shows where it went in the scanner, but I really like the roses. I also like the fact that I used reference images from photos that I'd taken in our own garden

Having done a few drawings now that have come out, in my opinion, pretty good, I can give you a great tip. Many artists will tell you that success does not depend on your equipment, and I think there is a lot of truth in that statement. However, one thing that is vital, again in my opinion, that you need to use really good paper if you want to do a good drawing. It really does make a difference. I used Bristol board on the image above and it is so much better than, normal sketching paper or even cartridge paper.
If you want to create a really good drawing I would strongly suggest giving Bristol board a go.

Iris

Hi all,
Sometimes it is nice to forget all about colour and do a bit of drawing with a couple of pencils. Well I use three actually, most of the work is done with a mechanical pencil, but then I create other tones with a 4b and7b pencils.

Here is a drawing of an iris that I completed recently.

I also use a blending stump where required. I think it is important when drawing flowers to achieve a good balance between letting pencil lines show and blending them out. Both are needed, the lines create form while the blended areas create depth. Together they create a realist image. I hope I have captured at least a small amount of realism in the image above.
Any comments and questions are welcome.