Back to basics

Holy cow! I am absolutely rusty! We bought a set of 2 mm color leads and I was checking it out. I was warming up with some simple blocks. Did you see those spheres? They look ugly and completely dented… I was able to do it much better two years ago!

On the other hand, I am starting to consider different papers. Does anybody use Moleskine sketchbooks? I like the book design with its ribbon and such, it is very easy to find in each store around the world but I guess there are better papers in the same price range. It is quite expensive! I will be testing new alternatives. I will keep you all informed.

Vase with flowers

More flowers. It is pen and ink this time. I used the fine liners. I copied the sketch from an instruction book by Giovanni Civardi that I bought months ago. I liked the composition. I have preferred to leave the pencil lines that I usually employ for defining the space in the paper. They give an unfinished aspect to the sketch.

How not to draw trees (II)

Second experiment. The drawings I did yesterday really are not my style… if I have a style. I mean, the drawings are only watercolor, usually I use watercolors to give color to my pen and ink sketches. I did not use ink yesterday. I focused on color.

Today I want to isolate the shape so I do not use color. I use my graphite pencils (mainly HB and 2B) but I have tried to apply same rules, obviously, adapting them to graphite techniques. And here are the results.

The first tree is based on a video by the British writer and illustrator Shoo Rayner. The rest are variations on the same idea.

Still life

After a couple of colorful days, I get back to the graphite with this study of shading. An apple, a banana and a bottle. The symmetrical objects are not easy to draw.

Fruit bowls (colored version)

I redid two of the fruit bowls and added some colored pencils. I used an improvised light table for copying the ink part of the previous sketches. Recently I watched a video on YouTube in which a pro illustrator uses one of those tables. Really mine is a small light box for watching photo slides and negatives but it works.

More fruit bowls

More fruit bowls sketches. This time I used the same tools than in the previous sketch: my Lamy Safari with black ink and graphite with a blending stump for the shading.

Fruit bowls

Several fruit bowls sketches. I used a Lamy Safari fountain pen with fine nib and Lamy black ink. The shading is made with graphite and a blending stump.

Box and ball

The spheres are not easy to draw. First you must draw a perfect circle. Then you must draw the shadings. When you are using cross hatching like in this case, each line must be draw by following the object surface. Other objects, even cylinders, are simpler. This time I am relatively satisfied with the result.