inking the pencil

Taking the pencil sketch from my sketchbook I wanted to experiment with digital inking.

This is in Photoshop doing a ink overlay of the original pencil.

I wanted to do a watered down , almost ink wash effect.

Practice, practice.

-Lar

4b sharp pencil

Here's another page of just drawing figures. Drawing them smaller is sometimes better because it's easier to see the whole thing.

If you're wondering what that little baby duck on the girl's arm is, My wife Arlene drew that on there when I wasn't looking. She said it needed a "Special Touch"!

-Lar

lazy soft pencil

This is just one of those sketches where I just force myself to draw in my sketchbook

before I go to bed. Same 8X11 Moleskine sketchbook . Same 8b pencil stick .

Super Hero

Soft pencil sketch to keep me drawing .

About 20 minutes on this one- I think. I don't really time these things. :-)

What was the attraction to drawing comics when I was younger? It wasn't the dumbs stories that seemed to be just about two muscle guys in tights beating each other up for no apparent reason. and it wasn't the ridiculous

costumes . It was all about drawing figures . They were all twisting and flying . Even when they were doing nothing they were in dynamic poses!

That's when I was about 10 years old. I used to copy the drawings until I figured out that I could re-draw them in any pose I wanted. I wasn't limited to the poses in the comic books.

Later I discovered Michelangelo. Now those were all super heros on the Sistine Chapel! Each figure was in a dynamic pose. Each one was flying. And each one was buff and ripped! Even the women! I later learned that Michelangelo used male models for his women. He could not draw or sculpt breasts AT ALL! Sorry fans!

I just want to draw figures and super heroes are just an excuse!

Lar-

Double swords

Just scribbled this one out . I'm starting to like these supersoft graphite sticks . They're not too soft to sharpen in an electric pencil sharpener. 8X11 sketchbook

Sketchbook pinup

Just a pin-up pose.

Soft graphite . 8x11 Molskine book.

Drawing with a leadstick

Just sketching with lead stick. I never used to draw with one of these because I always considered it too soft and broad for the kind of drawing I like to do. It's a Cretacolor Monolith 8B. I used to see art student learning to draw use these because keeps them from concentrating on details and focus on form and structure. Like the kind of drawing exercises that are in Nicolaides The Natural Way to Draw - A book that I would borrow from the library every two weeks from the public library when I was about 14 years old and decided that I wanted to be an artist.

Andrew Loomis was another artist who publish many art instruction books that I learned much from in my teen years. Ken Hultgren was another that I learned a lot from - his speciality was animal drawing.

I always feel like I'm still learning.

Lar-

The cream paper

Here's the same drawing showing the cream colored paper of the Moleskine Sketchbook.

soft pencil

This is the first test sketch in my new larger format Moleskine sketchbook.

Nothing to involved just a girl sticking out her tongue .

It has that comic book look due to the thick/thin contour lines and no modeling.

I also like the cream colored paper . It's easier on the eyes than bright white.

I just noticed--- I adjusted to color on this so it would look like white paper.

Maybe I'd better re-post it shows the true color of the paper!

Lar-

Hmmmm.....

This is just a little sketch done to ry out my new Moleskine 8X11 inch sketch book.

The paper is strong , smooth and cream colored. take soft graphite really well. On thing I don't like about the Aquabees is that although the paper is strong and acid free it too grainy for a lot of things.

My new choice of sketch books.

Lar-

Another sketch in soft graphite in the aquabee. Not much to say about this either.

On a horse

Well, I haven't been updating this blog as I expected I would. Just not posting drawings from the sketch book much lately .

So, here's an over due one in graphite in an Aquabee sketch book . Not much to say about it . about 5 or 6 inches high