one hundred drawings

the sketching continues

2010-04-27T13:13:00.001+01:00

Hi, I'm still drawing away, although not as much as during the 100 days! Please check out the new sketchbook blog here: http://nick-sketchbook.blogspot.com/

thanks for checking out the 100 days project and for your support!

nick

100/100 - 10.03.2010

2010-03-10T18:10:00.001Z

Silver monopoly hat - pencil
Last of the 100 days drawings. I drew this in my notepad at the 100 days live event in Dalston, at the request of another 100 dayer.

99/100 - 09.03.2010

2010-03-09T18:07:00.001Z

i drew this in the pub and was a bit worse for wear at the time... and then the blooming bar staff took the salt shaker away before I finished drawing it!

98/100 - 08.03.2010

2010-03-08T02:53:00.001Z

snow walker - pen/brush and ink

We went for a hike at the weekend, aiming to climb Ben Ime. Unfortunately the snow was way too deep, waist high sometimes. Got some great pictures of the snowy landscape though, and this ink drawing is from one of them.

97/100 - 07.03.2010

2010-03-07T22:47:00.001Z

josie - gold spray paint on cartridge paper

umm... now, how does one remove spray paint from one's fingers??

96/100 - 06.03.2010

2010-03-06T02:20:00.001Z

Lighter - oil paint

A lot of my drawings and paintings look quite good from a distance but a bit messy close up. I think this is one of them, although I quite like it.
When I looked at this the next day I realised I forgot to paint the sparking mechanism... not sure how I missed that.

95/100 - 05.03.2010

2010-03-05T00:55:00.001Z

weird looking bird - bush with india ink and red ink

I try to draw from my own photographs or from life, but I don't have a fish. I found the source picture for this on flickr.com, although I can't find the link now.
I lightly drew the shape of the fish in pencil. I also sketched some of the shapes of the shadows, then using very diluted india ink and red ink, I painted in those shapes, and this fish appeared.

94/100 - 04.03.2010

2010-03-04T00:53:00.001Z

Dumbarton Castle - Graphite stick on cartridge paper

I rarely draw outside as I don't find it easy or convenient, but this is one of those rare occasions. I find it difficult to draw random and complex patterns like the rock face in this - i probably should have just made some suggestions and approximations of the detail.
There were children, dogs and families bussing around me as I drew this... my biggest fear being that a wet dog would walk up to me and do that shaking-the-water-from-its-fur thing.

93/100 - 03.03.2010

2010-03-03T00:51:00.002Z

fast portrait drawing practice - vine charcoal

these did'nt turn out very well, I might try them again.

92/100 - 02.03.2010

2010-03-02T02:06:00.001Z

figure drawing class - charcoal

91/100 - 01.03.2010

2010-03-01T02:04:00.000Z

figure drawing class - pastel

90/100 - 28.02.2010

2010-02-28T22:39:00.000Z

brass figure - coloured pencil
i gave up on this, coloured pencils are rubbish

89/100 - 27.02.2010

2010-02-27T23:19:00.000Z

oil paints
best viewed from a distance :)

88/100 - 26.02.2010

2010-02-26T15:31:00.002Z

cake - oil paints
second attempt at oil paints... difficult but this one is a bit better.
also... you should know, I only have 6 colours and none of them are black, so there is some epic colour mixing going on here.

87/100 - 25.02.2010

2010-02-25T15:29:00.000Z

quick charcoal sketch
unfortunately, this looks like a child drew it :(

86/100 - 24.02.2010

2010-02-24T15:26:00.001Z

alley - oil paints
it seems I need a lot more practice at painting.

85/100 - 23.02.2010

2010-02-23T21:48:00.001Z

Handcut lino, ink on mango leaf (??) paper - first test print

84/100 - 22.02.2010

2010-02-22T21:43:00.003Z

life drawing class - Charcoal

I decided it was time to get some lessons! I saw an ad in the art store (which I have been frequenting recently) for a life drawing class in the Glasgow Botanical gardens on Tuesdays. So I went along to check it out. It was interesting, but I definitely felt that I was running out of time at the end of most of th poses. next week I need to bring bigger paper though.

83/100 - 21.02.2010

2010-02-21T21:42:00.000Z

82/100 - 20.02.2010

2010-02-20T02:29:00.000Z

Pen & Ink

81/100 - 19.02.2010

2010-02-19T02:28:00.000Z

Lost keys.
design cut out of lino and printed with ink on paper

80/100 - 18.02.2010

2010-02-18T02:26:00.000Z

pencil & photoshop

79/100 - 17.02.2010

2010-02-17T23:50:00.000Z

charcoal and chalk
This is the largest drawing I've done so far, usually I work on A4 ish sized paper but today I picked up an A3 pad of coloured paper. It was quite a difficult subject but I think it turned out quite nicely.

78/100 - 16.02.2010

2010-02-16T00:33:00.002Z

charcoal, messy lines

77/100 - 15.02.2010

2010-02-15T23:34:00.002Z

76/100 - 14.02.2010

2010-02-14T03:26:00.000Z

pencil on cartridge paper

75/100 - 13.02.2010

2010-02-13T00:34:00.000Z

Pencil on one post it-note. I drew this before on day 62 on 40 post-it notes, this one took a lot less time!

74/100 - 12.02.2010

2010-02-12T00:33:00.000Z

watercolour

73/100 - 11.02.2010

2010-02-11T00:31:00.000Z

chalk on pastel paper

72/100 - 10.02.2010

2010-02-10T00:25:00.001Z

coffee pot - charcoal and chalk on tinted paper.

I like how this one turned out. I think that over the last 70 days I've started to see better, which seems to be one of the big hurdles to becoming a better artist.

71/100 - 09.02.2010

2010-02-09T00:24:00.002Z

brush and ink
I'm redoing a cartoon I drew 5 years ago.

70/100 - 08.02.2010

2010-02-08T00:23:00.000Z

30 second figure drawing practice

69/100 - 07.02.2010

2010-02-07T03:27:00.001Z

onion - Conté pastels

I recorded a time-lapse video of this being drawn...

68/100 - 06.02.2010

2010-02-06T22:47:00.001Z

brush and ink, coloured digitally

67/100 - 05.02.2010

2010-02-05T19:50:00.001Z

A bird - conte pastels on cartridge paper

66/100 - 04.02.2010

2010-02-04T15:35:00.000Z

contour drawing - dipped pen and india ink

65/100 - 03.02.2010

2010-02-03T15:34:00.000Z

dipped pen and india ink

64/100 - 02.02.2010

2010-02-02T15:33:00.000Z

Tractor - biro on moleskine

63/100 - 01.02.2010

2010-02-01T15:29:00.000Z

ipod headphones - biro on moleskine

62/100 - 31.01.2010

2010-01-31T15:27:00.000Z

charcoal on 40 post-it notes
this was not fun... I drew each post-it seperately and put them all together later.

61/100 - 30.01.2010

2010-01-30T01:54:00.000Z

pen and ink
fun with a protractor

60/100 - 29.01.2010

2010-01-29T01:51:00.001Z

pastels on coloured paper

59/100 - 28.01.2010

2010-01-28T03:06:00.003Z

Acryllic paints, this is a painting of one of the excellent lego models by fellow 100 dayer, Daniel.

http://digyourfins.wordpress.com/

58/100 - 27.01.2010

2010-01-27T03:03:00.001Z

Conté pastels
See a video of this being drawn:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickd3000/4320069850/

57/100 - 26.01.2010

2010-01-26T02:59:00.000Z

bronze sculpture - Conté pastels

56/100 - 25.01.2010

2010-01-25T02:58:00.000Z

charcoal
proportions aren't great on this - the subject wouldn't sit still!

55/100 - 24.01.2010

2010-01-24T02:53:00.000Z

Conté pastels
Not bad I think for my first day using pastels ;D

54/100 - 23.01.2010

2010-01-23T19:46:00.000Z

grapes
Conté pastels on cartridge paper.

53/100 - 22.01.2010

2010-01-22T19:45:00.000Z

pastels
first attempts at using pastels, the photo looked nothing like how this turned out :)

52/100 - 21.01.2010

2010-01-21T19:40:00.002Z

pastels
first attempts at using pastels

51/100 - 20.01.2010

2010-01-20T19:39:00.001Z

saké bottle - Brush and india ink

50/100 - 19.01.2010

2010-01-19T00:57:00.001Z

wonky salt and pepper. charcoal and chalk on tinted paper.

49/100 - 18.01.2010

2010-01-18T00:56:00.001Z

orange segment. acryllic paint.

48/100 - 17.01.2010

2010-01-17T02:05:00.002Z

47/100 - 16.01.2010

2010-01-16T02:04:00.001Z

46/100 - 15.01.2010

2010-01-15T20:39:00.001Z

Charcoal and chalk on tinted paper.

Boring fact: First thing I've drawn on my new easle. I noticed that a lot of my drawings seem elongated, and I guess it was due to drawing on a level surface, which caused some weird perspective issues (I think I was adjusting for the top of the page being smaller visually) With an easle the paper can be angled so that it is completely facing the eye.

45/100 - 14.01.2010

2010-01-14T20:37:00.000Z

Dip pen and india ink.

44/100 - 13.01.2010

2010-01-13T01:21:00.001Z

Statue of a firefighter. Charcoal and chalk on tinted paper.

Things I've learned so far about using charcoal:
You can cover a lot of paper in a short amount of time.
It's messy.
It's tricky not to smudge the parts that have already drawn.
The finished drawing needs to be sprayed with a fixitive or else the slightest touch could ruin it.
It's quite hard drawing with a burnt twig.
It scans well (a lot better than pencil or watercolour)
The blacks are really black.
It's fun.

43/100 - 12.01.2010

2010-01-12T01:24:00.001Z

Stone figure. Charcoal and chalk on tinted paper.

42/100 - 11.01.2010

2010-01-11T22:17:00.002Z

Watercolour. My watercolours are a mess, I need to figure out how to do them properly. Google will show me the path!

41/100 - 10.01.2010

2010-01-10T22:16:00.001Z

Watercolour. I'm calling this a sketch.

40/100 - 09.01.2010

2010-01-09T00:46:00.002Z

Pencil portrait - didn't turn out great but have to post it!

39/100 - 08.01.2010

2010-01-08T00:45:00.001Z

Brush and india ink

38/100 - 07.01.2010

2010-01-07T00:44:00.002Z

30 second figure sketching - practice!

37/100 - 06.01.2010

2010-01-06T23:58:00.006Z

Brush and designers gouache.
I had to catch up over the last couple of days and that was difficult. I can feel myself running out of ideas... but I can also see a little improvement in what I'm doing (I hope) which is rewarding. I've enjoyed trying out some new techniques, like brush & ink, and gouache paints (like this little lego man here). Also, I've found that, for me, black and white stuff is a lot easier - seeing colours properly is hard, I don't know how you real artists do it! Onwards!

36/100 - 05.01.2010

2010-01-05T23:56:00.000Z

loupe - pencil on cartridge paper

35/100 - 04.01.2010

2010-01-04T23:55:00.001Z

brush and ink

I've found that using brush and ink is fun, but terrifying. I sketch out the drawing lightly in pencil, taking care to get everything looking as good as I can, then I pick up the brush, dip it in the ink, and one wrong move will ruin the whole thing! No hiding any mistakes here...

34/100 - 03.01.2010

2010-01-03T23:54:00.000Z

A bit messy as I didn't sketch this one out first. Freehand brush and ink.

33/100 - 02.01.2010

2010-01-02T23:52:00.001Z

Bottle of india ink - Brush & Ink on cartridge paper.

I sketched out the picture lightly in pencil, drawing most of the light and dark areas as outlines. The lighter shades are just done with diluted india ink, which leaves some banding. At first I didn't really like the banding but now I think it adds something to the picture.

32/100 - 01.01.2010

2010-01-01T18:07:00.002Z

30 second figure drawings
more drawing exercise - figure drawing has always been something I've struggled with so I'm going to keep doing these. I have 30 seconds to draw a randomly selected posed figure, I think I'm getting a bit better at picking out the overall shapes that are important, compared to the ones I did near the start of the 100 days project. I usually do 2-3 pages of these and only post the best ones, so you'd best believe the others are worse than these :)

31/100 - 31.12.2009

2009-12-31T18:05:00.001Z

Gummy bear - gouache on cartridge paper.

30/100 - 30.12.2009

2009-12-30T18:04:00.001Z

Brush and Ink - I followed this drawing tutorial:
http://home.howstuffworks.com/how-to-dra

w-triceratops.htm

This triceratops is a lean, mean, fighting machine. His name is Tinsel.

29/100 - 29.12.2009

2009-12-29T17:45:00.001Z

Trying to improve on day 27's disappointing effort. A tonal study painted using gouache - an opaque type of watercolour. It's my first time using them - tricky!

28/100 - 28.12.2009

2009-12-28T08:11:00.000Z

Pencil portrait. It turns out that hands are rather difficult to draw!

27/100 - 27.12.2009

2009-12-27T17:53:00.002Z

Not too happy with how this turned out (so i reduced the image size :) Trying a new technique that I'm finding difficult. Watercolour.

26/100 - 26.12.2009

2009-12-26T15:11:00.001Z

Lego minifig, watercolour.

25/100 - 25.12.2009

2009-12-25T15:11:00.001Z

30 Second figure drawings

24/100 - 24.12.2009

2009-12-24T04:48:00.002Z

A portrait drawn in charcoal on 9 post-it notes.
Listening to: Giant Bomb Cast

23/100 - 23.12.2009

2009-12-23T05:37:00.001Z

Snowman striptease. Brush and Ink, watercolour.

22/100 - 22.12.2009

2009-12-22T03:00:00.002Z

21/100 - 21.12.2009

2009-12-21T02:59:00.002Z

21/100 - 21.12.2009
Being silly... tried to do a tiny portrait! The head is 2mm across :) I sharpened a pencil as sharp as a pin, it was tricky (and pointless :).

20/100 - 20.12.2009

2009-12-20T13:31:00.003Z

Pencil figure drawing.

19/100 - 19.12.2009

2009-12-19T12:57:00.002Z

Freehand Ink & Brush inverted drawing of a comedian - didn't know how it would turn out until I had scanned it and re-inverted it... don't think it's very recognisable.

18/100 - 18.12.2009

2009-12-18T18:52:00.004Z

Graphite drawing of an Indian tuk tuk (auto rickshaw).

Done in honour of some friends who are bravely taking part in the rickshaw run for charity, from their site:

"On the first day of the first month of the year 2010, three intrepid blokes from Glasgow, Scotland will be attempting to drive, push, pull and force an auto-rickshaw from Pokhara in the Himalaya in Nepal down the length of India to the Southern city of Kochi. A journey of some 5000km in a 150cc vehicle that advertises "a top speed of 55kpm , but we've seen it do more downhill !!" Its just as well we're starting at the top and heading down the way."

They are raising money for the Mercy Corps who provide humanitarian community support and relief to poor countries in Africa. The guys' site is linked below, please give generously :D

http://www.rickshawrunglasgow.com

17/100 - 17.12.2009

2009-12-17T18:52:00.001Z

30 second figure sketches

16/100 - 16.12.2009

2009-12-17T03:09:00.002Z

Watercolour of some hills. I need to learn how to use watercolours.

15/100 - 15.12.2009

2009-12-16T01:28:00.002Z

robot on a skateboard. Brush and Ink, and digitally coloured. Check out those stupid misshapen tiny hands and feet.

It's leg came off when it was trying to perform a grind that was WAY beyond it's ability.

14/100 - 14.12.2009

2009-12-14T17:39:00.001Z

Day 14 and still going. Today is another practice day, another round of 30 second figure sketches - I should probably check a book or something but for now I'm hoping this is a good way to practice... Anyway, I did a few pages full of these sketches, the one shown here was a sketch I quite liked. I should really get some cheap paper for doing these sketches but for now I'll ruin the decent stuff.

Pencil on cartridge paper

Listening to: Rebel FM Podcast

13/100 - 13.12.2009

2009-12-13T20:52:00.002Z

Day 13, and some illustration (of mos). Brush and india ink. Digitally coloured.

more mos pictures here

12/100 - 12.12.2009

2009-12-12T16:09:00.001Z

Tricky to explain this one... I took a macro shot of a small transparent plastic skull (from halloween), inverted the picture so it was like a negative, then drew that negative photo in pencil (and upside down too :), then I scanned in the drawing and inverted it back to normal. Phew!

Pencil on cartridge paper.

flickr page

11/100 - 11.12.2009

2009-12-11T20:47:00.002Z

Just time for a quick sketch, I tried a few sketches of this head from different angles and picked the one I thought was best to post.

10/100 - 10.12.2009

2009-12-10T20:45:00.001Z

Today's drawing is some figure sketching practice - each figure was drawn in 30 seconds. I did a few pages of these and picked the best looking one to scan in. I found a site called posemaniacs.com that will show a figure in different poses for 30 seconds, as a learning tool. I've never been good at drawing figures so this was good practice I think, I could see a bit of a progression in quality from the first page I did to the last.

http://www.posemaniacs.com/pose/thirtysecond.html

9/100 - 09.12.2009

2009-12-09T18:44:00.001Z

Some kinda unsuccessful sketches from the amazing Andrew Loomis book as I didn't have too much time today.

8/100 - 08.12.2009

2009-12-09T00:25:00.000Z

Hit the watercolours again,and I'm still finding them rather difficult. I think a lot of my pictures look ok through half closed, scrunched up eyes. That's how I prefer to look at them.

Pencil and watercolour on cartridge paper. Photo (mine) used as source.
Listening to: The Giant Bombcast.

7/100 - 07.12.2009

2009-12-07T22:49:00.001Z

Another charcoal drawing today, this time of a macro photo of a small swiss army knife. The paper is tinted so I tried using a white pastel for the highlights. The paper was quite grainy so the texture is showing through a lot, not sure if that's good or bad, also I found it hard to get smooth areas of shading - as you can see in the shadows. Bit of a problem here with the size of the different parts as well, the scissors should have been a bit longer.

Charcoal and white pastel on tinted pastel paper. Photo (mine) used as source.
Listening to: The Collings and Herrin Podcasts.

6/100 - 06/12/2009

2009-12-07T00:38:00.001Z

Day 6 and it's my first colour picture of the 100. I've never managed to get the hang of painting but I would like to, so today I tried painting a watercolour picture of a buoy in the sea around Florida. Comparing this to the photo I used as source it is a bit off, layout wise. Also the waves seem a little scribbled - just not very realistic in general. Oh well, the aim here is improvement so I have to start somewhere! I think the scanner is not capturing the colours very well because I'm sure the water was a bit darker.

Water colour on cartridge paper.
Listening to: The Collings and Herrin Podcasts.

5/100 - 05.12.2009

2009-12-05T22:41:00.001Z

So, to mix things up a little, and since I had some time, I tried using charcoal today. Charcoal is something I've always wanted to try but always found it very difficult to use. I think it turned out alright, the glass looks ok but as usual the proportions and layout was difficult. Another difficulty I found is how easily smudged the charcoal is, it's tricky trying to draw without resting your hand on the parts you've already put down - maybe I'm supposed to start at the left side and work over to the right? Hmm. It would be interesting to go back to some of these reference photos at the end of the 100 drawings and draw some again, to compare things.

This took around an hour (estimated) to complete, charcoal and putty eraser on cartridge paper. Photograph (mine) used as a source.
Listened to: Giant Bombcast (videogame podcast)

4/100 - 04.12.2009

2009-12-04T22:34:00.001Z

Again, not much time for drawing today so had to attempt another sketch. This one is of the statue in royal exchange square, Glasgow. I wasn't happy with how this turned out so added some annotations :) The main problem I think is the proportions, things just aren't where they should be, so need to find a better technique to position things in the drawings.

Biro on moleskine, photo (from internet) used as source.
Listened to: The hum of pc's.

3/100 - 03.12.2009

2009-12-03T22:32:00.001Z

I didn't have much time today so I attempted a quick sketch on the train. Sketching on a moving train is not an ideal way to draw! Biro on moleskine.
Listened to: The sounds of the train.

2/100 - 02.12.2009

2009-12-02T22:28:00.000Z

Day 2 of 100, a pencil drawing of a small shot of whisky. I think it turned out not to bad. I think it might get hard to think of things to draw as this goes on...

Graphite pencil and putty eraser on cartridge paper. Photo (mine) used as source.
Listened to: Keith and the Girl (podcast)