LFGSS Art Club.

Great use of colour to show dark and light areas!

I think I meant to post this here at Christmas - Christmas card wot I got printed up to send to family and friends.

Merry belated Christmas and happy 2021, art-fiends of LFGSS

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That's great love the colours . I didn't do any cards this year last year went down the lino cut and print route.
The Robin was the best one

Love it. I like how the marks from clearing the background seem to be radiating out from the robin. Makes it dramatic - ‘ROBIN!!!!!1’ :-)

Ha yeah does shout ROBIN!!!! with them lines 🤣

Lairy little shits, though robins. You nailed it!

This weeks effort

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Wow

better than most of the official portraits

There’s something not quite right though. There’s a whiff of Donald trump in the eyes

The inner lizard

I did think about putting loads of cigarettes in the mouth or gold tooth.

I’m struggling with making faces more 3D. Does anyone have any suggestions?

You could try darker graphite tones in the deep shade areas (softer leads). You could also try playing with light sources (back lighting etc). One thing I like doing is fading elements that are towards the back, like distance haze.

An old excersize I did with a tutor was to really exaggerate light on a subject and only draw the shadow. The different grain of Shadows being challenging, and making form without drawing outlines a good excersize for demonstrating when you don't need a mark.

This usually won't turn into nice drawings but helps with seeing the subject better when you do want to add depth or richness.

Thanks for the comments. If I google how to do that. Or go on YouTube, what would I search for?

Yo. I'm enjoying watching your progress. I agree, if you're using the retractable pencil pictured, I'd invest in some softer/darker lead. Any and all exercises could be beneficial now. I'd be thinking about economy of mark making. The neck on your self portrait is covered in marks that aren't descriptive, there must have been some variation in tonal value there. I'd look at cross hatching too, I find it keeps the pencil active, and you're less inclined to follow a 'line' you think is there. Let the viewer's eyes fill in the blanks.
The Andrew Loomis books are great.

One by Mrs Bob...

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Economy of line is really worth developing, yeah. It’s also something that comes with confidence and experience. It can be just as rewarding going in the other direction - using lots of line and marking to kind of ‘sculpt’ shapes.
My wife is a big fan of drawing without lifting your pencil from the paper, which can be a good way of developing confidence and also just getting you thinking slightly differently about how you’re putting down marks and describing shapes.

That’s amazing

nice.

Thanks, I won't fill these pages, but she's proper good.

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yes very talented agree.

I think I see what you mean about line economy. Not lines but shade to imply a difference

I’m just in awe of this. There’s hardly any lines at all just I don’t know how to describe it. Just different colours of shading.

I need to try this and get to grips with it

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