skip to main |
skip to sidebar
OK I want to direct this piece mainly at the beginners but is great practice for the more advanced also. I used only my .25 mm and .30 mm pens for this piece along with a mechanical pencil for the graph and the general sketching and also have a Sanford magic rub eraser for any corrections that may need to be made during the sketching and also will be used upon completion of the work when all pen work is completed.
Since this was a commissioned piece I basically was confined to doing it from a photo provided. You’ll notice that the photo is in black and white. This wasn’t done specifically for a reason…the only reason was I had no colored ink left in my printer but having said that using a black and white photo as opposed to a color photo makes very little difference. As long as the photo has some workable detail then no problem.
When working from a photo, while doing the graph keep in mind that you are able to enlarge the piece by enlarging the graph that you use on your piece itself. Example: If you use one inch square graphing on the photo then enlarge the graph on your piece to one and one half inch squares. Just remember not to go much larger than two inches because will begin to distort. Get this completed and also complete the sketch in work and we’ll cover the beginning pen techniques in next post. Any questions email me.
www.stacyvaughndavis.blogspot.cm
www.flickr.com/stacyvaughn68
www.360.yahoo.com/stacyvaughn68
www.republicmichigan.com
“A Cold Decembers Day…” This piece I was commissioned to do in late November. The subjects are my nieces Dana and Danielle. It was done for their Grandparents as a Christmas gift in 2008.
For this work I only used my .25 mm pen and my .30 mm pen. This work is a break from the last piece requiring less detail work mostly for the fact that it is only an 11” x 14” piece. I want you all to notice in the next post that I have included a photo of how I graph it out and also I want you to notice how I take many liberties on the actual composition itself. Like the fact that I added more snow than was actually upon the ground and also that I added less clouds but we’ll cover those things when we cross those bridges.
So in the mean time get your photo prepared and get your table and paper set up along with the graphs IF needed. This will be a simple piece and is ideal for the beginners also. Any questions just email me.
www.stacyvaughndavis@blogspot.com
www.flickr.com/stacyvaughn68
www.360.yahoo.com/stacyvaughn68
www.republicmichigan.com
Now for the final lesson and sample for this piece you just need either Conte’ Pencils or some good quality pastels or pastel pencils…whichever you prefer and also your .25 mm pen to complete the stippling in the hat. Now I ca only go over what I HAVE done on my piece so I give it to you step by step. IF you do not have a self portrait of yourself on your piece then ignore this.
I first complete my hat by just lining it in with my .25 mm pen and then filling in with some loose stippling. Add more stippling by overlaying to indicate shading and use line work to indicate the stitching in the hat and also any logo’s on it. Once that is complete I clean the pen in my ink cleaning solution and set aside.
Now here is the simplest part of the work…this is nothing more than what we did as children with a coloring book our parents bought us. You just color it in! I first begin by using flesh tone colors on my face. I avoid placing any color in the eyes yet . I then switch to a sepia color but just go with what YOU feel is right for you. I sparingly add any shadows to the bridge of my nose and cheeks using a stump to blend both colors to soften it out. ALWAYS add darker colors on lighter colors sparingly because when blending with a stump you’ll be amazed how it can spread. I then add a dark brown to my eyes and use the stump once again to soften the tone. I do the same thing on the fingers starting from light to dark. You may want to leave the large hand for last because you do not want any smearing of colors but you basically will do the same on the small hand as you will on the large.
I’ll begin lessons on a new piece I was commissioned to do as a Christmas gift. Any questions just email!
www.stacyvaughndavis.bogspot.com
www.flickr.com/stacyvaughn68
www.360.yahoo.com/stacyvaughn68
Basically for most of this entire piece I have been using only my .25 mm pen and .30 mm pen. Except for the night sky and also the crow’s which I used my .30 mm pen to outline the high lights on the wings and such then came back and filled in with a 1.20 mm pen which makes filling in large areas of ink so much easier although be careful because does lay down a large amount of ink and tends to dry slowly so pay attention to any chances of smearing the ink into areas you do not wish it to be. Once I completed filling in the large black areas I then used my .30 mm pen to just add some small quick line work to the feathers but not all of them. Keep some of them free of any ink to give more high lights to the birds wings.
Now for the background of the sky I used my .25 mm pen and used the swirl technique but much more tightly spaced then in any other piece I have covered before. It is extremely difficult so if you wish you can use either just a nice stippled in background or more loosely placed swirls. It really is a wonderful technique because it just makes you see movement in a 2 dimensional piece. For the clouds I just used some loosely placed stippling to add some depth and dimension and also texture to the clouds.
In next post I will cover the mediums I used to create myself and my hand. Any questions just email me and I’ll get back to you as soon as I possibly can.
http://stacyvaughndavis@blogspot.com
www.flickr.com/stacyvaughn68
http://360.yahoo.com/stacyvaughn68
Now in the first step of this lesson I just want you to think of the sky in two simple steps. The first step will be the night sky and the second will be a more intense swirled sky. I’ll go over the first step in this lesson.
First sketch out any thing such as birds or planes or stars or what have you that will NOT be completely covered in with ink. Once this is completed then all you need to do is take the largest pen size you have available and begin filling it in. I suggest you use your pens but you can use a brush BUT keep in mind that using a brush will tend to leave lighter areas and you will need to go over these but when you do keep in mind that a large amount of wet ink in one area will make the paper buckle AND can also damage the surface of the paper. Using your pens may take longer but is so much more controlled and it tends to force you to be patient and pen & ink requires patience above all else! I like to go over any large area that has been inked in like this several times and going in different directions much like you would with cross hatching.
In next post we’ll go over second step of completing the sky. Any questions just ask.
http://stacyvaughndavis@blogspot.com
www.flickr.com/stacyvaughn68
