Tropical Fruit.

Graphite on 130 gsm A4 paper.

Back to graphite, thought I am still playing with my charcoal sticks.
Some thing that I have been frustrated for a long time now, is the glare in my pencil work photographs. Pencil works are best photographed in a bright shade. But it is easier said than done. Even in the shade some part of the drawings got more light than the the rest, resulting in a glare or over darkening of one side of the drawing etc.
I have tried photographing at different times of the day. Afternoon works best if you have access to a terrace or open space where the light hits from all directions. But even then, even lighting is tricky (tricky sentence :) ). Evenings have never worked for me.
This particular photo, with which I am really happy was taken early in the morning just before sun rise. It was very bright outside but no sun rays hitting the art work, no glare, no shadows and very little editing required. I am all smiles.

Sketches

Hurray,...We finally have a broadband connection at our place. Its been more than 10 months, since our shift to this house but were not able to find a broadband provider. We moved to a relatively new locality of our city. Just a couple of days before the shift, we realized that BSNL is not providing any phone or internet connection to our new apartment.  More cables required, overload etc etc were the reasons given.... one year since and still no cables.
Hopefully now this neglected blog of mine will see more action.

Scenic Tuscan

Graphite on 180gsm Paper, 10"*6'"

Practicing clouds. Diane Wright, whom I have mentioned before has excellent tutorials on her website. I keep going back to her blog and website for inspiration and tips.
Following Diane's tutorial on clouds, I crosshatched the sky area with a F .5mm mechanical pencil. After blending the whole area with a paper towel, I sculpt the clouds with a plastic eraser. I keep working on the clouds erasing and darkening till I am satisfied with the results.
For the rest of the picture I have used  .5mm mechanical pencils with a 2B lead for the darkest tones, F, 2H and 4H for the lighter tones.

Iron Chain Completed

Charcoal, carbon and graphite pencil on Vellum Bristol. 10"*6"

Tried so many different techniques in this one piece alone. The idea was to to get a realistic rusted iron chain texture. What worked eventually was, for the shadowed regions of the drawing, stippling with carbon pencil first and then with a hard charcoal pencil. Then a light blending with a brush. 

For the bright sun lite parts of the chain, a series of reverse burnishing, starting with 7H then 4H and finally 2H to get the rough texture. The white of the paper were preserved by stippling with a empty ballpoint pen before hand.

Iron Chain WIP

Charcoal,carbon and graphite pencil on Vellum Bristol.

Working on an another charcoal, carbon and graphite combination. Posting the quarter part of the piece that I have been working on. More to come soon.

Landscape Struggles Finished

Graphite on A4 paper.

Finally completed this piece. Have kept it pending for quite some time now. The techniques I used, back when I started this drawing did not let me darken the grass as much as I wanted. And also I destroyed a few portions of the paper by erasing too much.
After a few days of mourning I have made peace with the fact that I might not achieve the required results. After a few final adjustments, am calling this finished.

Eagle

Graphite pencil on 130gsm Paper. 6" * 7" approx. 

Back to Animals and Birds after a long time. Used 4B for the background, 6B, 2B, HB, 2H and 4H for the eagle. Taking the picture was a struggle as usual.

Waiting for Spring

Charcoal and 2B graphite pencil on A4 paper.

Another work with charcoal and graphite combination. I am falling in love with the charcoal pencils.

Canna Leaves

Carbon, charcoal and Graphite pencil on A4 130gsm Paper.

More Carbon, Charcoal and Graphite pencil experiments. I am pleased with this piece compared to the previous one. The details on the leaves are much better in this drawing as compared to Maple leaves, where I think I ended up with too much dark background.

Mapel Leaves

carbon pencil and graphite on A4 paper

Marsha Robinett who is an amazing artist and one of my favorite, uses carbon pencil for most of her work and gets amazing results. She also has a squidoo page Drawing Techniques: using carbon, charcoal, and graphite where one can learn more about her unique technique and the advantages of using all three pencils ( graphite, carbon and charcoal) in a single piece of work.

Cherry Blossoms

Graphite on handmade paper.

More experimenting with the background. Applied a dark layer of 6B blended it with a paper towel to remove excess graphite and reapplied 6B. After a few times of doing the same ... the paper refused to take any more graphite :(
Was trying to achieve a light breezy back ground but now I am not sure what it looks like.

Reflection

Graphite on handmade paper.

Another small piece, 14 * 7 cms. This is the first time I have tried to get a black background in graphite, achieving a perfect dark black in graphite is very frustrating and time consuming.

Tiger

Graphite on handmade Paper

A very small study, its 5.5 * 5 cms. Used 6B for the back ground but in this photo, the left side has more glare than in the actual drawing.

Waterfront.

Graphite on handmade paper.

Trying landscapes again. Water front this time around. Not a very clear photograph though. 

A few sketches

A few quick sketches in graphite over the last few weeks.

Tree Bark

Graphite on Handmade paper.

Photographing pencil sketches is such a tricky thing. After an year or more of trying I am yet to click a perfect picture of my sketches. Should try scanning soon...

Jeans

Grapite on handmade paper

The reference image for this drawing is from the blog 'The Artistic Biker', a great place for reference images for still life works.

Cherries

Cherries.... graphite on canson sketch paper.

Reactivating

Back to this blog after a gap of two years. Baby break. Hopefully will able to draw and post here more frequently. That is if my two year old lets me do it.

Leopards

Reference photo from a Newspaper
Have been working on this the whole of this week. Am not sure how many hours it took. I used .5 mm mechanical pencils HB, 2B, 2H and a 4B wood pencil.