Study Dumps

Ah! I haven't written a blog post in a while. It's such a simple task but needs proper management. I prefer to just dump images all in one. So here they are! 

Tried honing my traditional skills with Gouache recently. I'm enjoying its combined acrylic and watercolour properties. Maybe a bit of oil too with its blending ability, but not too much. It dries very quickly.

Master studies. Because you and I can. Why shouldn't we? So much to learn! They're after Sargent and Zorn. Zorn must be my favorite portrait master painter, so closely to Leyendecker, which I've yet to tackle!

Last year, I delved into the hyped Inktober for the first time. I didn't get very far but it was so much fun getting back to inks! Long before I got into digital, ink was what I frequently worked with, along with colored pencils.

Finally, and very recently some lizard heads. Dragons are coming!

That's it for now.

Best to all of you!

Meril

More Short Studies

Today's post will be pretty short. I did a couple of sketchbook drawing practice. I'm still in the process of relearning traditionals. It's taking a while.. And I'm struggling using mechanical pencils, I should really switch back to regular old wood pencils. I recently bought charcoal, a medium I have never tried, so I'm looking forward to it.

Here's the summary for this week, in visual form!

2.5 hr

45 min

I'm working on a piece which features some water creatures. Can't say what it's for yet, but it's a pretty big deal to me. So I wanted to study some amphibian, preferably that of frog skin textures. The colorful one took me a while.. too much. I was trying to use the mixer brush a LOT. It dulled the colors, dulled the rendering, it looked boring. I tried to use it just to experiment a little and see if my process could go faster, clearly it doesn't work for me. I do like the minimal usage of it, especially when trying to create smudged effects, which is most attractive to soft edges. But having to use it everywhere and relying on it to do the blending for you.. doesn't work. At least for me. I end up losing the colors then I try to reapply it, then blend it again, then lose it again. No wonder it took forever. I went back to the good old method of the manual 'labor' of splashing the colors in and taking the time to make gentle strokes and blend it myself. Voila! Looked nice and bright. Think I'll just stick with this method.

Some more random drawing practices. 

Combination of a study and imagination. A sample I made for a commission.

That is all for now ladies and gents. Cheers! :D

Meril

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