Sketches of photos appearing it the Listener.

 

Coastal road near Motueka, South Island, New Zealand

Some quick sketches

I'm so out of practice sketching. I've decided to try and do some quick sketches everyday again.

South Coast NSW, Australia

Some pencil sketches over breakfast

Otaki Beach at sunset

Another portrait drawing

 

Prismacolor Sepia pencil

 

Portrait

Done at a life drawing class. Prismacolour sepia pencil (thanks again for these Kerrie-Ann!) on sugar paper.

Watersoluble graphite pencil

I got a 2B and 6B watersoluble graphite pencil the other day. I didn't even know these existed. I really like them. You can't move the colour around the page much, and I was surprised just how much darker the 6B was. They look fairly similar when dry, and then when wet, the 6B leaps out of the page. I used my water brushpen that I use with watercolour pencils.

Bridge near Wanganui River, North Island, NZ

Sketch with my new prismacolour pencil

Thanks so much to Kerri-ann for sending me a box of prismacolor pencils and lots of other art goodies. I love them. This is a portrait in french gray shade.

Sketch: Man at the markets

 

A sketch of a man at a market on wonderful Big Yellow Bee paper. 8B pencil. This is 8B graphite pencil is different brand from the previous sketch, and I prefer the previous Staedler 8B graphite pencil.

Below: Late afternoon sun in a cafe. 0.1mm Staedler fineliner.

A beach in Northland, North Island, New Zealand (photo by Jonas)

Big Yellow Bee paper sketch: 8B pencil

8B pencil on Big Yellow Bee, Co-Mo Draw 130gsm paper (which my amazing penfriend in Portland sent me). I love this paper.

Powell River in the mist, Tararua Forest Park, North Island, New Zealand

Pen and pencil sketches

I did these in the evenings while my kids had a bath. My husband sorted them out while I sketched the fisherman. He's a keeper, that one.

 

A fisherman. Based on a photo in the book ¨Coast¨.  0.1 Staedler black pen. A5 paper.

 

 Sketch from life: bloke watching tv... Conte Pierre Noire pencil. 10x14ishcm.

A beach in Northland, New Zealand (photo by Jonas)

A face a week #40

Prismacolor sepia pencil, A5 paper. I'm trying to capture her expression of looking intently at something, or trying to figure something out. I think it is all in the tilt of the head, the compressing of the neck, and the posture. I think when someone is concentrating on something very intently, their eyes might be closed slightly, but their jaw is relaxed and loose (which is shown by it being a fraction forward, and probably a fraction less shaded, depending on which direction the light is coming from). 

A quick miniature sketch of a guy looking out a window to try out my new Conte Pierre Noire and Prismacolor colorless blending pencils.

Face a week #39

Another afternoon sketch. Prismacolour sepia pencil. Unfortunately, I think my four year old has run off with my eraser and hidden it somewhere in the house. Darn.

I loved this woman's large expressive eyes and serious smile.

A face a week #38

I really loved this woman's confident and slightly mischievous smile: there's no airs and graces. She is just being herself. In the sketch below, I thought the woman had lovely smiling, hooded eyes, and an interesting smile: a wide smile, but with closed, almost pursed lips. I used a Prismacolor Sepia pencil and a blending stick for both of these.  

 

Shoreline just south of Kaikoura, South Island, New Zealand

New Year arrivals

Wow - I got sent these amazing art supplies by the best penpal ever (you know who you are!).

I had to try the sepia Prismacolor pencils straight away. They are amazing to use. I am definitely a convert to these. I love the Big Yellow Bee paper too.

 

Plus a bit more practice drawing hands:
 

 

Sketches from Taupo

We drove up to Lake Taupo in the centre of NZ's North Island for the annual Round Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge. We've been coming for years for the road biking, since well before we had kids. Now I mind the kids while my husband does the new mountain bike course of the challenge.

Lake Taupo, southern shores

A sketch which I did at the Helicopter Cafe, one of the first points where we could reliably see my husband cycling past before he disappears into the next mountain bike track of the course.  I have sketched this from a platform, next to an enormous Sikorsky (I think) helicopter which is mounted next to the cafe. You can go in, and the kids can sit in the cockpit and pretend to be pilots. I've just drawn a tiny bit of the front of the helicopter. The thing at the bottom of the helicopter is measuring equipment, not landing gear. The helicopter is so huge the blades don't even come into the sketch.

I sketched the Hilton Hotel next door to the campground while my kids bounced on the trampoline.  There has to be some pathos to drawing a Hilton Hotel while you stay in a tent next door. But the truth is, that accommodation prices are tripled or even quadrupled over the Round Lake Taupo event, and we probably could have stayed in the Hilton on any other weekend for the amount we were paying for our tent site. (Well, maybe not quite, but almost!).

A high speed sketch of Mount Ruapehu as we drove back home along the Desert Road. I could have drawn my husband's nose on the right hand edge, as I was looking past him sitting in the driver's seat, but thought the sketch looked better as is. 

We stopped at the Army Museum at Waiouru (or if you have ever been past here on your way to the skifields in winter, Wai-oooo-oooo-r-uuuu, through chattering teeth). I tried out some marker pens I had, but I didn't really like this technique. Still, had to try. Mount Ruapehu is in the background.

Horowhenua countryside, again at 100 kph.

Traffic at the Otaki roundabout. We moved on before I could draw the car in front. There is a certain camaraderie on the road to and from the event, as hundreds of cars travel along with you with bikes on the back. We are always trying to spot race numbers and people we know. 

Trees on the hillside at Waikanae, again at 100kph.

More Waikanae countryside, in the late afternoon sun.

If I did more speed pencil sketches en route, I would definitely bring a blending stump along. You can cover large areas quickly with it, and I think it would do a far better job at clouds and skies.

Drawing people smirking

Over breakfast (and morning tea) I sketched one of the Cardinals photographed in the NZ Listener magazine. 

I've been reading Giovanni Civardi's excellent book Drawing: A Complete Guide and I really like how he does his portraits with a style that is at the same time exact, but loose and relaxed. The cross hatching is methodical and beautiful, but fast and expressive. A bit like in my other favourite book, John Raynes' Drawing and Painting People. I thought I would give this a go. I used my Derwent Onyx pencil (medium), and it did take quite some effort to get the darker shades, which on thin paper can buckle the paper a bit. I'd still like to order a the dark version of this pencil and try that out.

It has also made me think about how to sketch someone smirking - what is the crucial thing to include in the sketch that differs from a closed smile? It depends on the lighting, of course, but I think a smirk involves the lips being pursed and pushed out, and the chin jutting forward slightly. Plus the usual things that accompany a smile, such as raised cheeks, dimples, wider mouth and slightly closed eyes. 

Pursed lips are shown by the shadow above the mouth stopping before the lips, so that there is a line of blank paper above the top lip, and slightly deeper shading under the top lip. This is due to light catching the lips more because the lips are pushed out, smirking. Usually in a sketch, the edge of the mouth's lower lips are not drawn, but are implied by the shadow on the chin under the curve of the lower lip. But in a smirk, there might not be as much shading on the chin (in this case, almost none) under the lower lip, because in a smirking smile the chin is being jutted forward so much.

TV sketches #7

Again, I was watching live TV with hubby so I did these without pausing the show or rewinding. They are pretty good likenesses too. The show was a documentary about daredevils and stuntpeople, and the sketches are of these people being interviewed.

 

                                                                    Tararua Ranges, North Island, New Zealand