EAP

... another time around with this mystery person,...

sB

Une Faerie est une Féerie

After the Lion & Cub drawing I was talking with my mother.   In a part of our conversation I asked her what she wanted me to draw.   She suggested I draw a fairy,... I replied with "a fairy?!"    In her always perfect moments of  motherhood/friendship she stated she had been reading stories involving fairies and thought I should draw one.

In what I think is my usual style I needed to draw it in an original fashion,... and hence this was my vision of a completely fantastical being.  There are 6 or 7 types of beliefs regarding what faries are, from demoted angels to demons to pagan deities and more. They have been part of human literature since the 15th century and most probably stem even further back by word of mouth, so there have been innumerable amount of depictions of fairies.  Having said that,. here is my interpretation of a fairy which I imagined would be a feminine version of a nephilim (tall nondescript angelic being) with rather insect wings (forewing and hindwing) as opposed to feathered wings (single wing).

They would be beings of nature (hence the nudity) and not necessarily childlike or pretty like pixies. So along that theme the hair needed to be a little scraggly and unkept.  The wings are more psychedelic than I would have prefered and I had toyed with the idea of adding/working light colors into them,.. but it was suggested I keep them black and white, (I concede the result is very pleasant as is),... 

and color
would have

made them 
too busy and
definitely
psychedelic.












 I think this part of the wings is my favorite part. 

Drawn on 11 x 14 on 70lb paper. Used an HB, a 6B graphite pencil and a 0.7mm mechanical pencil. A kneading and hard eraser as well as various methods and tools to blend and shade the darker areas.


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Leo - completed

As completed as it will be for now,.. since I think I will be touching up and retouching this piece for a long time, (even after I took this photograph for the blog I tweaked it here and there). It is my impression that these are always more impressive in person anyways.

Having said that,.. I am not impressed with my work here.

Pros; the Lions face,  the Lions paw,  the Lions body,  the lion cubs face and head  and  the angle of their eyes in respect to each other.  (I am also pleased with the look of the rock they are laying on)

Cons; the Lions mane (it is almost embarrasing, but showing it helps me learn),  the lion cubs paws and body (encompass so many future corrections I prefer not to list them now).



All in all I think if I cropped it as shown below I would be proud to show this partial piece and even make it available as shown. Much like many of my pieces though, I suppose I will continue to revisit this one and make the necessary corrections as my skills improve. I am reluctant to try too much right now since my mind and heart are simply not in it.


















For the record,.. I am not self deprecating all the time.

I do think I did a wonderful job on the partial below.
I wanted to capture strong, predatory , animalistic
eyes, that for just a moment felt tenderness, worry
and maybe even the love only a parent can feel.












I think I managed to dojust that.












The original is 14"x11" on 80 lb white paper.  HB pencil, 0.7mm and 0.5mm mechanical pencils, hard and kneaded erasers, and the blending/shading done with a combination of tortillon, finger tips and a soft cloth.

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I did not notice until early yesterday morning the significance of this piece. In all fairness, anything to do with fathers and sons always tugs at my heart strings (just like brother to brother) since that is my experience having had and still having the best of both. This one is a Lion,.. symbol for the astrological sign of Leo,.. Leo was my fathers sign,.. this is a drawing of a father and son.  There is certainly something there to analyze,..  I'll bet this one piece alone would pay for a therapists weekend leisure boat in no time.  In all seriousness, it might have been subliminally suggested to me, but in reality I recently saw a similar picture in the news and it simply stuck with me.


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... teaching me lessons,...

This lion is teaching me some new tricks. I thought it would be easier than it is turning out to be, but I am learning a lot (about myself and my skill level) and I have to admit I am  liking what I see,.. well, most of what I see. 





















My issue with hair/fur is obviously still an obstacle I have yet to fully conquer and when I stand back and observe my progress, I think I might have been doing it right in certain areas (ie: above the forehead, under the chin) but the rest is still terrible to me, (mostly because I was trying for more realism and failed). So I need to try harder and I also have to tease the hair at the top of the head and as for the rest, althought it looks like it is going everywhere, I need to make it seem less uniform and more windblown.  On the other hand, it seems I have a better handle on perspective (I am liking how the paw is looking,.. although not finished it is going in the right direction).



 Here is a closeup of the face,..  before and after some finishing touches.
























I think adding darker shadows on the cheek and some darker hairs behind the chin makes the entire face/head longer, more masculine, massive,... which is what I am aiming for. I want the final product to be a tender moment between father and son, with a sense of how different they are at this junction in thier respective lives.



Meanwhile,... I keep working, reworking and overworking the hair/fur. I am slowly going to start on the lioncub also.

Felidae - Panthera - Leo

It's been a few days,.. I've been trying to get back into the groove with this piece but I think it is not the piece that is stalling me but drawing in general. I am not giving up drawing in the least - just sorting ideas in my head. I actually think the drawing is going to come out ok,.. I am truly trying to give it a realistic feel but the hair in the mane is still very much a work-in-progress,.. in the end I think it will be acceptable.

In the Felidae family, the Panthera Leo is the male lion often/oddly known as the "King of the Jungle", they typically inhabit savanna and grassland, although they may take to bush and forest. Lions are unusually social compared to other cats but I still would not want one on my lap,..but that is just me.

{lets try this again}

Lets try this again,...

version 2 (two),.. please don't judge it too harshly, I think I lost the originality I had in the first one but I believe it will get better as I go further.
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...on to another King... {and his son}

and for my next trick,...

I had thought this would be a good project to show some detailed techniques and minor secrets,.. so I took a picture in mid-stage,..  a nice closeup to share how I accomplish the final look, (it is multi-staged).






















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Then disaster struck,...

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So I read a lot about techniques and often try different tools, pencils, erasers and what-nots.  Well here is what happens when you use an eraser that is too hard on a medium that is too thick, which I was fully aware of but had never experienced.  

Unless you use a very gentle, soft and controlling pressure with the eraser, you will be crushing the fibers of the paper,.. what is the big deal you may ask,... 

No big deal if you never, brush or blend your work (which I do quite a bit),... the result is sadly shown below,..

 



where I pressed with the 
eraser is where the graphite 
is darker,...











.... I think the piece was going well but this is unrepairable. The only thing to do is either over draw the areas where I did not run the eraser (incredibly difficult to match shading,.. I tried) -or- run the eraser in those lite areas to evenly crush the fibers (essentially erasing 3/4 of my work in the process). Either way it would be more beneficial to simply chalk this up as a lesson learned and move on or start over.

For the record,.. I think I am going to do the later,....

sB

The King Is Here,..

Elvis Aaron Presley,.. very few people in our human history are known by simply one name but when you here Elvis, you immediately know who it is. I have no doubt we could come up with a hundred single named individuals that left a indelible memory but compared to the +100 billion people whom have come and gone in our history,.. I think it is still impressive.

I could write about Elvis for days and never have to look for new information or anecdotes,..  however, instead I will write a few words about this drawing and my process.  The original photograph is of a 21 year old Elvis, (some 56 years ago), jumping up on stage at the Olympia Theater in Miami.

In the original photograph his
left arm is down
behind him
but I thought it
would be better
to be out and up,
with his usual
pointing to the sky.

I have major issues
with that hand,.. it
has gone through
many iterations and
still is not quite right
to me but I do not
regret taking the
artistic liberty of
adding it.

All in all I think the
this piece in its
entirety is good
enough for me to
show it now.








Now details are the devils toys and that darn horned meany sure likes to play with me,.. so,..

Face/Head

 




First sketch sure does
look like my aunt Gina
but hopefully it does
get better,...

..... finally it starts
to look like someone
I might not be related
to, maybe even an
Elvis impersonator.

I'll freely admit it is
not there yet, but in
the context of the
entire piece I think
it works.











.... the right foot/shoe,...

Although the left shoe
seems ok, when I thin
it out a little (see below)
it looks much better.

Finally, some of my favorite parts of this project. Doesn't mean they were easy and doesn't mean they were difficult, just that I enjoy the final product, appreciated the process and learned something new.

(shading and blending)































 (shadow and detail)














(light direction)













HB pencil, a hard eraser and soft kneading eraser, most of the blending was done with a tortillon and the final size is 18 x 24 on 80 lb paper.

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