Salaveya Stage 2

It's been weeks since I last posted. Have been quite busy (consecutive doctor's appointment among other things). Anyway, here's stage 2 where I have already put in tones on the neck; started rendering the hair and background with graphite and crossed over to lay charcoal on the sweater. Still more work to be done!

Salaveya

Graphite and charcoal on Canson grain paper/8x10" 

I'm taking a break from posting wildlife drawings for awhile. Instead, here is a work in progress portrait of a friend of mine.

Wood Thrush at Rest

 Wood Thrush at Rest

Graphite Pencil on Canson Grain Paper

8 x 10"

$85 (+ $12 shipping and handling)

To purchase this drawing, please visit my Etsy shop -

drawingsbydavid.etsy.com

Another bird drawing I did for James Parker's challenge blog, Windows to the Words (in the previous post, I forgot to put a link on his blog). Sorry about that...

Blue Bird

Bluebird

Graphite Pencil on Canson Grain Paper

8 x 10"

$85 (+ $12 shipping and handling)

To purchase this drawing, please visit my Etsy shop -

drawingsbydavid.etsy.com

I love doing birds. I'm really pleased how this turned out. I did this as an entry to James Parker's challenge blog, Windows to the Words, about two years ago.

The Equestrian Mount - A Horse Portrait

 The Equestrian Mount

Charcoal on

Canson Grain Paper

  8 x 10"

$85 (+ $12 shipping and handling)

To purchase this drawing, please visit my Etsy shop -

drawingsbydavid.etsy.com

I thought I'd post other drawings that I did before I started this blog. I have loads of fun in trying different subjects... including animals. I got the reference for this piece from Wetcanvas' photo library.

Portrait of Jean Peters

Another celebrity portrait that I found, this time of a classic actress of the 1940's. This one was done two years ago using charcoal on Arches Hot Pressed paper. I really like how this piece turned out.

Portrait of Susan Boyle

A few days ago, I rummaged through my earlier drawings and came across a couple more celebrity portraits. One of them is this charcoal portrait of Britain's Got Talent singing sensation, Susan Boyle. She's one of those newly discovered singers that I really like!

The Picnic

The Picnic

Charcoal Pencil Drawing on

Canson Grain Paper

7.5 x 5.5"

$55 (+ $10 shipping and handling)

I had been working on this drawing for quite sometime. I'll call this "The Picnic". This one took me about an equal amount of time to come up with a suitable title. I thought about an oldies film with the same title (starring William Holden and Kim Novak) that I had the pleasure of watching several years ago and decided to borrow it :D

Rose No. 13 Completed and A Year-End Recap of the ACEO Flower Drawings...

Rose XIII

 Graphite on Canson Grain paper

2.5 x 3.5"

US$15 - free shipping worldwide via Registered Airmail

To purchase this drawing, please email me at
artistdavidte@gmail.com

I think I'll call it finish at this stage. I'll call this Rose No. 13, since I just learned that the previous one which is untitled is also a rose (Rose No. 12). I really like how this one turned out. This, along with the three previous drawings might well be another series, kind of a series within a series. Since I like how they have turned out, I may do a few more in this style next year. Meanwhile, I'm spending the rest of December working on a larger piece and planning a couple more bigger drawings - so I don't start the year off dry. This drawing is like a final examination, putting to the test all I have learned during the school year.

The "100 ACEO Flower Drawings" series was started in 2009 while searching for a niche that can easily make my drawings distinguishable from other works. I had been looking at other artists' works to give me ideas to incorporate into my art. Ideas I could combine into something unique and call it my own. I've learned a lot from these little drawings which would be handy to use in the larger drawings next year :D

Below are photos featuring all of the available ACEO Flower Drawings.

 

Here's a little something to wrap up the year 2010!

Best wishes to all for the Holiday seasons and a safe and blessed new year ahead!

ACEO Flower No. 18: Stage 7 and a Few of My Tools

Here the drawing is almost complete, just a little more at the bottom. Again, the background is done as a bokeh - seems like I'm getting addicted to it. I found that using a nylon brush with its bristles sort of dulled down from extensive use, like the second one in the picture below, produces rich darks making it perfect for creating bokeh.

From the top: a small, flat brush; dull #2 nylon brush; #4 Reeves brush; #2 Reeves brush; #000 Berkeley round brush and a #13 (I think - the number has faded out) Reeves mop brush

A couple of posts ago, I said I'll snap some pictures of my tools and share them with you here. Okay, here it goes: the one on the top is frequently used for general applications of graphite or charcoal, making it my main brush. The third, fourth and sixth are pony hair brushes which I use to lay initial layers of tones. The smallest one, I use to render small areas.

 

From the top: 8B Goldfaber Faber-Castell pencil; 8B Mars Lumograph Staedtler pencil ; 0.5 mm mechanical pencil loaded with 2B Faber- Castell lead; 0.5 mm mechanical pencil loaded with 2B Dong-A lead; Medium Faber-Castell charcoal pencil; empty felt-tipped color pen and two kinds of erasers, a kneaded eraser and stick eraser

I scrape the 8B Faber-Castell pencil to make the powder I use to apply to my drawings. In addition, I use powder from the Staedtler pencil to produce the darkest darks in graphite or charcoal drawings. Since it has very little glare compared to Faber-Castell's 8B, I also use it with charcoal to push the dark values even further. Two 0.5 mm 2B mechanical pencils loaded with the same grade of leads but different brands are for general detailing. Dong-A's 2B lead makes dark tones similar to a Faber-Castell 8B wooden pencil. Next is a medium charcoal pencil. I do the same with it, scraping it down to a fine powder. Most of the time I use a brush for blending, but for rendering edges or very small areas, I found blending with an empty felt-tipped pen works well. Finally, two kinds of erasers are in my drawing tools, a kneaded eraser which is quite handy to reach those edges or small areas that need highlights or erasing and a stick eraser in a dispenser which could be used to create larger and sharper streaks of highlights.

There you have it, these are basically all the tools I use for my drawings. Have a nice day!