Short Oil Sketch Demo

Today I thought I might post a short oil sketch demo. I am painting the bay at the entrance to Cobh island at low tide. My palette is quite simple as can be seen below..

It consists of alizarin crimson, cadmium red, burnt sienna, yellow ochre, cadmium green cadmium blue and sap green. To help with the mix I am using a premixed buff and of course a large amount of titanium white. The underpainting is completed in burnt umber and I am also using a measure of liquin gel to improve the flow of the paint. The surface support is just a piece of waste foamex and the full sketch took about fifty minutes. My camera set up is just a cheap webcam held in place with some clamps.. not a very high quality output but as this is just a sketch you can still get the sense of it.

The camera sits between me and the easel so I must paint around it.. 

but it's said you must suffer for your art and that's the only suffering I intend to do today :)

Below you can see the movie of the work being painted, it has been speeded up by 

six hundred percent as I am aware that the internet is not a place where anyone stays 

in the one spot for long. So be assured it will all be over in about five minutes 

and is relatively painless.

The finished work is here. With this work from the very outset I loaded on the paint, not my usual approach but it seemed to work this for this particular case, also it was a lot of fun.

Entrance to the island        oil on foamex 28cm x 20cm

....and that's it, hope this was helpful or at least interesting for you and as always...

Thanks for looking :)

Pastel sketch of a Cow Skull

  

Charcoal and Chalk Pastel on Canson 46 x 30cm

Having had a bit more time on my hands this last week or so I decided to wander

around my local landscape in search for suitable drawing material. In a nearby woods

I passed this cow skull picked clean by time. I couldn't resist sketching it, as it made 

such an attractive subject, despite its obvious tragic history. 

Thanks for looking :)

Quick pastel sketch

Charcoal and colored chalk on canson 40 x 30 cm

It's been a while since I posted so I thought I might upload this quick sketch of the Gearagh as twilight approaches. Less is more I think for this type of description and it is so tempting to try to accurately portray what you think you can see, rather than the mystery offered by the fading light.

Thanks for looking :)

A sketch in red and black

 Permnent marker and red acrylic on canson  42 x 30 cm

For this work I was trying to reduce the piece to the bare essentials.

The whole work was done with just one permanent blackmarker and

a quick splash of red ink. While the previous animal paintings are 

decorative and reasonably complex to produce, this one I think has more

power in it due to its reductive nature.

Thanks for looking :)

Polar bear

charcoal and pastel on tinted canson  42 x 30

This little sketch started out as just a quick idea where I

wanted to use a minimum amount of color to describe the

image. I was quite pleased with the result. I guess

sometimes a quick sketch like this can have valuable lessons.

Thanks for looking :)

A little bit of life drawing..

Red and white chalk on tinted canson  30 x 25 

Red and white chalk on tinted canson  30 x 25 

Some more life drawing at the fourth floor studios.

This time I am using red chalk. I have used red line

before but not frequently but when placed on tinted paper 

with white pastel highlights it can be very effective.

thanks for looking :)

Big cat

Chalk Pastel and Charcoal on canson 42 x 30

Some while back, until about ten years or so, I used to use only chalk pastels. 

I worked in this medium and nothing else for quite a long time

and then one day abandoned it, hardly ever touching it again. 

In the last few weeks I have been coming back to this medium.

Maybe everything works in a cycle and here I am again, back where

I started. Hopefully with a better and more thorough understanding 

of what makes a good design and how colors can work.

I must admit, it was nice to be back on familiar ground.

thanks for looking :)

Out of its element

Colored chalk on canson 42x30 cm

Today I thought I might try my hand again at chalk pastels. Its been a while, 

but some time back, for ten years or so I used nothing else but dry media.

It was good to feel the chalks in my hand again and it came easy.

I have neglected them for too long in favor of the more forgiving oils.

Perhaps I will do more in the future.

Thanks for looking :)

The Art of Iaido

Disposable pen on recycled cartridge 30 x 25 cm

A quick sketch of the art of Iaido with my favorite cheap pen

thanks for looking :)

Some more sketches from the ruined mill

Returning today I had once again a chance to study some different areas around the ruin..

The first being another roofless building deeper into the trees

 Charcoal and white chalk on canson 40 x 30cm

Charcoal and white chalk on canson 40 x 30cm

The second was a study of one of the now overgrown canals 

used to manage the waters for powering the mill system.. it was 

really enjoyable and quite peaceful.. I must return with oil 

paints as the weather gets cooler.

Thanks for looking :)

Churchyard Cat

Graphite on 150lb press 30cm x 20cm

 Every so often I get lucky enough to travel around the countryside with an 

art group that go by the name of Sceitse exploring different locations 

and their aspects of interest. This last trip was to the lovely seaside town of Youghal.

Always lots to draw on these trips, but what really caught my eye that day was this 

friendly cat happy to pose in the church yard. Unfortunately he wouldnt pose for long 

enough. But I was able to get quite a bit of camera reference from him and work this

little piece up in the studio later.

Thanks for looking :)

A pastel sketch from the island..

Pastel on tinted canson 30cm x 20cm

Another impression from the island of Illauntannig, the island itself is surrounded 

by quite a bit of rock, having only one short beach where a boat can be landed.

Rockpools of course are an endless source of sketch material.

Thanks for looking  :)

Island impressions.. abandoned

Pastel on tinted canson 28cm x 20cm

Another island impression, this one in pastel painted inside an old outbuilding there while standing in out of the wind. The old gas cooker left to decay still sitting under the remains of a huge fireplace.

It made for a nice study and very different from what I would usually attempt.

Thanks for looking :)

Shoreline impression.

Oil on Foamex 25cm x 20cm

Recently I was lucky enough to spend some time on an Atlantic island called Illauntannig

off the coast of Kerry. Four days were spent in the company of 12 other artists on this otherwise deserted outcrop of sand and rock drawing, painting and generally enjoying the beauty 

of it's bleakness.The work above is an impression of the waves as 

they break on its western shore.

Thanks for looking :)

A Six Minute Sparrow

 Here'a a quick little demo of a painting of a Sparrow. The video is sped up here so the whole process can be viewed in six minutes.The surface is foamex and the medium is oil.The video quality is the best I can get using my small face cam. It was positioned right in front of the easel so I had to paint up under it to get this to work.  So while the viewer can see the painting progress the artist was looking at the back of the camera trying not to hit it with the brush, funny but true. For the most part this seems to have worked.

Thanks for looking :)

Small painted bird

oil on Foamex 20 x 16 cm

It's a grey rainy day today outside the studio and there is little sign 

of my winged modeling companions. Hover there is an odd glimpse between

showers. Enough at least, for this study in oil.

Thanks for looking :)

Another Sparrow sketch

Pastel on tinted canson 30 x 25 cm

I managed to get in another quick sketch of my noisy companions.

Once again using the dry pastel and charcoal mix. This one is less detailed

due to the speed of these little guys and even at this level it's mostly from memory :)

Thanks for looking :)

Old Tim fixing the weather vane

oil on Foamex 34 x 27cm

An oil painting of my friend and neighbor Tim as he fixes his weather vane above the chicken coop.

A task for which I was volunteered to help with and payment received by Tim modeling momentarily

on the ladder while I did the sketch. The painting was completed later from reference and memory.

Thanks for looking :)

Guests in my attic.

Recently I have had two pairs of sparrows take residence in my attic, These non paying guests are making quite a fuss in settling into the nests they have built between the ceiling and roof. I can hear them flapping and chirping while I work and every so often I can see their cheeky presence just outside my skylight windows. They make fine drawing models. I thought I might post a speedy pastel process for quickly getting them down on paper.

The first task is to draw the little guy, they are fast movers but sometimes tend to sit and doze on a branch when the sun comes out. So taking advantage of this I quickly work up a charcoal sketch of the bird just focusing on the values and proportions. When I have it down I  spray it with a little artists varnish as I dont really want the charcoal to mix with the upper layers of pastel I will be using later. This short wait for the fixitive to dry is useful too, as it gives me time to start another sketch.

 My next step is to lay in the basic colors, I am using a mix of pastels here and I am just getting an average of the color. As my model has since woken and flown, I am making my color notes each time he passes and lands outside my studio window.

 Once I have made a simple color fill I must then become concerned with detail, for this I am more inclined to use pastel pencils as they are easier control and they work well on top of the colors already laid in. I can take my time at this point as between my models and some photo reference, I'm pretty sure I can get the important details down. 

Finally then I have my finished drawing, I have used some very soft pastels on the top layer.

This has been a pretty fast sketch overall, just for fun.

Thanks for looking :)

Life drawing at the Fourth Floor Studios.

Some more life drawing today at the Fourth Floor Studios.. Sometimes it just does not work, today it just seemed to be stuck, no likeness, proportions out of whack, just about everything wrong. I guess my muse had the weekend off or found something more interesting somewhere else. Whatever it was I was on my own :) So after a few hours frustration and in desperation, I switched to red conte on tinted sheets, rather than my trusty old pencils on bare white cartridge. All of a sudden things started flowing again. I suppose then, it's true, one small change is often all it takes.

Thanks for looking :)

Portrait workshop with PJ Lynch..

Yesterday I was lucky enought to attend a portrait workshop at the Kennedy Art shop in Dublin. It was given by artist / illustrator PJ Lynch who has been illustraing children's books since 1984. He is an excellent tutor also as I discovered on the day. PJ helped simplify many of the problems I was encountering with my approach giving me tips on color and form where I had erred. Often he would step in front of my easel and while explaining, politely make the correct adjustments with his own brush. Avery expedient method of correction I must say. 

To get to the workshop I took the early train from Cork with my friend Eva Widermann another illustrator with phenomenon talent, both of us carrying easels, paints and scribble books in hand. Traveling with my art gear is one of my favorite things. The ability to set up fast and carry wet canvas back to the studio for later work is always a great advantage. One of the things I like so much on train journeys is of course scribbling and yesterday was no different. Either out of the imagination or from the landscape going by, it's always fun to get ideas down in this way, the vibrations of the train adding significantly to the fast scribbles. When drawing the landscape from the train, what you see is only visible for a moment so you have to stay focused and scribble as fast as possible. It's an activity that eats up the time of any rail trip.

Of course you can just draw out of the imagination also. Sometimes I get lucky and pull a usefull design out of all these extra fast drawings that even ends up as a landscape painting. Anyway the day went quite well, as well as being an excellent tutor PJ is a complete gentleman and it was easy to be comfortable and learn in his presence. Here's the work I brought away on the day.

 oil on canvas board 30 x 25

 I will leave it for the moment until it tacks up a bit, in a while I will follow PJ's advice and run a glaze over the shadow areas of the work. I would highly recommend this demo if any of you reading this get the opportunity it is well worth the effort.

Thanks for looking :)

Sketching with the Cork sketch group..

disposable pen on recycled paper 30 x 20 cm

A quick sketch I did from the Cork sketch group event "Drink & Draw 

last thursday 24th of April. Once again I have used the incredible records of

Edward S Curtis as an inspiration.

Thanks for looking :)

Portrait under strong light,

Charcoal and colored chalk 30 x 24 cm

The other evening while the web cam was on I leaned in toward the computer screen.

At the same time I had the fluorescent light I use at the desk for sketching switched on. 

The lamps I use are old salvaged medical spotlights similar to the lights you would find in a dental surgery. Very bright.The dark light contrast I saw in the cam display was far too tempting not to draw so I completed this little work with dry pastels based on it. While I'm not too sure about the likeness as a self portrait, not being quite as lean faced as the work appears, I still felt happy enough to post it.

Thanks for looking :)

Trees in Spring

Oil on canvas 40 x 30cm

A quick oil painting of trees in the spring light.

Thanks for looking :)

Some life drawing at the Fourth Floor Studios

                 

   

                                                               

Managed to get some time to do some more life drawing studies last Sunday.

All in all it was a productive day as I managed to get over a dozen pieces into 

the five hour session. Six of those of which I have posted above.

All drawings are about 40 x 30 cm and completed in carbon and 

oil pittwith the poses ranging from five minutes to fifteen.

Thanks for looking :)

                                       

Quick Figure Study

Graphite on Cartridge 42 x 30 cm

A quick excercise to draw the figure study using mostly line.

I have to admit, I find this a much more difficult excercise than 

just drawing using light and shade as the areas. Here I just wanted 

the line alone to describe the volumes and masses. 

Thanks for looking :)

Two trees Gougane Barra

oil on canvas  36 x 26 cm

I wanted to do a painting of Gougane Barra that might describe 

the wildness of the place so I followed the stream that eventually

becomes the Lee river up in to the wooded hills until I found an 

area which I felt had just the right look to it.

Thanks for looking :)

Sea cliffs on the south coast

oil on foamx 27 x 20 cm

 A quick study of some sea cliffs on the coast of Cork.

Thanks for looking :)

Colors of Winter

Oil on foamx 24 x 24 cm

Another heavily laden oil work I have just finished.

Once again I have used foamx as a base. The painted

image is one from the Gearagh in Cork. It's an area of 

such scenic quality that I think it would be easy to find

 a thousand paintings in just one visit.

Thanks for looking :)

Study of the head of a crow

Ballpoint pen on cartridge 30 x 20cm

I have to admit I have a weakness for drawing crows, they are such a resilient and

intelligent bird. I have ample opportunity to study them also, living near a large 

roosting colony.

Thanks for looking :)

Some Life studies from the fourth floor studios

Got a chance again, to do some life studies at the Fourt Floor Studies.

The poses last from two minutes to twenty. The shorter poses are shown

above in the top images with the a longer one displayed in the lower image.

At the moment it seems the only time I am taking a break from my ink pens

as a drawing medium is when I attend these studies, but I couldn't  imagine

capturing life poses in anything other than graphite or paint.... yet.

Thanks for looking :)

Exhibition at The Mart Art Gallery.

 I have been lucky enough to have myself included as part of the exhibition, "Art, Line and Sinker," 

in Dublin this week, so if you are around the capitol and have some time to spare then please feel free to drop in.

Life drawing at the Fourth Floor Studios

Yesterday I got a chance to attend some life drawing at the Fourth Floor Studios in the city.

The drawing session runs for a duration of four hours with poses held from one minute 

warmups right up to twenty five minutes so quite a lot of work gets done. Below are some 

of the sketches completed in the fifteen to twenty five minute poses.

Thanks for looking :)

Study of a Velazquez self portrait in ballpoint pen, sandpaper & Bleach

Ballpoint pen, sandpaper & bleach on recycled card  30 x 20cm

Here is a study from a self portrait by Velazquez. For this piece I first scribbled

out the main portrait with my ink pen, I then sanded the whole piece with a medium grade

emery cloth and used a hard eraser to knock back the lighter tones. After some adjustments

with the pen I then proceded to brush with household bleach the areas where I wanted to get 

the highlights. It's a messy approach but I thought it would be worth a try and for the materials

I used it seemed to come out ok. The whole work is done on a piece of recycled white card used
for packaging which I found much easier to sand than the normal A4 cartridge sheets I use from
time to time. Of course this is not the first piece of artwork I have created from mediums which
are all  destined to become rubbish :)

Thanks for looking :)

Quick scribble of a woodland scene

ballpoint pen on cartridge  30 x 20cm

 Here's another quick sketch done with ballpoint pen at the cork sketch group

Drink & Draw event. I heard someone say recently that the ballpoint pen is the 

pencil of the 21st century.. I guess that could be true really as even the cheapest

mass produced pen can still offer up a satisfactory drawing result. I find for speed

and tone and a fine line, a ball point pen can be second to none when you are in a

hurry. I also like to use sandpaper with these scribbles, drawing the ink across the 

page in a semblance of a wash, making for a nice finish. Of course with the pen, 

there's no turning back, once you put down that line it's there to stay, but I like to 

think that's an advantage to as it forces you to make better decisions knowing in 

advance that you will not be able to undo any strokes. I have been using ballpoint

pens now for many years and I find that each time I return to graphite or oil pitt I

 do less corrections as a result of using this medium.

Thanks for looking :)