Tuesday, September 17, 2013

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

Drawing of Valasquez by kevin gough

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 :)

Monday, September 16, 2013

Quick scribble of a woodland scene

Ink sketch of a woodland scene by kevin gough


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 :)

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Quick oilsketch of a cow

Oil Sketch of a cow by kevin gough


 oil on canvas 30 x 20cm

As the title suggests, a quick oilsketch of a cow done in a limited palette
of naples yellow, burnt sienna burnt umber cadmium green 
and a lick of aliziron crimzon.

Thanks for looking :)

Monday, September 2, 2013

Dreamscape


 oilwash on canvas 30 x 20cm

I thought I might try something different for a change so I put this reduced color palette
together just for fun, it's mostly a heavy oil wash with just a few strokes of color laid over it.

Thanks for looking :)

Two Little Pigs


oil on canvas 30 x 20

A quick oil sketch of two little pigs from the heritage farm at Killarney Co.Kerry.


Thanks for looking :)
/* Start Stumble Hover button ------------------------------------------------ /* End Stumble Hover button ------------------------------------------------