pen and ink

05/07/16

over the summer I decided to do some mixed observational and freehand drawing in which this time a cat was the main subject, the reference used for this was sourced from the internet and appropriate changes were made to make the feline look more simplistic and aesthetic, these freehand elements include the addition of the ribbons and bell, simplifying some of the fur detail so it looks softer and moving the tail into an s shaped upright pose as well as position the head so that it was looking directly at the viewer instead of off to the side. I am pleased with the results of this piece however I am still unsure as to weather or not I should colour it and with what medium.

15/09/16

drawn during my spare time on holiday this character was drawn completely freehand due to the lack of reliable internet connection. this piece is also a personal challenge as portraiture is what I find difficult with my speciality lying in animals and fantasy creatures (hence why this ended up as a trifling portrait), to further this challenge I decided to draw this character with curly hair. providing a good challenge i am mostly satisfied with how this turned out however it could have been better with some of the features looking off and numerous other mistakes.

14/09/16

using the style of Christopher Gasparian I have used pen to give an appearance of overlapping wire forming into two human figures within the drawn wire. using positive and negative space I have separated the figures in positive space to show forced separation ad being torn apart, perhaps from a loved one or oneself. I do not intend to add any colour to this piece as this will cancel the use of positive space, however I could include more pen to sharpen the gradient. also I would like to a some point in the future perhaps recreate this in wire as a small, three dimensional wire sculpture. this piece is based in the expressionism genre as it represents an emotion more than a physical being.

16/09/16

going off on more of a tangent within my theme I have created a portrait of a lion with wires pultruding from where the mane should be, this in most parts is a reflection of the art of Mads Petersen in the broadest of sense and represents how technology replaces to the suffering of wildlife and also how humans themselves sacrifice human nature to technology choosing that over socialising in extreme cases for long periods of time. I intend to use watercolours to paint this lion perhaps including the colour green as that is the colour of the circuit boards in which wires can be soldered onto. overall I am happy with how this image is coming along. however a diferent angle could have been used to give the lion a more realistic and 3D appearance. 

 

With a more comic like appearance using harsher lines and more weighted lines this drawing is of a figure with rapier in one hand and scales in the other, representing this figure as a vigilante of some kind, taking justice into their own hands. the scales reinforce this with a rose in the right and the skull and feathers of a bird in the other, this reinforces the roguish archetype, along with the crows. to create this, I used black pen to draw the initial outline and then add more to give weight to the lines, this piece is less relevant to my theme however does include some aspects of nature’s such as the symbolism created thought the use of crows and roses. As it is less relevant it is very unlikely this this piece will be considered for a final piece.

A simple rough sketch of a bear sat on its haunches drawn using black pen to draw loose lines to give a shaggy impression to the bear’s fur, the primary purpose of this composition was to use a different drawing technique that is far more sketchy as opposed to the typically more controlled means of drawing. Despite being a useful learning experience I do not intent to use this technique for future projects. this would be the closest to the art of Pollyanna Pickering however very loosely due to the nature of the image

 

 

depicting the skeleton of a common crow with the skeletal-muscular system of an arctic fox this anatomical drawing is composed to appear like a study of anatomy using dark brown pen with tea to give an aged appearance to this page, this uses a closer style to Pollyanna Pickering but also takes some inspiration from artists such as Leonardo da Vinci. This has or never was intended to be used as inspiration for a final but does allow for quick references to be made and as development toward the natural side of my art.

 a more stylised pair of images depicting a skill and the portrait of a deer. these were drawn using blue and green sharpie to create two lines to give a somewhat psychedelic style, the colours used are also harmonious showing the colours of nature. overall these two as interesting as a style it is its capabilities may be limited and as a result I most likely will not be using this in the future.  

 

 

 as birds and canids are becoming a larger part of my work I decided to expand upon this by creating a two-page study, one of crows and the other of foxes, unlike the previous sketches this one only focuses on the external features, with the crow focuses on the head, wings and talons and the fox on the jaws, paws and face. to ensure that the image can show a good level of detail and allow the image to stand out I have used black pen, this medium of which is my personal favourite to use because of the properties stated before. this piece can also be used as a reference point for future works that may be of different medium or dimension.

 

Most certainly not the most successful pieces drawn using the same principles for the drawn wire figures at the front of the sketchbook as this features a fox and a crow intertwined into a continual line drawing with the fox at the base of the tree and the crow atop a branch. Like the other wire mimic this one uses pen as a medium as it contrasts against the white paper and is draws a sharp line. Not the best pen was used in this composition and as a result I believe that dampened its quality thus bringing its quality down.

 

Using a technique that I learned a few months ago I created an ink splash effect but with several different colours of inks in which they blend together to create a composition, the autumn uses warmer harmonious colours such as reds, brown and yellows while the Aurora is a combination of every colour available. Created as an experiment for a background or component of another piece I created then by using a pipette to drip droplets of ink onto a sheet of paper and then used another sheet of paper/other paper like material to press the links between them, causing them to spread in all horizontal directions and merging with other colours, producing a pair of prints. The compositions created were very bright but also pleasant to look at, this made me less likely to consider them as background material due to how much they stand out, however the two autumn pieces had been drawn on as an experiment.

The paper print was outlined with black pen to look like a stylised leaf that covered the entire page, as a piece on its own this is rather weak and developing on it is most likely to be fruitless, as a result I left is as it is.

The second of the pair is on brown paper which appears a more suitable material considering the warmer colours used, in addition to this I drew a woodland scene within the print to encourage the viewer to take a second glance as the pen is only noticeable once the viewer approaches, however this may be an issue as there is a chance that the image will not be noticed therefore I have decided not to expand on this or consider it for future use.    

 

More of a whimsical drawing in my typical style using aspects of different creatures (namely canids and birds) to create a single entity and the use of technological aspects to link both of my themes together. the mediums used for this image was black and green pen, black to outline the skeleton and mechanical part and green to show the external outline of the creature. representing bot unity and conflict with the use of a mixture of natural elements and technology that affects it down to its very bones. this style focuses the most on what is portrayed typically by Mads Petersen by using what is inside as a greater focus point rather than what is on the outside.