... and a couple more digital comps

Digital Sketch-city3
Digital Sketch-industrial1
digital, iPad Brushes app

Still comping with the old iPad. Playing with tonal values in the skyscraper and flat values in the industrial.510,511

Three digital comps

Digital Sketch-hill

Digital Sketch-city1

Digital Sketch-city2

Digital Sketch-hill
Digital Sketch-city1
Digital Sketch-city2
digital, iPad Brushes app

Here are 3 more digital value comps. I am frustrated with the resolution of the these. I am not sure if it is the Brushes app, which is the second version, or my old iPad. What has happened is the resolution just went kaput! I noticed it while doing these and became annoyed that they now have those jagged edges especially noticeable in the diagonals and smaller details. So disappointed!
It only shows up in the second Brushes version and not the first version which I still have.
Yep, I need new tools.

Other than that I enjoyed doing these three. They seemed to just fall out of me onto the digital 'canvas'.
The hill is based on a local hill here in San Pedro but done from memory and modified. The two cityscapes were done from my imagination.507,508,509

Digital Value Sketch Nocturne

Digital Value Sketch Nocturne
digital, iPad Brushes app

One benefit of the digital medium is the ability to duplicate an image and do other versions from it. I turned this one into a nocturne. See previous post for the day version.

Still really simple without much embellishment, details or textures.503

Digital Value Sketch

Digital value sketch
digital, iPad Brushes app

With the approaching rain storm it was turning cloudy here today in Southern California so I thought I would post a digital value thumb for a change. This is in the same spirit as the marker sketches. It was done on my iPad in the brushes app. I still find it a bit clumsy because the stylus is not very good.
Simple. Black/white with (roughly) two gray values. Four values total.502

Marker Drawings 13

Sketchbook drawings

ballpoint pen, Sharpie markers bullet and fine point, Prismacolor Premier dual tip warm grey 40% marker, Letraset Promarker Twin Tip Neutral Tone markers (cool grey 1-5 plus black), 2015

sketchbook 6" x 8" (15.24cm x 20.32cm)

Real and imagined, abstract. Compositional value studies in black and white. In some I start by putting down darks without anything in mind, just going for shape. In the end they are suggestive, nothing literal. Good excercises to warm up otherwise I sometimes find myself working too tight. By that I mean too tight in the hand and the line that comes from it. Loose and relaxed is better in ink even when the finish is precise and tight or exact in its execution.375,376,377,378,379

Marker Drawings 12

Sketchbook drawings

ballpoint pen, Sharpie markers bullet and fine point, Prismacolor Premier dual tip warm grey 40% marker, Letraset Promarker Twin Tip Neutral Tone markers (cool grey 1-5 plus black), 2015

sketchbook 6" x 8" (15.24cm x 20.32cm)

October is INKtober. It was started by Jake Parker. 

I wasn't sure at first if it was meant only for liquid ink like india ink but have since seen some drawings in markers so I decided to post the #inktober2015 tag to any I do here in October.

Markers are ink but maybe not for the purist.

I think I will try some in india ink too. It has been a while since I have had it out and this would be a good excuse to do so.

All these here are dreamed up. Having done so many industrial paintings it wasn't a stretch for me.370,371,372,373,374

Marker Drawings 11

Sketchbook drawings

ballpoint pen, Sharpie markers bullet and fine point, Prismacolor Premier dual tip warm grey 40% marker, Letraset Promarker Twin Tip Neutral Tone markers (cool grey 1-5 plus black), 2015

sketchbook 6" x 8" (15.24cm x 20.32cm)

Still at it.
One reason I have gone to markers recently is its quick use, uncap and draw... great for carrying around with a small sketchbook. Value laid down quick.
The top page is a couple freeway overpasses near home currently being expanded/updated. The others are from my imagination, just sketching. Shape, value, composition.367,368,369

Marker Drawings 10

Sketchbook drawings

ballpoint pen, Sharpie markers bullet and fine point, Copic value markers, Prismacolor Premier dual tip warm grey 40% marker, Letraset Promarker Twin Tip Neutral Tone markers (cool grey 1-5 plus black), 2015

sketchbook 6" x 8" (15.24cm x 20.32cm)

The new markers.
I used up so many, the Copics especially, I had to buy new ones so I found a set of Letraset markers and the Prismacolor warm grey of which they only had the one.

In many of these I have represented the various times of day night and atmospheric effects. If you know my work I do a lot of nocturnes, rain, fog, haze etc.
It is always a matter of value control and the challenge is doing it so simply. I don't have the advantage of color and only some edge control (tonal approach) so I really have to use the 3, sometimes 4-5, values to best advantage.

I have been trying out various approaches, simple, carefully drawn, intuitive, while still keeping them sketchy and quick.

I'm using hatching, flat graphic tones, gradient tones and various combinations of these. Some are more illustrative and stylistic while others are as simple as possible, reduced to it lowest common denominator in shape and value or nearly so. The linear and hatching controls value as well as giving some visual texture to the drawings and helps define forms and perspective.
Anything goes when experimenting with technique.362,363,364,365,366

Marker Drawings 9

Sketchbook drawings

ballpoint pen, Sharpie markers bullet and fine point, Copic value markers, Prismacolor warm grey marker, gel ink pen, 2015

sketchbook 6" x 8" (15.24cm x 20.32cm)

4 more if you have been following these recent Marker Drawings.
I used a new Prismacolor warm grey 40% on two of these. More experimenting with different techniques. I'm all over the place as far as that goes but that is the point. Just do whatever comes to mind, the very nature of sketching is searching. More on that to follow.358,359,360,361

Marker Drawings 8

Sketchbook drawings

ballpoint pen, Sharpie markers bullet and fine point, Copic value markers, gel ink pen, 2015

sketchbook 6" x 8" (15.24cm x 20.32cm)

Still more. From life, photo, memory, imagination, whichever one happens to be working the best at the moment or best suits my temperament.
Many of these are more carefully drawn which happens to be my temperament lately. After the long stint painting oils as I do I needed to loosen up, see previous posts or hit 'Marker Drawings' LABEL.
I did, but that need to delineate always comes back, for now.
Sloooow and thoughtful. Really make conscious decisions on value control and compositional shapes.

Neither loose nor tight is better. As artists we should do both, at least in sketching and drawing. It is our Yin and Yang? It only makes us better.

I also had some fun mixing the warm and cool Copic markers on some sketches. There is a richness in tone on those I like.
I have really blown through a lot of markers doing these, including the Copic markers which are nearly dry now. I had to go out and but all new markers!
I only wish some sketches weren't duds! I look at the all that ink... and think, well, at least I know what NOT to do!351,352,353,354,355,356,357

Marker Drawings 7

Sketchbook drawings

ballpoint pen, Sharpie markers bullet and fine point, Copic value markers, gel ink pen, 2015

sketchbook 6" x 8" (15.24cm x 20.32cm)

More... all from vague recollections of my memory or my imagination... whatever comes to mind.347,348,349,350

Marker Drawings 6

 

 

Sketchbook drawings

ballpoint pen, Sharpie markers bullet and fine point, Copic value markers, gel ink pen, 2015

sketchbook 6" x 8" (15.24cm x 20.32cm)

Sketch, sketch, sketch.
Still at it.
Making designs. Some more abstract than others. It's the arrangement of lights and darks that must work.339,340,341,342,343,344,345,346.

More Marker Drawings 5

Sketchbook drawings

ballpoint pen, Sharpie markers bullet and fine point, Copic value markers, gel ink pen, 2015

sketchbook 6" x 8" (15.24cm x 20.32cm)

Continuing posts of more black and white sketches/thumbs/comps.
After a long period of mostly painting it was time to get back to the simple pleasure of drawing.

I started by doing this while in my booth at Art-A-Fair and have continued with them.
Some here are from Art-A-Fair others afterward.

Not all of them are good or good everywhere but that is the point of a sketchbook, doing compositional studies and experimenting.

The yellow staining appearing in some I think are from a cheaper brand of marker like a sharpie and not the Copic warm. It seems the ink bleeds yellow onto adjacent pages after a couple of days.334,335,336,337,338