Eye of the Tiger

A quick example of pencil crayon technique I did for an art lesson with my class.

A Drawing A Day #5 - Octohelmet

Had an idea, tried it out quickly. Like it. Consider this a study or a preparatory sketch. A bit different again; some more imaginative drawing this time with a sci-fi/fantasy/horror theme.

If I do something with this then I'll definitely take time to get symmetry on the relevant parts of the helmet and a non-symmetrical, but balanced arrangement of tentacles. This is just a quick, idea sketch.

A Drawing A Day #4 - Cats

Wanted to do more animals, but wanted to do first hand. Ended up trying to draw our two cats. The challenge was to catch the essence of cat whilst they were on the move (restless because they wanted to go out). I got the outlines and then filled them quickly. Quite like how the full cat outline/silhouette turned out and wouldn't mind trying the cat outline combined with a patterned (wood grain? Paisley?) fill.

A Drawing A Day #3 - Jekyll/Hyde

I've recently listened to a BBC abridgment of 'Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, partly due to a desire to discover/rediscover some Sci-Fi/Fiction classics and partly because of one of my favourite Lego Minifigures 'Mr. Good and Evil'.

I couldn't keep away from the Lego for long, so here's a drawing of some. It was actually quite a challenge because if you get the proportions wrong, it doesn't look like a Lego man anymore - we're all so familiar that we almost 'know' the correct proportions. Anyway, there are definitely some incorrect proportions here but...

Colour next...

A Drawing A Day #2 - Cassettes

Less of a drawing, more of a scribble-sketch. I was going for that sort of look as to me it fits the cassettes - it reminds me of the times when tapes used to get chewed up and they'd get all messy - like this drawing.

To be honest although I love the aesthetics of the cassette tape, and piles thereof, the repetitiveness bored me quickly - my main problem when creating. I would definitely prefer to work on producing an image like this digitally.

Here's the box after I put the tapes back all nice and orderly. This represent my musical tastes in the second half of the 90s:

The tracklists to my mixtapes were perhaps even more eclectic. This cassette (check out the name I gave it!) also boasted tracks from Feeder, Terris, Idlewild, EZ Rollers, Animalhouse and Freddy Fresh:

A Drawing A Day #1: Springbok

OK, time to stop messing around with Lego; time to get my drawing skills bettered. A Drawing A Day for at least one week is the plan - got to be disciplined.

Have been watching Attenborough Africa on the BBC and have always loved drawing animals; what better place to start could there be?

You'll have to ignore the attempts to draw pronking Springbok - that's probably a challenge for another day!

Traction City

Here's my quick pen sketch of a Traction City inspired by Philip Reeve's book 'Mortal Engines' which today I decided to begin reading to my class. The first 'comprehension' activity I did was to get them to draw how London is described in the book (the fact that some of them misinterpreted caterpillar tracks made some of their drawings quite funny!).

I had to ensure that they knew what a Traction City should look like or else they'd be confused for the rest of the book! Anyway, whilst not a work of art, I enjoyed picturing the book's description and may well use this as a preparatory sketch for more futuristic Sci-Fi goodness.

Mallard (finished)

I'm really happy with the drawing on this in terms of the shape and perspective but not happy with the pencil crayoning. Next time I use pencil crayons I definitely must not use multi-directional strokes. May do another version of this and colour it in another medium. I may also use this to manipulate digitally.

Mallard

Doing this has made me realise how rusty I've become. Need to keep practising. I just hope that this blog eventually shows progression.

Polar Express

Obviously Chris Van Allsburg's own illustrations are sumptuous beyond description, which may be why I felt inspired to have a go at my own quick-ish drawing after reading the book for the first time the other day.

Finished this one today and thought I'd push myself to do a bit of background - something I can't usually be bothered to do. The drawing was done from my own photo of Chinese Government Railways Steam Locomotive 4-8-4 KF Class No 7 which is kept at the National Railway Museum in York.

Have already made amendments (the front wheel, the light cast by the lamp) to the drawing since posting this but this is it as a rough, quick sketch and shade:

Thoughts for next time: use better paper and a greater range of pencils.

The Time Traveler Expounds

"You read, I will suppose, attentively enough; but you cannot see the speaker's white, sincere face in the bright circle of the little lamp, nor hear the intonation of his voice. You cannot know how his expression followed the turns of his story! Most of us hearers were in shadow, for the candles in the smoking-room had not been lighted, and only the face of the Journalist and the legs of the silent Man from the knees downward were illuminated."

- H.G. Wells - 'The Time Machine'

Began reading The Time Machine today and was struck by the imagery created by Wells - I wanted to draw  it! I was talking to my cousin yesterday who's doing a GCSE piece using Biro and so, along with recollections of Shaun Tan's 'The Arrival' illustrations, I had a go at drawing the scene as I saw it in my mind's eye.

Here it is, unfinished: