WOW, how time fly’s by when you’re having fun.  Well, actually it hasn’t all been fun.  But, hey, I’m still here and life moves on.  Weather this winter in January and February of 2011 has been very interesting to say the least.  My work schedule has been crazy and not allowed me to work on my drawings as much as I would have liked.  But, I have still found some time to get in on them.  The Cedar Falls drawing is a bit behind do to the events of the new year but I am still working on it.  This post is an update to that drawing.  The hours have accumulated on it and the investment is paying off.  I can see the depth begining to to form and the rocks around the falls are taking shape.  Most of the above foliage area is done with just a bit to the viewers right top hand side yet to be done.  I thrown out my dead-line on this drawing as I am now so far behind that I can’t hope to make up the time lost.  I will just keep plugging along on this one till I see it finished.  Let’s take a look at the image of the drawing as it is now….

Tone and Depth work

I love this even at this stage as I can feel the sunlight hitting the face of the rocks and feel depth in the coolness of the shadowed areas under the rock ledge.   Not sure how far back this ledge cave goes but, it would be safe to say it is a few feet anyway.  The work here is done with both the fine and medium point ball point pens with most of the work being done in the rocks with the medium point.  The fine line details are done with the fine point.  The darkest areas are 6 and 7 layers of medium point ink place one over the other in very light layers.  These light layers allows me to get very dark darks without scoring the paper surface or indenting it.  The heavy cover stock takes a lot of work but, can be damaged if too much pressure is applied at once.

Lots of rock work still to do and also the foliage on the viewers upper right and mid-right.  Keep watching for updates and I hope to be back on a more regular schedule soon.  Keep On Creating!

Vincent…

Hello everyone.  Here is the second enstallment on my Cedar Falls drawing.  I can’t believe it has taken me so long to get another image up.  I am thankful that I had time finally to get back to my drawing work.  I spent an hour and 30 min. on this update.  I worked in the upper trees and in the rocks just below the tree and bush areas above the actual falls area.  It will be some time before I get down into the falls itself but, be patient with me and we will get there.  This image only shows the upper 3rd of the page.  The drawing will be 10″ x 12″ when complete.

You can see in the image the tone difference between the area that was already done and posted in the first WIP and the new area that I worked on today.  Once the ink dries completely the color tones will match more closely to the other older area.  I could have changed the entire image to gray scale and then posted it but, it would have been harder for you to see the new area.  The new area was all done in Fine point Ball Point Pen.  I use many light layers to get the darkest of values and therefor it can take quite some time to get the deep tones in one area.  Patients is a must when doing this type of work.  Consistant tone and stroke pressure is also a must.  I follow the conture of the rock surfaces and the layers build to produce the shadows and depth.  Please check back soon as I hope to have another update ready by next week.  Cheers!

Hello everyone.  Been some time since I last had the opportunity to update my work in progress and I wanted to get to it before the end of October came about.  Here it is the 24th of the month already.  Time just fly’s by. 

The Cedar Falls drawing has taken a good start now.  There are a total of about 12 hours in the drawing to this point.  I am still working on the background trees as well as the mid-ground over-hanging limbs and leaf work.  I love this section of the work as it helps set the depth in the image and I get to go back and forth from some detail work to doing just minimal detail.  The two different depths in the image help me keep my interest.

I am still using the fine point in the drawaing now.  It works well for the “dots and scratches” that make up the foliage in the distant trees.  It also works well for the mid-ground detailed leaf work.  I worked on this drawing at the Art’s In The Alley show I did in Grove City, Ohio this past September.  Grove City is just south of Columbus a few minutes drive.  The are show is a fantastic mix of music art in all mediums and wonderful food vendors.  The crowds are in the thousands each day of the two day event.  My wife Cheryl and I love the event and the people there. 

The folks that attend the show always love to see artists busy at their craft.  I always keep my hand and mouth busy LOL.  It’s a time to not only demonstrate what I do but, to explain the process.  I love to encourage the younger artists and those who may not be so young but are trying to pickup on techniques that may help them in their medium of choice.

Where we are now… 

Most of the work in the background trees is a process of very light touches to the paper in a dot or “scratch” technique.  Some would call it a squiggle line or scribble.  But done with a very light touch to the paper.  I layer over the area up to 3 or 4 times depending on the value I am lookinf for in the work.  The darker the farther in to the shadows the area is.  I am using negative work to get the brighter areas of foliage in the conifur types of trees and foliage in the distant areas.

The mid-ground, over-hanging tree limbs and leaf areas are done by making a few passes with the pen in basic leaf layouts.  I then come back over the areas with tone strokes to bring the leaf in to shape and give it the depth I want in tone.  Again, very light pressure and layers is used to do this. 

That’s about the size of things to this point.  I hope to update the drawing again soon.  Please check back and see how things are progressing and Keep On Creating!

Hello everyone.  Well after a full summer of events

that have changed my life forever, I am once again ready to

start a new drawing.   I fell at the end of April and was unable

to start a new full-size drawing.  Then our two sons

and their wives brought us our first Grand Children.

We have a grandson and a granddaughter and we are so blessed and happy.

This new drawing is of the falls in Hocking Hills Park near Logan, Ohio

and is called “Cedar Falls”.  I took the ref. Photos for this

drawing some time ago.  I love the falls as it is so relaxing.

I will be using a couple of ref. photos to do the drawing from.

I hope you follow along with me as I put this one together.