by Henk ter Heide on Saturday April 17, 2010
Sometimes I get reminded of all the stupid things I was taught when I was a child. Things like it’s better to quite an activity then not to finish the project you’re working on right now.
The purpose of this sketch was to find out if it’s possible to get these nice color mixes with color hatching while at the same time retaining some control over the color.
As it turns out, that is possible.
Because it’s easier to color between the lines I had helped myself by drawing some random lines.
But by doing so it felt as though this was supposed to be a real drawing.
So after I had colored a few panels and felt that I had nothing more to learn from this sketch and I wanted to put it on this site and move on.
But then I heard the very angry voice of my mother in my head. “You never finish anything!”. “You should finish what you start!”. “You are always procrastinating”. And drawing lost all of it’s fun.
That was how it used to be some 40 years ago.
At one point I took up dancing. Which was fun apart from the fact that I was the only guy present. (Which is fun when you’re 16 but not when you’re 13 and all the girls are better dancers then you are.)
You wouldn’t believe how mad my mother became when I announced that was going to quit.
After Mr. “nobody’s” comment I started thinking again and remembered that this sketch only has a limited goal.
Thinking about this some more I did realize one thing though. What is missing from my current way of working is speed. Since my best drawings where kind of accidental there is not much purpose to my thinking about what I’m doing on a drawing by drawing base.
I do realize that figurative drawings would sell much better then abstract. Drawing abstract is a way of experimenting with techniques without having the straight jacked of having to draw objects that are prospectively correct. (If nothing else I’ll always be a perfectionist).
I do want to go back to drawing more recognizable shapes. But only if I can find a way to draw the complicated world in which I’m living.
color hatching sketch
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by Henk ter Heide on Saturday October 6, 2007
Stumbling into a new technique.
I wanted to experiment with a few blue colors just as I did for green in a study a few days ago. Finding a few colors I could use in clouds or in a sea drawing.
When mixing colors I always like to mix in some white. Even though I wasn’t clear on the effect it would have.
In the study a few days ago I used thick layers of pigment and although the white gave the color a softer feel it didn’t make that much difference.
This time I mix thin layers of pigment. Blending them with a white pencil had an astounding effect. The blending pencil pulled the color out of the paper.
Blue patches
Especialy with the four lower patches you can see the result of blending with a white pencil.You can, of course, get the same effect if you use a tortillon but a blending pencil has a sharp point that can create interesting effects. In my next drawing I will show you what I mean.
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by Henk ter Heide on Wednesday October 3, 2007
Drawing a tree without the use of brown and green.
I’ve found that using only brown and green for a tree isn’t very interesting. It doesn’t feel very life like. When you mix a few colors in it becomes much nicer. Even if you use colors you wouldn’t see in a real tree.
For this drawing I wanted to try to mix brown for the bark and green for the leafs.
The funny thing is that you need blue to mix both brown and green.
The bark went allright. The first drawing has a little to much blue in the bark but after a few tries I get a nice color.
The only problem is that the tree doesn’t have very much bark. So there isn’t much room to play.
I’m not as happy about the leafs. It’s rather scratchy. I must find some other method to draw leafs.
When I was finishing the third tree I realized that I now know how to draw fire. In fact the third tree looks something of a burning match.
Blue tree 1
Blue tree 2
Blue tree 3
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by Henk ter Heide on Saturday April 7, 2007
The last face had several things wrong. The eyes where to big. Nobody looks that way except when he’s surprised. The mouth was to big and there was something wrong with the nose. And last but not least it was just floating in the air.
After thinking some more about it I produced this face. This one is better, but I’m still not satisfied.
Crooked
You can’t see it in this scan but the skin color is off. The face is a soft pinkies color. There also seems to be something wrong with the nose and the chin.
I must think some more.
On the upsite I’m beginning to have a better understanding of my memory.
Turns out that I only have a vague impression of the shape of a face. By looking at the shades I get a better sence of the wrinkles around peoples eyes and nose. Very nice.
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by Henk ter Heide on Friday April 6, 2007
Leafs
This is the same technique. Only this time I first drew the flower and then filled it with two colors. Just like the last drawing I’m using one color blue for all the flowers.
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by Henk ter Heide on Sunday April 1, 2007
Flower
I’m the only student who is drawing with pencil. The rest of the group has switched to painting. I won’t. Partly because I don’t like the mess that painting creates. I have a hard time as it is to keep my house tidy. But mostly because I want to be able to make a drawing at a moments notice. With paint you have to prepare your paints and cloth before you can start and clean up after you or you will never paint again.
Flower
A while back I was listening in while the teacher was telling one of the others how you can create new colors by mixing colors and it dawned on me that that also might be possible with color pencils.
This lesson I brought my 56 part color pencil set with me and started experimenting.
I didn’t realy know what to expect but it turned out allright.
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