by Henk ter Heide on Saturday October 13, 2007
Finding tree colors.
I’ve been experimenting with a technique that isn’t completely new but I haven’t used it very much. A few months ago I tried this technique for a while. But I didn’t know what to do with it, so I forgot all about it.
According to my dictionary this should be called an underhanded pencil hold. (I’m not completely sure of that.) I hold my pencil almost flat. Almost parallel to the table. That way I can draw with the side of the pencil instead of using the point.
Drawing this way I get a much broader line. It’s a bit like painting with a broad brush.
The downside is that I loose some control but that doesn’t matter for this drawing. It actually gives the drawing a lively feeling.
Sea 5
The problem with this drawing is that I’m mixing colors that aren’t suited for a seascape.
They are, how ever, suited for a tree.
In my next drawing I’m going to combine this technique and color mix and hopefully find a method to draw trees.
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by Henk ter Heide on Saturday October 13, 2007
Mixing sea colors
Sometimes I think I should just stick with abstract drawings seeing that most of my drawings look abstract.
But as much as I like abstract drawings, I like nature drawings even more. Abstraction is only a state were my drawings go through.
Blending several layers of blue and yellow I mixed a lively color green only to find that it’s the wrong color.
At first I thought that it should be darker, which it should. After thinking about it for some more I realized that I’m missing a shade.
This is supposed to be a wave. The top halve of the wave is curling forward and should cast a shade.
Sea 4
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by Henk ter Heide on Thursday October 11, 2007
Starting a drawing with a sketch.
I was actually thinking of doing this sea sketch in red. It’s much easier to start at something knowing that you’ll probably fail if you set out to fail.
But on second thought the point is doing it as good as I can and taking the risk of failing.
Any way. Last night in the shower I thought of something that is very obvious but for some reason I hadn’t thought about it: I could make a sketch in the colors I’m going to use.
The special part of that is that you usually do a sketch in graphite pencil and then color it in. Often you’ll only decide which colors you’ll use after you’ve made the sketch. The problem with this approach is that the black graphite is always visible and I don’t like that.
With this drawing I have to color round a white open space where the foam is supposed to be. So starting with a sketch isn’t a bad idea.
The difficult bit for me is that this reminds me of the tracing of photographic memories that I haven’t been able to do until now. What I did this time wasn’t really tracing but I’m getting there.
Sea 3
Looking around the internet for guidance I came across a drawing that is much better then anything I can make right now. But it does give me the feeling that I’m on the right track.
Shower of stars3
This drawing is by Shere Chamness
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by Henk ter Heide on Wednesday October 10, 2007
Using a new tool in a drawing.
A few weeks ago I came across an other drawing blog were someone was very enthusiastic about the new electric eraser
he had just received.
I didn’t even know those things existed but I had to have one. So I search the Dutch part of the Internet and ordered one. I received it within a few days complete with Chinese manual.
I used it a few weeks ago on my sketch Basket case to correct a few mistakes.
This is the first time I used this tool to shape the drawing.
I still don’t have any idea about how I should draw around the white foam of a wave. So I thought I might draw a blue sea and then erase the foam.
But although eraser works fine I don’t get the effect I was looking for.
Sea 2
On second thought. After taking a shower and scanning the drawing I looked again.
Although I still don’t think this sketch is very good, I do think this tool could have a future as way to shape a drawing.
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by Henk ter Heide on Tuesday October 9, 2007
My first attempt at drawing a seascape.
The problems are obvious:
- Since I can’t draw with white I must find a way to lift the foam out of the background color. This attempt doesn’t look right.
- The color of the beach is off.
- The color of the sea isn’t right.
- The shape of the waves aren’t right.
Oh lucky me. I would hate it if the drawing was a success on my first attempt. 
Sea 1
At the edge of a wave you find a lot of foam that becomes thicker when your eyes move towards the shore. I tried to create that effect by pulling the blue pigment onto the white paper with a white blending pencil. It didn’t work very well and you can hardly see it in the scan.
Even so it’s something I think should work. Something to work on in my next study.
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