Ballpoint sketch

The Inktober Day 6 prompt is Drooling.  Our dog doesn't drool but she quickly licks her lips when she sees a good treat.  Here she's lying down next to me so I just watched and observed her while figuring out the lines for a ballpoint pen sketch.

Figure Sketching

Last night, I attended a figure sketching at River Arts in Dobbs Ferry.  As usual, it goes on like this: six different poses of 1 minute duration, five different poses of 5 minute duration, two different poses in 10 minutes and 20 minutes duration with a short break in between.

I felt rusty going into the one minute poses and the Micron 01 Sepia ink pen didn't feel right.  After choosing the chubby crayon size water soluble graphite pencil, the playful lines became easier to handle going into the five minute poses.  Then I concentrated on the facial features which required a switch to a regular 2B pencil.  You can see the dots where I paused to guide me to a respectable drawing representation of what I see.  

For the last two 10 minute poses, I tried to capture the whole figure and one of them required foreshortening.  The final two 20 minute poses required a more careful observation for refined lines and shadows.  

Sepia pen doesn't cut it so I switched to pencil for 1 minute poses.

Getting the feel of it.

Getting comfortable in direct observation.

Foreshortening challenge.

Capturing the facial details and proportion using dots to guide me.

Entire figure with more dots.

Foreshortening.  Model lying on his back against the round platform stage.

Full size sketch with more defined shapes.

Last pose for the night.  Multi colored pencil.

Inktober 04: Spell

I struggled to find something to sketch for this prompt.  The first idea was to find an old broken business sign with a missing letter or two.  Drove around nearby neighborhoods but nary a sign could be found.  The second idea was to just write the word "SPELL" backwards and sketch it that way.  That was the go to idea until I drove by this familiar sign with two unlit letters last night.  Presto!  I got my original sketch idea albeit in another form.

Inktober 03: Roasted

The first idea was to purchase and sketch a whole roasted chicken from the store.  That didn't happen so I just doodled three whole chickens roasting in an oven.  Well, it wasn't really an urban sketch and I also wanted to make an entry in that small Flex Book for Inktober 2018.  I saw a fresh can of Costco branded Kirkland Super Extra Large Peanuts on the shelf so that became the second sketch.  I'm beginning to like this Bic pen and the kind of shading you can do with it.  Interesting!

Inktober 02: Tranquil

There is much to be desired in a tranquil place like this.  Perfect for Inktober day#2 prompt: Tranquil.  There was a sign that says "Private Property - No Trespassing" so I just worked on my sketch by the roadside.  Eventually, a couple of local water company staff came ashore on a small raft, back from doing water tests on the reservoir.  The guy came over to look at what I was sketching before he lit up his cigarette.  We had a nice but brief conversation.  Latif, a microbiologist by training, recounted some stories of what he does there.  I relayed that my first job out of college was as a laboratory assistant to the microbiologist.  Pretty soon, his smoke break was over and we said our goodbyes.

Inktober 01: Poisonous

I participated in the inktober2017 but didn't follow the official prompts but rather whatever caught my interest.  My pens of choice then were the Pilot Hybrid Technica 03, Pilot Slicci 025, Platinum Carbon Ink Pen with Diamine Grey Ink, Micron 005, Quill Dip Pen.  The sketch paper was some inexpensive drawing paper until I found a Moleskine drawing book for larger drawings.  I blogged about it here, here, here and here.

This year, I'm going pocket size small using a Flex Book Notebook 5.5" x 3" and I will try to use the multicolored ballpoint pen as much as possible.  Here's the first prompt: Poisonous.

Excavator Equipment

When it was time to sketch another heavy equipment, I knew exactly where to proceed in town.  I happen to pass by along St. Roch Avenue two days ago and saw this huge excavator prominently parked at a big development site.

Using the hydraulic piston cylinder as the base measurement for the entire scene, I mapped out the pencil drawing on a two page spread.  Several times I had to reinstate the base line of the main engine.  I found it helpful to bring up the edge of the sketchbook to guide me where to put the lines in proportion to what I'm seeing.  Here's the sketch - a work in progress.  I might come back to it again one day to finish accenting the lines for the post and the power lines, cast shadows, etc.