Guys with Beards

Material Study 

 After trying a couple of characters I want to do some more studies to improve material rendering and get a better process.  Alongside this I have kept up with the Inktober.  Doing the sketches is fine but I have failed to post them regularly.   Alongside that I returned to the oil portrait and added the next layer. 

Inktober 3

Inktober  4

Inktober 5

Inktober 6

Inktober 7

Inktober 8

Inktober 9

After Rubens - Dead layer 

Ink and oil

After Rubens portrait oil 2 layers

Went back to oils last week.  I wanted to try the Flemish method and copy some portraits.  This is the first.  After laying in the first umber layer.  It is too dark - not because of the umber layer but the overpainting which I did in acrylic to save drying time.  The downside was that I could not wash it to knock it back which would have been the case for oils.  I will continue but I have started a second - below.  Because of the drying required between each layer I will follow these 2 up with 3 more to keep momentum.  

After Rubens portrait -oil 1 layer

Last year was the first time I participated in inktober and I realised how poor my draftsmanship was.   I did a lot more work in pens through the year.  
Here is the start of this years.  The ink sketches and studies  have been about 30 min each.  
I will continue to do those but for the inktober work I will give myself no time constraint. These were about 2 hours - planning to completion.  

Inktober 1

Inktober 2

The ink studies for last week are below. 

This is an ink study - messed up the eye so went into photoshop to amend.  

After Reubens portrait ink-

After Edward Seago, South Bay Quay, Singapore

 Photo study.

Urchins ink

After Frazetta ink

From life 

Plant ink

Copying

After Pieter Brueghel the Younger Peasant Wedding

 This is a copy of a copy.  The original was by Pieter Brueghel the Elder.  The copy was by his son Pieter Brueghel the younger.       It recently came up for sale at Sothebys recently and sold for over 1.8 million. This copy is quite small relative to original and most of the challenge was working on the small scale 10"x 8". The faces were tiny.  The original is full of tiny details that call out characters.  Spoon in the hat - lady cradling the jug-couple up in the loft - check out the originals. 

Below are a mixture of studies from various sources.  

Black Bart -ink

 Study from a photo. 

After Alexandre-Louis Jacob ink 

Pepper _still life -ink

Drapery Study -ink

The struggle is real

Shamen

 The aim is to do some characters and push the rendering. This is the first.  The sketches below are from reference as practice - trying out different styles. 

After Reubens - ink

Alligator - ink

After Alexander-Louis Jacob

Cargo ship

Camel Still life Study

Camel Still life Study

I had hoped to have finished two other larger more involved pieces by now but I still need to do more work on them.  In the meantime here are the studies from this week. This is the first still life I have done in a while.  Took about 2 hours.  I did it just to get some practice with materials. Below are some of the ink sketches.  Each about 30 minutes from photos.  The ice sketch is a from a painting  Edward Seago .   I am trying to cycle through different subjects and  get as much diversity as I can.  The knights are fun to do in ink. 

Trees Landscape ink

Photo study ink 

Ice Landscape ink

Still life ink

Portrait ink

Portrait study 31 and 32

Portrait study 32 

Coincidentally did a mostly portraits and anatomy study last week. 

Portrait study 31

 This ink sketch is a study of a Rubens portrait.  I used the colour information from this portrait in the Hound portrait study above.  

Sketch ink 

The other images are anatomy studies.  There number 1 is because I don't think I was tagging these previously.  Mist of the anatomy studies I have been doing have been in traditional media and I haven't posted them regularly here.  

anatomy 1a

Anatomy 1b

Anatomy 1c 

Ink practice

Gateway

Vessels ink

Fencer ink

Interior Study 10

Some ink studies. I have been using a book - Rendering in Pen and Ink by Arthur Guptill.  There is some instruction but I got it mostly for the  collection of different artists and their styles.  I use a regular ballpoint for sketching but have tried to use a dip pen for some.  All are works from photos.