Welcome to my blog. Here is where I upload a recent collection of my works and provide a little bit of background detail to them. I am currently Really enjoying my drawing and will be using this space as an outlet for my creativity. My work tends to border somewhere between drawing and design and must be taken at face value. I do not claim to be fantastic (although feel free to call me that) but I enjoy what I do and I enjoy sharing it. Please feel free to leave any feedback on any of my posts, all interaction is appreciated. I hope you enjoy what you see.

Tuesday 3 December 2013

Perspective Experiment's - Series 1


Eleventh Entry: Perspective Experiment's - Series 1

My work has been giving me great enjoyment recently and has helped me through a pretty hard time, however after various different themes and experiments I decided to do something different with the hopes of "expanding my horizons". With this in mind I started looking for something new and became fascinated with perspective experiments following my sketches of buildings.

What follows is my favourite four recent drawings of perspective. Under each one I have written a little about how I drew them and what I ultimately thought of them. I decided to upload them all in one post so not to clog up the blog with more single posts that quickly become overwhelming. While it is harder to post this way I think it makes for a neater and more concise layout.  



Experiment with One Point Perspective:

For this first one I decided to go a one point perspective experiment, as if the buildings were being viewed from a birds eye. After a few failed tries I eventually settled on a design and a method I liked and set to work. I started with a central focus point and then constructed the road. I worked out from this point to form the buildings and negative spaces. I drew up the all the lines and then it was a "simple" task of filling in the shadows from the point of view of a single light source. 

Notes:
This drawing was simple in method but required quite a bit of precise pen work. The hardest part of this drawing was deciding on and constructing the individual shapes inside of the buildings. The one thing I didn't really like with the result of this drawing was how above the road was much darker than bellow it. But this problem stems from using a single light source. Overall however I like how it came out and enjoyed drawing it. I plan to try more experiments with one point perspective. 

Although I planned to start a new experiment with one point perspective I decided in the end to go for a different perspective experiment. After some deliberation I decided to go with a three point drawing. 


My First Experiment with Three Point Perspective:

So today I decided to do a little bit of an experiment with three point perspective. I have used 3 point perspective before but never really liked the effect it gave. However, that being said, this time I really enjoyed working with it and it felt good to use some different techniques. I have decided to do more experiments with perspective, might well be in less detail than this one though. Over all I like the way this experiment went and it was fun to do things a little bit differently, there are little bits of it that I would change but not too much. This one took me about three hours but it felt like less.  I may continue working on it a little bit down the line but I hope you like it as it is now.

Notes:
As always there are elements of this drawing that I really like and elements that I'm not so keen on. I am really enjoying drawing again and have lots of plans to work on. For this one I started by sketching out the rough outlines of the buildings. I then went over it all in fine red pen. To finish it off I went over the edges of the buildings with black Ink. 

Happy to be done with it for the time being, off to do some more perspective quick experiments. I also have coded more stuff for this blog including the Gallery and the Facebook tab.



My Second Experiment with Three Point Perspective:

After enjoying my first experiment with three point perspective and having at least some success I thought I would try a second experiment from a different point of view. For this drawing I chose to go for one building instead of a city scape. I also chose to picture it from above rather than from bellow like before. Using two crossing paths I hoped to add depth to the drawing by leading the eye into the centre. For shading I decided to use a simple parallel line effect to show the changing of light and the forming of shape.

Notes:
I enjoyed this experiment and think it came out well. While I am not completely pleased with it I can't quite put my finger on what it is that I don't like, so as a result of lack of evidence I like it quite a lot. I used this drawing to hark back to my enjoyment of fantasy art and to stray away a little from just straight line. I think of this drawing as clean, interesting and a move in a positive direction.  

After this I started looking at other ways of experimenting with perspective as I was really enjoying what I was doing. That's when I came across five point perspective. 


Experiment with Five Point Perspective:

Through looking at various types of perspective I came across five point perspective, which I found very interesting. The desired effect of five point is to produce an effect similar to that of looking through a fish eyed lens. It took me a long time to work out exactly how to draw like this but after many pencil sketches I finally worked out a pattern. This drawing is not completely original as I used a similar drawing to reference from.This is my I believe it came out more cartoon like than my normal drawings.

Notes:
I found this drawing very hard due to the complicated perspective and the use of lots of straight lines. I really enjoyed drawing this piece but didn't enjoy quite how it came out. I think it was a very useful experiment but I don't believe it will be one I will be repeating. Having said this I love the idea of using five point perspective. 
                                                                                                                                                                                                  


I really enjoyed This series of experiments and believe that I have learnt a lot. Using different kinds of perspective is something that I have done before but I have never understood it quite to the same degree.     

Thursday 28 November 2013

Blood Moon Design - Various Inks

Tenth Entry: Blood Moon Design

I've had a lot going on in my life recently and it has been really good to get back into my drawing. Having run out black pens all I had left for this piece were some sharpies. I like sketch and I enjoy where my art is going. This time I focused more on the design and composition than detail. I started with drawing as close to a perfect circle as I could manage and then filled in the centre. Using a ruler I built up the skyline bellow and then added detail. I finished cutting up the image with the red and blue lines you see to flatten out the perspective. Overall I spent about two hours on this piece, Here is the final outcome, I hope you like it.





Notes:
As always there are elements of this drawing that I really like and elements that I'm not so keen on. I think it is a good start to getting back into my work and I'm excited where this will take me. Amongst all the over troubles and tribulations going on in my life currently I feel my work may become a very positive aspect of my life. I am currently looking into finding some local art shows where I can display my work. 

I think my next drawing will be styled similar to this one as even though its not my favourite picture I did really enjoy producing it and feel with some work and can produce some really nice outcomes to this effect.

Friday 6 September 2013

By the Light of a Clockwork Moon - Black Ink


Mushroom Skyline 01, Black Ink - Combining Styles

Seventh Entry: Mushroom Skyline

A while ago (during my Fine Art and Photography A-Levels) I found myself obsessed with exact lines and geometric shapes. This normally focused around buildings, landscapes and skylines. With this in mind I decided to have a stab at combining that with my fantasy sketches, beginning with geometric shapes and then introducing the fantasy elements afterwards. I really wanted to produce a good piece here after spending lots of time with smaller, less involved sketches so I invested a good three or four hours into it. For this one I did relent and use a pencil to sketch in the picture first as the amount of straight lines simply horrified me. Here is the final outcome, I hope you like it.    


Notes:
I intend on making this the first in a series of drawings to a similar effect that will be sold HERE. I had a tone of fun drawing this and barely put the pen down for a full three or four hours. The process went pretty smoothly and there weren't too many mistakes. As far as this piece is concerned I feel I managed to produce what I wanted to achieve and to be honest I am very happy with it. I feel I am getting both faster and more confident with the drawing style and I can't wait to work on some more, in the meantime I hope you like this one.  

I think for my next drawing I am going to go away from the mushroom theme for a bit, as I don't want to exhaust it too quickly, I am quite excited to see what I come up with.

Thursday 5 September 2013

A Mass of Black Ink - Experimental Mushroom Peice

Sixth Entry: A Mass of Black Ink

While I was enjoying sketching mushrooms I felt I was exhausting the current style I was working with, so I decided to try something new. The idea was simple, use a larger amount of black ink and start to abstract the lines. I also decided to add some background, something I seldom do. Another element I introduced for this piece was the strong black border around the bottom (solid tree), leading to a thinner black border at the top (In the sky). While the picture wasn't particularly complicated I still spent a lot of time deciding where the pen would go, and also where the pen wouldn't go, leaving negative spaces to create shapes. While I had a clear idea of what I wanted to achieve this piece was still very experimental.


Notes:

Collection of Mushrooms, Black Ink - For Resource

Fifth Entry: Collection of Mushrooms

After playing with sketches of mushrooms for sometime I have decided I really like this subject matter. It's for this reason that I decided to draft up a small collection of mushroom designs that I can resource from in the future, allowing me to base further work off of them. Some of the sketches I drafted up were based themselves off of sketches in the past while some where new designs that I came up with while I drew them. The mushrooms themselves are not based on any kind of real mushroom but rather come straight from my imagination. So is the beauty of fantasy art.  



Notes:
I enjoy working with mushrooms a lot and as they are just ideas for resourcing the outcome itself was not of too much concern. Having said that I do like how they have come out and believe there is a varied selection from which I can reference in the future. There are several mistake in the detail and shaping but when I reproduce the designs I can easily edit these out. Overall I think this was a worthwhile activity and I am pleased with the outcome. 

My next project will be to develop another mushroom sketch in a slightly different style, utilising line and form . This piece may well be slightly abstract and I look forward to working on it. 

Friday 30 August 2013

Maokai The Twisted Treant, Black Ink - Quick Sketch

Forth Entry: Maokai, The Twisted Treant

In my spare time (which I tend to have a lot of) I often play video games, yeah I know what your thinking. One of the games I used to play far too much of was "League of Legends", while the game is good the character design is even better. This following sketch is based on one of my favourite League of Legends characters, both in character and to play. I don't usual base my sketches on already existing material but today I was inspired and this is the result. 


Notes:
I enjoyed this piece and think that most of it went well, I very much regret the decision to use coloured pen however as I think it detracts from the style. I used a few techniques that I don't usually use and I feel I have developed them well. There are small elements of the sketch that I don't like but nothing worth noting. 


I am still working on some mushroom sketches and a couple of other pieces which I will upload as soon as they are finished. I hope you like this one. 

Wednesday 21 August 2013

Oriental Dragon, Black Ink - Quick 30 Minute Sketch

Third Entry: Black Ink Dragon

While I enjoy producing fantasy sketches one subject matter that I tend to stay clear of is dragons. I'm not completely sure why but I believe it is because I find it hard to see where dragons fit into my idea of a "fantasy world". For this reason I decided to experiment and see what I could produce on this subject matter. This quick sketch took me about 30 minutes and was drawn straight onto paper with black pen (no pencil sketching). This sketch is drawn completely from my head and is also completely free hand. I enjoyed this piece and think it came out quite well considering my lack of experience with said subject matter. 



Notes:
I enjoyed this piece and think that most of it went well, I think it has inspired me to sketch more on this subject matter as I feel it is a area where I can really expand, so look out for more dragons coming this way!

I am still working on some mushroom sketches and a couple of other peices which I will upload as soon as they are finished. I hope you like this one. 

Thursday 15 August 2013

Patch of Mushrooms Black Ink - For my Grandfather

Second Entry: Black Ink Mushrooms

So it's my Grandfather's Birthday today and as I have just got back into black ink drawing I thought I would draw him something nice (Subject to opinion). He's a hard man to buy for and an even harder man to draw for, and as such I just decided to draw what I felt like. This drawing itself took about 3-4 hours is drawn completely from my head and is free hand. I enjoyed this piece and think it came out really well. 



Notes:
I enjoyed this piece and think that most of it went well, I can't pin point any particular part which I would like to work on so I may as well work on improving all of it. The composition gave me a little bit of a headache but I think it came out well in the end. I hope you enjoy it, but most of all I hope my Grandfather enjoys it.

I am enjoying this so much I have started work on a new sketch and I also have a series of small sketches to post. Look out for more mushrooms. 

Large Winged Black Ink Fairy - For Lauren

First Entry: Black Ink Fairy

My normal depictions of fairies, or at least female fairies, feature small and minimalist wings. These wings are long and slender, with perfect edges. They are typically raised and sturdy. However, after discussing my work with Lauren (most significant other) she asked me to try drawing more extravagant wings. After some trial and error I settled on a design I felt happy with, so this ones for you Lauren, I hope you like it.   

Notes:
Mushrooms and form are two elements that I believe I am strongest at, and I think this shows in this piece. However as is probably obvious there is an element of the drawing that in not so happy with, namely the face. Faces are something I have always struggled with. I believe I could have done a better job but over all I am happy with the result. If the face is something that is seriously bothering you then try covering it up with your fingers, in fact try that even if it isn't bothering you.

I am currently working on a mushroom piece for my granddad's Birthday and hope to have it finished by today.