Aye well done yourself, some top work throughout the month.

Guess if people keep going it’s just a case of keep posting! 🙂

Great thread. Inkvember anyone?

Twirlip – Wow, very impressive stuff. Been drawing long?

Some great stuff folks. Can’t believe I’ve not had chance to contribute. Until now. Better late than never, possibly.

A scribble with the Rotrings. Just scanned in and ready to be coloured up…

Greetings card design to accompany this one…

I can just see the bottom of banksy’s signature outside on the wall behind the cadbury’s caramel bunny

It’s the last day.

I’ve got a few to add in whilst still deciding what to do for the last one.

Fishy:

Not happy with the next one instead of shading I’ve managed to turn stubble into a beard:

Which lead onto this one (inspired by someone else’s efforts on the interwebs):

Then this one (a copy from a bottle):

Really enjoyed October. I should really get a rubber to remove the construction lines! Maybe next year ;-p

Anyone else fancy just keeping this thread going for general drawing/arty postings?

A scribble with the Rotrings

I did buy some of those on your recommendation, very nice, blacker that black!

Really nice and smooth, though don’t quite have the pencil like subtley of the staedtlers when it comes to shading mind, but in combination I can see definite potential.

I think the line thickness is just thinner on the staedtlers on a similar number, plus the black isn’t as black so that’s obviously a contributing factor. Mind you I’ve just got the 0.3/5/7, haven’t tried thinner versions of the rotrings. Then nib is really nice though and feels much more sturdy and smooth.

2 slightly different types of pen. Not really used them both in anger yet as I’ve been pissing about with colour, but aye, definite potential. Great shout.

Yunki wins.

Hamilton house, stokes croft, bristol.

Keep the thread going 🙂

Title change required IMO.

STW Inked, Stwinked ?

Vote required…over to the mods. I reckons 🙂

Seosamh77 – glad you’re getting on with them. Looking forward to seeing the results. I also keep a full set of Staedtlers for doing fine lining and cross-hatching. You can never have too many pens 🙂

As an added bonus to Inktober, I got home to this last night. Mrs winners has been doing a bit of scribbling, which she’s not done for ages. A nice coloured pencil drawing with a Rotring outline….

just scrolled through this thread again, it’s utterly superb, well done everyone. I think this is probably my favourite thread in teh interwebs!

That’s great binners, tell your missus we approve! 🙂

love the fox

I wondered if it was Hamilton House..
Do you know if there is going to be a last minute reprieve for the facility?
I imagine the community spirit that ran Tesco out of Stokes Croft has somewhat diminished with gentrification and ketamine casualties.

Assuming you have all been following the ‘official’ promplist for Inktober. Is there one for Inkvember?

I am ready to start! Is it meant to be 10 mins per drawing?

no rules, just post up. inktober is done too, so I wouldn’t think ink is necessary either.

@andykirk – about 5 years. Since just before my daughter was born. I’ve got to be quite quick because I’ve had to fit it all in around job and infant care.

Here’s one:

I’ve given him a weirdly small right hand.

And the final one!

It’s been fun.
I was expecting it to be hard. A friend told me I’d have an aching hand. I don’t have an aching hand. It’s mainly been a matter of making sure I had time.
What I’ve realised is that:
– Anatomy knowledge is the biggest barrier to drawing progress
– Drawing from the imagination takes a lot of reference material
– Other stuff

@andykirk – not sure there’s an inkvember. But you could just do inktober again. You don’t have to follow the prompts and the only ‘rules’ are:
– do an ink drawing every day
– post it online with the hashtags #inktober #inktober2017

Twirlip – I’ve been loving your stuff on this thread

What I’ve realised is that:
– Anatomy knowledge is the biggest barrier to drawing progress

Isn’t it just. If you ever get the chance, check out any local life drawing classes, where you can draw actual people. It’s amazing, with a decent tutor, how quickly you learn a few rules that govern drawing the human form, especially relative proportions. In my experience, it was the one thing that benefits your drawing more than anything

binners – Member

What I’ve realised is that:
– Anatomy knowledge is the biggest barrier to drawing progress

Isn’t it just. If you ever get the chance, check out any local life drawing classes, where you can draw actual people. It’s amazing, with a decent tutor, how quickly you learn a few rules that govern drawing the human form, especially relative proportions. In my experience, it was the one thing that benefits your drawing more than anything [/quote]

Just to point out – You needn’t attend a life drawing class to do life drawing. It’s frowned upon but using photo reference to practice anatomy and shading can be every bit as valuable. You can also get friends and family to pose for you (though be careful who you ask to pose naked).

Twirlip there is already a very good illustrator and would probably be better than 90% (more like 99%) of people at local life drawing class, that can be counterproductive as you may begin to feel you’re already the finished article. My wife and I both had similar experiences where going to life drawing classes was kind of ……pointless because you become essentially a secondary tutor.

https://www.quickposes.com/en/gestures/random

Human Anatomy for Artist

Links contain nudity.

Yes, many people have said to me to attend life drawing classes. It’s the whole thing about drawing what you actually see rather than what you think you see. Easier said than done!

Did anyone see the programme where James May from Top Gear learnt to draw a portrait? If there is anyone on here who thinks they will never be able to draw (and I am sure there are many) then watch that. It proves it is a skill that can be learnt, just like learning to manual or speak French.

Found a link, the drawing bit starts at 31 minutes:

Twirlip I am no expert but your stuff is pretty good for only 5 years! What kind of pen do you use? Apologies if this has been asked/ answered before.

@binners – I’ve been to life classes. I love life classes. Outside of big cities they can be hard to find. Or hard to find at convenient times anyway – there always seems to be plenty if you are retired or a member of the idle rich.
I was going to one in Salisbury and I experienced almost exactly what @jimjam describes . Which is quite flattering. And I wouldn’t call it pointless. I wasn’t so good that I didn’t need correcting and I really enjoyed it. If time and money permitted, I’d go back immediately.

What I did find was that while it was by far the best thing for observational drawing and you got a better idea of how the body was put together, it wasn’t teaching me anatomy.

What I mean by learning anatomy is that I’d like to be able to draw a passable human without reference to an actual human.
The problem with learning anatomy is that it requires hard study. I’m struggling to get my head into that.
I mean, I’ve got a tonne of books (George R Birdgman, Burne Hogarth, Andrew Loomis and others). I’ve got a lay figure (pretty useless). I’ve got a Craftsy course that purports to teach it (the instructor has a lovely Italian accent but he just plunges into super detail straight away and it sends me to sleep).

I’ve found The two ArtPose apps and Stan Prokopenko’s Skelly (also an app) to be pretty good. Them I think I’ve learned from.

Really, I should stop posting on here and knuckle down.

That said, typing this reply looks a bit like work and drawing definitely doesn’t so perhaps I should wait.

@jimjam – thank you for your kind words.

@andykirk – I’ve been using a Platinum Carbon fountain pen – it’s got a super thin nib – and a Pentel brush pen. Clicky here and scroll down a bit for a previous discussion of pens.

No prizes for guessing this is unfinished. This started off as a character from the anime/maga series Berserk and kind of took a tangent…anyway. The intention was to ink it/ tidy it up and post it but I just couldn’t make the time. So here it is.

Twirlip – thank you. Ordered one of those platinum pens, and will get a converter for bottled refill ink if I like it. Determined to give pen and ink cross hatching a go.

Still can’t get the hang of shading using black ink. it’s getting frustrating now.

Twirlip of the Mists – Member

I was going to one in Salisbury and I experienced almost exactly what @jimjam describes . Which is quite flattering. And I wouldn’t call it pointless. I wasn’t so good that I didn’t need correcting and I really enjoyed it. If time and money permitted, I’d go back immediately.

I meant to address this in my earlier post. Sorry if I came across as overly dismissive, I would of course advocate going to life drawing courses for anyone who is curious but, just to elaborate on my point and something that twirlip seems to have also experienced – if you go to an average life drawing class the chances are your fellow students might just be there for something to do, they may well also be there to draw too but the fact that you can draw will often make you something of a novelty.

10 minute sketch of Charles Bronson from a photo reference..might look more like Lionel Ritchie pretending to be Charles Bronson (something about the photo has made it look taller / narrower) but hey. Fun to do.

good to see you back jim, top stuff!

Thanks Joe, I will maybe try to do more like that in the short term. I have other aborted attempts from Inktober that I might get around to finishing at some point but I just can’t seem to make the time.

Twirlip there is already a very good illustrator and would probably be better than 90% (more like 99%) of people at local life drawing class

Indeed he is. Loving his work. Apologies if that suggestion came over is patronising. I just mentioned it as its something I got so much benefit from when I did it, but he beat me to it 🙂

Anyway…..Mrs Binners is warming to her theme, having picked up the pens and pencils again for the first time in ages. She did this last night

This makes me very, very happy indeed 🙂

@jimjam – Agreed. Full disclosure: due to an accident of circumstance, I’ve been teaching an art evening class for the last three years. And I’ve been battling imposter syndrome for the whole time 😀

Anyway, you’re right. Most people who come aren’t that interested in art. They’d be quite happy with an evening of potato printing. I can count on my thumbs the people who had both enthusiasm and aptitude. I don’t let them do potato printing. I make them do observation. And perspective.

Drifting slightly, I realised fairly quickly that the key to a happy class wasn’t anything to do with art. It was pushing all the tables together so that they have to get to know each other and chat. The art is (almost) incidental now.

I do try and make the art bit good though.

That sounds incredibly similar to a digital photography class I used to teach. It was a night class for adult learners. I wrote up a syllabus designed to explain the different file formats, storage formats and the general principles of importing and then adjusting/correcting photographs.

There were about two people in the class who actually wanted to learn. The rest just wanted someone to explain how their digital cameras worked / drink tea and gossip.

@jimjam – This! Yes. Totally.

You should hear the groans from the regulars when I announce that the next lesson is perspective.

Trigger Warning: digression ahead!

Last night I think I finally cracked how to teach perspective. I’ve done 9 terms of drawing dots and boxes on paper and seeing the increasing bafflement on my victim’s faces. This time I got them drawing the inside of the art room and waving rulers around looking for parallel lines. There was still bafflement but far less than before.

Perspective is super hard to teach. Partly because I always thought it was fairly obvious. It’s hard to explain something to someone when you’ve no idea how they can possibly find it confusing.

Mrs Binners did well. That’s ace!

Perspective is super hard to teach. Partly because I always thought it was fairly obvious. It’s hard to explain something to someone when you’ve no idea how they can possibly find it confusing.

Consider that there was a thread on another forum from someone who had no visual memory / literally no concept of how to visualize. I mean, not to discriminate against that person but imagine trying to teach him or others like him.

Some people have a more visual bias than others for sure.

I think sometimes we take it for granted that we can easily visualise something. We assume everyone should be able to. But why should they? Everyone has different skills and perspectives

I’m sure every designer has the same conversation every other day. It goes something like this

Client: Can we see what it looks like in Orange?

Designer (wearily): It’ll look awful! That design just won’t work those colours

Client: Could we just put one together anyway, so I can see

Spend the next hour putting design together in orange

Designer (wearily): There you go. The same design in orange.

Client: Oh god! That looks awful! It doesn’t work at all in those colours, does it?

Designer: no

It used to really frustrate me. I don’t mind it so much nowadays. I just bill them for the added time.

I wouldn’t fancy trying to teach anyone like that the principles of perspective though. You must have the patience of a saint

🙂

It’s even funnier when they love it! 😆

Sub 10min samurai sketch using photoref. Why is that you see all the mistakes as soon as you post it up 😆

seosamh77 – Member

It’s even funnier when they love it!

That’s why we always used to do a shitty horrible alternative – the client always has to ask to see something (anything) else…some kind of variant. We would just ask ourselves what was the stupidest thing they could possibly ask for….do that. So when they decided to flex their creative muscle we would just say, no problem, we’ll pull an all nighter and email it to you in the morning. Then we’d go to the pub, email them the shitty version in the morning and bingo – delighted client.

Sub 10min samurai sketch using photoref. Why is that you see all the mistakes as soon as you post it up

I’ve come to the conclusion there are no mistakes, just interpretation. 🙂

It’s even funnier when they love it!

Indeedy 😆

seosamh77 – Do you always keep a copy of the original design for your portfolio? This is what it looked like before the client ****ed it up 😀

tbh, I’ve been in this place for 10 years now, I wouldn’t put anything I’ve done in a portfolio!

What I do is really just document templates for a specific sector, tbh they sucked the designer out of me a long time ago. I don’t class what I do as design, definitely not art! It’s a very production like job, so the design part is even limited at that, i spend more time teaching the monkeys how to do stuff they should already know! Plus there’s a technical side to it i do aswell.

tbh, I’ve nothing but contempt for the design side of this job! 😆 I really should try something else.

I think that’s why I love this thread so much, it’s beginning to reawaken the creative side of me!