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Past to Present - new pencil drawing

Here is Past to Present.

There will always be a gap between generations. This is normal and healthy.

Past & present shows how much trust, respect, confidence, understanding and strength can be achieved by bridging generations.

I loved drawing this piece.

Many reasons spring to mind (new territory, new subject, new challenge, new approach...)

However, the main reason has to be (symbolism aside) rendering three totally different textures: hair, cotton and skin.

I used a 2B, 5B (for the dark jeans) and F (for skin). The T-shirt I will admit was rendered by blending 2B which I then layered with F to get the smoothed crushed feeling. The paper used was Mellotex a very thick smooth white paper.

I'm glad I found the TLC this piece needed last week.

Now: it's back to gorgeous 4 legged subjects.

Cheers for now

As always please feel free to check out my blog Black on Grey on White at sheonas.blogspot.com

New graphite drawing..step in a new direction

Here's what I found:

A new study... still very much in progress. I like it because it's heading in such a new direction (2 legged subject as opposed to 4!) and also because, as we all know, hands are the ultimate challenge.

With a little bit of luck and professional time management, I 'll be able to get a few more sessions in before the week is out... and give it some much needed TLC!

Make sure to also check out my (almost) daily studio blog at: http://sheonas.blogspot.com/

Reflected, new drawing of chilhood memories

Reflected

Finally, "reflected" has come to life. 
I set myself the challenge of rendering reflections as well as defining curly wavy hair.  I have drawn this portrait on an ultra smooth (Melotex) paper and have had to work very hard at getting the darks dark.
The idea behind the whole concept was to make the reflection the main character and not the actual little girl.  The result is quite ok and I have a whole load of new lessons learned to take on to my next piece.
Back to the drawing board to put them on paper! 
Cheerio!

The steps to completion of my drawing of latest portrait "Gentle Tom"

I've taken the plunge and plunged straight out of my comfort zone.
Decided to draw our eldest daughter with our youngest cat.
Decided to go for it and use an unfamiliar paper, unfamiliar graphite clutch pencil, an unfamiliar subject and push that boundary a wee bit further away.
After hours of committed work,  I am happy to see that I have reached another mile stone in my work.  Never before had I been able to draw a loved one without tearing up the drawing before completion!
(Below you can read up on the whole process)

Last step and tweaking of my new drawing Gentle Tom

Added the finger, darked the blacks, worked on the skin and tweaked her and there.  Another 4 hours work and I decided to call this piece done.
Ready for the next portrait. 
I will admit that this one was maybe a wee bit easier than if my little girl had had her eyes open and her nose showing.Will step up to that with the next one.

Step 5 and 6in my portrait "Gentle Tom"

Started framing my daughter's head with hair and have drawn in the ear as well as emphasizing her jaw line. An outline for the stray strands of hair in her neck has been left. 30 hours into the portrait and it was only after completion of this phase that I sat back and had a good look only to see the fingers where wrong! Talk about seeing without seeing!

Step 3and 4 in my portrait "Gentle Tom"

This is really when the going got rough!  The connection between the kitten and my daughter's face is crucial. It had to look real, the shading and the feel had to be bang on... adding graphite and blending where really on the menu at this point.
I felt I just wasn't getting it.  It wasn't until much later on that I realised that the problem was not at the "connection" like I thought but the hand and the kittens face.  The hand has one finger missing and the kitten no depth

Step 2 in the "Gentle Tom" drawing

Here the fur and the initial work on the hand has been done.  They have started to give a feel to the piece.  I was quite happy with them and decided to start on the kittens face.  His eye was drawn first and then the fur.  His whiskers where penciled in so as not to be forgotten.  We are about 15 hours into the drawing.

First step for "Gentle Tom" illustrated and explained

The outline is defined and worked out, complications (which in this case could be found throughout the drawing) pinpointed, a plan devised.
Being right handed, I've started on the left and worked towards the right in order to not smudge my work.
The paper is an ultra smooth one known as Mellotex, it is brilliant for getting fine detail but allows for no sloppy work or mistakes in the pencil strokes.  It also needs a lot of work to bring up the dark shades.
I've used mainly a 2B graphite with an under layer of 6B for the cats fur.