DODDLE DUMP!

Not too many drawings this past couple of weeks, I've been busy reading about drawing. I got a copy of "The Practice & Science of Drawing" by Harold Speed, so far so good. The first 80 pages is about what art is and talks about the differences between academic and real world drawings/paintings, and once you get past that he doesn't even dispense techniques on drawing. Rather, he explains the ideas and thought-process behind them. It's good so far, I'm about halfway through it.

Here's another J.S. Copley study, this one is more caricatured.

These are the practice sketches leading up to what you see above. This is from the painting "The Sitwell Children"

Some girl I saw walking around one of the college campus'. I have a lot more drawings but they are all scribbly gestures that no one will ever want to see. I've been caricaturing the gestures to see if I can use them for future reference to apply to drawings like the one below. One thing that I notice is that girls legs tend to be longer then men who have shorter stubbier legs. It doesn't apply to everyone but it sure is interesting to think about!

Caricatures at a bar.

More bar caricature, when the girl on the top of the page saw her drawing she was very upset. However, to my surprise she didn't know that caricature is making fun at the models features.

These were done today. These are just weird looking kids I found in a magazine.

Having A Blast!

Make-believe time with Billford!

gouache on paper, colored pencil for detailing.

ONE YEAR OLD!

Papermate is one year old! I started this blog to get into John K's cartoon college, which didn't quite work out. BUT I also used it to chart my progress as an artist, and that was a lot more successful. In celebration I decided to make a slideshow charting one year of progress of the lessons of John and Preston Blair through Billford who has experienced quite the evolution.


Preston Blair - Progress from Alberto Sed on Vimeo.

I hope that next year brings more progress, It's amazing how primitive of an artist I once was I sure hope I feel the same way about where i am now next year.

Kid

Just your standard, red-blooded, all-American boy!

CARICATURE TIME!

More people from the bus.

I get lots of profiles from where i usually sit. I color these at home, i wish i could bring color pencils on the bus with me, but usually I'm going to work. Not only that I'm just afraid i'll loose them.

Working w/ Flash!

Well i've dropped my pen and paper for a bit and picked up my tablet and stylus instead (I have been drawing on the side). I've been using Corel Painter and Flash. Flash b/c I really want to animate something,  and painter b/c I'm not that big of fan of photoshop painting. I've been meddling around trying to see what a final product might look like.  

don't ask me why, there is no finished product or anything commenced. I needed to fill the space and that was all I could think of. 

I don't think that programs like Flash should be used by themselves. They need the enhancement or accompaniment of another to really make it look convincing. Flash has SO MUCH potential, yet I rarely see it. 

sigh~

There is hope though.

John K. and Nick Cross do excellent flash work. I'm sure there's more out there.

John Singleton Copley Study

Well. It's good for a first attempt. There is quite a bit wrong though. First being the mouth which is much too far out. The contour of the nose is a little off, also the edge of the face furthest away needs to come out more. Copley's self portrait is just filled with beautiful subtleties and it's hard to transfer the gorgeousness of this painting into a crummy graphite sketch. Oh well, i'll just have to try again. 

Ugh... the more I compare the more disgusted I am at my capabilities as an artist.

For any of you unfamiliar with Copley, he was probably America's first great painter. Sadly once he reached success and fame he moved to England and stayed there until his death. Though he had many of your standard portraits some he was allowed to play with and they had a charm and humor to them.

This painting is filled with suspense for me, look at her devious expression, with the bird and the dog everything seems to lead to her hand grasping the ribbon as if she were about to pull it at any moment releasing someone in a vat of molten lava. The pose is also really unusual to me, for a portrait anyhow. kneeling in front of the chair, it adds to the playfulness of the whole picture.

For any American history buff's you'll probably recognize this gentlemen above, it's none other than Paul "British Are Coming" Reveere. This painting is again strange, it's as if he started a standard still life and turned it into a portrait to have someone interfere with the objects. Now, I don't know much about Paul outside the famous tale, but maybe he was some sort of silversmith? not entirely sure, but this painting is just about as curious as his expression.

This is a fantastic group portrait. With children climbing all over the elders, I think my favorite is the older man on the left with the little girl looking at his wife pleading with his eyes for assistance, all is futile for she has two girls already crawling all over her. The man in all the way in the back is the artist himself, the reason why this painting takes so many liberties is the fact that this is his family and this is how he see's them. I wish I had a painting like this.

"The Sitwell Children," brilliant!

This is probably Copley's most famous and respected works. It was highly controversial at the time it was exhibited, but to me the crazy part is that this is a depiction of an actual event! The man in the water did survive, at the cost of one of his legs.