Paul’s 100 Day Challenge; Sketchbook

[Chi Varjus]

Thank you so much Paul! (again) I love long-winded answers haha

[Jean-Pierre Fermet]

Very inspiring work!

[PaulDidier]

Thanks Jean-Pierre. I like your challenge and will be following it.

Chi, forgot to mention. If you use a dip pen, it’s important to keep the nib clean so the ink flows well. Ink flow is another advantage of using the larger nibs but you still need to clean it well after using it. I find a mix, (I use 50/50), of water and white vinegar cleans them well.

For brushes, I rinse well in water then sometimes with a mild soap and periodically clean with the brush cleaner I use for my painting brushes. The one I use is “The Masters” Brush Cleaner and Preserver. This stuff is amazing for all your brushes. It’ll often bring back to life brushes you thought were dead. Even brushes with oil paint long dried on them.

Good luck! Let me know how it goes.

[PaulDidier]

Here’s Day 30. Missed a couple of days. This was supposed to be my next gouache study but my daughter had to have here wisdom teeth pulled, (all 4). So these are a couple of pages of sketches I did while sitting in the waiting room. A bit messy. I lightly sketched the figures in pencil and the ink doesn’t dry so well on top of graphite and I will sometimes smudge it.

I’ll try to do two pages for tomorrow, but I’ll have to be up every four hours giving my daughter her medicine, (my wife is doing the daytime medicine), so I’ll see how much energy I have tomorrow.

 

 

[PaulDidier]

This is for Day31.

I’d intended to do gouache today and had decided I wanted to try to incorporate Joshua’s suggestions for working from the larger body masses. But after doing the initial sketches below I wasn’t sure how to indicate those masses and then paint over them in a way that I wouldn’t lose the original mass rather quickly. So I decided to print out a scan of the second sketch, (below), and go in with blue prisma pencil and isolate the masses. Tomorrow I’ll paint on the original sketch and hopefully, with this sketch to refer to, I’ll be able to keep the masses clear in my mind.

 

[PaulDidier]

Day31 continued.

So here’s the scan of the second sketch above where I’ve gone in with blue prisma pencil and clarified the larger masses of the figures. Tomorrow I’ll paint over the earlier sketch and see how things go.

 

[Kelly Jensvold]

Looking good!

[David Carter]

Great figures with lots of energy!  Are these from imagination?

[PaulDidier]

Thanks Kelly and David.

David, these aren’t from my imagination. I’ve been saving photos for years, especially of clothed people moving, jumping etc. I used to constantly study folds and drapery. I’m always taking photos with my phone of people doing ordinary things to sketch from later. In this case there’s one figure, the one on the right bottom that’s from a sketch by Norman Rockwell, and the one on the left is from a cd of reference photos for comic book artists. The top two I took.

So here’s my gouache studies for day 32. I tried to follow the masses I sketched on my day 31 post. In three of them I actually painted in the masses of the torso, pelvis, arms and legs first, then painted the clothing on top.

 

 

 

[PaulDidier]

Just looked at my last post fresh this morning and see that I’m still doing what Joshua pointed out that I need to correct. The highlights, especially on the bottom right figure are too light. I’ll try to rework that today. Strange I did that even on clothing that’s rather light in color.

[Ramona]

Hello Paul, thank you for your advice on using black and white gouache a few days ago, I will definitely consider doing it like that! I’m also using water colors by Winsor Newton and I like them pretty much, so I think I will also try out their gouache colors.

I think your sketches from the waiting room are really well made! It’s also for me as a beginner quite good to see the figure drawing approach from gesture to forms to fleshed out figures applied, as you did it in the last couple of days.

[PaulDidier]

Thanks Ramona.

My approach from gesture to forms to fleshed out figures as you see it above is definitely new for me. Joshua was kind enough to point out some problems I have and offered some possible solutions and I’m trying to put them into practice. Not there yet, but I think his suggestions are excellent and hope they may help me get past some bad habits I’ve had for years that I wasn’t even aware of.

It’s a bit challenging and I see I’m not getting it yet so I really appreciate your encouragement.

[PaulDidier]

For today, (day 33), I just played around a bit with some ideas for a gouache study that would be a little different, (and a little more fun), from what I’ve been doing. Here’s a couple.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Debbie H]

Hi Paul,

Thank you for your kind comment on my post. I’ve just spent about an hour reading through your thread – it’s amazing and very inspiring. I’ve picked up a number of things from your approach, so thank you 🙂. You have a wonderful handle on expressive gesture as well as being able to focus on detail and disciplined learning. You’ve mentioned the daily drawing sessions a number of times – I find short timed poses uncomfortable because I’m in the perfectionist camp and find it quite stressful! Is it something you just push yourself through? I’ll stay in touch with what you’re doing from now on. Thank you for sharing your process. It’s wonderful.

Deborah

[Debbie H]

Hi again Paul, just wanted to say, I hope your daughter is recovering and feeling better soon 🙂.

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