Paul’s 2nd 100 Day Challenge Sketchbook Part 2

[David Carter]

Inspirational, Paul!  Love the left hand studies too.  I think if I were to do such things they would be farrr worse so well done for doing that.   I like the blend you have of rough and precise  – it gives the sketches a dynamic sense.  For example the head in the lower left on day 42, or the torso on the upper right – there’s a lot of what looks like rough casual shading (although it too has a precision) mixed with really precise heavier values which emphasise the forms.  Nice style!

I remember you said you have a lot of sources, but I’d really like to know more about them.  Are they mainly books or cuttings or internet images?  Is it all photography or other sketches or a mix?  I wondered if the 2nd lady’s right leg in Day 36 looks a little too long – then thought that might be lens distortion (i.e. the whole figure is foreshortened) if taken from a photograph?

I think I’ve decided on my next 100 day challenge.  I’m going to start doing sketches of sports.  It’s a wide subject with a lot of available resources – everything from greek statues of discus throwers to photos in the sports pages of the newspaper.  I was inspired two things – wonderful image of a cattle herder jumping off a buffalo backwards into water (I’ll do a sketch of this and post the original) and a recent article by Waldemar Januszczak who was saying there wasn’t enough sport in art, which got me thinking. Now I just need to find the time…

Best wishes,

David.

[PaulDidier]

Thanks David. Appreciate your comments and glad that you’re gearing up for another 100 day challenge. Your idea is awesome. I agree that there’s not enough sports in art. It’s such a fertile area too, and there’s an endless amount of images to sketch from thanks to all the sports now viewable on tv.
You asked about my resources, well, that’s one. I really enjoy sketching from tv. I’ve always been a movie nut and credit old movies for helping me to understand composition and design. I particularly like black and white film noir which is an incredible source of lighting and composition. I used to, and still do, freeze the films and do sketches of the scenes.
In a similar vein as your sports challenge, I like recording sports events then I do sketches of the athletes. Recently I’ve really been enjoying doing sketches of tennis players at the US Open and now the Australian Open. Tennis affords an amazing selection of male and female figures twisting, stretching and positively hammering the ball, often while suspended in mid air. In fact, I did warmups today of some tennis figures from the Australian Open. I’ll post those later.
In addition to this resource, I sketch from the figures on the NMA site, (a really amazing resource with a huge variety of models), the Croquis Cafe,  and I do a lot of studies of masters like Daumier, Kley, Sargent, and Zorn as well as comic book artists.
Finally, yes, the second lady’s right leg is too long! I have a predisposition for over rendering and tweaking the heck out of my work so when I do warmups I make a point of trying not to be overly concerned about accuracy and proportion. I still try to get it right, of course, but I try to put the lines down, capture the gesture and move on. I know that later in the day I’ll be obsessing over proportions and accuracy in what I’m doing, so it seems healthy for me to have a period of just letting things flow. I’m sure you’ll see lots of those types of errors when I post my tennis warmup sketches.
Anyway, thanks again for the comments. Looking forward to seeing your sports sketches!

[PaulDidier]

Zoned out and forgot to post this yesterday. As I said in my comment above. These are warm up gestures from the Australian Open Women’s tennis. Prisma on bond 18 x 24″
Day 43.

[PaulDidier]

After spending weeks trying to loosen up, felt the need to render a bit. Prismacolor in my sketchbook.

Day 44

[PaulDidier]

Well, I seem to take a break in  these challenges and then have to recommit.
I’m going to go at this again, but I’m going to modify my challenge. Since my surgery I’ve been really struggling to draw loosely and in a relaxed way again. So, while I still want to continue with my original challenge, I’m going to add loosening up as a goal. I’ll try to do more large gestures while still working in my sketchbook. For a while, at least, I’ll be posting some pretty rough sketches, (and probably not so many sketchbook drawings). I hope they’ll get less rough as I move forward in this.

Here’s Day 45. More prisma sketches of tennis players.

 

 

[PaulDidier]

Here’s a second page for Day 45. Sharpie sketches on 18 x 24″ bond.

 

[PaulDidier]

Didn’t get a chance to post last night. Here are a couple of posts.Will post them separately because it seems to go through better.

The first is charcoal, chamois gestures with left hand followed by lines with right.

 

 

[PaulDidier]

Here’s the second. Prisma pencil on 18 x 24″ bond.

 

[PaulDidier]

Here’s Day 47. Prisma sketches on 18 x 24″ bond.

[PaulDidier]

Here’s Day 48 in two posts.
First is a left handed exercise. It seems to be helping most to loosen me up. It’s chamois gestures, followed by charcoal pencil over it. 18 x 24″.

[PaulDidier]

Here’s the second post for Day 48.
I’m still tying to work on the anatomy part of the challenge. For this I took a page from my first 100 day challenge, then I put tracing paper over it and drew in the Triceps and Trapezius muscles on the previous sketches.

[PaulDidier]

Day 49. Sharpie on 18 x 24″ bond.

 

[PaulDidier]

Day 50

[PaulDidier]

Here’s Day 51.

I’ve been following Miles Yoshida’s Inking course here on NMA and am really liking it.

[PaulDidier]

Whew, got caught up in stuff and haven’t had a chance to post.

Here’s Day 52.

As I mentioned, I’ve been following the NMA Inking course with Miles Toshida. I’d never thought to dilute ink and then use it in a croquil pen. I’d always used a brush with diluted ink. This is really fun to work with.
So I decided to work on the penciled sketches from Day 51 using that technique.

[Author]

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