I'm back

After some time, here I am again.

I have revamped my web site, and started an Instagram page.

You don't like posts with no images? Ok, that's a small bird I did recently with gouache paint

Sketching again

Some new images after ages. I've been busy doing stuff which I may, sooner or later, show on this blog.

A couple of sketches from last year:

and some brand new from last weekend.
The strange building in the next image, the one with two small doors, is called a giassàra in the local dialect (ghiacciaia in italian), which means "ice-house". During the winter it was filled with ice, which didn't melt for a very long time, and was used and sold during the next summer (this was in the "pre-fridge era", of course).

Some more detailed landscapes:

The white line on some images is an artifact from the scanner.

Sketching in the mountains

Some sketches from my recent holidays.

The simpler the better.

Landscape with malga

According to my dictionary, malga translates to "shepherd's hut in the Alps".
Sketched yesterday during a walk in the mountains. The big cloud timely arrived at the end of my drawing session, and filled a space too empty.
My landscapes are always "tasteless", unfortunately...(EDIT: "flavorless", not "tasteless", as blog readers pointed out)

Some more birds

I've been busy recently with some works I can't show on this blog, so here are a couple of my usual "bird drawings".

I'm grateful to my friend Antonio, who loves watching and photographing birds and other animals, for providing me with many good photos and allowing me to use them freely as reference.

Sandwich tern (Sterna sandvicensis or Thalasseus sandvicensis) and other seabirds.


Barn swallow (Hirundo rustica), young specimens.

More gulls

As I have already said, it's easy to take pictures of gulls in my town, so I'm afraid you will see a lot of drawings/paintings of gulls in the future, I'm experimenting a bit on different styles and techniques.

A couple of drawings. The first is done with a more tonal approach, suggesting a kind of "moist atmosphere"


in the second I reverted to my usual line style, which seems more lively to me


I also did a watercolor study (with very limited gouache and pencil touches). Due to lack of planning, I completely messed up the backgroud.


I'm still hesitant between a true soft watercolor effect, and a more precise description, which is what I actually got despite my initial intent.
Painting watercolor twice in a year is not the right way to improve...

Portrait

A quick sketch from life. Unfortunately she looks older than she actually is (but luckily you don't know).
Made in sanguine.

Gulls

Gulls are common on the river in my town, especially in winter. They gladly accept some food (mostly old bread) and "pose" for some photos.
These are probably young specimens of black-headed gull (Larus ridibundus). The big one on the lower left is a different species, probably a yellow-legged gull (Larus michahellis).

Native Americans

While I'm fighting to produce some acceptable images on a couple of subjects (more sooner or later), I've done some drawings of native americans from the famous pictures by Edwars S. Curtis. These photos are a bit controversial, I know, but anyway I think the portraits are absolutely beautiful, and make good subjects for copying... or maybe I'm wrong: good photos are perfectly accomplished works of art, and they are not good as "references" or anything like that. Anyway, here are my attempts.

The figure on the right in the next drawing had to be reworked a little (still has some proportion issues), and turned out a bit stiff and strange

Done with graphite sticks and some final touches with pencil.

Flowers

So you go walking in the mountains with a sketchbook and a pencil, and you decide to draw some easy subject like flowers (they don't move, unlike birds and even cows).
Big clouds move fast in the sky, so the light on your subject changes every couple of minutes (and you alternately freeze and burn). When the sun hits on the white page, you are almost blinded by the reflection, and immediately after, when the sun is covered by a cloud, you see strange colored spots around you.
In order to gain the best point of view for that beautiful flower, you have to assume strange postures, and you occasionally sit on some thorny plant. Ants, spiders and bugs walk on you and under your clothes.
The wind is blowing, and turns the pages of your sketchbook.

So, is it worth the bother?

Of course it is, because it's so fun. And, incidentally, walking in some beautiful mountain landscape is one of my favourite activities, despite some minor annoyances.

As I'm lazy, here are the actual sketchbook pages, with no selection.

Portrait of a lady

A couple of quick sketches from life.
The lady is quite an interesting person, and a good subject to draw.

Vegetables/3

Vegetables, vegetables... chapter 3

Vegetables/2

A couple more charcoal drawings:

Winter is coming back, with its beautiful "drawable" vegetables.

Love is blind/1

I've made some drawings illustrating the idea of blind love: pretty "ladies" in love with ugly "guys", or the opposite. And also other strange situations... just for fun...
This is one of the series. What is perhaps more interesting is the way a drawing becomes (or should become) a painting. Here is the original pencil drawing: a little girl with her beloved dog

In my attempt to make the girl very cute, I've probably made her a bit weird, too. But anyway...
Now I add some digital color in my usual (lazy) way: I keep the drawing in a separate layer, on the top, and then quicky fill in with some color. It's a fast technique, and it has many pros, but it's probably not painting (maybe I could call it coloring)

Now I sink the drawing into the color, and remove almost all lines, using tone and color to build shape.
A notable point: what works in a drawing, may not work in a painting. Look at the muzzle of the dog. In the drawing the construction is not correct, but it works, and it even adds to the weirdness of the expression. In the painting without lines, the same shape simply looked wrong, so I had to change it in a more correct way, possibly loosing some expression.
In general I think the drawing is more incisive, the painting softer and a bit more "dreamy" (of course I could easily make it stronger and more contrasted, but I prefer this way). Anyway, I'm probably a "drawing guy".

Below some preliminary sketches of chihuahuas, made from photos found on the internet. The purpose was to stress more and more the weird side of those dogs. I definitely don't like chihuahuas, but they are so fun to draw...

Vegetables/1

If I have some tiny talent, I think it shows in my drawings "from memory", "from imagination". When I draw from life, my drawings are so plain that I usually hate them. However, I don't dislike these too much, so...


(Compressed) charcoal is a wonderful medium, although it's a mess and you end up with black spots everywhere on your body and in your room


the following is a bit lighter, but I think it's OK. Incidentally, when I scan graphite drawings I always increase the contrast a little (to make lines darker) - which is not needed with charcoal: