The friendly pirate

A quick sketch with quick digital color, made some time ago. Just for fun.

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:

One-man-band/4

A new chapter for the "music guy" (yes, he's always the same guy):


Ink is such a wonderful medium, but I still have to learn to think in two "colors":

Chains

"He stood and held his arms out before him, pulling the chains taut. The muscles in his shoulders and his chest bunched, standing out in sharp relief, and a moment later, the chains snapped cleanly"

This month's assignment for James Gurney's Art by Committee is probably more definite and precise than usual, which, depending on your disposition, can make things easier or more difficult. Anyway, I've decided not to be completely literal.

The drawing was a bit unclear, so I decided to put some (digital) color on it:


With digital color it's quite easy to do some variations:


without the strong contrast between flowers and backgroud the image is somewhat less focused, but perhaps more subtle:

Knight and dragon/4

I've tried to develop a bit further the concept shown here, with one difference: the knight is coming out of the dragon's belly



I guess the same idea shouldn't be used too many times, it tends to get "rotten".

I usually draw bald people (maybe I'm lazy), but this time I decided to add this long hair, as the guy looked like Mr. Magoo. Also, I'm not sure I like the bat-birds, with their umbrella wings.

Dots...

“But when the dots did not vanish even after he scrubbed his fists across his eyes three times, he shouted hoarsely…”

This is the last assignment given by James Gurney for his "traditional" Art by Committee. I suspect that my proposal is a bit coarse, but anyway...


Of course, the drawing is reminiscent of both the scream by Munch and the cliché of the painter with Dalì-style moustache.