His eyes, so bright

This month James Gurney's Art by Committee is about a strange creature:

“He is shorter than I remember, and thin. His fur is grayed to white in a fringe around his head, just below his ears. His coat is dull, thinning, and coarse. His eyes, so bright I…”

In one of my previous posts, I was complaining that my digital paintings are actually "drawings with some color below". So I decided to make no preliminary drawing on paper, and start painting from the beginning... well, almost. This is the digital sketch - anyway, less accurate than I'm used to do:



the "bright eyes" made me think the guy was not a nice person, so I ended up with this gnomish, dwarfish villain. After that, I started painting - disrespectfully covering the drawing :)
This is the "creature" without fur (I know, I should have painted the fur from the start):



at this point, I should have added some fur as described in the quotation, but I decided a satyr-like red beard was more suited for this guy, and that's the result:

Vegetables/2

A couple more charcoal drawings:

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

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: