The Post-Pencil Cleanse: Why understanding drawing fundamentals is important for painting

After nearly a month off from painting, I returned to the oils this week. I've done nearly 35 different pencil studies and sketches using only a 2h, hb and b pencil, as well as an eraser, a white pencil and a toned sketchbook. While I am not a huge fan of pencil as a medium, and I really enjoy working in color, I can successfully say that my work has become so much more clear and defined. I began this week on a sketch of a cavalier of sorts, riding a giant flying eagle. I started out sketching on a piece of illustration board. I sketched for about 25 minutes, easily and quickly locking in a loose sketch, and not being afraid to erase and adjust things as I went (this is something I've always struggled with, but something which is also getting better as I work more and more in pencil.) After completing this, I laid in the first coat of oils- expecting to have lots of trouble adjusting to get the right shade and value, and probably anticipating 3 hours to get things right.

To my surprise, the lay in took only 20 minutes. From having had so much experience seeing in shades of reduced value (the pencils only really had 3 different shades, and the paper), I was able to quickly identify the value I was looking for, and having selected a restricted color palette, it became clear that I didn't really need to worry about whether I used orange or blue, or a mixture of the two: as long as I was in the correct value, it made sense as a realistic image. I then tried to keep blues in front and back, and oranges in the middle. It all worked really well, and I cannot wait to continue with the lay in!

Pencil Cleanse!

As a painter, it becomes increasingly difficult to notice when you are "neglecting" a particular skill set in your art arsenal. For myself, recent analysis of my work has led me to the conclusion that I have been greatly improving as a painter, but staying fairly stagnant in my abilities as a renderer. Having the ability to draw accurate renderings is incredibly important for any artist- it gives your paintings believability, interest, and, overall, shapes your final product. A great solution to this is to go on a "Pencil Cleanse". For me, this means putting the paints down for a whole month, and instead, carrying a pencil and sketchbook around.

A week into this exercise, a few different things have been noticed. Firstly, I'm finding myself noticing form in nature a lot more. Rather than seeing colors and hues, I'm seeing tonal relationships in things. This shift in mental thinking is doing wonders for planning future paintings.

The other thing I'm noticing, which is a huge deal, is that I am getting less frustrated with problems in my work. Because I am working with a toned paper sketchbook only, I know that anything I sketch is merely a sketch- For the purpose of getting better, and not creating a final product. This is drastically different than the "finished painting" mentality I am used to, and is greatly helping with the anxiety associated with working on a painting.

I will put up more information when I am a couple more weeks into this process, but right now, I'm really liking the results in my improvement. Below I've shared some pieces over the last couple days.

Everything below has been done with a 2H pencil, a B pencil, and a white pencil (because I'm working on toned paper).

Zloi Thunderaxe- The Dwarven Barbarian (a work in oil)

My best friend plays in my weekly Dungeons and Dragons group. We've played each Monday evening, reliably, for the past 2 years. His character, a dwarven barbarian with an aversion to safety and a casual relationship with manners, has survived throughout the whole campaign, despite having a true wish to die in glorious battle. To document the adventures, I thought I'd paint character portraits of each character in the game. I started with Zloi (comical aside: in Russian, "Zloi" means anger)

I begun the piece on 140 gram Arches cold press Watercolor paper. I knew I'd be sealing it and painting using Oils, so the actual quality of the paper wasn't paramount. That being said, I used cold press paper over rag illustration board to try and incorporate a little bit of texture and roughness- I thought it may lend itself to the portrait nicely. In hindsight, I'm not sure it made too much of a difference, and honestly, the rag illustration board is cheaper, so I'll probably go that route next time. 

I begun with a pencil sketch, using a 2b pencil and a 2h pencil. The 2h allowed me to lock everything in, and then the 2b allowed for shading and different values. I then sealed the whole thing with Krylon Kamar Varnish (one coat), and then one coat of acrylic Matte Medium. It's clear, locks the pencil lines in, and prevents too much of the oil from seeping into the paper. This is a trick I learned from James Gurney (Gurneyjourney.blogspot.com)

After laying in some background colors and basic tones, I went ahead and placed gear that was important to Zloi's likeness. Mainly, this is the bear claw bracers. Zloi's skin color is not consistent yet, because he actually has tattoos that glow orange. I haven't added all the layers yet, so I'm simply trying to anticipate a bit of the lighting. This above probably represents 2 hours of paint laying. 

After having let things dry for a day, I went in and added some variation in shadows all over. Although mostly notable in the face, this actually adds a ton of depth to the expression and pose. Now, I let the piece dry for another day.

With 3 more hours into the work, I have this to show. A much more homogeneous color scheme across the piece (with an exception of the hands, which still need to be finished). The piece is nearly done! Details for the gore of the beast killed at his feet are actually done randomly using a palette knife to help achieve some random textures. The effect ended up looking very natural!