Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Swaney Road Barn (Buckeye Red White & Blue) WIP
Sunday, October 18, 2009
WIP 4 SWANEY RD. Barn (Buckeye Red, White & Blue)
Thanks for coming back and following along with this one. It is fun to watch how a drawing develops and this one is full of fun. The drawing is completed and on my gallery pages for sale but, it is the Work In Progress posting that help to bring a drawing to life for the viewer. Other artists tell me that they like to see how another artist develops a piece and this is one of those ways to see the work as it progresses. I always enjoy seeing other artist at work.
Well, now that the big secret is out as to what is going on the facing side of this barn to make it so special, it was time to get back to the work at hand. The weeds and mid-ground grass work. I love weeds in my drawings and especially this one as they have the front and center stage this time. Many times they are in the mid or distant areas of the drawings I do but, this time they are close up. You can get a good look at them by clicking on the two images I have posted this time. The weeds are made up of Thistles, Fox Tail and Golden Rod as well as some tall grasses. These can be mixed in what ever way you decide. I try not to get to regular on my spacing or the number of each. Nature doesn't do this so neither do I.
The mid ground grass work was all done by individual pen stroke with my fine point pen. While the weeds in the fence row were done with both medium and fine point pens. The weeds were drawn in by line work and then some over-lapping tone layers to give them depth and dimension. The grass work as I said, was done one stroke at a time. I pay close attention to the contour of the ground and the distance between the weeds and the facing side of the barn. The strokes are short vertical lines. The lines get longer as they get closer to the viewer. I tend to start the grass work in the lower left corner of the area that I want to cover and work to the upper right. I don't work a row across the page and then come back like a type writer would. That gives a manufactured line look to your grass. Again, nature doesn't do that so neither do I. Pay close attention to what you see in nature and try to stay close to it in what and how you render natural areas in your work.
Well, that's about all for now. If you have any questions for me about any specific techniques or any part in the drawing please feel free to drop me an email directly to vince@rural-route-one.com and I will answer them as quickly as I can.
Cheers!
Monday, October 5, 2009
WIP 3 Swaney Road Barn
Sunday, September 27, 2009
WIP 2, Swaney Road Barn - Update
As you can see, I have done some of the foreground work in the weeds and that is very time consuming. I must be patient while doing this work because trying to work to rapidly causes mistakes and those are hard to fix or work into the image. As this is an image put together from many different scenes I have the freedom to work in pretty much anything that I feel works. I want to stay true to my theme of a rural landscape of a barn and fence post and fence set in very early fall where the weeds are taking hold of the scene.
The barn itself with hold a very special image on the facing side. The second part of the name for this drawing will become more clear when I have developed the image a bit farther. Untill then, I will keep that part a secret.
I have starteded the barn itself and have some of the siding planks in. You can see the door that I have added to the lower corner of the barn. It hasn't been used in quite some time as you can see the ivy has started to take it over. The trees that are on the hill just to the viewers left of the corner of the barn are a small stand of maples. I have used both my medium and fine point ball point pens for the work in the image. I used the medium point mostly for toning and shadowing and the fine point for detail line work.
The grass work in the mid-ground was done all with the fine point pen. Each blade of grass is done with very small stroke on top and beside each other. I find that this method works well to keep the eye from picking up a seam in the layering of the grass. I don't what the viewer to be able to pickup on where I started or ended each time I worked in the grass area. The grass work is done with shortest strokes farther away from the viewer and grdually larger one closer to the viewer or toward th bottom of the page if you will.
Well, that's about it for now. I will update this image more frequantly now that I have gotten some things worked out on my updating schedule. Please check back often and if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me directly at vince@rural-route-one.com