Capturing the fidgety

January 12th, 2020

Well, this may be helpful. I worked with videographer Hiromi Sogo to give y’all some sense of how I manage, or try, to sketch people who are not posing but rather engaged in some activity. This I do and have done, as those who follow me know, for more than four decades. This practice has helped me in many ways, but greatly in one in particular. When I had the chance to draw in court, I was already up-to-speed with capturing people in motion.

Here are close ups of the drawing used in the video: just a note, when transferring the video to this platform, some of the soundtrack drops out; a glit I look to correct and avoid in future videos. Learning curve stuff, my bad.

 

As mentioned in the video, I number the drawings in the order they were begun. To my eyes, there was a lot of “meat on the bone”, I.e. an interesting looking dude holding great poses about concentration, wearing a shiny, puffy jacket made more dramatic by the raking light that accentuated surface features with the cast shadows of near and mid distant structures. Drawing  multiple perspectives or postures on the same page makes the transition from one position to the next easier as the subject moves and/or returns to a similar posture allowing you to add or complete the drawing. Afterwards, it also makes for better side by side comparisons since you’re not flipping back and forth to compare and contrast drawings.

 

You can see the preliminary or searching sketch for which I used a light Flesh tone. That establishes the general silhouette and will be a place holder if the subject suddenly moves just after I’ve begun drawing. I managed to knock in a good deal of his face and hair but he moved before I could get to his hand. When he returned to this pose about 45 minutes later, my “notes” were in place and I was able to pick immediately where I’d left off.

 

Evident in these drawings ing s is my use of several tools, one very important amount them are my fingers as you can see the marks left by my fingerprints.

Those fingerprints create hatch marks that are quite distinct from the hatching created with a stylus be it pen or pencil. Varied marks have great appeal to me in that they can enrich the drawing and  their combined effect is to increase the descriptive nature of the marks. But another, very crucial reason I draw with an array of different tools is to take advantage of the inherent attributes of a given tool and by doing so save myself time. Most important in drawing a dynamic subject where you’ve no idea when your subject could move or altogether leave, is to draw efficiently. Why overwork a small nib when a big brush affords greater coverage. Fingerprints create multiple hatch marks simultaneously that are also very difficult to emulate with the stroke of a pen. An inky finger will come in handy if you should want a smudged tone. Add to this collective of mark making, a variety of hues and the drawing gains in richness and description. For the combined effect simply examine the close up below of figure #5.

 

Drawings were done done with a Faber-Castell Basic Black Leather fountain pen filled with DeAtramentis Document Black Ink and F-C Pitt Artist Pens on a Stillman and Birn Gamma Series sketchbook (S&B is now a subsidiary of Clairefontaine) which takes ink and pencil nicely and can handle watercolor, plus has a little pebbly surface that creates nice textures when smudging or scumbling.

Fast Opus

January 28th, 2017

Sketch Tutorialissmo

May 8th, 2016

While in Vancouver BC, I set about town with filmmaker Ryan Mund and his wee GoPro. Gear used in this video: a Moleskine landscape format watercolour sketchbook, Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Brush Pens, and a Faber-Castell Basic Black Leather fountain pen, Platinum Carbon ink.

Namta

April 27th, 2016

Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pens on the go wtih Don Colley

April 27th, 2016

Don Colley Visiting Artist Lecture at American Academy of Art

April 27th, 2016

Where will your sketchbook take you?

April 27th, 2016

Don Demonstrates Faber-Castell PITT monochrome charcoal set

February 14th, 2010

Faber-Castell :: On the go with PITT artist pens

February 14th, 2010

Don demonstrates Faber-Castell pens as he draws on public transit. We also get to see him lick one of his drawings to prove its waterproof qualities. And check out those shorts!

Don Demonstrates Faber-Castell PITT artist pens

February 14th, 2010

Another studio video from Faber-Castell.

Don Demonstrates Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer Watercolor Pencils

February 14th, 2010

A promotional video for Faber-Castell, one of the fine firms that’s keeping Don alive these days. A great opportunity to see how the work is created and hear Don talking about his materials.

Have Pen Will Travel, The Awesome Talent and Frightening Vision of Don Colley

February 9th, 2010

A RustyScupperton Production

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