Artistic Endeavours

Do you ever put so much effort into something and then step back and actually feel proud of what you’ve done? I have. And I’m pretty sure we all have at some point. Except that after a period of 24 hours I see everything wrong with it, and suddenly I’m not so proud of it anymore.

This could be with anything… Exams, cooking, writing, photography even dealing with a situation.

Drawing: Elven Halls

Here’s another sketch post. Not much variation I know, but I will try and post something country side-y next week InshaAllah.

Yes I am a Tolkien fan and so I couldn’t resist drawing another fantastical scene from the movie. To be honest I don’t actually know if that particular shot was in the movie, but it was in a book that I have which was released to coincide with The Hobbit movies. There are six altogether and so far four have been released. They contain concept drawings, character development, costume development etc.  The image I used to base my sketch on was probably in an Art and Design book…. and I think it was a concept drawing. Maybe I can do a book review on them…

I really admire the work of the guys who do the concept drawing (John Howe and Alan Lee), they just use lines and it’s pretty amazing- if they want a darker area they add more lines, and for lighter area they use less. And the depth they create- I wish I could do that! I tried to do it their style, but my lines are more tight.

That’s it! I used Derwent sketching pencils and rubber to get the illusion of water falling over the doorway behind the bridge.

Aaliyah

Please do not use photos without permission.

Sketch: Grains in Sacks

I didn’t know what to title this post since it isn’t all grains in the cloth sacks. There’s cinnamon bark in the first sack, rice in the second, dried chilies in the third and to be honest I have no idea what is in the last, I just sketched it as best as I could. I quite enjoyed that part, since I could add the look of shininess, and yet not have a lot of detail.

This sketch probably took me 25-30 minutes to draw, I didn’t do it all in one go since I left it and came back to it during the day. I used Derwent sketching pencils I tried to avoid paying to much attention to detail since that usually puts me off drawing, like I feel kind of hopeless that I won’t be able to make it look good.

So I’m pretty pleased with it Alhamdulillah, and it really helped that I really loosely drew what was in the sacks, I would have gotten fed up if I had to draw every piece of cinnamon and, every stalk of the chillies…

Sorry about the photo quality, and the slightly off angle.

Aaliyah

Book Review: The Colour Mixing Bible

As someone who enjoys painting, but has never been taught how, I wanted to educate myself on the subject of mixing colour. How can I achieve that glowing pink on the top of the clouds at sunset.. and the perfect yellow with it?

And yet… no matter what I do I can’t achieve that colour, it’s too opaque… it’s too yellow, or red… what colour do I add to make it brighter? Why are there so many yellows? And reds? Why can red be cool and warm when in school they told us red is warm colour?

Honestly, despite taking an art GCSE, I never really learned how to paint anything… maybe I learned more about artists, but nothing really contributed to my art skills, except drawing more often.

Well after some research and lots of  positive review reading on Amazon I decided to get a book that both looked interesting  and had great content layout. I can say right now this book is the one for me!

It is called ‘ The Colour Mixing Bible’ by Ian Sidaway.

The book contains an explanation at the beginning on colour theory, science of colour and colour mixing. The book covers nearly all popular mediums- acrylic, oil, ink, pastel, pencil, watercolour and gouache.

A page from the book explaining warm and cool colours.

Colours for a winter scene, also includes instructions for painting other scenes..

Different mediums on this page.

 

 

Examples of the chart for mixing colours… each medium has at least one page on reds, blues, greens etc…

So if anyone is interesting in art, drawing, painting or any other stuff that requires some knowledge of colour, I suggest you get this, however it might not be the book for you so do read the reviews!

I bought the book here.

Thanks for reading!

Aaliyah

 

 

 

Moleskine Diaries: Woodland Halls

In an effort to improve my drawing I have a taken a scene from a book that I have and attempted to draw it. I was a little disappointed in the final outcome since I couldn’t draw the texture of the tree bark very well.

I guess I’ll just have to practice more!

I used Derwent Graphic pencils in 4B and B. I used specifically the Graphic pencils (used for precise drawing) instead of the sketching pencils as the tip is much finer and I could therefore build up tone. It also allowed me to add in finer details such as the carvings on the pillars and the bridge.

This is the picture I was drawing from, I didn’t draw the people however.

The Graphics pencils I used have the orange stripe and the Sketching pencils have the grey stripe. As you can see the tip of the Graphics pencils are much finer.

My drawing in the process.

The finished piece.

Hope you all enjoyed, and please do not take any of this material without my express permission.

Aaliyah

Moleskine Diaries: Cold as Stone

After browsing on Pinterest at different amazing artworks I came across a piece done in Charcoal and I was pretty amazed at how charcoal can show light so strongly. So I said to myself: I think I will do a drawing in Charcoal.

Needles to say I chose something I had never drawn before, took ages to finish and was pretty complicated. I think it was good thing I chose something difficult to draw, because at the end of it I got a sense of achievement.

But I finished it!

I also entered this drawing into a Moleskine competition, I was the first entry. I would love to win… but we’ll see. You can look at my entry here. The competition runs until April 14th. Please vote for me!

Below are some photos of the drawing. If you’ve watched Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit, you might recognise the scene (Mines of Moria).

 

I used 3 charcoal pencils by Derwent in: Dark, Medium and Light. I also used a putty rubber to lift off extra colour. I used a smudger aswell.

 

The finished piece.

Drawing the rock around the doorway was challenging, it has a certain look that can’t be done randomly.

Thank you for reading

Aaliyah

Moleskine Diaries: Woven

I was inspired to draw this piece when I  desperately wanted to put something on paper with pencils. I love the smoothness and show of light that pencils can give to an object and I really wanted to us my Derwent set that was sitting unused for a while. I was staring at a woven reed storage basket when I decided I would draw something similar.

The ink blue to fill in the background was  a random choice.

A tree on the opposite page. Not a very good sketch since I got bored.

Surprisingly I used green and a reddish brown in the woven strands, you can’t see much of the colours I used in the photograph unfortunately.

Aaliyah

Moleskine Diaries: Doodle

When I first got my Moleskine sketchbook, I was so excited that I didn’t know what to put in it. For ages I had wanted a sketchbook that I could slip in my pocket or my bag without taking up too much space. The Moleskine is perfect for that purpose. Some people say that the quality has decreased, but honestly I have no idea since this is the first time I’ve had one, I’ll just have to wait and see if the binding can take being flattened.

I often put it in my breast pocket of my raincoat along with a pen or pencil, and I carry a small rucksack with

Drawing with Lines

I absolutely love to draw. Especially from observation. There is a tree outside my window which has held my interest for a while. However trees happen to be one of the scariest things for me to draw, the branches and the leaves terrify me…. how am I supposed to put thousands of leaves on paper with a pencil? And when drawing from my head the trees tend to look less tree-ish.

I would get a better photo, but I’m terrified to step outside, even a raincoat won’t protect me in this weather.

So I took a different approach. Pen and ink, no shading- just lines. Following the contours of the object . My first attempt at this technique was drawing a

Moleskine Diaries

I try to incorporate art into my everyday life, even if its finishing off, adding to a drawing that I’m working on or just scribbling a random pattern with oil pastels. I find drawing an outlet for my feelings. Just looking at the colours spread in front of me settles my mind.

I tend to go into deep thought mode when drawing. Little things like drawing a flower or bumble bee leads