Art: Class Rules (G)

[sigune]

Hee. I can try, can't I, to post a picture a day? I have enough material, though it's not all equally finished - in the sense of having got beyond the sketch stage. I have been dreaming about my Gawain Project a lot, and have done quite a few ballpoint pen sketches.

Somehow I have suddenly started liking the ballpoint pen as a drawing utensil. Maybe it is because I can't erase the ink. Whatever I draw with it is spontaneous and keeps a kind of ... lack of artifice? unstudied-ness? ... something like that. I am also trying - but this is really very difficult for me - to become more fluent in my line work. When I draw, I lack confidence (a lot), and every line consists of small traits that I smoothe out afterwards. That is not how it should be. A good line is firm and bold.

Do you know that I am incapable of drawing the basic of basics - a straight line? How stupid is that?

It has become quite an automatism with me to use small traits. So I am trying to remedy that. With the ballpoint pen, I have also rediscovered my Moleskine booklets. Their lightly tinted paper really didn't give great results with pencils, especially as I never apply a lot of pressure to my pencil when drawing - again, lack of confidence. Ballpoint ink, however, shows up nicely. And guess what: it's scan-friendly too! :D

So nowadays I am not going anywhere without a ballpoint pen and a tiny Moleskine cahier - light, small, and so satisfying :-).

All this is a kind of run-up to the fact that the picture I am posting today is drawn with a ballpoint pen. It's a bit of a departure from the pictures you are used to from me, because - well, I didn't do a pencil sketch, but threw this Snape straight onto the paper. There are a few help lines there that I didn't Photoshop away, and on the whole the picture is just not as clean as when I pencil and ink. But it's very spontaneous, and I'm surprisingly pleased with it. One thing I am not entirely sure about is the combination of blue ballpoint pen inking (the only pen I really like for drawing happens to be blue) and ... watercolour.

Well, I guess you can judge for yourselves :-).


(I hope the unusually large preview doesn't cause anyone trouble; I just wanted to show some of the detail...)








This picture was done for Aquaviann at deviantART, who won my latest kiriban. She's had to wait very long for this :/. But - I drew the best Snape foot ever for her :D. (His left, our right.)

Aquaviann requested Snape as a young teacher, and said I could use any media that I liked. So I went wild.

Media are ballpoint pen, watercolour and white gouache on the wrong side of a sheet of paper :P. I had started drawing on the proper side of the paper, to be sure, but I made a mistake which, on account of the ballpoint pen, could not be corrected. So I just turned the page over, fully expecting to make another mistake. But I didn't. And then when I started to paint, the watercolour went all funny, probably because of the paper's glue... But despite that, or maybe because of it, I really like how this came out. Sue me.

;-)

Comments

[branquignole.livejournal.com]

The Snape feet are both great! All in all, the result looks very interesting, somehow different - suffice it to say that i really love you experimenting because such great stuff comes out. :)

[duniazade.livejournal.com]

A picture every day, yay!

The combination of blue ballpoint with watercolours looks great - I love that slightly murky blue/brown/green spectrum - very Slytherin!

And that is definitely the best Snape foot ever

[veradee.livejournal.com]

That blue makes for a different look, but it suits him quite well.

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I guess the blue is just not something I am used to... I think I should be able to remove it in Photoshop, but that only works if there is no other blue in the picture. It would work for this one, but now I'm not sure that I should do it :).

[sylvanawood.livejournal.com]

It's great! You know, I combine the comment for your bottling fame picture. Is it just me? Your Sev seems to have become stronger, tougher. He seems more muscular and taller. Maybe the gaulish influence, maybe you view him different? Ot maybe I didn't really look in the past?

[sigune.livejournal.com]

No, you are quite right. It's not so much the Gaulish influence as my Gawain project's. I have been working hard (as far as that is possible in what passes for my spare time these last months) to improve my grasp of anatomy and musculature. When you draw warriors, they have to be a little bit credible... I noticed that some of that work rubbed off on my recent Snapes. I think in this picture he's getting - well, handsome... *g*

My style has been developing. If it all works out, it should get stronger and more dynamic. And Snape will look different. But hopefully not worse than before :).

[sylvanawood.livejournal.com]

Nono, he's gorgeous and I very much look forward to more of him (and all of them, Gawains, Gauls...).
Let's just say, he's been living healthier and happier after his almost-death and now he looks it. ;)

[sigune.livejournal.com]

LOL! Yes, I'll gladly agree with that. The poor man has deserved some pampering, absolutely :).

[redvelvetcanopy.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I really like this. Yes, it is a lovely foot, but I love the way the robe is draping and his "bodice" for lack of a better word. The collar and hair are reminiscent of bat wings.

I think the ballpoint is a lovely idea.

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :D

Heh. I have lost count of the number of times I tried to draw a presentable Severus in a cape. Somehow he always ends up looking pretty shapeless. I always want something at the shoulders, ike puffed-up sleeves or spiky ends. And then whatever he's wearing doesn't really look like a cape anymore. I call the result a Sigune Cross-garment ;-). Anything goes, as long as it looks dramatic *g*. And bat-like, of course...