Update to the Bulldog Drawing

Just a quick note to let you know that my hubby delivered the Bulldog drawing to its rightful owner. She was very pleased. And yes, I took my friends' advice and signed my name. My signature is by no means stylish or fancy, but I am resigned to the fact that it is like my drawings...no frills, just clear and to the point. My new resolution is to sign my work upon finishing a drawing. Thanks Laure ( http://paintedthoughtsblog.blogspot.com/ ) for all of your wonderful advice. I had forgot what a name truly represents. I am proud of how far I have come in my work, and my family's name that my abilities are derived from. And thanks Carol ( http://firecrackerkid.blogspot.com/ ), my work did feel complete once my name was on it. It is always a great thing to have friendly advice in the decision making process! :)

It was a little odd to not have the drawing in my studio, but as I said earlier, it never felt like it ever belonged to me. I would like to set the record straight on one thing though, during this entire process I referred to the Bulldog as a 'he'... Well, this beautiful family member in fact was a 'she'. Her name was Lucy, and it was my pleasure to have had the opportunity to draw her...

Drawing a Bulldog FINISHED

Here is where I was 2 days ago, and this is how I drew in the back of the couch. Had I done the whole drawing left to right, the drawing would not have needed to be rotated 90 degrees. I actually like drawing this way. It trains my eyes to see small areas and shapes instead of the whole picture. The surprise comes when I turn it back, and the whole picture comes together.

 Well, here he is finished. There might be some tweaking in the next couple of days, but I am very happy with how this one turned out. I hope his owner will be also. It's funny. I thought that it would be hard to give a drawing away, but as with the dog in the photo, it felt as if this work was never mine to begin with. I will miss him though. This was a very relaxing piece to work on. It was the first piece that I felt great confidence in to translate to graphite. Okay, okay, honestly... if the owner didn't want this piece, I would frame it for my own house! Look at that face... how could you not fall in love?? ;)

So now what is next? Well, the first thing is to decide on how to sign my artwork. None of my graphite work has ever left the house, so I have never signed any of them. This has been on my mind since the first drawing. I am very determined that my work be the total focal point, and a long signature would be too distracting. My thoughts have turned to using my initials BLNS in a jumbled format. I have the next few days to decide. Oh... and I guess I had better pick out another subject to draw too!

Drawing a Bulldog 5

Yes, I am still plodding along on this guy! I am fitting in drawing time here and there, so he is moving along even if it is at a snail's pace. As you can see, I am working on the couch. The top of the cushion on the left is mapped in and will get more definition. The back half of the Bulldog's body needed some deepening of shadows and markings. I would imagine that the top half will require the need for more graphite as well. It was a relief (to me) that his face seems to be on the mark for intensity. The tweed of the couch was left out due to the size of the drawing, plus the intense pattern would have drawn away from the central focus. It was interesting to note, upon viewing the reference pic over and over, that the focus of the photograph was on the front cushions of the couch~ not on the dog. His face was out of focus, but (thankfully) the lines on his face cleaned up nicely on paper.

My hubby took his first look at him tonight and was happy. He even made the comment of how handsome the Bulldog breed is. I informed him that on the radio today an ad ran for a 10 week old male Bulldog for sale. Apparently, his love for the breed doesn't run that deep. He went back in the living room to watch TV with his cat! ;0)

Drawing a Bulldog 4

Well, our Bulldog has his face all blended and darkened. (I really have to find out what this guy's name was!) As I was getting ready to post, I was able to get a good look at my values and went back to the board to soften his face a little. Then, I took another pic. For some reason, it is easier to spot harsh values while up on the computer screen. I am pretty happy with where he is at right now. He has some depth to him which I was not sure could be created with the small photo reference. The background is now the last thing to do. The couch he is on is pretty dark, and sometimes I have to darken the main object more once the background goes in. My guess would be that the body might need some darker cast shadows. Time will tell...

Drawing a Bulldog 3

Is he starting to look like a bulldog yet? I sure hope so! Here is an update with the face mapped in. I will start blending and adjusting the graphite tomorrow. It is nice for me to see him up on the screen. The far away glance allows me to see if something is not quite right. He looks a little bold right now but that will be toned down in the next session. :0)

Drawing a Bulldog 2

A little blending goes a long way! The bulldog's body is finished. I am very happy with the results. I went over the dark lines with a blending stump to work the graphite into the Bristol board. Then swiped across different regions of the body with various dirty stumps which caused most of the shading to happen naturally. If the shading was too dark, my kneaded eraser pulled it out. When working light areas, the sand paper pad was used to clean my stump so that the shading was very subtle. The best part was deepening the dark shadows. They make the body bounce from the page. I was a little nervous at first that this drawing would fall flat, due to its lack of strong details, but it seems to be going in the right direction.

Now, I will move onto the face. The details are not the greatest in that area, but the contrasts in value are very high. This should help to make it come forward and give the illusion of clear features. My hopes are beginning to rise with this drawing. I know it will look like an old photo when I am done (as it should), and my instincts are telling me that will be the charm of this particular drawing... at least I hope so! ;0)

Drawing a Bulldog Cont.

I thought that I should do a quick update to let you know this big guy is not being ignored. (Okay, maybe he was set aside for a little bit.) As you can see by my side bar, I have been creating a new blog for my recycled art, gourd sculpting, textile work, and any other artsy endeavor that may cross my path. It will also include more about my life and my other passions cooking and searching out vintage collectibles. I've added a little more info in my side bar on this blog as well, with just a few minor changes to go. I feel that I finally have some order back to my life and am glad that my other forms of art and interests have their own space to grow in.

Onward to the bulldog... As you can see, he has been transferred on a light box to Bristol board and taped off on the edges. I have mapped the major markers of his fur on the parts of his body that will be semi out of focus. These markers play an important part of recognizing the animal. I did not shade in the dark areas of the body just the cast shadows. The blending process will do a lot of the body shading for me. If I shade in this step, I run the risk of muddying my marks and would have to map them out all over again. (I do hate rework!) ;0)

I will finish up the body before doing the face. There are not many clear details in this vintage photo, but I think that some can be pulled out of the facial features. I am leaving the face until after the body so that smearing will be at a minimum. Since things have settled down around here to a normal pace, I hope to make some solid progress in the next couple of days. :0)

Drawing a Bulldog Portrait

It is time for a new beginning! This is the photo that has sat patiently by my drawing board's side for a chance to be put into graphite. It is a commission for a pet bulldog. The picture is in black and white. (Yes, I prefer color, but this will be an interesting change of pace.) The dog is a beloved pet that has been deceased for quite some time, so this will be the reference that I'll have to work from. There is not a lot of fine detail, but I am hoping that will not take away too much from the finished product. The talk was originally about taking the markings and putting it on another bulldog. It may sound crazy, but I would like to try this way of drawing him first, because this pose/composition is really him. Maybe it is the nit picky photo realist in me (more likely the devoted pet owner in me), but I want to see their honest to goodness pet in my finished work-- not a body double. This drawing will be my tribute to a family pet. I feel up for the challenge and hope to do this sweetheart the justice he deserves.

The original photograph is 4 1/2 x 3 1/2". The finished product will be 9 x 7". As you can see, my graph for the photograph is in 1/2 inch squares, and my sketch is graphed in 1 inch squares. I find it easier, oddly enough, to make the line drawings of the squares match, when I am enlarging the original subject (more room to work I guess!). The original photo does not have a lot going on object wise, so I did not take the time to blow up the photo for the initial sketch. The composition should remain the same as the original photograph, but I was given a close up of the face from another pose (that photograph is in small format, also). I was toying around with the idea of a mixed composition but haven't fallen in love with it, yet. I'll leave that idea floating around in my head for another day and make my decision.