Sketchbook and Hare progress

[amberdreams]

It's been a while.

Sketchbooking is continuing to be interesting. I also did a one day workshop with the same tutor on mixed media.

Tonight we did minimising the palette and had a choice between full monochrome and a limited palette. I'd meant to have a go at both but ran out of time.
So here's my monochrome, sepia portrait from a stock photo

The dancer is from the workshop - white acrylic paint applied thick and rough with soft pastels over the top. It sort of worked and sort of didn't.

This page is all oil pastels with sgraffito (scratching to expose the white of either the paper or a layer of white/different coloured pastel underneath).


Now to the hare! My giraffe is most likely going to arrive on 16th March - so I now need to get a move on and finish Norwich Hareport before then. It's good to have a definite deadline, it should get me more motivated!
Here's a couple of shots to show where I'm at.
Seriously, doing the buildings round all these curves is a pain in the arse! LOL!

The river and the willow trees are getting there - I need to add some ducks (of the plastic bath tub variety to represent the annual duck race) as well as a few more trees and some plants on the feet.

Cathedral wrapping round the legs! Meep!

The Guildhall and the market square and the lion have all been redone. The Guildhall spire thingy was all wrong before - that'll teach me to not check my reference pics!

Oh and I added a startled pigeon for fun.

Then I just need to go over the flying hares and I'll be done.

Comments

[aerynsun5.livejournal.com]

I quite like the swimmer. And the hares! Giraffes next? My, my. :)

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

My, my indeed!! LOL

[julchen11.livejournal.com]

Wow! All of them look fantastic!!! The hare is incredible *bows head*

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much!

[tsuki-no-bara.livejournal.com]

the hare looks so good! i love the startled pigeon. the lion's pretty great too.

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

I'm quite pleased with how the lion's looking now, so I'm happy you like him too!

[galwithglasses.livejournal.com]

Doing the buildings around all the curves looks really difficult but it's looking good. I love the pigeon. 8-)

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

The pigeon is my fave at the moment LOL. He wasn't even supposed to be there but the back of the hare's head looked a bit bare.

[finchandsparrow.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, all of this is beautiful! I love the boy in the monochrome portrait. And I really love the dancer one: such a beautiful portrayal of movement and line and human form!! <333 I can't imagine how difficult it is to plot and paint all of that architecture and scenery around all of the curves in the hare sculpture, but you've made it look fabulous! I'm quite fond of the pigeon, as well. :D

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Hee, the pigeon was an afterthought, added to fill a space and for a bit of fun. Glad you like him!

[madebyme-x.livejournal.com]

I love the dancer - so beautiful! I have no idea how you've managed to paint around all those curves. I'm very excited to see the giraffe once it arrives. I hope it's not too tall - how will you paint it?!

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

I'm toying with the idea of doing some of the painting with the giraffe lying down but I'll have to see when he arrives. 7ft tall in definitely going to be a challenge though!

[madebyme-x.livejournal.com]

Yikes 7ft - even JP would struggle with that!

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

It's a pity I can't do a SPN design and get J2 to buy one. LOL

[madebyme-x.livejournal.com]

Now THAT would make a wonderful photo op :D

[jj1564.livejournal.com]

Hee hee, I love the startled pigeon! It must be really tricky to paint on curves, especially around legs. You do like a challenge, don't you?! *applauds*

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

The pigeon was an afterthought - the back of his head was looking a bit empty. LOL

[nomercles.livejournal.com]

If I had money, I would buy that dancer from you. That's incredible. I love the movement of it, and the caught-in-amber feeling of it, at the same time.

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Really? Wow. Thanks so much! If I hadn't stuck it into my sketchbook you could have had it for nawt.

[nomercles.livejournal.com]

Aww, thanks!

[hugemind.livejournal.com]

These are all wonderful! <3

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Why thankee kindly!

[be-my-precious.livejournal.com]

I'd love to take a class like that. Been awhile since 3rd level costume design and basic set design. lol.

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

It's been really good for me - I don't think we covered half of the stuff at school that I've been doing in this class, plus he's making us try things way outside our comfort zones! Maybe you should look around and see if there's anything on offer locally!

[be-my-precious.livejournal.com]

I just might! One thing I never learned was drawing and shading/contour with ink... I'd love to learn how to do that.

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Oh me too! Ink is a mystery to me in spite of trying to use it for two Inktobers now.

[be-my-precious.livejournal.com]

I do remember one of yours from inktober that I thought was brilliant. Wish I could remember which one it was lol.

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Why thankee kindly - whichever it was.

[sillie]

Love your sketches, and the hare is looking amazing already.

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm hoping to get the hare finished well before next Friday when the giraffe arrives!

[milly-gal.livejournal.com]

This is gonna sound quite stalkerish, but in for a penny, right? LOL! I do so adore when you post your sketchbook progress and the sculpture paintings, it's like a little ray of sunshine. I can always rely on you to bring a bit of creativity to my flist :) That Cathedral must have taken an AGE to actually get plotted out and painted in. O.o I'm in awe.

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

No plotting or planning, I just kind of drew it then hoped for the best! I'm not good at planning in my drawing. LOL

[milly-gal.livejournal.com]

I have no clue how you even do that, lol.

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

me neither...