This is a repeat of a post I made on slayeroffice back in September, but since this blog (newly renamed Wax Bloom if you hadn’t noticed) has a different audience, I figure a repost isn’t entirely out of line.This is a time lapse video I created of myself working on my drawing of Owais – six hours of drawing condensed into about four minutes. Enjoy!
Update The embedded video was slowing down page render too much. Follow this link if you’d like to watch.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Paulette // Feb 5, 2008 at 11:35 pm
This was cool. I love seeing how an artist works.
I like the new name.
2 Rose // Feb 6, 2008 at 10:39 am
Steve, I had noticed the name change. Nice. It’s nice to see how you work…is it fair to say that you see most of it in your head first, thus you can work from detailed spot to detailed spot? And dark to light?
3 S.G. Chipman // Feb 6, 2008 at 11:01 am
@Paulette thanks!
@Rose Hmm, well – I’ve never really thought about it, honestly. I know I look more at the photo than I do the drawing while I’m working, and I spend a lot of time beforehand studying the reference photo.
I often return to areas over and over rather than, for example, finish the area around the eye and move on.
I also don’t work dark to light – always light to dark.
I’ll put a base color down (beige), then an initial layer of shadow (blush pink), then a second layer of shadow over that (sienna brown or terra cotta) and then an even darker layer if needed (copenhagen blue or dark green with dark umber or scarlet lake). And lately, these are all with light circular motions.
If I’m happy with how that looks, I’ll burnish it with the base color. Then later I’ll find myself coming back to that area and cross hatching blue slate, parma violet, orange or some other color over it.
Really, I think what happens is I just kind of get into a “zone” where I just respond to what an area needs without really thinking about it too much. I’ll squint at the photo, then squint at the drawing, and if they don’t match up I’ll make adjustments. Its hard to describe, but I hope that makes sense.
4 Rose // Feb 6, 2008 at 1:08 pm
It does make sense Steve, thanks. From the video, it looks like you finish an area pretty well and then move on, and that you work from dark to light (which is surprising in a CP context), but I guess it just appears that way, perhaps because the viewer can’t see the initial light stages.
I work all over the whole thing, progressing each bit equally. But, one of my weaknesses as an artist is that I can’t really see it in my head beforehand. I admire those that do. I have to work all over or the one bit I am working on gets all distorted – as I can’t judge the values well unless I know the surrounding ones. Anyway, it’s always fascinating to see how others work. Thanks for sharing the video!
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