More Random Sketches

When living in the Desert it is imperative that we sketch some camel riders! These sketches were done as a good practice in order to not waste time on Face Book or staring at the fish tank! Pen and ink is one of my favorite medium but i tend to get carried away like the need to 'finish' the piece with more and more details! Soon I end up with an overworked piece as always.

Knowing to quit with minimalism is an art in itself and very seldom do one get to find someone who has mastered this, at least not me. I enjoy putting things in subliminally if possible so others may see more than what is.

I also have th tendency to creatte a story whenever i sketch something or someone, like I have the need to portray the inner character of what i am sketching, thus the 'overwork'?

Most of these sketches came off the works of 'Masters' like my choice of Paul Rubens and the likes. I also take still pictures from Movies by pausing the pictures and rendering what i see that i like. In doing this often enough you also begin to enjoy the artistic expression of the Film Maker in capturing the aesthetic beauty of each frame of picture in terms of lighting and so on.

In copying the works of the Old masters especially their sketches, one gets the feeling of the strokes and the freedom by which they were expressed. You become a little more intimate with their works.

As you keep sketching away you are also developing your own rythm and strokes, your hand movement and the weight of the pressure you use to heighten or lighten the image. This kind of spontaneous motion can only come from alot of doing.

Sketching from an oil painting or a water color takes a different king of approach and feeling. I have to find the best ways to cover space with strokes of my pen and thus creating a design to render these in one form or another making it pleasing and somewhat tells the picture you are trying to create. Leaves in the trees, water in the lake and the feeling of shades and textures in the tree stems and the delicate branches, all has their own rythm and technique to achieve.

There is alot of advantages that one can utilize from using images from the computer espeically in being able to zoom in on the images while working with them and sometimes just taking parts that you like and eliminating the rest thus often creating your own new scene.

I am neer good at portraits, never had the confidence nor the desire so much to do it, but I still enjoy capturing faces if they are distinct in fratures and personality. I always like to nkow what these famous faces looked like, Doestoyevsky, Tolstoy, Hemmingway and the likes. These are names only but when you find pictures of them especially in black and white it becomes a great study of characters.