Illustration Friday - Perennial

Now, I know I shouldn't do this but I was having so much fun that I have decided to do another posting for this word of the week. It's a new type of doodling called "Plasticine Doodling" and as I started with a flower, with no intent on the outcome and gorgeous floral image happened in front of my eyes. So far as I know a rose, which is at the centre point is perennial and represents love which in best case scenario lasts forever, though some last for 2 years max. Daisies in the eyes came back year after year and the ferns and flowers in the rest of the doodle are also perennial, because I say so.

Here she is, my gorgeous little owl made of flowers in Plasticine!

Have a great rest of the week! IFers! 

Illustration Friday - Perennial

Here is my illustration done using pencil, paper, goauche paint used thinly like watercolour and a bit of colour aquarelle pencils and toward the end a bit of photoshopping. Enjoy! Scroll all the way down to see the final product! I call the glass chicken the Herb Guardian (get it).

Hello, so happy to have you join me on my latest "Ink Journey". Having read this weeks word, I decided to do a painting of my herb boxes which I had on the windowsill. Some of the herbs were not perennial but I felt that this was a good opportunity to explore and gain better insight into the perspective of pictures. Through this type of practice, I can gain better ideas about how it works and start to use it more in my work. I would like to show the progression of my work and the final piece!

Here it is!

From sketch to drawing.

Whodunnit? Illustration Friday - Launch

This weeks word kind of was one that I stumbled upon. I stepped straight into it.

I called in the armed forces. They flew in just like flies would to assist me in finding the culprit.

We decided to launch an investigation.

Will keep you posted if we find the crim. Such a dirty habit, who poos just any where?

I just have been having a blast with the plasticine, currently my favourite medium, come back again soon for some more things, Starring an aloe plant called Dop (which means Alcoholic drink where I am from). Do let me know if you like what you see and want to hire a pencil like me! 

Plasticine acquired!

So, when people grow up, they ultimately are concerned with "matters of consequence". But for a creative person like myself, the need to have and explore with toys is great. It is these toys that allow us to ply and mould our ideas and grow as we explore. I found that the minute I stopped playing was the minute my soul died.

So I have just gone out and bought some plasticine! Haven't played with it in ages! All the shops are selling playdough and I feel that plasticine is just starting to fall out of favour. Took me 4 shops to actually find some

Plasticine

I will be going to the shops this weekend and buying some plasticine. This will come in handy when I want to create a character or thing to illustrate, I can then take pictures from what ever angle I like and then use the pictures to create a digital version.

Yay!

Here is a cute video made with characters in plasticine.

IF - Swept

A very late response to this weeks word, as it is early Friday morning in the US and all the people who run this are probably asleep.

Anyways, I have been thinking about this for some time (well the week) and finally got to doing it. This illustration is unorthodox in terms of the canvas and tools, but I had fun doing it and it was a new experience.

My canvas was the drive way, my tools were a bucket of water and a outdoor broom, and the picture was swept into the concrete using water. The image is a girl crying. Because of course, there is the word Wept in Swept! Following another earthquake, the thought of using a broom/shovel to clean the liquefaction from a driveway can invoke tears and frustration. So this is a tribute to the people in East Christchurch, who have to do it all again. Kia Kaha, Christchurch. How does San Fran cope with moving faults.

Here is how I did it!
Please note that all images are copyrighted 2011 Niki Maritz

SWEPT - SHE WEPT AND SHE WEPT!

New look and feel!

Hi Guys and girls,

I have given my blog a facelift. Initially I started up a new website, which can be found at www.inkjourney.com, that is still active and alive, but I just feel I can't let me fans down here.

I hope you like the new look. It is certainly something I can identify with.

I love ink but lately all my work has been digital.

Christchurch, where I live, has had another big earthquake and the entire east is dealing with the aftermath. So that means for me, time to draw to keep sane.

Enjoy the new look!

New pictures coming soon.

IF - Asleep

This week's Illustration Friday: Asleep. 

In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight! 

I will be posting on the new website: www.inkjourney.com.

Although this doesn't show an awesome little thumbnail at this stage, I will work it out. If you enjoy my work, like I do, then click on the link anyways! 

The rush to the finish line!

The first deadline for the fiction project has been and gone and I was really thankful that they extended it because for some reason, it wasn't enough time. I have been working quite hard on this but considering all the stuff I have to deal with, including spending large portions of my weekends looking at homes, some of which are not pleasant and others gorgeous but out of our price range, I haven't had much time to draw the final drawings. The content of the book is done, but the illustrations are still in progress.

Collage, Ink and Glue! Fiction Project continued...

So I have been using a variety of different approaches on my work, initially it was going to be all ink, but all ink and no paint, makes Willow Charcoal a boring girl.

So I am starting to pull the whole book together using little hand written inked information bits, and I have finally gotten round to the cover. With that done, I had better complete the interior before the due date, which was 1 May but they have moved the deadline a bit, so I will see how soon I can get it done!

Here is the latests sneak peak of what I am up to!

Processes processes processes

So I have gotten my Fiction Project Book and now the rush is on to finish my work. This is an experimental piece and I was going to use ink. The problem I have encountered is the ink bleeds through the page and makes it look ugly. So I thought about sticking a blank page onto the others but it makes the pages fold funny on the gutter. So then I switched over to the idea of collage, using only colored pages from the magazine. I have now decided that since the project is about words news papers, magazines and other documents harbouring the written word. So I have drawn some of the pictures and written the first story. I have also drawn in most of the illustrations for the next 2 stories. So when I return home I will have to create. This is an exploration of media and my own mind. Who knows what it will look like!

Processes processes processes

So I have gotten my Fiction Project Book and now the rush is on to finish my work. This is an experimental piece and I was going to use ink. The problem I have encountered is the ink bleeds through the page and makes it look ugly. So I thought about sticking a blank page onto the others but it makes the pages fold funny on the gutter. So then I switched over to the idea of collage, using only colored pages from the magazine. I have now decided that since the project is about words news papers, magazines and other documents harbouring the written word. So I have drawn some of the pictures and written the first story. I have also drawn in most of the illustrations for the next 2 stories. So when I return home I will have to create. This is an exploration of media and my own mind. Who knows what it will look like!

Illustration Friday - Journey

How often have you wished you had the money for a trip overseas?
Journey in my mind conjured up images of elephants, trains, and other forms of travel. But I ended up illustrating this busker, who could be earning money to go on a journey or is on a self exploration journey to find himself and possibly become famous. If you can dream it, it can happen. How often do you walk past someone and think he/she is a hobo, homeless person or someone who is just trying to scrape a few pennies together. Maybe what you think will take you on a journey to find out more about your own world perception.
This illustration is done with a brush tip pen and coloured ink. I think we can see a stylistic theme now.

Eek! It's arrived! Time to get cracking!

I've been waiting for about a week now for a package from the States.
It's here and it's intimidating~!
It's a project where you need to weave text (of your own making) into a delicious book for people to read when in the library at the Art House Co op. Now, to work like a banshee for the next 2 weeks so I can get it done beautifully and send it back. And somewhere find a scanner to scan all my artwork (since my printer says NO! after the last big earthquake 7.1.)

Here's what the book looks like!

Empty lined pages, at lease 38 of them.

My ideas on paper which will be transfered to the book.

All bottled UP - Illustration Friday 15

Legend has it that there was a box full of all the bad in the world, in my case it was a tempting bottle full of the bad in the world. Kinda reflects my mood about a lot of things at the moment, what with so much happening in the world, earthquakes, sorrow, mine explosions, nuclear power plants melting down, and general pollution. Not to mention the wars over oil and ideology, gunfire, riots, arson and political unrest in Africa.


So here's my take on the situation. No matter how many depressing things there are out there we also need to look for hope.
Let me know what you think about my drawing (constructive criticism of course) and I will really appreciate it.
Please note these images are copyrighted (C) Niki Maritz 2011.

So here is Pandora's Box (Bottle):
This image is done using Quink Ink, Eco Ink on Paper

Have a boring, uneventful day, and walk away smiling.

Illustration Friday

Hi Guys,

I am setting off on the illustration road again, going to do it this time better than before. I found this website which gave me some motivation. So here is this weeks illustration for Illustration Friday, the theme was TOY. Reproduction of this image or use of this image without the creator's consent (ie me) is strictly forbidden.

Three weeks on abouts.

Three weeks on from the great quake in NZ and it looks like we are complaining about nothing when it comes to news and actualities. Japan has suffered a dreadful tsunami which has killed many and left thousands upon thousands missing from the village. Not to mention the nuclear fall out that is about to become a big issue due to the water cooling systems not currently in use.

So in relation to art and drawing. I can tell you that an earthquake like the Christchurch one has created a lot of fall out. On a metaphorical level, the fall out is obvious when you used to go places and share ideas freely and now all those places are collapsed or demolished promptly by a shake or by people working towards other's safety. Each building had it's own story and this is something we also do when we are drawing things. Each item that has been selected to litter our rooms, to sit on little shelves and collect dusk, has a story that owns the owner and has earned them that place. So when we select a range of items for a still life drawing, we are selecting a bookshelf of stories that tell people about who you are as a person, what you like to do, and how you compose it is another story.

Let's suppose then that all these knick-knacks just happened to be thrown against the wall and are shattered in a violent 6.3 Earthquake at a depth of 5 km right under your city.

It doesn't matter.

Who cares?

It's just stuff.

But when the stuff and the buildings that are much loved crumble in front of you, there is a sense of loss, a sense of displacement, possibly disbelief and years of collecting and gathering and stories get destroyed. My question to you is: Do you need all this stuff to maintain these stories? After all, most of us got away with our lives. Life drawing of friends and family hold the most stories, and at the end of the day, if these drawings get washed away or lost in a pile of rubble, they are only pieces of paper.

Come together after events like this and get back to normal as much as possible. It's about the art, but it is far more important to have the friends and community to share stories and experiences than to have the objects.

Hit and Miss

Hi all,

A week ago, a devastating earthquake happened here in my hometown. Some were badly affected, others walked away with not even a scratch. This has been a blow to the city and its people. Some of whom are doing this all over for the second time from when the first earthquake happened. What this teaches us when we are doing art is to just keep going, even when the picture is not great, when you are feeling a lack of confidence. It's persistance, resilience and the ability to dust yourself off and hop back onto the horse.

Cleaning up your headspace

I have been doing a mass declutter. I have thrown out a huge selection of pictures, drawings, papers, bills, and things I don't use. I am not even finished yet but there is now more room for us to live in our house.

How often is it that you think you know something about something and then when asked about it, well, you can't really define how it works. With drawing and painting for that matter, you will often need to return to the object of interest and re-look at it. Learning techniques to portray the surface of that object will help. If you were drawing a smooth sphere, you would not want to cross hatch unless the spaces between the hatch is very tight and gives an impression of smooth. Otherwise, a selection of shades, using the side of the charcoal may create the impression of smooth.

I guess what I am saying is that we all come with pre-conceived ideas about how some thing looks and is, when we haven't carefully observed it.

Also learning from others and reading about techniques and styles can give you new ideas for your own style of drawing.

Learn proportions of objects and don't be afraid to let your art appreciators imagine that there is an arm or leg beyond the border of the page edge, don't try to fit the whole image on the page, especially if working on a smaller scale.

I recently recieved an email from American Artist who run a site called Artist Daily, I get little clues on creating from them. I recently saw an artist's work that uses simple strokes to create the most amazing short sketches. This just reminds me to keep it simple, to draw in solid shapes to capture the essence of the figure.

Now all I have to do, is actually get it right myself. I have had lots of experience drawing, but I am still learning. It is just a journey.

Hands

Drawing hands can be extremely challenging and there is a reason for it. As one of the most complex bone and muscle structures in the body (and the other is the foot), this particular body part has many shapes and many positions it can fall into.

By learning more about the structure of the hand, we can gain insight into how to represent the outer layer, which is the skin. Every thing you are seeing is based on the structures underneath the surface (This is a universal truth for any body part.

Search for images of hands online to see the muscle structure that exists underneath the skin on the hand, that should give you clues where the bumps and indents need to go.

Gestalt

So, I attended my first belly dance class on Saturday.

It was hard. And it was only three things that we learnt and did. I was not mind blowing, it was just challenging and I have to go back again because I have a little hope that things will get more complex and less simplified. What am I getting at?

Well, in the big scheme of things, it's all about expectations and abilities. I have seen the dancers, I know what I am aiming for, I have tried one lesson, now I want to be amazing too. What am I doing learning three moves? It is clear that before one can run, one has to walk. Learn the fundamentals about how to do something and expand, build and construct something beautiful.

So in terms of drawing and art, I would like to suggest a bit of reading. I would love for you to google articles on Gestalt. Wikipedia suggests that the german meaning which is where the origin lies for this word is "wholeness." Looking at a variety things in their completeness will answer a few things. There are a few fundamental elements that art is made up of and this in not purely visual arts:

Composition.
How you choose to place the objects on the page.
There are many different types of compostions. There is the rule of thirds which in essence is that if you were to divide your canvas/page into threes diagonally and/or horizontally, you can place objects on those lines especially at junction points where 2 lines cross over.
Compositions can be symmetrical and assymetrical. Symmetrical means that objects on either side of the page mirror each other in weight and space. Assymetrical is due to a heavier object placed on the one side which is counterpointed by a smaller strategically placed object that acts like a scale on the brink of tipping.

Shape:
As all my drawing friends hear, I preach about shape finding. Simply put, there are only 3 shapes that feature in drawing and then from those shapes you can mould the object you are drawing. The shapes that you should always look for in everything are cones, rectangles/cubes and spheres. Once you have those you can fill in the details.

Line
The types of line you use can express a mood, or could also emphasise new or focal elements. Also remember to lead the eye through the picture and ensure that all lines return to the focal point.

Colour:
While drawing with charcoal or pencil, you won't need to use colour, but it's really good to look into colour theory for later when you expand to other types of drawing. Learn more about colour theory on this site: http://www.artyfactory.com
They have basic stuff like the three primary colouts - red. blue and yellow (pigment only, not screen colours as this works on a different system using light )
And how to mix them to get the other colours. Directly across from the one colour is a colour that compliments each other: Purple and Yellow, Orange and Blue and Green and Red. Notice that there is always 1 primary and 1 secondary colour.

Primary colour: Red, Blue, Yellow (cannot be mixed as they are the starting colours)
Secondary colours are the combinations of the primaries: Orange (Yellow and Red), Green (Blue and Yellow) and Purple (Red and Blue).
Tertiary colours are mostly brown in colour: can be achieved through mixing either a secondary and a primary together, or 3 primaries.

Weight/Mass
Sometimes an object is light and sometimes an object is heavy. How do we show this? A heavy object will be very solidly drawn on the surface. A feather will be light and whispy in mark-making. Think about how one might portray each items unique attributes.



Have a great week.

Creativity, just so happens to be a contagious thing

What could be worse than learning to draw on your own?

I find that in order to draw and draw well, you need to have a good support base of people who push you to succeed and explore aspects of yourself that perhaps you have neglected.

All my friends are arty. I remember being at University and having lots of friends with lots of talent just boiling over. Creativity, just so happens to be a contagious thing, and with a collection of friends who love to throw around ideas and offer advice can really put you in a position to grow as you learn to draw.

There is nothing like a session with mates. You learn so much about yourself, how you observe, how you respond to the pressures of drawing quickly with time limits and how to accept that you are on a journey towards gaining skills!

Have fun, invite your friends and grow creative!

Focal point - visual story sequence

It's interesting how when I think about when I was drawing in my art class at college, one of the things that my art teacher wanted me to do was to fill up the page with graphite. Any white space on the page was to be abolished. I am not saying that this is bad, in all in stances, but in charcoal drawing, or any other type of drawing, I now have lots of white space left. There are a few reasons for this but the main one is that I have only usually got time to focus on one area and the rest of the picture needs to use essential lines that offer clues about the stance or position of that focal point.

So what I am trying to say is, chose the area that interests you on the person or thing you are drawing, and work that particular part up with detail, great line work, good contrasts of light and dark and really make it look good.

The rest of the picture can be a bit vague, but using beautiful lines and subtle marks you can finish a picture off quite well.

What will be important is that the eye is drawn to one point in the picture where it can rest and begin it's travels from. From that focal point, the eye can follow lines to the next part of the picture you want the eye to see. It is almost a narrative that suggests where the eye might look (basically what comes next in the story line.). I will show you what I mean using a painting from Rembrandt who was a painter from the Dutch descent. This painting, The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Tulp, starts off with the body as the focal point, then the light indicated that the eye should follow up into the observers, and then to the doctor and then to the observer on the left. This focal point is very clear as your eye is immediately drawn to the body in the middle of the painting. (Test it for yourself , close your eyes for a few seconds and then open them and glance at the painting. What did you see first? That will be your focal point. )

So this is how my eye followed the focal point sequence.

And this is the direction of the lines that leads the eye into the focal point. See how it starts at the body, moves up through the onlookers then the man holding the paper leads your eye to the doctor who's surgical tool leads you back into the body and possibly round to the other observers on the left, the high contrast between the capes of the men on the left and body, mean that when you look at the picture, the white body jumps out at you.

Picture courtesy of http://www.electricgallery.co.uk/index.php/art-history/rembrandt-harmensz-van-rijn/. Accessed 22 Jan 2011.



In drawing it is a bit different but the theory remains the same. All pictures need a focal point. It is the visual story sequence. 

Serpintine Line

How you draw your lines is really important if you want to convey expression, emotions, gesture and all sorts of other information.

Pen pressure is one of the key things that you have to learn to vary and enhance your mark making. When I was studying in my first year at university, I unfortunately slammed my left finger in the door of my car. The result was a completely useless, damaged index finger. I had a project to complete and one of the things that my illustration lecturer had told me was to reduce the pencil pressure to create a line that was emotive and conveyed lots of information about the things being drawn. I had to change my grip on my charcoal and I saw the difference in the sensitivity of line I created.

Some of the things line can tell the viewer:
A dark line under an object will tell the viewer that the object makes a shadow and have volume and weight.

A light, narrow line could convey light, flowing material/clothing.

So you want to convey the right information then you need to do the right type of line.

It can be tricky going from an intense grip to a light loose one. Just try to do it with an object in front of you.

 This picture is a soft lined drawing. The main image is drawn in a darker line than the chair. The light lines of the chair imply that he is on a chair and not just floating in the air.  I didn't need to add all the details, but just give an idea of the shape of the chair.

In the top image, I have left some areas completely white and used smudging sparingly, to give greater sense of space. The next one, I have over shaded using shadow and it makes the model look tired and dirty. Bare in mind that this was a ten min drawing and I was pretty tired when I did it.

Patience is a virtue, drawing is a challenge.

Okay, so you have decided to pick up a pencil and draw something.

I think what we need to establish is that one cannot simply pick up a tool and expect to be good at it. I was thinking about my ukulele today. I CAN actually play some of the songs in my Beatles book, but in saying that previously they were on the tricky side. I started off on my own, working out all the different chords and the finger positions and even the strums, even singing along was challenging because reading the music and co-ordinating the words was hard. I was really tricky. I just kept going. I am no expert at playing the ukulele, but I do practice at it and slowly, I am getting it right.

So, I hope that by picking up a pencil, this means that you will commit yourself to regular practice. You will improve.
 

Learning through doing.

So you've decided to give drawing a go.

I can be extremely challenging initially, possibly daunting. I feel this can put people off trying, perservering and thinking.

Some of the things that we need to know before any drawing happens is that you will not necessarily be good immediately, you will probably need time to adjust to the techniques and the ways of seeing and you will probably encounter some obstacles.

Some of the obstacles I have noticed is that some times we get frustrated by failure. Failure is an important motivator. It motivates you to think about what it is that you are doing. Failure is good, it makes you ask questions about how to improve and if you are anything like me you'll spend a long time researching, reading and asking others about how they do things.

Failing is an important part of the process of learning to draw. It is through our trials and our errors that we find new methods, improve our ability and grow as an artist.

Right, so here is a task for today:
I want you to choose a medium, pen, pencil, charcoal, compressed charcoal or felt tips. Choose a A4+ paper and just start to doodle. Explore the medium, find out what it can and cannot do ie. pen cannot smudge as well as chalk. Through doing, we learn about the nature and properties of the materials we use for art making.

Smoke and Mirrors

Hi,

I decided to start this blog for anyone to read about the ideas behind drawing and how to gain the skills to do so. I will also be talking about other art forms, my fears, frustrations, and discoveries about them. But mostly it'll be about drawing.

I have spent my whole life drawing. From early childhood, images were a great mode to communicate and to this day I can still draw. Most people will say that it comes down to natural ability, or giftedness. I think that this "ability" presides over all of us and is very present.

Drawing can be learnt,  and this is the great part. You all have the tools to do this. You will need:

• A pair of eyes 
• A brain
• and a bunch of digits - Hands preferably but toes might do.
• and a few simple drawing tools which can be found at home, pens, pencils, sharpeners, paper and some time.
• A desire to learn to draw
• Patience to keep perservering.

So you think I am nuts? I probably am but I also know that people stop believing in themselves when they grow up. Nothing is perfect, no one is ever happy with how they look, but have you actually really looked? This is something that I think is the key to gaining understanding and drawing. Looking.

You can try to draw something but without actually looking at it, it will not come out as descriptive or convincingly. Funny thing is that looking is an art and a skill that needs to be learnt. I am part of a group of artists (novice to advanced) and I work alongside them to help them to become better at looking. This is called Co-constructing and is a theory developed by a man called Lev Vygotsky. What this means is that learning cannot occur entirely in isolation and that other people can show and teach you things that you never thought about.

So here's a task. This is one of the very first tasks I ever did at university level illustration classes. Take a paper, and using lines (if you can write or scribble you can do this), draw a traffic light. Then take your drawing, and go and find an actual traffic light, and look at the shapes, the dimensions, the height, the angles and the wires. Did you draw them? Does it really look the way you drew the traffic light? Probably not.

What this shows you is that your perception of what an item should look like usually is very different from what it actually looks like. So the first lesson for today is never assume that you know what something looks like until you really look at it closely. It may be more different than you think!