The Surfer

From time-to-time I get the urge to tackle a seriously challenging pencil drawing. When this happens I like to find a subject that has drama or is a little bit out of the ordinary. When looking for a suitable subject I pass over hundreds that just don't shout out at me whether I think they're do-able or not.

I actually fancied doing another stormy sea drawing like the ones I've done previously of the lifeboats or ship in distress. While I was browsing Pixabay (for anyone who hasn't heard of it, it's an amazing copyright-free resource) for a suitable subject I came across a photo of this surfer. It's not exactly a 'stormy sea' but it has the crashing waves and breaking surf and it was definitely shouting out at me. I just couldn't resist having a go at it. 

Oh, and it was certainly challenging.  :lol:

(Drawn on Winsor & Newton Medium Surface Cartridge paper using a 2B mechanical pencil and is 11" x 14")

Other Seascape Drawings

Force Ten

Flamborough Lifeboat 1971

Bridlington Lifeboat

Lighthouse in storm

 

Following on from my previous 'stormy sea' drawings, I decided it was time to try another one. Scouring the 'net I came across a fabulous photograph of a lighthouse at dusk taken by John Lund, and his photo ticked all my boxes of crashing waves, high seas and lots of atmosphere. To avoid copyright issues I dropped John a line and asked if he would kindly give me permission to use his photograph for reference, and he agreed.

The drawing is on my usual Daler-Rowney Heavyweight paper and was drawn with my favourite mechanical pencil containing 2B leads. I used a regular 8B pencil to touch in some of the darkest areas. Before I started I gave much thought to the square format of this picture. I used my image editing software to crop the photo into a landscape format but found that the reduction in sky and sea reduced the impact of the lone lighthouse .... the scene needs the big sky as much as it does the big sea, to drive home the smallness of the lighthouse when surrounded by the elements.

More Seascape Drawings

Force Ten

Flamborough Lifeboat 1971

Bridlington Lifeboat

Bridlington Lifeboat

Five years ago I attempted a drawing of the Flamborough Lifeboat based on a photograph by photographer Paul Berriff, with his kind permission. Paul also gave me permission to use two other photographs, one of the mfv Galatea in a Force Ten gale and a third one which is the subject of this blog post.

It's been quite a while since I last had time for any serious art and when an opportunity presented itself recently I felt I needed something dramatic and challenging to get my teeth into. To add to the 'challenge' I decided to post frequent work-in-progress posts both in my art forum and on Facebook. Confidence in my art has always been a big issue for me and there's no better way to challenge self-belief than show off your work before it's finished.

The subject is of the Bridlington Lifeboat heading out in gale force winds to the aid of a fishing boat. The entire picture has been drawn with a 2B pencil. I used my favourite Rotring Rapid Pro mechanical pencils, one with 0.5mm lead and the other with 0.7mm. I also used a regular 2B pencil for the sea so I could use the flat edge of the lead rather than the point. The paper is Daler Rowney Heavyweight 135lbs A3 size. For anyone interested, the various stages of the drawing can be seen in the Work-In-Progress section of my web site.

Force Ten

Quite a long time ago I came across a photograph by Paul Berriff of a Lifeboat in rough seas and felt compelled to draw it. I contacted Paul and he was happy to give his permissions and some of you may remember the final picture... "Flamborough Lifeboat 1971". Recently I've had the urge to do another powerful pencil drawing so went back to Paul's site to see what was there. I discovered a dramatic photo of mfv Galatea, a fishing boat, battling huge waves in a raging sea. Paul again kindly granted permission for me to use it, so here it is. The original photo contains chains and railings from the boat on which Paul was standing when he took the photo but I've left those out to increase the sense of isolation of the Galatea.

Paul's original photo contains many really dark tones, almost complete black, and as any pencil user knows, such deep blacks are next to impossible to achieve. Following on from my recent "Gorilla" drawing I did consider tackling this picture in Charcoal but I think (no, I know) that would be a step to far for me. What I am now considering is adding darker tones to this drawing using charcoal just where needed. I'm concerned about how well the charcoal will 'take' on top of already shiny graphite so I need to do some serious experimenting first. If any of you have experience of charcoal over graphite I'd love to hear from you.

The original photo and more of Paul's work can be seen on his website 

Flamborough Lifeboat 1971

In my last post I mentioned that I was excited about a new drawing I was working on, well this is it.
A few weeks ago, I stumbled across a black and white photograph of the Flamborough Lifeboat leaving Bridlington Harbour in 1971. I had recently picked up my pencils and was working on a drawing of a pair of dogs and was enjoying being back at my drawing board. Something about this picture sparked an enthusiasm in me that I don't think I've experienced before and I just knew I had to draw it. I sent an email to the photographer, Paul Berriff and sought his permissions for me to use his photograph, which he gladly gave.

I used artistic licence to remove a harbour wall that occupied the left quarter of the original photo as I wanted to emphasise the isolation and peril that these brave men find themselves in whenever they go out in stormy weather. Somehow the harbour wall gave the impression they were still in a safe haven. As a result of this decision the waves on the left are somewhat invented, but I think they add to the overall mood of the scene and increase the drama.

I can't remember a time when I've been so excited about doing a drawing and to say I was buzzing is an understatement. I think I may do another of these in the not too distant future .... I just have so many other things I'm anxious to try.

For anyone interested I have put a Work In Progress page on my main website showing the various stages.

Contre jours

Thumbing through a back issue of the SAA's magazine "Paint" I came across an article by Paul Apps in which he explained how he did a contre-jour painting in oils of Venice. Contre jours simply means "into the light" and although this is something I've done in photography, it is something I've never attempted with my art.  I was very interested in the article and the evocative descriptions of the intense light on the water but tossed it to one side as I don't do oils.

However, the image stayed in my mind especially the bright highlights on the water and the muted, almost non-existent colours of the city behind, and eventually I mused "why does it have to be in oils .... why not graphite?". In my opinion, graphite is underrated and underused for landscape and seascape work so I decided I'd have-a-go and see what I could make of it.

I used artistic licence to darken the sky considerably from the light, twilit sky in the reference photo, and it's been necessary to darken the water too, in order to make those highlights sing. The end result gives a much darker picture but I'd like to think it's captured the atmosphere of a day drawing to its close.

This probably sounds like a very silly thing to say, but while making this picture I felt less as if I was drawing and more as if I was 'painting with pencil'. I thoroughly enjoyed every moment.

For anyone interested I have put a Work In Progress page on my main website showing the various stages.

Stormy Sea

During a recent spell away looking after my elderly parents I fancied doing some art but wanted something I could pick up and put down every few minutes. I didn't want to get bogged down in detail so thought of subjects that didn't need any accuracy. I decided to try my hand at drawing a rough sea and waves crashing against the rocks. The reference photo I found using Google contained some buildings but, to avoid copyright issues and to keep things simple, I felt I could easily leave them out.