Cornify Sharkify

Saturday, 5 December 2015

I'm working on something new...

Something new is coming! 
It's my own design that uses the elements of two things that I've learned via tutorials. 
Being my own design it's not going to be perfect, but it if turns out well, it could well be something that I can do over and over again to make it better. 
Stay tuned!

Friday, 4 December 2015

Thoughts on NAPSA.

NAPSA, or the National Association for the Preservation of Skin Art as thier full name is known; is an association dedicated to preserving the tattoos of the deceased. See link below: 

https://savemyink.com

The above is a still taken from thier public website, it shows a brief description of what they do, and more importantly an image of a preserved tattoo; the image shown above does not belong to me and all copyrights belong to NAPSA. 

So, I was thinking if this is something I would do, and after a long think I've decided it's not for me, and here's why. 

1. Tattoos are so personal - although there may be countless people with a similar tattoo to me, it won't be in the same position as mine, and they won't have the other tattoos to accompany it, it's a part of my skin that I got just for me,  something that I didn't get to show other people, something for myself, but to frame it as though that was always the intent doesn't appeal to me. 

2. Meanings will be lost - think of a tattoo you have that means something to you, maybe you got it on a special day, maybe it has its own meaning, or maybe you love it because it was a convention tattoo or by your favourite artist; either way it's not going to be public knowledge, it's possible you've told your friends, your family or loved one, but the average person on the street won't know what it means to you, and this is my issue with it, because after you're gone you have no control over where that image goes, maybe it will be passed down in your family or sold or left forgotten, but not everyone who looks at it will know the story behind it, eventually it will just be a bit of old tattooed skin from someone that no one has ever met, the original meaning and experience will be lost. 

3. Taking something away - when someone passes on, people like to keep thier jewellery or other possessions to remember them with, but to keep a piece of thier skin, a piece of them just feels so incomplete, I'd like to think that my tattoos and the reasons for my tattoos will die with me, a beautiful end to the walking gallery that I will add to my entire life; to take a bit of someone's collection just feels wrong, like buying a painting in a gallery without knowing at all what made the artist paint it, I just think tattoos are too intimate to be kept by anyone other than the wearer. 

But on a positive note, what a fantastically different idea this is, to keep something so personal of your loved one, and as an art form it has definitely caught my attention, and whilst I myself won't be signing up, I respect everyone who does and would love to see a little bit of art left behind by someone, so that thier passion can live on. 

• The NAPSA was brought to my attention when reading Skin Deep issue #258 which is currently on sale in shops and on thier website http://www.skindeep.co.uk

(I wasn't asked to mention them, I just thought it only fair since that's where the inspiration for this post came from, and I love the magazine myself, being a subscriber!)

Sunday, 29 November 2015

Letraset Promarkers vs Copic Ciao vs Faber-Castell Polychromos

So here is my experiment to see which pens/pencils work best with the brownish paper of Daler Rowney Cachet sketchbook (mine is an A3, not that it makes any difference!)

Here is a photo of the paper, as you can see, it has a slight shine to it, and the paper itself has a lot of 'bits' in it, that look a little bit like hairs (hairs??), I'm unsure what else to call them, fibers maybe? Anyway here's the photo: 

It turns out you can't actually see the gloss on the above image, but there is a very very slight sheen to the paper which you can feel also. 
Those definitely look like hairs, I'm going to be calling them hairs from here on out! 

Okay so, here are the contenders! 
I've chosen the blues that were used in the photos to show you!

The Letraset Promarkers have a chisel tip, and a fine nib, the fine nib isn't a brush tip, it's rather rigid (think of a felt tip pen, but better), you can also purchase add-on nibs, which make the line even thinner, I think they're called super-fine nibs? I have a set so I can show you how much thinner they make the fine nib. here's a picture of each of the nibs;

Chisel nib: 

Fine nib:

Super-fine nib:

The Copic Ciao markers also have a chisel nib, but what makes the copies different is the soft brush nib that they have, here are the pictures:

Chisel nib: 

Brush nib:

Finally we're down to the Faber-Castell Polychromos Pencils, they're extremely durable and feel really soft to use, since they're a pencil you can control the intensity of the colour unlike with makers,
so for this reason I'm going to show you both pressing hard with the pencil and pressing lightly with the pencil, here we go:

Pressing hard:
 
Pressing softly:

The colours above are:

Letraset Promarker - Sky Blue
Copic Ciao - Duck Blue (BG49)
Faber-Castell Polychromos - Cobalt Turquoise 

Let's get into the drawings! 

Drawing 1 - Letraset Promarkers (white used from Faber-Castell Polychromos for highlights)


This is my favourite out of the bunch, I'll give you all some pros and cons to show you why!

PROS:
- Very blendable, easiest to blend when the inks are still damp, but still blends nicely when dry also. 
- The colour takes nicely, although it does dull slightly on brown paper, I'm happy with the effect and think it adds to the charm. 
- Little bleed, there's not much bleed when colouring or drawing, and that's always a good thing! There is however a lot of saturation so the image does seep into the other side of the paper and sometimes onto the next page also, but that's to be expected when not using marker paper. 
- Coliur variety, Letraset have thought of every colour under the sun, and probably invented a few new ones, and with the ability to blend there's an entire palette to choose from. 
- Inexpensive, with there being many sellers on eBay and other sorts of market sites, you can pick these up new or second hand for cheaply, the retail prices aren't too shabby either. 
- The extra fine nibs make it a lot easier to get into those pesky nooks and crannies. 

CONS:
- The aforementioned seepage, seeping through to the other page is no fun, it can ruin work on the next page and also ruin the general aesthetic of your sketchbook. 
- Alcohol markers smell so strongly, if you're using them a lot for a long period of time, it can give you a bit of a headache because the smell is really really strong 
- Not as vibrant, whilst this is a pro for me, I appreciate others want vivid colours, so for that reason, the lack of vibrancy is a bad thing. 
- Sometimes you have to go over the colour more than once to get an even coverage, but this happens and it's not a big deal! 
- Rigid nibs, not a brush tip in sight! 

Drawing 2 - Copic Ciao markers (white used from Faber-Castell Polychromos for highlights)

*Important information!*
• I don't have as large a colour selection with Copic Ciaos as I do with Letraset or Polychromos, so this comparison is slightly unfair to the Copics. 

This is my joint second favourite with the Polychromos, it was a really close choice!

PROS:
- Brush nibs, brush nibs galore! The brush nib is really soft to use, really easy to control and is clearly a good quality nib, very impressive. 
- Equal coverage, you don't have to go over anything twice with these beauties, the coverage is smooth, even and bright with the first time you colour. 
- Vibrancy, these pens proved to be just as vibrant on brown paper as they are on white paper, the consistency is really impressive, very well pigmented. 
- Inexpensive, can be purchased individually from craft stores and also in inexpensive sets in stores and online. 

CONS:
- Range of colour, the Ciaos don't have as large a range as the Letraset and the Polychromos, and this is a little disheartening. 
- BLEED! These bleed on the paper a little bit more than the Letraset, but just like the Letraset they bleed through to the other side, which has to be a marked down point unfortunately. 
- Blending, the blending just honestly isn't as easy or as effective as the Letraset, it feels like the colours sit on top of each other instead of blending. 

I really like Copics, but as stated I don't have too many colours, definitely under 25, and I only had one blue! I think after this I'm prompted to get a few more. 

Drawing 3 - Faber-Castell Polychromos Pencils 

I love using these, you get such a nice glossy effect afterwards, and the colours are so beautiful, this one comes in joint second, but I've enjoyed using them throughly. 

PROS:
- Pigment, these are probably the most vibrant coloured pencils I've ever used, the pigment in them is so strong!
- Durable, the leads are made to last, dropping them won't shatter them easily, and the wood is thick too. 
- Not wax based, this means that the pencils can blend a lot easier, brilliant for multi-tonal pieces. 
- Soft, these pencils feel really soft when using them, making them really beautiful to use. 
- Quality, as soon as you pick one of these up you can tell that it's no run-of-the-mill pencil, and that's definitely a plus! 

CONS:
- Price, these little pencils are expensive, costing over £2 for a single one, and the sets are very pricey also, the 120 retails at £120+, which is quite costly when you consider that the pencils aren't refillable and like a normal pencil, don't last too long when you sharpen them! 
- The glossy effect, whilst also a pro, I know that some artiste would avoid making thier drawings look shiny, it's both a good and bad look. 
- Pressing down, pressing down hard makes the pencil not last as long as if you were doing it lightly, but in order to get the full joy of the pigments you HAVE to press down hard, it's a catch 22!

So here you go! Just a small glance at some of the mediums available to make your mark with, bear in mind that these pens/pencils are just a fraction of what's on offer, I'm hoping to try out some Prismacolour pencils, as some people prefer these over Polychromos pencils, so I'd love to give them a go and see for myself. 
In my heart I think I'm more of a marker artist, but the Polychromos are definitely a must for my collection, and they've served me well, I'm going to continue using a bit of all three!

~ The reason I drew the same image for all of the tests is because it was the only way to get a fair comparison of the pens/pencils, each image differs slightly but has the same main elements ~

Traditional Lighthouse - Attempt 1

Hey there! So this drawing comes with a bit of a story; whilst I was drawing this one my phone (I use it to take the progress pictures) ran out of space to accommodate any more pictures, so I don't have the step-by-step for this, but I do however have the guidelines for my first attempt at this drawing, but the end product varies in size and spacing; I apologise for this, I'll try to not let it happen again!

The materials used are as follows: 

- Letraset Promarkers
- Copic Ciao markers 
- Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils (white for highlights)
- Faber-Castell PITT fine liner pens 
- Pencils of varying weights (Reeves)
- Ruler, compass, eraser. 
- Daler Rowney Cachet sketchbook (A3)

The video used for this tutorial is by thebrokenpuppet, and here's the link to the video I used:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cx3lcHLu4yo

Here is the final product in all its glory: 

The below are the guidelines for a similar drawing that I didn't finish due to having issues with these lines, they're not perfect but it does show what goes into the above drawing before it reaches its final stage, so although these guidelines never did become a traditional lighthouse; here they are anyway for reference:

The finished drawing prompted me to do something I will outline in my next post, which is basically to test which of my markets/pencils work best on the brown semi-glossy paper of the Daler Rowney Cachet sketchbook, to do this I drew three identical images, and used similar colours, I'll post my results soon! 

Saturday, 28 November 2015

Coming Up...

Hello all! 
I've got some lovely drawing a coming up on here! 

Here's a look at what I've done, pictures and posts to follow;

- Lighthouse in a Bottle drawing (tutorial used)
- Ship Wheel Drawing (tutorial used)
- Three Drawings comparing Letraset Promarkers, Copic Ciao markers and Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils (with pros and cons!)
 And the last thing is something very special, it's an idea I thought of myself, no tutorials used at all, at the moment it's in a rough design phase but I'm really excited to post it on here!
The above is some rough sketch line for the lighthouse in a bottle, I eventually didn't use this draft, I drew a new one, but this is just a little taster for you until I can post the full thing!

Saturday, 21 November 2015

Traditional Dagger - Attempt 1 & 2

I found a nice tutorial online by thebrokenpuppet, showing how to get the general shape of a traditional dagger tattoo design (maybe this would be more neo-traditional? I'm unsure). 

Here's the link if you want to try it out: 
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SUVTNrDYWr8

So with that tutorial I did my attempt 1, which follows closely the tutorial, and my attempt 2, which shows elements of the tutorial but I've added in different designs and such. 

With attempt 1, I've taken pictures to show my working, but haven't done this with attempt 2, as the working is almost identical to the first, so doesn't need to be shown. 

As always, none of my work is traced, it's the result of learning and working. 

The materials used are:
- Letraset Promarkers
- Copic Ciao markers
- Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils
- Faber-Castell PITT fineliners 
- Reeves Pencils, varying weights 
- Ruler, compass, eraser 

Here we go! 

Line and circles are all this design is, here's the initial pencil work, the main part of the drawing is the line down the middle of the blade, and how far up you choose to put the handle of the blade. 

Here's the lining done, the woodwork was the hardest part of this, but once you break it down, it's just lines coming from around a circle (the knot)! I was already happy with it at this stage, onto the colouring! 

Now this isn't the best quality image, but a thing I noticed when colouring this, is that on the brown background, the Letraset Promarkers are slightly duller than the Copic Ciao markers, but I really like the effect it has. 

Now here is attempt 2! This one I decided to have a darker theme, so I decided to use red as the jewel colour, and make the handle a lot more angular. The drawing is below, I really like this one, I really love the circular detail around the handle, so 100% happy with this one. 


I've enjoyed drawing these, so I'll definitely draw more, so hopefully I can get better, faster and more efficient at drawing them!


Thursday, 19 November 2015

Traditional Rose - Attempt 3 (with a twist!)

Hello again! It's been a while since I've posted, but I've still been working, I've got a drawing that took a few days to complete, it's something a bit new, and the only part I knew how to draw were the roses, the rest was guesswork! If I re-did it there would of course be things that I would change, but for a first go it's not half bad! 

Here's the list of materials used:
- Copic Ciao markers
- Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils 
- Pencils of varying weight (Reeves)
- Faber-Castell PITT fineliners 
- Eraser, ruler, compass 

Okay here we go! As always ill show you my step by step lines to show my working and show that I haven't traced anything, enjoy! 


Here's the first one with my roses, you can see the guidelines used to get the roses to the point they are above. 

Added some colour on the centre rose and began to build up the anchor, at this point I realised I had a long way to go!

This is where I couldn't tell which lines were which so I used a pink pencil to define the lines I want, the handle part of the anchor was also changed to give it a barrel shape as opposed to just a rectangle, I like this look a lot better. 

More colouring and some white highlights added, it's getting there! 

Here's the finished product, all in all this took about three days, but I'm happy with how it turned out. Like I said, is probably change some of it if I were to do it again, but in general I'm happy with how it looks!
Success!