Sunday, September 09, 2007

Going grayscale


I´ve been busy busy busy at work the last few weeks, as always when a new semester starts up. This means, of course, a bit less time for drawing right now, but I try to do some little thing almost every day.

I drew this guy yesterday when I was in town to run an errand. He stands there every day, all day long, holding a sign pointing to a restaurant situated in a back street off one of the main shopping streets in Stockholm. I wonder what perception of time a guy gets after standing there for a few weeks? I´d go crazy, but I guess there must be tricks to get through the day with a job like this... The drawing would have been just about 100 % more interesting if I had included his sign, but unfortunately there was already a drawing on the sketchbook page, right above this one, so I skipped it.

I decided to use the drawing anyway to make some value studies. I scanned it and printed out four copies and tried out a few different solutions with five Faber Castell Polychromos coloured pencils, ranging from black to very light gray. I´m way out of my comfort zone with coloured pencils, it´s been years since I´ve used any. Bought a bunch of Polychromos a while ago to give them a try, and I like them, as long as I don´t have to use them every day.

The original sketch contains no shadows or colours at all, which gave me the freedom to try any solution I wanted. Very interesting way to work, I think I´ll have to experiment with this some more.

7 x 10 cm, Lamy Safari with Lexington Gray (scanned and printed four times), coloured with Faber Castell Polychromos coloured pencils.

11 comments:

Linda T said...

What a great idea for value studies!

caseytoussaint said...

This is a great exercise - you inspire me to try something similar. Every one of them came out so well!

Linda said...

This is really a fantastic exercise. It's something we should probably all be working on more regularly -- thanks for the inspiration!

laserone_ said...

Oh I love this. It's really neat, and I'm glad you showed all the different versions. :)

Teri said...

This is great! Sounds like a great value exercise and now I have to try it also.

Alison said...

Yes, we should all experiment like this more often. Interestingly, I find it difficult to know if he is standing on steps or a zebra crossing.

suzanne cabrera said...

Gosh....what a job. I can only imagine how long the day must be for this fellow. Yuck.

On the other hand, you were very smart to see this as a drawing and value exercise!

Nancy Van Blaricom said...

I think this is a wonderful idea ... I think I'll give it a try also. As usual, you are so inspiring.

José Louro said...

Yes, inspiring.
Great architectural watercolors drawings you have here.

Anonymous said...

Great idea and wonderful work.

Desiree's Designs said...

This is awesome, what a great study, you should frame it!