Inspired by Anita, I borrowed a skull from the school where I work, just to practice drawing something that I´m not used to. I put it in my bike bag on my way home, and it struck me what a funny sight it would be if I fell on my bike and a skull rolled out on the street. :)
Anyway, a skull is really interesting, once you start trying to capture it on paper. We´re so used to seeing skulls as symbols of things, meaning poison or death or heavy metal or whatever. An actual skull is much more intricate than a symbol or a logo, with shadows and strange shapes both on the outside and inside. And the whole time you have the thought somewhere in the back of your head that "this is how I actually look, too, on the inside"... Strange.
The first image is made without drawing, I painted directly in gouache in my Moleskine. The second one is funny - that crease between the pages in the sketchbook made my eyesight go wrong - the book was at a slight angle on my lap while drawing, and when I had finished I noticed that the eyes of the skull are completely out of line. The right (or lower, in this case) eye is way too far down. Guess I´ll have to lay the book flat the next time I want to draw across a whole spread...
Top drawing: 13 x 21 cm, gouache. Lower drawing: 26 x 21 cm, pencil and gouache. Both on Moleskine sketchbook pages.
15 comments:
Really cool, lucky you to have a model to work from - Very Nicely done - I want a scull !!!
First I giggled when I imagined the skull rolling down the street. What an interesting subject-you could even use this for a Halloween card.
Beautiful drawings and the painted version is lovely, and unusual to see you using gouache. I like that striped background! I'd love to draw a skull but they are not easy to come across - I'm still kicking myself for not buying a little one I saw (possibly a cat or monkey?) at a street market. I hope you get this back safely! Have you an excuse ready in case it falls out? ;)
Hi Nina,
Your gouache skull is wonderful, the light and reflected light very nice. I did cow skulls on my Sept 5th blog entry. They are VERY interesting to draw, the closer you look the more detail. Should be required for students of drawing.
Lyn
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum! Skull symbols and pirates seem to go together. Both of the skulls are great, and thanks for pointing out the flaws in the second one because I would not have noticed otherwise.
cool. the skull is great. i would indeed feel very strange with a skull in my bag. :)
These are wonderful, Nina. I spent a day in the natural history museum drawing some skulls, and you are right - they are more difficult than I originally thought they would be - all those bumps and creases and strange turns.
I really must get one to practice on at home!
Oh, I am trying to be nice but the devil in me soooo wants that skull to come flying out of your bag on your return journey! LOL!
You did a wonderful job Nina, I love the colours you have in the gouache version. I am already regretting not making better use of the time I had with 'Charley' the skeleton but I did spend alot of time just looking at him and 'soaking' him in as it were.
Thankyou for the mention & the link, much appreciated!
Oh, I have to agree with anita...I would've loved to hear the story of the skull rolling down the street! Great drawings, I love old bones and skulls, skeletons...
Ronell
Nice work... I too want a skull!! LOL
Did you wonder about the who the skull used to be???
Love the watercolour version and the graphite versions are fantastic inspite of the alignment.
MD
x
Absolutely love the Guache skull ... really has inspired me to try things outside my comfort zone
Nina, these are both wonderful -great idea. Now whree can I find a scull....?
I haven't thought about drawing a skull before, but now you certainly got me interested. It's refreshing that you added yellow as a background color for the second drawing, since one is so used to seeing black, purple or red in connection with this subject. The teeth must have been quite a challenge.
Wow! These are so inspiring. I would love to have a skull to work with like that. There is a store nearby that sells skeletons, bones, and taxidermy models but I think they're pretty expensive.
Very cool. I am especially blown away by the first one. Painting directly on the page. How brave. I sketch 'til it's right and then erase all my sketch lines. Great work!
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