Drawing from Line to Life

A Query on Size and Fading

Mike Sibley — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 13:12:53 +0000

Deidre emailed to ask:

"On your head portraits, why do you prefer not to put a shaded edge around the drawing like you see commonly from other artists?"

It's called a vignette, and I don't like them because it looks unrealistic. This is especially true if you've faded the drawing at the base of the neck - it really needs to just fade out at that point, but a vignette outlines it and ruins the implied continuance of the animal. I think many artists use a vignette because it helps to increase the contrast within the drawing - this is especially true of a white animal - but there are other ways of handling that. I use...

My book and the dangers of working from B&W photos

Mike Sibley — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 20:10:26 +0000

I know many artists who use greyscale in Photoshop and the result can be very helpful in understanding the relative values within an image. But, personally, I think that's as far as that strategy should be taken. Once understood, that knowledge should be used to aid interpretation, but the temptation is to use those relative values as requirements rather than suggestions.

My strategy is to first establish the darkest value in the drawing, so I now have the darkest and lightest (the white of the paper) values exposed, and all intermediate values should automatically fall into place. That puts me in control and not the greyscale image.

How To Draw Trees

Mike Sibley — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 19:21:30 +0000

Artist Stephen Sample, who works in Pen & Ink, emailed me to ask:

"I have been working on trees for the last couple of years, and they turn out pretty nice but, although it looks fairly like a tree, it is not even close to as defined as the trees that you are drawing. In doing the leaves, do you do more of a small random dash, or perhaps is it more of a dot?"

Your trees are missing depth. I'll concentrate on the central one, which is fan-like - a series of radiating ribs with leaves attached. However, there is some depth, as a few of your leaf masses appear in front of some of the branches. Bear in mind that a tree is basically a deformed ball...

Problems with Proportion?

Mike Sibley — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 14:38:53 +0000

I was recently asked:

I have been drawing portraits for a couple months but am still having a hard time with proportions. I'm finding angled faces hard to draw and I always end up distorting them into looking straight ahead and it looks wrong.

I think "looking straight ahead" might give me a clue to the problem. You haven't yet taught yourself to see what is really there and you are drawing what you think is there. That's a very common problem and one that you have to work at to overcome...

Are my leads GRAPHITE or CARBON?

Mike Sibley — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 14:16:37 +0000

"You present drawings and drawing instruction in graphite. But the tools you use - particularly the Staedtler clutch pencils and leads are actually carbon, at least here in the US they are."
,br> This a Staedtler "problem" I'm often asked about - particularly when an artist has ordered Lumograph "graphite" but received a pack of "carbon" leads. I have in my possession elderly packs of 2mm "graphite" leads and the more recent "carbon" leads...

Drawing Tree Bark

Mike Sibley — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 19:17:33 +0000

Tony recently wrote to me asking: "Whilst I'm getting on OK with the dog, I've tried all sorts of techniques to do the bark without success. Any pointers you can give me would be greatly appreciated."

I'll cover HOW later but first I want to question the WHY. Why do you want to include the bark? Is it simply because it appears in the background of your photograph? Is it connected with your dog? Does it tell us, the viewers, anything about the dog? In brief: if it doesn't add anything to the story being told then it's probably best...

Colour or Black & White?

Mike Sibley — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 22:05:09 +0000

Artist Ginger Brady emailed me to ask:
"I am wondering if you get asked by many people if you would do your drawings in color instead of Black & White? I miss my Graphite pictures and I feel like I've been wasting a lot of time trying to make others happy."

Been there, done that, Ginger. And like you, I found that "working for others" didn't appeal. I had to stay with the medium I really care for and working for "me". That's what art is about, isn't it? Expressing your love or feelings for something. Displaying the subject to your viewers and saying "Look at this. No, look closer. See what a beautiful creation this is." To my mind, there's a world of difference between...

New Studio COMPLETED!

Mike Sibley — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 22:35:34 +0000

The new studio is FINISHED! My massively heavy drawing board was dismantled, dragged from the old studio and reassembled. My faithful old Artograph was moved in. And finally, all I needed was workshop attendees - which we had... a full house!

If you missed it, you haven't long to wait because we're holding another Weekend Workshop on October 1st and 2nd. It's already 50% booked so if you want to join us head over to my website for the full details: www.SibleyFineArt.com/_workshop_uk_yorks.htm

New Studio nearing completion!

Mike Sibley — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 21:33:16 +0000

I had every intention of keeping you up to date on progress but the progress took so much time there wasn't any to spare. Sorry! Well, today we emptied three B&Qs of carpet tiles - and we had to change plans half way through due to a shortage and settled on two colours instead of one.

Having returned from the Maidstone 3-day workshop on Monday, the final work now begins in earnest. It has to! We're holding our first 2-day workshop here on this month. Incidentally, it's fully booked, so we're running another on October 1/2, and even that's filling - just six places currently available.

Studio Update – July

Mike Sibley — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 18:04:43 +0000

Well, you're probably thinking I've lost interest in my new studio. Far from it! But I have been very busy preparing for the US workshops, and I was away for the whole of June running them. However, progress has been made.

Shortly before our departure I completed the overhead wiring of a telephone line from our house to the studio, after welding various bits of spare metal together to make a mast. It will eventually have a weather vane on top... if only we could find it! We received it a gift a few years ago and stored it away safely. Too safely!