Live Sketching: JJ Bankos (PA)

Sketch on paper
with Prismacolor colored pencil

It was a spur of the moment session of live sketching last night. A friend and fellow high school classmate was at one of the local bars and I decided to grab my knapsack and run to sketch. Thankfully, mom and dad were around to watch my son (who was thrilled to have a sleep over at grandmas and grandpas last night.)

The sketching was good (as was the beer and company) and so here are the sketches from last night.

I love live sketching. It really puts your skills to the test especially when people are moving. The women last night were moving around a bit too much for my tastes and were difficult to capture. The men, not so much. So the sketches of the women aren't as good. Of course I could just be going through a phase were my abilities to sketch men right now are more honed than women. Whatever the case, the best drawings, in my opinion, are of the men.





In my opinion, the very
best sketch of the night.

More Drawing

I'm in the middle of a few projects that I could talk about, but they are all at weird stages. A few people asked me to show more drawing, so I figured this would be fun to show. So I grabbed the pencils and sketched out a quick drawing of a bird. I have to come up with a better system. Holding the camera with my legs and then drawing on a seat using both hands isn't very comfortable.

Anyhoo...bird drawing:

Inspiration

Plate for Summer waiting
for paint

Sometimes inspiration comes in the most unexpected places. Yesterday inspiration hit me square in the jaw as I was indulging in a beer. The label (which was a lot of fun design wise) held a good deal of inspiration for the "Summer" plate I've been putting off painting. There are several components to this plate all of which have to work together well.

As the week progressed I've mixed color and painted the piece up in my head several times and each time the bottom left hand corner continued to baffle me. It's suppose to contain wheat and grasses and in my head that area keeps getting jumbled up with fudged paint marks.

Label that inspired
(the beer was pretty good too)

So when I saw this label I was greatly inspired to use the wheat drawing on it as a springboard to solve the problem in "Summer." Even though the drawing on the label was very tight and much different than my style of painting it would help. The plan was to section out the wheat, sketch it up, and get the feeling for painting the item before I would do it on the final piece. I could have gotten reference of real wheat but for me personally it some times helps to see how another artist or designer breaks down an object and produces it. In doing this exercise I've broken down the image in my own way and have prepared my brain for final production and I'll be able to work on that area properly now without much worry....or at least, that is the plan. I'm honestly a bit nervous to start the piece because I'm in love with the drawing and I don't want to mess it up.

Quick drawing of wheat


A quick painting in acrylics