Sam Blakeley

Another five minute sketch completed!

I recall a DVD set I once bought about how to sketch humans using various formula’s. I think I should dig that out and put it on my iPod. If I can find the references I’ll post a link but they were very good albeit long and repetitive, which is what we need here in order to achieve a top-notch result in five minutes.

Drawing of Superman's Portrait

I drew this sketch of Superman this morning based on a sketch of Christopher Reeve on Wiki. The interesting thing is that the drawing reminds me of Tom Welling. This means I’m on the right track in getting the key characteristics of a Superman type person.

I have decided that my first drawing of superman was too cartoonish for my liking. I want something closer to reality for my version. Two things to note on this drawing, the eyebrows and the mouth. The eyes need focus, maybe the slanting in of the brows gives that – like an Eagle stalking a prey. And the mouth needs to be gentle, soft spoken. It’s the combination of several features that give Superman his look.

I thought I would try a sketch from what unconscious might think Superman should look like. For a first try I’m thinking it’s ok, but it brings up some interesting questions:

Sketch of Superman's face

How to handle Superman’s hair? Is it gelled back? Is it side-parted? Should we add the “S”?
What did I do with his ears?
How small should his nose be?
How prominent should his chin be?
This begs the question, is my Superman more comic book or real life?

I think some research is clearly in order!

I love Superman. Everybody loves him. As a boy I wanted to be him. He stands for everything that I ever want to be: quiet, humble, working for good…

In my search for finding focus, I think I have found a topic that I can put my energy into; I did a quick search of Google for superman sketches and found the following image:

Clark Kent - Superman watercolor sketch

If you read my previous post, you’ll know that I like Quentin Blake and his loose sketches filled in with water-colours. This image has that quality, but it mature. It’s Superman for adults. It’s artwork you could hang on your wall. This will be my inspiration.

Sometimes we get so busy that we forget what we truly love to do. I love to draw, doodle, sketch. Yet often we never practice because we obliged to do something else that isn’t as fulfilling – why is that? I’m hoping to change that. I own a Wacom tablet and I love it. Combine the Wacom with a program like Autodesk SketchBook Pro and you have a digital sketchbook.

Sketching Eyes Using Autodesk SketchBook Pro

I’m hoping to challenge myself to spend five minutes a day using the tool, then upload the results to my website. There are so many things to sketch, that it is hard to know where to start. I think of Quentin Blake and how graceful his sketches and I want something fluid and amazing. But what does sketching really involve? Observation and technique.

Observing everyday objects around us and being able to recreate them on paper (digital paper in our case) requires investigating and building this visual memory. This takes time to research but will allow us to simplify objects like how Quentin Blake does.

Technique is nothing more than interpreting what we see into its visual equivalent. My art teacher David Wright would always look at my work and tell me what I wasn’t seeing correctly. We should be looking and validating our drawing to the original. To clarify what I mean by that, we should be looking at the object and figuring out what specific points are in relationship to other point; The head is 1 in height, the position of the eyes are half way between the top of the head and the bottom of the chin. Then you check your drawing and measure from the eyes to the top and compare that the bottom. If you are not doing this at least once every minute, then you are not doing it right!

Anyhow, I’ve gotten a little too excited and gone off topic. I wanted to show you my first five minute sketch of a pair of eyes to practice using SketchBook Pro and my Wacom!

Toodles.