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The revolution of Cinema, according to James Cameron, goes through blue guys living in the forest. I guess he never heard of Smurfs.

Man, I'm going creative on this movie.

Bus & square sketches

Yesterday evening I took the bus to meet my girlfriend downtown. Finally I had the chance to do some life sketching.

The first image, and the old man from image two are people I sketched on the bus. I sketched the walking people when I sat down on a bench in Piazza del Carmine, a square of my town.

There I played a little game, called "Sketch a Lady or a Guy in One Minute Catching the Details that Really Define Her or Him". Yep, the name of the game needs some editing, but it was cool and helpful. When drawing, its always useful to ask yourself some question, before messin' around with your pencil: "what shape do I see?", "what is that makes my subject pop out?" and so on. Then you figure out what really defines your subject, and concentrate on those elements.

When I saw the lady you see in picture two, she was kinda posh in her walk, she had an hourglass-like shape, and a huge fur in her jacket hood. So i focused on those elements.

The guy on the left in image three was tall and happy-go-lucky, and so forth. If you want to draw quickly and more efficiently, you have to figure out what you need and need not to put in your work.

I managed to doodle until my butt went ice cold, then I had to stop.

Bear with me

Couple of days ago I was working hard, for many hours. When I noticed that my computer was beginning to smoke I realized it was the moment for a little break, so I powered it down for a while.

Then I took a Xerox paper and started doodling. It came out a bear. I love drawing animals, I'm quite sure I have more beast sketches to post, somewhere.

When the bear sketch was done I took my pastels. Bad idea, Xerox paper cannot handle pastels. Sure enough it ended up a mess. I tried to fix it with Painter, but I should have left just the pencil sketch.

It's raining.

Who are you calling a Befana?

The fact today it's Befana day is purely coincidental.

Yesterday I had a nice dinner with my friends. It was a night of celebration, big announcement and good food!

Our dear Michela got the job she was looking for, and with many exciting news to come, we presented her with the little painting you see, and a bouquet which had been dressed with pyjama by the owner of the flower boutique. God knows why...

Cheers!

First painting of 2010

This Xmas I received some art supplies, quite an easy way to make me happy. A big sketchbook, a sketch kit (pencils, blenders, graphite), and a beautiful box packed with coloured charcoals.

I had to try them, so here is my first painting of 2010, which is also my first charcoal and pencil painting. Hope to improve with this technique, i really love the rich, textured colour given by charcoals!

By the way, the image shows The Basilica di Nostra Signora di Bonaria, a great church of my town consecrated to Saint Mary.