April 30, 2012

Lily links and conclusions

Hi all!!!

Its time to conclude April, the month of a Lily.

It was nice and I started to use shading big time. Although not always perfectly bot sometimes even satisfying.

These are the links I used this month:
1. Method One - taken from EHow.com, a very sourcefull site.
2. Method Two - taken from DragonArt.com which I use so much!
3. Method Three - taken from TLChowStuffWork.
4. Method Four - taken from an old Russian art book I have, pages scanned.

As always, there are some additional links I found but never used:

http://www.dragoart.com/tuts/3925/1/1/how-to-draw-lilies.htm
http://www.drawingnow.com/videos/id_18204-title_How-to-Draw-a-Lily/

There are few things I've learned about a Lily:
1. There are six petals that make two layers: three inside and three outside.
2. There's a long strong stem and and long narrow leaves.
3. The shape of a flower varies with it's type, that's why I think I'll dedicate a whole month to working on a Tiger Lily separately, since it's differs so much from the classic White Lily.

I've noticed that I spent a huge amount of time erasing all the unnecessary lines I make on the way. Since I usually use simple HB2 pencils I end up with these thick lines that leave the sketch pretty messy. I just wish I could make the sketch cleaner form the start. Maybe it will come with experience who knows. Or maybe I won't have a choice but to work with proper H2-4.

Hope you found these tuts useful.

Have a great day,
D.

April 26, 2012

Israel, Independence day 2012

Hello all!!!



It's an Independence day here in Israel and of course, a new greeting and a card are in order!

So to everyone who celebrates ths day with us - have a great Independence day!!!

P.S. Daynix' card, of course :)

April 22, 2012

How to draw a Lily - Method 4

Hi all!!

This is method number 4 of the How to draw a Lily series.
It is taken from an old Russian art book I have. I already used a method from this book while doing a How to draw a Rose series.

Since I couldn't find an online source I would allow myself to scan the book's pages so you could learn too. Here they are.




It says that a basic form of the lily is a cone.
Its leaves has a form of a triangles and they grow outside the lily forming another half a cone.







The only question is why does this Lily have 5 and not 6 petals as it should?


This is "by the book" sketch. For some reason I didn't sketch the other two lilies that are on the page. No idea why I didn't. Oh, well...




And these are the referenced sketches. Shadows and all.



I can't say that I'm really satisfied with these. Especially the one on the right bottom.
When I did the shading I felt like I was more coloring than shading.
And that felt bad!!!

This is why in a very, very near future I'll start - and I know I've already said that - learn how to shade properly.





I hope you enjoyed this method and found it useful.
Feel free to share your thought on the matter.

Have a great day,
D.

April 18, 2012

How to draw a Lily - Method 3

Hi all!!!

Let's move on to the third How to draw a Lily method, this time taken from a TLChowStuffWork.

In this one we're dealing with a full flower with a long stem, to open and two closed buds and, of course, the leaves.
This is the "by the tut" version.







I can't say that I'm that happy with the outcome but still.












These sketches were based on online references.



I never really found any images resembling to the on in tutorial, but frankly - I wasn't really looking for one. What mattered to me in this to me was to do some full stem flower.




Here too, the result, in my eyes, is not that great, meaning that I should keep on practicing.
Particularly with this tut.

I hope you found this method useful.

Have a great and productive day,
D.


April 14, 2012

How to draw a Lily - Method 2




Today we'll explore a second How to draw a lily tutorial.
This tutorial was taken from DragoArt.com, which I use a lot for my studies.


Following the method you first draw a circle. Then you mark a center of the flower from which is to become a base for your petals. You place your petals center lines coming out of this center. And then, as always, you draw your way around these basic lines.








This is "by the tut" tryout. Simple and basic with some hints of folds and shadows. It took me several minutes to complete.




















These two and the first image above are from the online references.


I worked on these sketches for quite a while. These days the work is not going as fast as it did with Roses and Tulips. I've been working from 30 minutes to an hour - and sometimes more - on each and every lily you see here. Obviously, half of the time goes on shading the flower and I find the result pretty nice.




I guess that this method is pretty much like the first one only that you begin with a circle. Thinking of it, this circle might come very useful when you have several items in your composition. It allows you to place your items properly on the paper/canvas. And if you didn't place it correctly for the first time - you can always erase the circle and move somewhere else.

Anyway, same method or different, it was another great study for me.

What do you think? Did you find this tutorial useful?
Do leave a comment below.

Have a great and productive day,
D.

April 09, 2012

How to draw Lilies - Method 1

So with a little delay, let us begin.

This method was taken from EHow to draw lily flowers and presents to us a pretty simple way of drawing a Lily.
There are basically three steps to it:

  1. Since Lily has 6 petals you first draw a six pointed evenly divided asterisk to place your petals.
  2. After that you draw some narrow pointed petals around it.
  3. In the end add some long stamens coming from its center.
In order to create a closed Lily bulb, just draw a narrow oval and some long narrow leaves placed on a stem.

This is "by the book" result.





The first one is a front view, the second - from the side in a bouquet.
As you can see this sketch is just simple and schematic with zero details.













These are the attempts to draw from online references.
Here I've decided add some shading. As I promised before, I am going to learn how to apply shadows the "right" way, so it looks natural and not like plain pencil strokes. But here I just looked at the image in front of me and tried to copy it as carefully as I could.










These sketches are a bit more complicated that the above ones.










I thought that there was no reason for me to do one flower at a time and that I was brave enough to draw a stem with several lilies. And, of course, I've continued being brave and did some more shading on these. I think it is obvious from these sketches that I started to gain some confidence by applying bolder shadows. Even to me these Lilies look more realistic than the first ones I drew.

I must admit that I was surprised to see that drawing Lilies wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. I really enjoyed working on these.
And now, with that in mind I will continue to the next method.

I hope you enjoyed this method as much as I did.
Do share your thought on it here.

Have a great day,
D.

April 06, 2012

Daynix Pessah greeting card 2012

Hi all!

Today, according to the Jewish callendar, is Pessah and of course, its time for cards, greetings and some traditional meal with family gathering.



At this point I just whanted to share a greeting card I've created for Daynix Computing Ltd.

The beautiful greeting was created by Alina Shimonov, a family member. Thanks, girl!











I wish you all a great holiday season!

Yours,
D.

April 03, 2012

Ho to draw a Flower in perspective.

Hello all!!!

It's springtime and everything is in bloom.

I've been drawing nonstop lately - although it doesn't show in the blog at all!!! - with and without the image reference. And since one of the main goals of this year is the act of drawing - development of some self-discipline plays a huge role here.

One of the things I've been dealing with here is Perspective. I was struggling with the way of finding a way to draw a partly closed and fully open flower. And then I realized that in fact it's really simple.



A half open flower will look like a bowl. A fully open - will usually look like an open umbrella. In both cases part of the petals will not be seen. This is the sketch. This is what I'm going to remember when drawing flowers.






I hope you found it helpful.

Have a great day,
D.

April 01, 2012

April: Month of the Lily

Hi all,

It's April now and it means that it's time to start talking about a new flower. This time I chose a Lily. Why Lily? No particular reason. It's beautiful and has a great strong scent. So strong that I personally get headaches when I'm near it. That is the reason I never bring them into my house. But the flower is definitely worth some research and learning to do. Especially because of its cultural meaning.

So what does the web tells us about this almost royal flower?
According to Wikipedia, there are around 101 species of Lilies, or to be correct, a Lilium. They grow from bulbs and some of these bulbs are even edible.
They come in different shapes and colors and are divided into 8 groups/sections.
The really interesting thing that Lilies or its bulbs - are toxic to cats and can cause the cats' renal failure.

Lilies play a great part in both visual and written arts.
All of us remember the Tiger Lily, the Indian girl who lives on the Neverland Island.
There is a Madonna Lily, the White Lily, which is considered to be the base of Fleur De Lis, which is a symbol of purity. Also this flower is mentioned in Bible and was drawn in Kings Solomon's Temple.

They were used both during the Renaissance period by several artists, like Sandro Botticelli and Fillipino Lippi. In modern times - by Georgia o'KeffeeRobert Mappelthorpe and before them by Claude Monet, of course.

The fact that this flower has such a strong cultural reference implies that there will be no problem with finding drawing tutorials. On the contrary, there might be enough for two months.
Also I think that I will treat a Calla lily and a Water lily separately in the future, since both of them have a completely different structure then, let's say, a White lily.

Let the journey begin!!! (and, of course, you are most welcome to join it)
Good luck!

Yours,
D.