Back to Basics Part 2

This post is an extension of my last one and this time I am posting up my Pencil work. I love drawing with a bic pen and most of my sketches and studies are executed with that tool but I was feeling out of practice with using a pencil. So, here we go with more studies, this time using a different tool. There are several Nudes in this post so if you have a problem with it, I suggest that you look away ;)

Back to Basics

For the last year or so I have worked almost exclusively digitally and recently, I was given an assignment whereby I had to actually draw using traditional tools. What a novel idea! All joking aside, at the time I felt Rusty and it took some time to get into a rythm with my tools. Now combine this rustiness and with the fact that I have been spending a lot of time working on more graphic based illustrations, I was having one of those " I can't Draw" moments. All of us go through this to one extent or another and for me, the only cure is to go back to the basics and do some figure drawing. Today, I am posting a ton of figure work that I have put together over the last little while between gigs and as warm ups. If any of you out there in blog land go through the same type of illustrators block, I highly reccomend that you do the same and in addition, try to make it part of your daily routine to warm up and get your juices flowing. Like with any skill, if you don't use it, you lose it. Ok, enough with the lecture. On with the drawings. I can tell by my stat counter that many of my visitors get here because they google the term "Reilly Method" or some approximation of the same spelling. To be honest, I'm not even sure what is the proper method to spell the name. Reily, Riley, Rielly ?... Since I discovered this method of quick drawing through Chris Legaspi's blog " Fresh Designer", I've been hooked and it has had a tremendous impact on the way I draw. Prior to that, I was very much a student of the Loomis school which I think compliments Reilly nicely. I tend to start my drawing with several quick head sketches or figures in the using the reilly method to quickly block in the forms and later in my session, I move to a " Loomis" approach to execute a longer and more finished study. None of my studies are taken all the way through to a highly polished result. For me, I draw for pleasure and to study the individual from my reference and not to end up with a gallery piece. That being said, I recognize that I could benefit from some long poses and new material for my portfolio. Anyways, I am posting several pages of my sketches starting with the Reilly method style and then I will have another post for my pencil work.