A life in Architecture

Over the past 2 years I have decided to study Architecture. I have just finished my second year. I have collaborated together a small portfolio of some of my work. This uses many of the techniques I have spoken about in earlier posts whilst introducing new mediums such as CAD and photoshop. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think.

https://www.behance.net/petermarkos

I am at a busy part of my life, what with AS levels and it is important for me to get the balance of my work and this blog, therefore I will be concentrating my posts on giving advice and oacsionaly posting my work. It does feel that this is the way that the blog was going foreword so therefore this how I want it to carry on and I feel that you guys will not find the posts by any means random. Hope your enjoying my posts and if there is anything you want me to write or talk about drop me an email or message me :)

First ever soft pastel portrait

At first I very much struggled with drawing this however I stayed with it and with a little bit of patience and a few layers of pastel I think I have just about managed my best and only portrait and my first every pastel painting. I found that the key is to block in or draw the main facial features, you then begin to develop the skin giving different contrasts, adding the darks first. The next stage was to see colours which people necerceriley would not have seen when they first looked at the photograph I was working from, such as blues and purples. I then begin to do the hair, at this stage I knew I had no real idea what I was doing however I worked out what to do from layers, first layer was all the dark browns, never use black unless it really is black, with a hint of Prussian blue, I then highlighted it giving the hair direction and depth with a bright yellow pencil and in the lightest areas a white. I will be selling this to any keen buyer so if your interested please contact me, it will be framed and mounted. I completed this at the age of 16 and I have dated the painting.

I think that over all the real thing that made painting this easier for me was an easel I bought, for the first time I could put my head back see my mistakes and it just felt right.

Where to buy your art stuff

Something came to my attention the other day when I was out buying some art equipment, know because my art budget is so low I do my very best to get the best stuff that money can buy at a cheaper price than anyone thought possible.

A few places you should look for good deals is first of all, Ebay don't look down on second hand deals because much of the time they have not been used or hardly used, the second store I would advice is an art shop, ocassionaly they have deals on which are cheaper than anywhere else. The Last place I would advice is abroad (i.e not england) now this one is clearly not for everyone and you should by no means book a plane and go of to italy to do this I'm just saying if it just so happens that you are abroad it is worth taking a look at art stores I will give you an example of just how much I saved on a set of Faber Castell Pitt pastel pencils set of 24, i got it for £12.00, maybe even less. Now if anyone has ever bought a set of these I'm sure they can tell you your not going to find it for cheaper.

Theses are all measuers that I am sure not all of you need to do however if your budget is limited don't just rush out there and buy the first thing you see because it says 25% of next to it, shop around.

My Watercolour Painting

First of all I would like to apologize for the technical issue with my last post, I will try to fix it ASAP

I did this Painting when I was 14, it is my first ever watercolour painting and I am biding it on Ebay, feel free to check it out :)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/120770222377?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649#ht_500wt_1156

A great portrait

In terms of drawing portraits the easiest and best starting point is to draw someone with wrinkles and scares. Now I know  that this sounds like a little bit of a shock, most people would think that you want to be drawing the best looking people  with a clean face, however this makes it very difficult to define the face and make it look realistic. For example a few weeks  ago I drew Rolf Harris and once I got past the center of the face, the eyes, ears and mouth, it become very easy to give the  face the impression of being round and 3D using the wrinkles as a guide line. However I am in the middle of doing a pastel  painting of a beautiful women but I find it much more difficult to give the women any form of a 3D look and sometimes step  back and find myself feeling that it is very flat, When it is finished I will post it on the blog. Another fundament in drawing  and painting, well any picture, is the positioning of the subject on the page, this is especially essential in drawing portraits  this is the thing that makes your drawing stand out from the crowed from being a little thought out drawing and a  masterpiece. I could go on but right now I am busy however if you have any questions email me or comment on the page and I will get back to you :)

Derwent Studio Colour Pencils

A perfect colour swatch

I always find myself designing things and doing draft drawings however when I get to the final stages I need to add colour to these drawings, now drawing and painting is one of thoughts things where its you who makes the picture what it is not the equipment you use, this is true to some degree however I may find myself looking around the studio and I see others coloured pencil work looking quiet dull, they leave it a week and all the colour has almost disappeared. For this reason I went out and I bought a set of 36 Derwent studio pencils for no more than 25 pounds, they have stayed with me for 2 years, of course I still use them and not once has the led in it broke on me, I have drawings I did from 2 years ago, stuck to the wall and I keep on thinking "any day now and the colour is going to fade" but it never does and it wont do because Derwent studio pencils are lightfast, the colours are perfect and much of the time I find that a pencil company is putting in the pencils for the sake of making the array of colours look good, not Derwent each and every colour is thought on how it will be used. They may also be used for drawings and I find that they go perfectly with the Derwent Soft Pastell pencils, moreover they work perfectly with Derwent Artist pencils because they are both colour indexed. I defiantly prefer these over any other brand not only for the great price but also for all the things I have listed.