Art by Ben Hartnett

Yes, it’s that time again. Not having a computer of my own that wasn’t dead, and the other computer I could have used being occupied by someone else, I decided to use my trusty coloured pencils. The stripes were added at the last minute in simple photo-editing software.

I try to complete these Intense Titanium pictures in an hour. Usually it takes longer, sometimes by quite a while, but this time it was right on the button. A figurative button, of course, although it could be argued that several buttons were used (but not harmed) in the creation of this picture.

This portrait was drawn from photographic references on very smooth, white paper. Not the best choice of paper when it comes to pencil stuff but it worked out okay!

Another one drawn with oil pastels. The smell isn’t pleasant, though!

This drawing was finished in December 2008. I’d planned to use it as a first step in the process of finding a good colouring technique. I was going to reproduce the same image in colour in both traditional and digital forms. This picture was the first thing that came to mind which had a variety of materials in it, including smoke, shiny and dull metals, grass, sky, and so on.

I ended up thinking through the various media combinations I was considering and decided that none of them would work as a long-term technique for the style I wanted, so this drawing is all there is of the series! I think it took about five hours in several small sessions (excluding the initial blue pencil rough). I used a 2B mechanical pencil and a black Polychromos pencil.

E-newsletter art for Intense Titanium, with an emphasis on the hypoallergenic properties of titanium earrings. This means that titanium doesn’t cause allergic reactions like other popular metals. How do you draw something that isn’t happening? I could have showed someone’s gold earrings causing a disturbing reaction but I didn’t think pus-filled infection was the way to go! I just went for a general feeling of health and vitality.

This picture shows another change in colouring method. I used oil pastels, since I couldn’t find my coloured pencils and I didn’t have access to a computer set up for painting! These pastels encourage boldness with colour and make it hard to get caught up in detail (I generally really like detail). I touched up a couple of things digitally, using a mouse.

 I’ve had a picture in mind for quite a while. It’s of a man walking uphill while dragging all sorts of heavy and painful things behind him. The picture is in colour, with heaps of detail including things which aren’t obvious at first, such as parts of the load pulling at the man’s skin and so on. I started sketching it, and it all seemed too hard! So I placed a sheet of A4 over my rough sketch on the lightbox, pulled out my Pentel brush pen (which I had no particular intention of using again), and came up with this simple, black and white little picture. I confess it was rather nice to keep loose and simple and get a result in minutes instead of hours. Both kinds of art have their satisfaction. I may do the ‘proper’ version of the idea one day but it doesn’t matter so much now.

More art for Intense Titanium (see the previous post). In case you haven’t guessed, the theme for this one was Valentine’s Day. I used some photo reference for this  coloured pencil drawing, both for the rose and the ring (although I stylised the rose a bit). A look is still being developed for the art, and it will probably be a fairly organic process. Bolder colour work will be a probable next step. The picture is shown at the size it was used at.

This is an e-newsletter illustration for the Intense Titanium online jewellery store, announcing the arrival of several new ring types and a new pendant. The image above is shown at the size it was used in the newsletter. This one was all done in pencil, with the colours and contrast beefed up a bit digitally. I had some photo reference for the rings. I’ve done a couple of pics for the newsletter before (the schedule is about once a month), but did them digitally and in a less ‘intense’ style. I’d post them but the relevant hard drives are currently inaccessible…

It seems my pen drawing skills aren’t what they were back in my pre-animation days, but these exercises might still be interesting for artists who are exploring different methods (like I am). Finding models the right sizes looked to be a little tricky, so I dispensed with live reference for this one!

All were drawn on smooth, white A4 (the blue one was drawn on standard copy paper). The first picture was the rough I traced from for all the others (with the help of a lightbox). The second was drawn fairly quickly (and a bit lazily) with a Faber-Castell PITT brush pen (I’m not used to brush pens, but I can see some of their major potential). The third and fourth were done with Copic pens with the fixed-width, fine points most pens have. The last was drawn with a 0.7 2B mechanical pencil  (Faber-Castell) and a black coloured pencil (Faber-Castell Polychromos). The last also took the longest to draw, but I have an idea involving markers which may reduce drawing time…

I did this portrait at the end of 2002. I forgot to add it earlier in the site, but adding the “Step by Step Art” section in the pages menu reminded me! You can see the drawing progressing from the photo references through to the final coloured pencil picture by following the menu or clicking here.