'HYPER-REALSIM' target update/ New Techniques

Just to let any of my new watchers know, in May 2013 I set myself a target of 'May 2014' to hit the very ambitious goal o f becoming a 'Hyperrealist' artist. If I do miss this target as it is going to be pretty tough, I have no doubt I will definitely hit my goal of being a 'hyperrealist' artist at some point even if it kills me.

And In mid august I made the tough decision to start using charcoal (which i hated at first) and 'cartridge paper' instead of 'bristol board' with graphite. This was definitely the right decision, as there was no way I could achieve the deep non reflective blacks with just graphite. But after a few weeks of progression I’ve now hit a brick wall in terms of the technique I’m using.  And along the way I made loads of mistakes, but learnt from those and went back to some of those drawings and corrected them.

Now I’ve made the tough decision to start using new techniques which is my ‘phase 4’ in my goal to hyperrealism, in order for me to progress to the next stage and a step closer to my goal of hyper-realistic art. As I believe if something is not working no matter how comfortable it is for you, you’ve got to try something new. The biggest change is going to be the process in which I draw skin textures, which at the moment just does not look right, and is the most important key to realism. Second most important is the eyes, as my previous drawings the eyes looked unnatural like shiny marbles. Over the last few days I’ve gone over some of my older drawings and altered them so the eyes look more natural. There will also be other smaller things I will change to but those will be less noticeable.

But i must say that after using the combination of graphite and charcoal over the last few weeks, I now see that they are a perfect match for each other. The trick is to use charcoal for the dark areas only and spray with fixative making it easier to control as it smudges allot. And I now only use 'cartridge paper' for portraits as it is really great for skin textures and softness. And I use 'Bristol board' for drawings that have loads of detail like my 'astronaught' and 'spiderman' drawing' as its amazing at holding all the detail. And they are both now an essential, even though they both have their pros and cons.