The Summertimes Portrait Studio

Hi everyone,

While I haven't put my pens and pencils entirely, I have been dedicating most of my time and effort to other things this year. I have completed a course in small business management (as well as attending seminars and workshops on marketing, social medial, and a whole lot of other business related stuff), and have been applying everything I've learned to our portrait photography studio.

The Summertimes Portrait Studio originally began in 2009 (as Summertime Photography), photographing babies, families, couples and even a few weddings! Over the last few years, Jane has really focused her skills on newborn portraits and has become pretty darn good at them! While I (Chris) have put my "teacher's hat" on the hook, and refocused my love of working with children to include children and family portraits.

I'd love you to check out our website and like our facebook page!

www.thesummertimes.com.au
www.facebook.com/summertimephotography

I'd also love to invite you to come and experience The Summertimes Portrait Studio for yourself! You may enquire through our website, or give me a call directly on 0431 936 750.

Chris :)

What's been happening?

Hey! I guess it's been a while since I've done any drawing, huh. So what's been happening?

Me... life has been busy (as always) raising a beautiful little boy who turned 1 on the weekend, still teaching (for now :p) and focusing more and more on our photography business with my beautiful wife. We have been busy busy training up and practicing in photography of newborns, children, modern portraits and weddings! We can't wait to see where photography will take us in the future.

Check out our website at www.summertimephotography.net

Celtic Cross Tattoo

 

I've  been wanting to draw a Celtic cross tattoo for a while now so tonight I mustered up the courage to give it a shot. First I used a compass and a ruler to mark out the shape of the cross. That was the easy bit.

At this point, I thought the 'industrial' look of the pencil guide lines looked pretty cool in and of themselves and that I might try another cross later that takes on this type of look, just for something a bit more original than the Celtic style cross.

I penned in the lines, freehand. I was pretty happy with my pen control for it. Only a few wobbles here and there. Then I began the Celtic knots in the cross. The first one (the biggest one) I tried to use a compass to help guide the shape of the lines, but I don't think it really helped. The knot doesn't "flow" like it should.

I drew the next Celtic knot free-hand, and once I was happy with it, I penned it in. Then I used tracing paper to copy the knot for the other 2 times. Then I did a similar thing with the knots in the circle as well.

 

And lastly, I filled in the black and shaded the knots. I started using the fine liner pen that I had used for the outline to fill in the black inside the knot where the pen looks slightly different, but the pen was scraping up the surface of the paper so I switched pens to use a more felt-tipped pen. Then I used a 2B pencil to fill in the circle, and shade the Celtic Knot work.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Although, now my back is killing me from being hunched over the page, drawing, for so long. I think I need to work on my posture while I'm drawing if I hope to ever make a career out of drawing or tattooing for long periods of time.

I'm on holidays now. So my goal is to do one drawing every day! (We'll see how that goes).

This post is pretty old! What am I doing with my life now? Check out www.thesummertimes.com.au

Faith in Progress

Here's another go at the Faith tattoo that I started the other day. I decided to take photos as I went this time to show you the progress of how the drawing came together.

I started with a few lines to keep the letters a little more uniform. Then I drew the letter 'i' as it is in the middle of the word 'Faith' and also that it's the base for all the other letters to work from. Then I traced the 'i' and used the stencil to place the back line for the 'a' and for the bottom of the 't' so it would be evenly spaced.

Then I sketched in the body of the 'a' and found the right height of the 't'. Then using tracing paper, I copied the 't' to start the 'h' then had a few goes at drawing a curly line to cross the 't' and join onto the 'h'.

Then came the 'F'. I started with the body of the letter, and then sketched in the curly lines all around it. As you can see by the rubbed out lines, it took a few goes to get it the way I wanted. Then once I was happy with the formation, and the thickness of the lines, I attacked it with a fine line pen.

Again, I carefully drew around the outside of the entire word, rather than outlining each individual letter. This worked really well where my pencil work was clear, but was a bit more challenging in the areas that weren't as clear, more rushed and sketchy looking.

Lastly I shaded the top and bottom of each letter with a 2B pencil, blending it in and leaving the middle of each letter white to give it a shiny effect. I couldn't decide where to dot the 'i', so I left the dot out. Next time I would extend the cross of the 't' a bit more, to leave room for the dot above it.

Things for me to work on:

* more precise thickness of the lines in pencil work

* more precise pen work using a steadier hand

* curlier curls

Thanks for stopping by.

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Gotta have faith

Had another quick draw tonight. Nothing special. Couldn't really get into the mood. But I'm on holidays soon and hopefully I'll be drawing (nearly) every day! I'm gonna set up my home art studio, ready to draw, paint, tattoo and play my guitar.

So anyway... I'm going to practice a little bit of script writing in the mean time because it doesn't take so long to draw in one sitting as a portrait does. I copied the general idea for this Faith tattoo out of a magazine. The guy had it as a chest tattoo, spread right across his chest. My version is slightly smaller (about 3 inches long), a bit less complicated and a bit more wonky. I didn't use guides or tracing paper to ensure that all the letters were similar size/shape because I was just really wanting to draw *something* and to draw it now!

For this particular drawing, I tried outlining around the outside edge of the entire word, rather than each individual letter. I think it creates a pretty good effect when you shade it a little bit. I'm going to have another go at re-drawing this one, later, I think. Even up the letters a bit, use a guide to make it neater and more accurate, make the swirls more swirl-like and natural looking, and do it BIGGER so I can fit in more detail and maybe some sort of images in the background. Actually I just had the image in my head of the word sprouting up like a tree, from a seed, with cute little birds coming to rest in it's branches... a la Matthew 13:31-32. Hmm... maybe a project for tomorrow.

Will Turner

I've begun the next installment of my Curse of the Black Pearl sleeve. Mr Will Turner, hanging dramatically from some rigging, wind in his hair, pistol in his hand and facial hair in places. Doing such a small drawing is proving to be difficult (it probably appears life-size on your computer screen... but not your iPhone, obviously) as there's no space to get the shading to blend - not to mention my pencils are blunt and I can't find a sharpener anywhere. So I'm calling it a night. But I figured I would show the progress of the picture bit by bit as I complete it, keep it fresh.

I won't be doing Movember this year, but if YOU are please let me know so I can support you with it!

Now, if I've been waiting for the opportune moment to head to bed... this is it.
Goodnight!

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Owl

I flicked through a tattoo magazine as I was sipping my whiskey and coke tonight, and saw a nice owl tattoo. I have been meaning to do an owl for a long time. Not sure why. I just like them I guess. So I decided to copy the tattoo in the magazine for starters. I didn't want to stay up all night drawing, so it's a moderately quick sketch. I also ran out of page, so the proportions are a bit off... but least it's given me a few ideas on what I might do with an owl tattoo myself.

My poor little boy has a stuffy nose and it keeps waking him up. He's just woken up again, so I better go help him back to sleep. Goodnight everyone!

Love doesn't make the world go round.

I asked my beautiful wife what she'd like me to draw tonight, and she said something with a Kombi in a cartoon-ish style. So I dusted off my pencils (although there were a few missing... hmm...) and started drawing. Here's the results.

I'm looking forward to getting back into a bit more drawing again. I haven't really done any at all this year, with having a newborn (who is already 6 months old!!) in the house. But now that things have settled down nicely, I hope to get a little bit of drawing in on a regular basis.

Adios Amigos

The Pearl

"You've seen a ship with black sails that's crewed by the damned, and captained by a man so evil that Hell itself spat him back out?" Here`s a practice o' th' Black Pearl while I plan ou' th' `Pirates o' th' Caribbean` sleeve. Nay sure if I will go wi' this particular image tho. I be really more imaginin' th' pearl wi' th' black sails blowin' in th' wind an' waves breakin' in fore o' th' ship. Savvy? I guess I`ll be havin' t' hunt around fer a better image t' use. Quite happy wi' this particular drawin' tho.

Drawn wi' 2B pencil an' pen. I be happy wi' how th' water turned ou', but nay as happy wi' th' clouds an' mist. Th' rear mast be supposed t' look like 'tis comin' through th' mist, but 't didna turn ou' quite as I be hopin'. Oh well. Thar`s always next time.

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A pistol with one shot

The beginnings of a full sleeve I am designing... any guesses what the theme is?

And if you need it, here's another hint:

That's right, I'm designing a Pirates of the Caribbean themed sleeve. I have it all worked out in my head. It's gonna look cool. These two drawings are just some practice ones. I decided that I would stick to "Curse of the Black Pearl" for the images, rather than combining all the movies. It's going to feature the Black Pearl, Jack Sparrow, the pirate's coins, the pistol with one shot, and possibly a few other trinkets from the movie.  Still trying to decide whether to do it in colour or black and grey. I am leaning more toward black and grey tho.

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Bengal Tiger

I pulled out my colouring pencils tonight and decided to try my hand at another tiger, using this photograph as a reference. That is all.

Tavi Script

Can you believe that my son, Tavi, is 3 months old already!? Where did the time go? I've had this onesie sitting around for 3 months waiting to draw on it, but I haven't really had a chance. But I'm on holidays this week, so I had a day to myself to play my guitar, draw a logo for a friend and draw a picture for Tavi.


His name is based on a font called "Blackletter Shadow". I like this particular script because it is a bit more modern than the Old English type script fonts.

The picture on the back of the onesie is based on a traditional Harley Davidson logo I saw once, with a few personalised touches.

Once I've washed the onesie, I'll post another photo of him wearing it :) Hopefully it will fit him for a few more weeks before he grows out of it. If he does, I'll just simply have to draw him another one.

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Naketa Script

It's been a while since I've done any drawing. Starting a new school year kinda takes up a lot of time and head space. But it was my niece's birthday, so I took the opportunity to draw her name in script for her birthday card. And here was the result.

 

My amazing wife also sewed me a pencil roll for valentines day. Jane is getting really good at sewing. It's kinda like a pencil case, except there's an individual pocket for each pencil. When you want to draw you simply unroll it and all your pencils are laid out nice. And then you roll it up when you're done. It's awesome! Up until now, my pencils have been living in an old Whitmans chocolates box but they are feeling much more cozy now. Thanks my love ;-)

And just to show off how amazing my wife really is, here's a photo of the doll Jane made for Naketa for her birthday. Talk about talent!

Hopefully I'll start doing some more drawing again soon. In a few more weeks, I'll have the best, cutest, most adorable little model sleeping in the crib next to our bed, ready to draw. I'll be taking a few weeks off work when he arrives, so I'll hopefully get some time to do some drawings of him then :)

New Year... New directions

Happy New Year to everyone out there! Hope you had an awesome night last night, and were not regretting it this morning. Jane and I went into Mooloolaba for new years eve. We sat down on the beach watching the fireworks, and also saw Josh Pyke play. We had a really great (and really late) night.

Anyhow, here's the last of the portraits that I've drawn so far. This one was commissioned by my friend's daughter as a Christmas present for her Dad. It was probably my favourite one to draw so far because, being such a close up photo, I could put so much detail into it. If you want a portrait drawn, please email me at summertimeink@gmail.com for a price list.

Mum and Dad Portrait

So here we are. Christmas is over. The ham and turkey have been finished off and the mountain of snack food is slowly getting smaller, eclair by eclair, pretzel by pretzel. This drawing is the one I did for Mum and Dad as part of their Christmas present. They recently got back from a trip to Europe and this drawing was put together from a few photos taken somewhere in France:

Drawing a full length picture is so different to drawing close up portraits of faces. I had to get all the details and folds of the clothing for starters, and then trying to fit all the detail of a face into the size of a 20c coin is much more difficult than having a whole page to do it in. But here was the final result. Drawn in 2B pencil on paper.

 

Faces for Funding

Hey all.

I can't believe it's been over a month since my last post. Work has kept me pretty busy and the only drawing I've been doing is some portraits for the Faces for Funding funding project. Most of these are Christmas presents for people - so I can't publish them online before Christmas. I will, however, put them up on the blog after Christmas. Here's one that I can post now, of my parents-in-law, Liam and Helena.

 

I'm on holidays now whoop whoop! So I can get back into a bit of drawing. I have a few more faces to draw and then I'll start experimenting with a few different styles of drawing. I think I'll go back to Japanese style art for a while.

If you would like to buy a portrait to support Faces for Funding, it's not too late... but it IS too late to get it before Christmas. Any money raised will go to support Peter and Wendy (and family) to go to Cambodia to work in community development.

I nearly forgot the movember update! A big thank you to everyone who donated to Movember last month. $130 was raised in total to help find a cure for prostate cancer and to provide support for men who suffer from depression. It was fun growing the mo but alas it was time for it to go. Here was the final product.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading :)

Movember update

 Thank you to the awesome people who have donated money so far! I've raised $95 so far, but would love to see it continue to rise as the moustache grows longer.

Show your support by donating here: http://au.movember.com/mospace/220781/

Portrait of a boy

I decided to draw the boy from the front of the U2 1983 album, War. I've always loved the photograph so I figured I'd have a go at drawing it. This is the first time I've drawn the eyes clearly open, facing the camera.

Portrait of Jane 2

I drew another portrait of Jane tonight. This time the challenge was to try to get the texture of the veil across the entire picture. After I did the outline, I scored the paper with a pin in a criss-cross pattern where the veil was to be. Then when I shaded over the top, the scored lines were to remain white. This worked to some degree, but not as much as I was hoping. I think it covered up the white lines when I used my finger to soften the pencil strokes. When I was doing the scoring, I also accidentally rubbed out a few of my outlines - which made it difficult to get those parts right. It was good to try new things - I will have to try that effect again sometime to see if I can perfect it.

Still looking for takers for the Faces for Funding project to raise money for the Kane family who is going to Cambodia with Interserve. If you would like a portrait drawn, please email me at summertimeink@gmail.com with the photo you would like drawn and how much you would like to donate.

Peace out!

Practice Koi Fish Tatoo

As I haven't actually tattooed anything in weeks, I started a new tattoo on a practice skin on Sunday. I did the outline with a 5RL needle and started the shading with a 7FS needle. My hand was very shaky at first - but I used this to my advantage to do the ends of the fins and did the rest of the outline as my hand got more steady.

Unfortunately, these practice skins do not hold a lot of the colour in them and it even holds some colours more than others. Every time I tried to shade with the red, most of it came off again when I wiped it over. I had to experiment with the length of the needle to get it right, and finally got somewhere with it. Yellow on the other hand stayed without any problems. The black was much darker, but the more I wiped it, the less ink remained. I can't wait to get in more practice to actually try it on some skin!

In other news... Movember is upon us and a mo is upon my face. Where will my mo end up this Movember? Nobody knows, but now you and all your friends can keep informed with this handy dandy mo-o-meter:

Show your support of Movember by donating here.