Mars - Ravi Vallis Channel

[ronnietucker]

Charcoal drawing of the Ravi Vallis channel (Mars). Would have been nicer if I'd had some orange/red tinted paper. Ah well...

[Ags]

Beautiful.

[Astrosurf]

That is incredible! I'm surprised you've not had more comments. Maybe they're too stunned!

Alexxx

[rory]

wow. nice one .

[astroeddie]

You must have a fairly big scope there Ronnie.

The sketch is excellent. I'd have thought the tones would have been harder to get if you had Orange tinted paper. I personally like the colour as it is.

Well done.

[ronnietucker]

Thanks for the all the kind words folks. Really appreciate it!

@astroeddie: I wish I could get even half as close as that to Mars! My sketch is based on a photo of the Martian surface.

[Mike73]

That's stunning Ronnie!

Do you use a fixative on your finished pastel/charcoal sketches? I've heard some people use hairspray as a cheaper alternative, any thoughts?

[ronnietucker]

That's stunning Ronnie!

Do you use a fixative on your finished pastel/charcoal sketches? I've heard some people use hairspray as a cheaper alternative, any thoughts?

You can use hairspray as a fixative, but only if it's unscented. Personally I'd only use hairspray as a fixative if it was an emergency as I'm not sure if the hairspray would discolour over time. Whereas I know the professional stuff wont.

Thank you for the kind words too!

[Mike73]

Ok thanks, do you spray it as soon as you finish or can you do it the next day? I suppose leaving it means the risk of smudges?

More questions...fuelled by a couple glasses of brandy I've decided to attempt my first lunar sketch soon, charcoal looks like it could get messy so may try pastels. Just looking at sketching papers online but there's so many different types and weights, is there anything go for or avoid?

[ronnietucker]

Ok thanks, do you spray it as soon as you finish or can you do it the next day? I suppose leaving it means the risk of smudges?

You can spray it mid-drawing if you like. You could do a bit of the drawing, fix it, carry on, fix it, carry on again. You just need to be very sure before you fix it! When it's fixed, there's no going back!

More questions...fuelled by a couple glasses of brandy I've decided to attempt my first lunar sketch soon, charcoal looks like it could get messy so may try pastels. Just looking at sketching papers online but there's so many different types and weights, is there anything go for or avoid?

Pastels are just as messy as charcoal to be honest. They're pretty much the same idea. Neither are as messy as you'd think though. You can use a bit of kitchen roll (which is what I often use) to blend, or you can buy paper stumps, but I only use them when I need to detail something as the stumps come to a point.

Weights only really come into it when you're doing something like watercolour and need at least 140lb paper to stop it warping with the water. For the sketches I've shown here I was just using cheapo coloured paper. Don't even remember where I got it from.

If you're serious about giving it a go, get yourself a kneadable eraser. It'll become invaluable as you can mould it into a shape (like blu-tac) and erase out charcoal/pencil.

[ronnietucker]

I did a new drawing (of the Moon) last night and recorded the full 25mins. I've put it on YouTube if anyone is interested in how these black and white drawings are done:

[Ags]

Been browsing your channel - I like the Cthulhu Rising one!

[Mike73]

Good of you to do the video Ronnie, learnt alot from watching it.

I'm going to give it a go sometime this week and as long as its not too bad I will post it here.

[ronnietucker]

Been browsing your channel - I like the Cthulhu Rising one!

Yeah I regularly do Cthulhu (Lovecraft) illustrations for the Lovecraft eZine which I'm a fan of.

[Ags]

Hmmm - have you ever played Call of Cthulhu? It's how I misspent my youth... :-)

[ronnietucker]

Hmmm - have you ever played Call of Cthulhu? It's how I misspent my youth... :-)

I haven't, no. Is it a PC/board game? Gave it a quick Google, but (as you'd expect) I ended up with movie trailers and role playing games...

[Ags]

Role playing game. As a twist characters have sanity points that get lost whenever they see transdimensional monsters. It's set in the nineteen twenties, so you can get psychoanalysis to restore some of your lost sanity points :-)

[ronnietucker]

Role playing game. As a twist characters have sanity points that get lost whenever they see transdimensional monsters. It's set in the nineteen twenties, so you can get psychoanalysis to restore some of your lost sanity points :-)

That sounds pretty awesome. Shame I don't know anyone who does the role playing games. Was there a book(s) to go with it? As I'm sure they'd be pretty good reading and with illustrations?

[Ags]

Yes, the game was made by Chaosium - they put out some versions of the player's handbook with full-color plates.

[ronnietucker]

Yes, the game was made by Chaosium - they put out some versions of the player's handbook with full-color plates.

Cool, I'll need to look them up. Take it I can't play these things myself?

[Ags]

You need a group of people - one to make up the horror scenario, and several other to muddle through it, go mad, and die horribly, but hopefully save the world.