scribble

This was a bit of an experiment in that I started out very differently.  I just began scribbling to find shapes and form.  I think it is a technique I'm not real crazy about and it threw me off when it came to drawing the head.  The likeness is not at all what I was going for but I ran out of time to correct that problem.  Such is life (drawing).

One that works

Not much to discuss on this one.  Profiles often seem to save me.  The loose hair on the side of her face is a nice design element that leads the eye down the rest of the drawing.  This one works for me.

Not so successful

Let's look at one of the "oops" drawings, shall we?  If you look close you will see the angle of the right leg was off considerably which threw off the left leg, the buttocks, and even the upper body.  I proceeded, foolishly, with many aspects of the drawing before going back and forcing the correct placement of the leg onto the sketch.  By now I knew the piece was a lost cause and I began to just play with it.  I gave the upper body short attention and it shows in the lack of development of the right arm and the inaccurate positioning to the spine.  Which led to poor rendering of the scapula and muscle relationships.  I even threw an obnoxiously dark shadow on the left leg that rivals the black fabric the model was reclining on.  What does all of this mean?  Measure twice, draw once.

A Final Gesture

We resumed the drawing sessions (The Black Hand Group) last night with Sara as our model (thank you, Sara).  I'll start with the page of gestures from last night and then move through some of the other drawings from the evening over the week.

The poses were very fluid and lent themselves to the linear manner of drawing.  Sometimes I like to use tonal techniques in gestures but these just felt better suited to line work.  I really like the look of this particular page, a bonus when you are merely warming up.

Tomorrow I'll break down some of the drawings from the session.  Some are decent and others are failures.  I'll share them all with you over the coming week.  Until then...

This series of gestures show the model in slight variations of the same pose.  Amber started (and stayed) in a seated pose and merely progressed from her position.  The drawings are not in a progressive order (with the middle sketch being a standing pose) but you can see that they indicate three similar positions, like the hand of a clock moving across the face.  This can be very useful for understanding how the muscles work and, in this case, how the spine and shoulder blades react to the different tension points.  The middle standing pose, without the legs drawn in, seems to fit into the flow of the page.  Perhaps I will see if the group wants to do a similar series only in five or ten minute increments.

Looking for Grace

That's one of the goals I have when doing the gesture phase of our drawing sessions.  Finding the line that defines the whole figure.  Once in a while it happens and I really start to get into it when the dreaded "CHANGE!" rings out and the pose shifts.  And the search for grace begins again.

More gestures

Back to the subject at hand.  These were done with compressed pastels, something I'm not really practiced with but I still liked some of the figures that came out of Erin's poses, particularly the back pose with the tension caused by the arms.  The other back shot probably would have been a nice finished piece had it been at least five minutes long.  The joys and frustrations of the minute pose.

As a kid (of which I still am in many ways) I always enjoyed the "Minute Mysteries", those quick little who-dun-its that came in those thin little books.  They're hard to find now but gestures seem to have taken their place.

We interrupt our reg...

I know I'm examining the gesture drawing this week but I thought I'd post this little drawing I'm doing of my granddaughter, Addison Grace.  My wife wants this for her birthday and, wow, I'm weeks ahead of schedule.  Go figure.  Anyhow, I thought a little studio piece might be a nice break from the regular stuff.  I'll get back on track tomorrow.  

The flip side

On the reverse side of the previous drawing is this.  

Sumpin' diff'rent

I thought I'd put up some gesture drawings for this coming week.  Gestures have become one of my favorite exercises.  Where I used to think of them as just getting the proverbial blood flowing I now look at them as vital pieces to the creative process.  They are ways of getting the eye focused and seeing what is necessary to get a drawing done.  Often I am frustrated (which is a good thing) by a pose being so perfect yet fleeting.  A minute is just not much time to really get into it, which is what it is all about.  Pick your battles, find the line.  Then don't lose the spontaneous energy that you've just experienced when the "real" drawing begins.  I'll try to find some of the better gesture pages I've got.  I hope you enjoy this little trip.

Another Duelie

I really like the look of the charcoal drawing on this page, which was a colored sheet of Canson paper, and decided to leave both images on since the conté ran into the charcoal.  This is not an example of having two images on the same page in the manner I was talking about yesterday but does show that sometimes I get cheap and try to use as much of the page as I can.  this time it bit me since I can't really cut the nicer of the two out.  Measure twice, cut once...

Stephanie and I had fun at the outdoor concert in the YAM parking lot last night.  We met our friends Susan & Henry there, ran into other friends and acquaintances, then had a good dinner at a local Mexican restaurant, Don Luis.  All in all, a good night off from drawing.  

No Drawing Tonight

For those of you who don't check out the Black Hand Group blog, I'll reiterate the information.  No life drawing at the YAM, Alive at Five is being held at the museum and we don't have the room for this evening.  Now, back to our regularly scheduled program.

Today's drawing is from some time ago, I believe we had just begun our YAM tenure when we had this model.  I have several drawings from her that I really like and I ran across this one last night while compiling some drawings for a client.  I've always been partial to drawings and sketches that have multiple images on them.  Not so much the ones that are designed that way but the ones that show the artist is just playing around and not interested in the finished product.  I think you can ask many an artist and they will often be more interested in the freedom of the sketch or study than the finished piece.  Perhaps I'll put up some of my gesture pages...

Last dissection

This was the last drawing of the night and probably the most difficult.  It's never easy, at least for me, to draw the head in an inverted position.  The two dimensional nature of drawing makes for distortions that you can't just change positions to check your proportions and such.  It's not the same as drawing an arm in perspective.  Or the torso even.  No, the head is so recognizable that when you have it correctly drawn it still looks wrong.  The eyes sometimes don't follow the curve the way your brain believes they should.  The chin seems to grow and take up more space than you think it should.  As I said, for me the upside down head is one that challenges me and one that I am rarely happy with.  But it sure is fun to try.

Oh, the rest of the figure?  Well, it resemble a landscape to me, the undulating hills of the rib cage, the way the arms extend out like streams or pathways.  When the body is placed in a less than familiar position, I see connections and not recognizable features.  It really makes for an abstract manner of viewing and rendering.  I don't know if this rambling makes any sense, but that's how I see things.

Profile

Profiles are kind of common but this one I used a little bit of the Jeremy Lipking technique, specifically starting with the eye and working my way out.  Since this wasn't a painting and I knew I had only ten minutes I developed the outline and some of the major landmarks right away.  However, I was mostly interested in the eye and the mouth, forming the roundness of both features, and seeing how the lines overlapped to form that roundness.  I think that I succeeded in that but obviously it did not turn into a finished drawing.  But as I've said before, it's the journey...

More introspection

This drawing became about the left shoulder and hand.  I know the darkest dark was placed on the abdomen but that was merely the start of shading when the time ran out.  I was actually mostly fascinated by the manner in which the hand rests on the shoulder.  I put a lot of time into the head and face but moved onto the left side when I saw how graceful the placement of the fingers looked.  As I drew I wanted to get the feeling across without rendering every digit and knuckle, letting the hand merge with the shoulder and collar bone.  I may go back in on this and do the hair properly and clean up the arm.  A little attention to the pillows might go a long way.  As I've stated before, these drawings offer much more to me than a finish, they show the journey and keep me in learning mode, something that I hope never to lose.

More stuff from inside my head

This drawing gave me the chance to seek the simple shapes and the way they interact with the pillows and blankets that the model had surrounded herself with.  I was struck by the obvious shape of the hip but got more satisfaction out of the design of her left foot and the weight of the legs.  Although this is a fairly common pose I really enjoy drawing from it whenever it's presented.  The strong outline is a natural but if I had been given more time I probably would have opted to lose some edges and develop the face a little more.  But that is why these little sketches are so important.  To learn from each drawing, each pose, each stroke is all you can ask.  Well ,that and a drawing someone else can't live without.

Next up...

a little head study.  I was influenced by a Nicolai Fechin drawing that was hanging in the Yellowstone Art Museum that night.  I looked at the manner in which he found the shapes of the eyes, the lips, the tip of the nose but ignoring the bridge.  Granted, the drawing was of his daughter as a child and I was drawing a grown woman but I still looked for the flowing shapes that her face had to offer.  No, I don't think it looks anything like a Fechin but I hope I put myself in a better frame of mind to draw by looking at that beautiful piece of art.  Taking the time to explore rather than trying to finish is far more interesting if not always as satisfying.  

Something a little different

Instead of posting the whole evening (which you can view on the Black Hand Group site) I'm going to post one at a time and kind of talk (write) my way through the image.

All of these were charcoal on white sketch paper. The gray areas of my images are due to poor lighting in my studio when I shoot these. Back to the drawing. This particular pose drew my attention to the model's left side and the way in which the pectoral muscle formed the armpit area and flowed into the latissimus dorsi. Although I started to develop the lower body I kept going up to the lat area, trying to catch the way the back muscles overlapped until they are taken over by the large mass of the lat. Time ran out and I realized I wasn't working so much on a drawing as on an understanding of what I was seeing. I think that this only happens to me when I am familiar with a model and have gotten over the need to capture the likeness and can get into all of the possibilities that drawing from a live model present.

This was not what I would call a successful drawing but it serves a very important purpose and for that reason I like it.

On a different note I want to thank Sara for stepping in at the last moment when our other model had to pull out due to personal obligations. I am very grateful for the people who we have in our group, artists and models, that help out when things need to be done. Thank you one and all.

Time to draw

Last chance to draw from a live model for a couple of weeks.  I really get bummed when we lose a night.  Next Thursday will be "Alive After Five", a summer staple that features live music at a different venue every week through August.  I've never known it to be at the museum but I guess it is a way to publicize YAM.  Stephanie and I will go but I'd rather be drawing.

On a different note, good luck to pal-o-mine Russ as he heads to Chi-town for "Beatlefest".  Good luck, old friend.

Influence

This little sketch reminds me of something Jeff Jones might have done.  Not so much in execution but the pose and the large mass of hair.  Jones has long been a strong influence on me and that was cemented over twenty years ago when I was able to meet him* when he had a showing at my school.  I was able to spend hours studying his work during that time and since then I have collected as much material as I can.  The internet provides me with a 21st century second hand store.  Every now and again something pops up that is a 72 dpi gem.

Anyhow, this drawing kind of puts me in a Jones frame of mind.

*Yes, I know he is now a woman via medical science and her own choice, however Jeffrey Catherine Jones was male when we met and when most, if not all, of her most influential work was done.

Deja Vue

All over again.  

Just a drawing

got nuthin' today.

Sunday's painting

Last year I was fortunate enough to attend a Jeremy Lipking workshop held at the Watts Atelier.  Unfortunately, I was only able to attend one of the three day workshops.  There is so much more that I wanted to learn.  The painting above is one of two I did, and the only one where I think I was able to implement some of the lessons Jeremy was trying to impart.  If I get the chance to attend another of these I will jump at the chance.  In the meantime, enjoy...

Color Saturday

Another unfinished color study from a Black Hand session.  I will be doing more studies of this model in preparation for the Pin Up Project and I hope to share them with you as time marches on.  

the day after

We had a small group for our Black Hand Group last night.  However, I really got some good drawings out of it.  With my upcoming project uppermost in my mind I'm trying to concentrate on the construction of the figure as opposed to how cool I can make the lines and smears.  I started to put more thought into working out the face and really measure out my proportions and it kept my head in the game more than usual.  As the weeks progress I am anxious to see how this works out in the art.

Thanks again to Amber who always provides us with great poses and inspiration.

it's Thursday Night, I guess that makes it alright...

to paraphrase Prince.  We will meet, draw, break, draw some more, hit Jake's and eat and drink and (hopefully) be merry.  Thursday is the most wonderful time of the week.  Well, it's pretty darn fun to look forward to.

Mid week musings

Middle of the week and I am finally feeling a bit more energized. I'm coming to the end of the cover design for the Billings Studio Theatre and I'll post it when it has been put together. As for the Pin-Up Project, I have my models on board and have pretty much narrowed down the concepts. I'm really looking forward to this endeavor but not so much the selling part. I really have poor skills at selling my own work. I guess I'll have to learn. I expect that my uber-self promotional pal, Russell Walks (http://www.russellwalks.com/), will give me some pointers and lead me through the maze of endless smiles and handshakes that make up the path of the freelance artist.

I have also been told by some of my art-mates that I should put out a book of my sketches. I'm thinking of doing just that. I've had a title in mind since my days in Jersey although it was based more on pen and ink, still...

Well, here's the daily drawing. Enjoy.

Another Fine Tuesday

Do I have anything to say? I do but I don't have the time. Life gets in the way of the things that one deems to be important. A little backwards, ain't it?

Contemplative

That's usually what Mondays are for, right.  To wonder why you have gotten out of bed, drug a razor across your face (or legs, as the case may be), made the the commute to whatever destination holds the end of your leash and started another work week.  But all is not lost, as the weekend holds the promise that joy will return to Mudville if only you can hold on for the next 97 hours.  Good luck, my friends.  And stay thirsty.

It's just a Pleasant Valley Sunday-aaayyy

Just a painting from one of our first Sunday sessions.  This model went on to own a club here, just a little trivia.

Color Saturday

This sketch is from the first modeling session we had with Amber.  We had our model bail on us about an hour before one of our random Sunday long pose sessions and I was in a bind.  Too late to cancel and none of my other models were available, I called Loren Entz and asked if he knew of anyone and he said he would get back to me.  Sure enough, a couple of minutes later he told me that I should call Amber.  Because it was such short notice we were just happy to have someone sitting for us, so street clothes were fine with us.  She has since become one of our regular models for Thursday nights and in fact came to our rescue for the coming week as well.  In fact, if you check out last Wednesday's post, the image is one of her.  Thanks, Amber.

As for the painting itself, I was using a pre gessoed board that was like painting on grease.  No tooth and the paint just slid everywhere.  Frustrating.  Never again with that stuff.