Life Drawing seemed like a struggle today. We did 20-30 minute poses. The images below are in order as I drew them. In hindsight I think I rushed into the charcoal drawings and committed too early in my drawing process; drawing hard bold lines before finding the form I wanted capture & convey.
After feeling discontent about my charcoal work I switched to mechanical pencil. It really felt good switching- It's so radically different from Charcoal & pencil. It demands a certain finesse and lack of pressure.
I'm not sure the mechanical pencil drawings are any better; they seem just as distorted and also lack some of the spontaneity and expression; however I really responded to the change of pace! It felt nice to acknowledge when something wasnt working and do something different, and even if the results aren't quite what I aspired to achieve, at least the process was more enjoyable.
a few new adds to [.Street.Photography.]
I finally got a chance to take a vacation and travelled to Indiana Sand Dunes and Chicago.
[life.drawing]
Here are a coupe from a few weeks ago.
[exposing.myself]
Yeah.... My set up is pretty ghetto. One of these days Ill finish my vacuum exposure unit.
[life.drawings.]
Sunday Life drawing. 30 minute poses.
I arrived a bit late so I missed the gesture drawings but I would say today was a generally successful session.
I felt like I'm having a hard time getting the full figure in a drawing; it seems like I'm better with 1/2, 3/4, or portraits. I think this might be because 1- the scale is a bit smaller than im used to; 2- charcoal doesn't lend itself well to smaller size and finer detail; and 3- I can crop out hands or feet.
I did try a higher contrast subtractive drawing but wasn't happy with the results. I am still really enjoying the combination of charcoal and pencil work.
The next session (Tuesday) will be and extended pose with two models. I think I might try to find a nice composition that croups out at least half the figure.
[Life.Drawings] + [thoughts/reflections]
While these geuture drawings aren't as precious as some of the more skilled/controlled artists who attend they are still mostly proportionate and have a nice lyrical line quality.
[Life .drawings]
Ugh... my day job seems to have taken over a lot of my free time lately but luckily I got to do some life drawing 2x this week.
I'm still really digging charcoal and pencil drawings. I first use charcoal to roughly block in the general proportions and then smear it to create a grey-base I can then draw and erase highlights back into. Vine charcoal is incredibly forgiving- I don't even need an eraser; just wiping the paper with my hand obscures any mistakes enough to continue.
I've really been working in my studio a lot lately- i've exposed a few more screens and printed a few things.
More to come soon.
|Sundaze|
I got so many random things done today. Not all were art related but definitely necessary. In non related news- i found ghost pepper plants at a local nursery!
[.Tuesdays.]
If you look closely you can see the flaws. Email me one flaw and I'll send you a free tee.
Sunday Funday
[progress]
I've had a chance to practice screen printing earlier this week and made some nice strides printing. My consistency and print quality seems to be improving.
[.screen.printing.]
[.progress.report.].[coasters.]
Lately I've been spending my art time 3 ways- screen printing, collaging media for coasters, and life drawing.
Antique Newspaper Coasters were a project I came up with in response to the acquisition of a large collection of antique newspapers. I got these around 2009 when a close friend salvaged them. They were from a library in Michigan and were sent to her to be transferred into microfilm before being destroyed. I can only assume that libraries do this to eliminate the costs and lost physical space of storage.
Making 4x4 in drink coasters was a functional way I could use these newspapers images. In my opinion they also make a nice conversation pieces. I've made like 40 and am working on about 30 more. These are collaged newspaper clippings, antique photographs, and coated with a clear polymer to preserve them.
[.life.drawing.3.31.15.]
[.life.drawing.3.29.15.]
30 minute poses. I don't really have much to say about these aside from being happy with them. Again, I think charcoal and pencil are a lot of fun- there is a lot more room for tonality and also linear variety.
....anyway....
In general it has been a busy art week, I went to Priscilla Steele's art opening this afternoon and also went to an artist's salon at CRMA Wednesday. The salon was a strange experience- it felt overly unstructured and loose; no introductions or planning for future meetings. It was nice seeing everyone and I like that someone planned this event... that is progress for this town.... it's also progress that I attended.
[.Screen.printing.]
so..... i still need a lot of practice screen printing- but I'm learning and making tons of progress. I'm excited to try collaging screen prints with other media and images.
...in other news......I have new gear on it's way; just learned I need to order some more gear (pay more shipping and handling); and build some equipment. I'll be practicing my printing this coming weekend and hopefully build a light table for exposing screens.... baby steps....
Right now I have 3 screens of drawings and only two clean screens left for new images..... yikes....
.....I'm going to run out space....
.......and drown in screens~
more to come
[life.drawing.3.22.15]
Changing to larger paper and charcoal & ebony black pencils turned out to be a happy change. I'm still struggling with distortions but I enjoy my line quality. I think I will continue doing larger portraits with charcoal and pencil.
20-40 minute poses.
[.Life.Drawing.][03.10.15]
I think this drawing turned out better than my previous attempts this year. I think increasing the scale helped me, as I'm now using 20x30 in paper, and also using different materials helped too, as I used charcoal and pencil. I think her eyes are a bit wonky though.
One pose; 1 hour 20 min total.
Life Drawing (3-8-15) & I think spring is here!
Happy daylight savings time! I'm excited that longer days are abound!
Drawing this morning felt challenging- I woke up late and missed out on the gesture drawing warm-up, and generally I hate gesture drawing but today I noticed how much it helps get started. I felt like I was fighting to stay with it- all of the drawings felt like an uphill battle. I was having a hard time creating something that looked as accurate as I wanted; however once I let go of my desire for realism things began to flow much better. I think I need to embrace my distortion more and accept that distortion is part of what makes my drawing style what it is. I do think I had some nice marks today.
30 minute poses.
Life Drawings (3-1-15)
These are my most recent drawings from our life drawing group. Each drawing was from a 30 minute pose. I thought these were garbage but after a couple days have passed I think they've grown on me. I still have some work to do on hands and feet though.