[.life.drawing:9.6.15.]

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.

 

[exposing.myself]

Yeah.... My set up is pretty ghetto.  One of these days Ill finish my vacuum exposure unit.

 

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[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]

I came into this session (5-26-15) basically in a normal mood but after starting to draw furiously I began to get incredibly frustrated with my work; I hated this distortion and couldn't refine anything.This experi…

I came into this session (5-26-15) basically in a normal mood but after starting to draw furiously I began to get incredibly frustrated with my work; I hated this distortion and couldn't refine anything.

This experience made me think about my current drawing style- I'm almost manic in my search; trying to capture everything as quickly as possible in hopes to capture spontaneity and emotion in the immediacy of the moment. I approached it like a tornado. This even applied to gesture drawings, which I usually hate to do. I just wanted to commit my drawing to paper as quickly as possible.

At this moment I started to realize that this approach was also holding me back from making real revisions and letting my drawings breathe. Half of the time I either finished my drawing in no time or couldn't finish it at all. I felt walled of from revision because everything was done so quickly and drawing became an all or nothing proposition.

The following week (6-2-15) i decided I wanted to take a different approach. I wanted to:

1- start taking gestures more seriously, and

2- draw with a more deliberate hand. I decided to slow down (at least enough to stop my frustration and begin to allow my drawings to evolve)




 

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.
 

This is the drawing I ended up with for our extended pose (1 hour 20 min). While it's not quite as drawmatic or high contrast of some of my other drawings, it felt a lot better to work on. There is also still quite a bit of spontaneity and dist…

This is the drawing I ended up with for our extended pose (1 hour 20 min). While it's not quite as drawmatic or high contrast of some of my other drawings, it felt a lot better to work on. There is also still quite a bit of spontaneity and distortion. I didn't feel like I was racing to finish it and I didn't feel super-frustrated when I got stuck. I just kept in the moment, and calmly drew.

I think during the next session I'd like to work with higher contrast charcoal subtractive work.

|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!

Beware the carnies

Beware the carnies

Redo of trumpet man. I made the lines a bit bolder and it seems to have helped. The only other thing I did different was expose the screen without vacuum table.  

Redo of trumpet man. I made the lines a bit bolder and it seems to have helped. The only other thing I did different was expose the screen without vacuum table.  

All the coasters! I'm re coating them... Unfortunately I ran out of epoxy today.  

All the coasters! I'm re coating them... Unfortunately I ran out of epoxy today.  

[.Tuesdays.]

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If you look closely you can see the flaws. Email me one flaw and I'll send you a free tee. 

Sunday Funday

Stencil for umbrella screen

Stencil for umbrella screen

Stretching paper for upcoming prints

Stretching paper for upcoming prints

Almost done with coasters! 

Almost done with coasters! 

[progress]

"The artist in his studio"

"The artist in his studio"

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.  

[.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.3.29.15.]

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.][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.