Variations

If this page looks familiar, it's because it was posted for a couple of hours by mistake just last week.  Sorry!

I think I've mentioned the fact that my drawing group has had relatively few men as models but Dan was one who was frequently on the stand several years ago. I show these particular drawings to point out a couple of ways to use white pencil on toned paper and to explore some subsequent creative moves. In most of my drawings where white pencil is involved I've worked with contour line then added white lights. These two are a bit different.

In this first informal portrait sketch the white is used as  reflected light that defines the smooth shiny skin of his forehead and gives us an overall sense of three dimensional form.  This in turn contributes to our comprehension of the figure as "real", standing out from an indeterminate background and acts as evidence of something just out of sight - perhaps light from a window - a contribution to atmosphere or story.

The second drawing is a bit more abstract, more graphic. The over-all "feel" of the picture is softer, more laid-back than the portrait above with its black bristly beard. The white still illuminates the forms involved but rather than necessarily being realistic  we see it more as shape and edge with the grey toned paper doing double duty as background and mid-tone skin and fabric. If we were designing something like a serigraph, a silk-screen print in which color would typically be flat without gradation, this drawing could serve as an initial step. In such a print it could lose some of its soft delicacy but the tension of background vs. foreground would still work.

Here are a couple of variations via Photo Shop: one on the left with increased color saturation, a second with high contrast,  the third with all color removed - just black & white (really grey) variations so softer still.  I could go on with a dozen iterations but suffice to say it's a good way to test the "what if" question before actually doing a second color drawing, painting or for actual use in making a print.


















Now, having said all that I realize we are going in a direction that violates or at least bends one of my first principles, the concept of art - drawing in particular -  as hand-made.  You know I always speak of the hand of the artist as an important aspect obvious in the work but once you cross over into reproduction, whether mechanical, photographic or digital - that may not apply at all.
Think about that!


"There is no best way to make art, but there are a lot of better ways."  Darby Bannard

"Art and science have their meeting point in method."   Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton

"The abstract nature of reality is the source of beauty."   William De Raymond

Rembrandt and Crumpled Paper

Here's a lovely little Rembrandt drawing! Look at how beautifully this woman's clothing fits her body. Check the drapery of the skirt falling so convincingly from her waist.  See how her bonnet really fits on her head!

Now, let me revise those words just a bit. -- Look how Rembrandt shows you the body's form so beautifully. - how he renders so convincing the drapery of her skirt, - how that bit of shadow he added on her bonnet shows us the cylindrical form, even hinting at the bulk of hair beneath.  I'm just pointing out the fact that there's a person, an artist doing the "showing"!  A person who at some point in his life couldn't draw that well!

I'm stating the obvious when I say Rembrandt was an absolute master!  When not working on commissioned paintings he spent hours drawing the people around him or just as likely sat alone drawing his own face by candlelight. He drew constantly!

Here is a section of a drawing where I worked to reproduce the folds and creases of the model's shirt. Aside from the fact that I am no Rembrandt, one reason those folds don't have the strong three dimensional qualities his do is the lack of light and shade, his trademark in his drawings and  paintings. There is some sense of form in mine because those carefully recorded lines describe over-lapping shapes but compared with his, these drawings still seem a bit flat.  (I almost said, "fall flat" but I don't want you to think I reject these drawings.  I like working with line. I value that simple aesthetic.)

You can see another thing going on when you compare  with the grey cloth drawing below.  I copied as closely as possible the edges and folds of the shirt's fabric  and while I did a somewhat similar thing with the lines of the grey cloth, I added both lights and darks on the mid-toned paper.  This expanded rendition gives us a lot more visual information so we comprehend the form much more easily.

I've zeroed in on folds and creases  here because it's one problem we often face as we draw people. Yes, if you look at clothing carefully you can interpret wrinkles fairly well but as with human anatomy, it helps to understand the anatomy of draped fabrics. Toss a piece of clothing over a sharpe edged object and look at the way it settles itself. Drape it in various ways. Do it again and notice the similarities in the folds from one "toss" to the next. Try different fabrics, heavy and light, then make comparisons. Do some sketches. Do some more!





Another quick exercise is to very lightly crumple a piece of paper and draw it in different views. Crush a few more sheets: one lightly wrinkled, another more heavily. Crush one then unfold and gently flatten it. Draw these using your favorite medium but don't be afraid to try different ones like hard & soft pencils. conte crayon, charcoal, - even pen plus ink wash as our good mentor, Rembrandt, did above but really, --  Just draw!

"Aim high and you won't shoot your foot off!"   Phyllis Diller

"There is only one proof of ability - action!"   Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

The Question

The ANSWER is "Draw"!  Draw anything, -  Any time!  Every time!

The question? - Much the same as that old one about how to get to Lincoln Center! (Or is that Carnegie Hall?)  It's always practice, practice and more practice!  It's not always the immediate result that's important so much as the fact that you are constantly looking and drawing!

The silver sugar bowl drawing on the right isn't perfect by any measure, - just a quick sketch while waiting for my coffee!   It's the result of a few minutes with pen in hand.  There is some severe distortion but hey, who's to say it wasn't previously damaged rather than poorly drawn?

The two drawings, above and directly below, were made with ordinary ball point pen.. As you may have gathered earlier, this is not my favorite drawing instrument. It was what I had at to work with at the time. I have to admit it works here! My favorite is the smooth ink pen I used on the "portrait" here on the left. I find "models" like her  in meetings, concerts, waiting rooms, etc. 

 

Anything in sight is good subject matter! It doesn't really matter at all what the subject is or what instrument you use on such occasions just as long as you put the time in to develop your skill. Pen, pencil or a combined  pen AND pencil like the SUV drawing here, - it doesn't matter! Use what you have!

          

I do have to confess: in this piece the penciled sky and cloud background was not done on site as the inked parts were. I did it later in order to show an example of combined media.  (I've told you now, so there's no deception. Don't point that finger at me!)

This very quick tree drawing was done with the stump of a soft pencil,  - It likely took little more than a minute. I was trying to capture the look of the sun behind the leafy tree.  I didn't quite get down what I saw but I tried! 

Be ready to draw anytime. Have a sketchbook with you, ready to take advantage of any odd moment that other- wise might be wasted.

               Just do it!






                     "Open your eyes and draw, look, look, look."   George Weymouth

Jade & Fruit

Let me remind you again of the opportunities for simple subject matter in ordinary household "stuff".  Generally speaking, I choose simple things to draw and emphasize form by observing and reproducing light and shade on the object. If these works, especially that of the fruit, were in black & white with no color, we'd still see form. 

Now, let me play teacher for a moment. (Those of you who are experienced artists, close your eyes!)  Overlapping elements, like the leaves on the left, help us to see "depth" in a work. Our life experience is that an object in front is closer, a partially hidden thing is further away.  Picture two simple squares overlapped.

Another, very important contributor to the 3-dimentional quality of these drawings is Color!   Aside from overlapping, the green leaves come forward of the blue and grey background because of the warm yellow in the green.  The green is much warmer than those blues. 

The same deal in the pear/apple piece, the reds and oranges, very warm colors, quite emphatically push forward of the dull grey background.  Even in comparison to the cool greens and blues of the jade plant above, the fruit drawing stands out as closer!

The warm reds & oranges in the lower drawing are highly saturated compared to the green in the jade plant. When I laid down the reds with my pencils, I pressed down a bit harder, depositing more pigment, covering the grey paper completely so that no grey showed through the reds. Otherwise we would have seen the dull grey mixed with the reds, dulling or neutralizing the red, pushing it back.

BTW,  In each of the works above   I've made use of "analogous" color schemes,  colors next to each other on the color wheel.   - Blue/green in one,  red/orange in the other. Analogous colors work well together, they are harmonious.  The  quote below by Marc Chagall says it very well. 

There's another color "thing" at work here, - not in the drawings but on the page!  Red and Green are opposites on the color wheel.  We call them complementary colors.  When put near to each other, complements seem to brighten each other.  Just viewing these two drawings close to each other as they are, makes both seem more alive. (In some cases that effect is even stronger and the colors actually seem to vibrate!)  If I had drawn green pears and apples, this page would have been much less interesting!  Try this: scroll this post so that you can see both drawings at once, then with your hand cover each alternately.  See how much more lively the whole page is with both in view?  The power of complements!  The use of complements within an art work livens it up, - can make it more exciting!

OK, I'm done! Next time I'll try to lecture less.  You there, with your eyes closed, - Wake Up! 

"All colors are the friends of their neighbors and the lovers of their opposites." Marc Chagall

 

I'm Back!

This is my first posting in several months. The last was Sept 10,  just a few days before my latest surgery.  I chose this as my first since then because here I used my favorite drawing implement, the Prismacolor Pencil. I spent hours looking, re-looking and looking again to produce the highly realistic finish. Making an exact copy was important, - with form,  as shown by light & shade and hi-lights in particular, giving the illusion of substance. 

I set these objects in front of me, - an old stoneware bottle, a fairly old glass jar with a swivel stencil cutter standing up in it, - just barely below my eye level.  I liked the contrast between the solid glazed clay of the bottle and the transparency of the little 100 year old jar.  The reflections from the bottle's glaze, on the jar's internal and external surfaces distorted by the old glass give life to the whole piece.  I really enjoyed the demanding work and in the end must have done three or four versions.  

BTW, As I believe I've said in the past, - the glass jar is "transparent", - a much better word, in my opinion, than the current and extremely awkward, "see-through".

"In painting you must give the idea of the true by means of the false."  Edgar Degas  

Leather

One  warmsummer morning  a few years ago, the sound of light traffic by my home was replaced by  the rumble ofmotorcycles.  Group after group of leather-clad cyclists passed by, heading I knew, for the annual Lake George "Americade" rally, a gathering that attracts thousands of hardy Harley-Davidson enthusiasts.  The "hirsute parade" lasted several minutes then  growled away down the street and turned northward.

I'd settled down to enjoy the return of relative quiet when one lone Harley crested the western hill and seemingly, "floated" by.  A bit of rough pavement bounced the bike and  something dropped to the road.  I walked out and  found these black leather gloves. Thinking traffic might do them harm and the rider would soon return. I picked them  up but he'd disappeared, never to return.

They live on here, left and right, one quite simple and the other tightly rendered.   They appear here separate simply because my copier cannot accommodate both together. I drew them side by side, deliberately different just for interest. (I may revisit that decision later) These two have been joined in my studio by several other pair, waiting their tun to be drawn, painted and possibly part of a series. 


BTW, there's no photographic intervention here, the drawings were done directly from the gloves as they lay on my desk.  I enjoyed the time I put in working on the highly finished one, (I DO like to draw!) but these days I'm more attracted to the simpler one.  I love the mark, the evidence of a hand at work. 


In a recent New Yorker article, art critic Adam Gopnik tells  about learning to draw. He says, "Drawing, I now think, need not be the bones of art, but skill must always be the skeleton of accomplishment."  (Thanks Rise!) 


Perhaps you'd like to weigh in on that in the comments area below.

Drawing the Line!

Here we are again in my usual figure drawing mode, - contour line with added highlights, - all with Prismacolor Pencil.  I like it!  In this drawing I particularly enjoy the sense of depth shown in the twist of the torso, - right shoulder faded away, left hand nearer than the right, left leg pushing out toward us. There are some small problems but let's Ignore those for now while we talk about line.


In drawing, line is abstraction rather than reality, a most elegant way to describe a subject, especially the human figure. in contour drawing we concentrate fully on each individual line while reproducing that line on paper. For the most part I'm talking about edges rather than "outlines", - edges as seen from your unique physical viewpoint. Forget for a moment the subject, the model, - in this mode you "know nothing" and see only line.  You may pay some peripheral attention to other factors such as shape and proportion as you progress but line is really it!  A good variation: try drawing the subject in contour mode without ever looking at the drawing until finished. The distortions might be wild but you'd be learning to "see", - not a bad thing! 

For a more practical variation, look back and forth as you draw, but look at the model only when not actually drawing. Make comparisons often as you work.  You can enhance the drawing by varying the weight of the line, -  darkening the line with more pressure as it ends, when it changes direction or where in in shadow. You might go back and carefully strengthen those parts as I did here, still, mind you, keeping an eye on the subject. 


John Sloan said, "Line is the most powerful device of drawing."


Yogi Berra said, "You can observe a lot by watching."

No Pin Up!

 I'm not particularly interested in producing "pinup" type pieces.   I reflect as faithfully as possible overall individual characteristics, without being slavishly photographic or tied to detail.  There are distortions here because I never erase and rarely make actual measurements.   In the end, my purpose in these drawings is to emphasize form.

For those who have been followers for a while and are familiar with "The Weekly Figure",  I have (or will soon) close that blog and post my weekly nudes here in "Dailies".  I've decided that my original assumption regarding Blogger's restrictions on "adult" content does not apply here. Along with the last piece from "Weekly Figure"  here is a new drawing.

Making History!

This drawing seemed to go wrong from the start!  After multiple corrections and alterations with my Prismacolor pencils, the drawing was a mess.  I gave up and turning to a fresh sheet considered a new beginning.  It was probably what my daughter refers to as "The Inner Donkey" that made me go back to my pencil box to find a lone Staedtler "Pigment Liner", my favorite pen!  Using the previous color marks as scaffold and freed by the knowledge that it would be lost anyway, I redefined the figure with loose line and hatching, saving the day!

One lesson here is the old "Never Give Up",  but perhaps a more important one is, "History Preserved"! Sketched lines, approximations of position or proportion for example, show not only the progress of the drawing but open a window on the artist's visual problem solving process.  The ability to participate in the creation via appreciation of preparatory marks and the archaeology of layered materials  gives the viewer a richer experience.  This is a much more interesting and vibrant drawing than it otherwise would have been!  I like it!

A bit of Color!

After all the black & white of recent blogs, I'm feeling the need for a little color here. This is a recent painting  (slightly cropped),  "Gordon Creek"  here in the village.