Just a Few Ladies !

I don't have any profound words for this weeks blog post, a collection of both recent and older drawings. I'll not tell you which is old or new but let you decide based on knowledge you've gained following the blog. You can see a loose linear way of working, a look at figure construction and a particularly tight hard-edge piece which may be related in time to a "Big Foot" post of two years ago. You decide!  Scanning the page, I really respond most positively to the (almost) black & white drawing below.  The more colorful hard edged piece is just that, - hard!  It's tight, highly controlled and a much more finished piece than the young lady in braids.  Looking more finished might cause us to see it as more important, more likely deserving treatment as a major piece - a wall sized painting perhaps but it wasn't really finished when I ran out of time with the model. I would have given those feet the attention given the upper body (and did so in a similar piece of the same evening) but now I'm happy with it as is. That bit of (foot) looseness helps it relate to the other two figures on the page as all three feature unfinished feet! 

These two were actually done within a few weeks of each other but still they are quite separate in approach.  For the most part I view my figure drawings as exploration and self education so continually vary technique as I work.   The small spare figure was all about construction and proportion while the larger one (left) is much more an illustration, a study of personality and setting which could have been developed further had I really thought about it.

I've put them all here as contrast to the much more realistic "14 inch Red" pipe wrench of last week and the grittier "Dan by Window Light" of a few of weeks earlier. Don't forget, you can scroll back through almost three years of this blog to see the range of my drawing interests.  Every-once-in-a-while I do that and surprise myself with forgotten pieces!

"Specialization is for insects."   Robert A. Heinlein

"Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape."  Anonymous

Give her a hand!

This nude done several years ago, is one I really love! It has great color, an almost tangible sense of three dimensional form and a very real personality there in the model! When I found it in an old portfolio just now I wondered why I hadn't used it here it in the past.  Checking back, I did find that I'd done a post with what I believe is same model but in a completely different pose, - not this drawing.  So, what's not to like?

It didn't take long to find the problem and I'm sure you've found it just as quickly! Her lips, breasts, knees and even her nose has that strong form I just spoke of.  The feet, even though lightly outlined, are acceptable because we understand them to be barely sketched in place.  They "read" well!  No, it's that wimpy hand! The right hand is bad enough, hanging like a limp fish with little delineation but look at that poor left hand. What a disaster!
Hands are not just a problem here but a very real and common problem that frustrates many an aspiring artist!






Hands are probably the most difficult part of the human body to draw convincingly because they are so articulated and flexible.  This difficulty is especially true when, as in the left hand above, the distortion of foreshortening is involved.  I remember fighting with it, trying to make myself believe it was a solid live hand rather than a flat and empty glove. At the time I just couldn't see it any differently.











I often redraw details of pictures when I have problems. I was doing a pencil portrait of my aged mother when I realized my rendition of her hands was not working well at all. I did these additional sketches  trying to understand the particular characteristics of her hands - the enlarged knuckles in crooked fingers for example.  This is one of those instances where some knowledge and prior practice would be useful!  It's really back to the books time!

I've often had students who thought it my duty to teach them "how-to-draw" what ever their current interest was whether cat, dog, horse, super hero, or anything.  If you have been following this blog for any length of time you know my emphasis has always been observation, "learning to see",  so what-ever your particular subject, even something unfamiliar, you'd have some success in drawing it.  Beyond that, research is the answer.  When confronted by a problem like the hands above, check out a basic artists' anatomy for realistic depictions of bone, muscle and ligature relationships then go to a good "how to" volume for diagramatic construction tips.  Between those actions and some quality observation,  you should be (and I should have been) able to draw an observed hand in any position.  (Still, that foreshortening can be tough!)

Yes, if you have a particular interest, do some real research, get to be the expert so that your work is understandable, unified, interesting to look at and interesting to do. I often talk here about the importance of observation and at times even preach acceptance of distortion in your drawings BUT context is important!  The whole drawing, the whole figure in this case, should meet the same basic standards and the drawing of the lovely model above clearly misses the mark in that left hand.  Mea Culpa!


"Difficulties come not to obstruct, but to instruct."   Brian Tracy

"When I see nature I see it ready-made, completely written - but then, try to do it!"   Claude Monet

Two Blue Ladies

Yes, two on blue paper,  one in ink with added white hi-lights, the other, brown pencil with white, but that's not the end of the connections or problems.  At first the things that link these two for me are wild hair, strong facial features and hands.  The right hand of the young woman on the pillow is so-so, - just a hand, not very carefully drawn, but her left hand is quite personal and expressive. It looks as if it is in a position often taken, one very natural. In writing about this person, you would likely have more to say about that left hand than the other.  I'd be happier had I drawn both hands a bit larger but still with more emphasis on the left. 

This seated woman's right hand, resting lightly on the wooden chair arm pushes out toward us. Even tho' basically accurate, I think those fingers also could be a bit larger. BTW, take note of the light falling on those fingers, pointed up by the small dark shadows on her knuckles. See how this helps define the form.

In the end, it's perspective that unites these two drawings. Our point of view, high in the first, low in the second, is shown by perspective, - eye level high in one,  low in the other. In the seated figure that hand resting lightly on the chair-arm is just at our eye-level so the fingers and knuckles hide the rest of the hand. The nearest breast is higher than the other because they are above our eye level.  Likewise,  looking at the perspective in the body and legs of the reclining woman, - the feet look so small because of the (exaggerated?) distance.  I'd like to see the same "distortion" reversed in that near hand, larger because it is so much closer and more interesting.


I know, this is not the most exciting post in the world but linear perspective can be helpful, restricting or something to be pushed aside depending on your outlook and purpose.  Use it carefully, exaggerate it or ignore it entirely, it is part of your visual vocabulary.  As I often say, it's your work, your art, - just do it!

"What a delightful thing this perspective is!"   Paolo Uccello

"Perspective is a ghastly mistake which has taken four centuries to redress."   Georges Braque