TV games

  

I really do like drawing directly from life but when unable to get out to the weekly figure sessions or even out to get an oil change with sketch book in hand, next best thing is TV. I like interesting faces and you have to go along way to find more interesting features than on our esteemed public figures and commentators.  It is a real challenge to catch a pose or specific character as the camera switches from one speaker to another. Working a couple of figures at the same time is the way to go!  Switch back and forth. - It's fun!

I watch C-span, listen to the debates and do quick portraits as speakers present one political point or another.  BTW, I find that starting with the nose, working out toward the sides of the face, and up and down to finish is best. The nose becomes a central reference for size and positioning of other elements, and that way you are never stuck without room to fit various features within a certain space.

Working directly, as I do, with a fine line pen sharpens perception and forces constant evaluation and re-evaluation of your judgments about relative size and placement of various elements. I usually draw much the same way when out in public drawing people in doctors' waiting rooms or auto service centers. If you start with those figures close by then work back into the drawing one figure (or element) at a time, all will fall into place!

Call it  portrait or caricature, it still works!

Who the heck is Tim Lynch?

..

 ..and T.W.?


"Only God creates, the rest of us just copy."  Michelangelo

The News

I had intended to make this post about trees in general, - showing a number of different  types I'd drawn while cataloging my efforts to point out their varied structures. Looking at this one pine was enough though,  - this tree was the  right one!  I'd eyed it in the past but for one reason or another I'd missed doing it several times.  Had I never drawn it,  I'd be mourning.

This tree along with a few smaller, stood for years near our doctor's parking lot, breaking the cold west wind in winter, casting soft shadows in hot summer days. Imagine a slow moving woman returning to what could have been a boiling car to catch her breath after some cosmic news. Good or bad, that tree would have helped. Now it's gone.

It stood in the way of, - yes, a larger parking lot! The doctor is gone, his office demolished, - a nearby business needed to expand. The clear cutting must have something to do with insurance or a limited budget.  It's certainly easier to bring in the dozers to make it all smooth, open and clean, - so, no complications, no problems, - and no tree!

You can see I had time, so no hurried sketch,  no rush to another errand.  I really enjoyed drawing it, getting to know it.  Glad I did!

    "The purpose of life is to remember."   Henry Miller

 "It is only a little planet, but how beautiful it is."  Robinson Jeffers

Caught in the Act!

Paul is a favorite to draw because of the variety of modeling jobs he is able to handle. He is also a favorite because of his accessible anatomy, - bones, muscles, tendons, -  structure there to see. No need to guess! He has been in the game for many years and has developed a wide variety of wonderful poses. He needs very little  direction, - just a bare suggestion and he seems to read your mind. From the sublime to the ridiculous this guy does it all!  Not many of his poses are as easy as that above, so shhh, - he may be meditating!

Paul is a musician, dancer, writer and "in- depth" yoga practician.  His "yoga" poses are phenomenal, - wish I had some here!   Here he is in three short poses, a few seconds each.  In this sequence he had run through many poses,  one right after another while I raced to jot down the essential action!  It's gesture drawing!

You say you have no model?  No problem!  Next busy shopping day go spent some time in a food store parking lot and draw people as they pass. They'll be carrying grocery bags, leaning as they push carts, bending over loading purchases into cars, etc. Look quickly trying to catch the figure shape and action as if in a stop-action photo, then draw what you remember without looking at that person again.  Work very fast without regard for detail.  When finished go right on to the next
person happening by.
                                          

Try it anywhere there are people moving.  Look hard and fast, - draw quickly and deliberately! Don't be critical.  Do not erase!  Just do it! This is great practice in learning to "see", which is the first step in learning to draw!

In Kipling's Just So stories, a wise Mother Jaguar chastises her cub ("ever so many times") always ending with a very pointed,  "Do you see?"    -   Well, do you?                                                                                                                                                                              

I love drawing organic shapes,  - people, certainly. - and things like the old sleeping bag Paul reclines on in the top picture. By adding highlights only to the body and not to the sleeping bag,  a nice contrast is created between the two. Without actually rendering both textures, we point up the difference between skin and fabric.


"Those who dance are considered insane by those who cannot hear the music."   George Carlin

Love & Hate

Here are three nudes,  - all done with Prismacolor pencil on Canson Paper, - none really finished. You can see in the lower two  slightly looser ways of working than my usual clean line as seen in the reclining nude.   It's a more forgiving technique where a few extra lines are no problem and can even be positive since it gives a softer appearance. As we've noted in the past, the added white gives a convincing sense of form, produces a relatively realistic





rendering of the figure and a recognition that this is a particular person posing as opposed to just "a nude".  Though just sketches, they are still portraits. Even the reclining figure is a likeness.

It's amazing how quickly form pushes out from the background when even this small amount of white is applied,  - even the coarse hatched application works nicely!  I like that white hatching, - in it you see the hand of the artist at work!  (Pay no attention to the "bandaged" ankle, - I was a bit heavy handed!)

John Singer Sargent, a fine American artist, loved white! He would often pose models wearing white so that he could point out the variety of color within the whites. Adding the strongest lights in pure white, he produced great contrast and some dramatic interest. Look at those splotches of sunlight! Without those this painting would have been soft, flat, much less interesting. We could have missed seeing the figures and appreciating those splayed legs. (Very much the subject!) In the charcoal sketch below, Sargent used white chalk to add high-lights to the drapery of a cloak, again adding contrast and enhancing the form of the folds.   

Speaking of contrast, I'm probably crazy to place my work anywhere near the work of a master like this, - but I had to make my point about the use of white in drawing, right?    Damn, that hurts!


While we have Sargent's wonderful works here, let me talk a bit about something opposite white high-lights,  - a particular use of shading. Notice how he has obscured the face in his draped figure by putting it in shadow.  It is basic human nature to be attracted to faces but unlike my pencil portraits above,  Sargent wanted our focus to be the drapery and the total figure, not the particular person.  Even in the painting above where the people posing were his personal friends, he left the faces somewhat undefined so that we'd see the whole composition rather than focusing on individual personalities. Here we see the faces as repeated shapes, three orbs echoing the repetition of the three pyramidal leg shapes in the foreground.  John Singer Sargent was an artist who not only could  draw and paint,  he composed his subjects with integrated line, light, shape, shade and color to produce beautifully designed pieces, - Master works!


It really does hurt!  

"Nothing is anything by itself, only in relation to other things."  Robert Levers

Tough Life

On a recent visit to the Tang Museum at Skidmore College I found a very interesting and powerful exhibit.  It is the work of  New York artist Nancy Grossman.  Prior to this show I knew of her leather encased "Self Portrait" sculptures of the 1960's & 70's, - but I'd seen only a couple.  These strange Leather wrapped heads (and One torso) are both absolutely gorgeous and gut touching, They speak of dire day-dreams, contemporary anxiety and perhaps, sexual exploration/exploitation. Here in her work is a marvelous appreciation of the natural material, an amazingly high level of leather craftsmanship and more than a hint of dark foreboding.

  

I like them!

The works which confront the viewer as we enter the gallery are some that look at first like large dark paintings but are complex assemblages of metal, rubber, leather and other found materials. Where the heads are encased in sumptuously buffed leather, these are crusty old straps, cracked rubber hoses, partially rusted pipe, etc., all looking as if retrieved from stable floor or muddy gutter where they'd been stomped and stuck together by time.  (I do wish I had photos!) They are much less confrontational than the heads and have a far more easy presence on the walls.

I was completely surprised by Grossman's beautiful drawings, some like the one on the left, really energetic, others very finely detailed pen and ink like seminal "plans" for her sculptural heads and bodies. Nice stuff! I think they may have been done with another favorite, the Koh-i-noor Rapidograph Pen, which allowed her to render tiny buckles, finely stitched leather belts and multiple zippers. (Bless people who draw!) The strong drawing here on the left, found online, echoes some of the sculptural pieces you'll find lined up on display where they confront you, - eye to eye!

The over-riding message is one of suppressed violence, quiet sensuality, physical inhibition, - all eerily quiet and oddly devoid of struggle, - as if the subject has accepted the bondage as a self imposed "natural" state.  The leather bound full figure at the top lifts its arms not in protest but in acquiescence.  

 The show, titled "Tough Life Diary",  runs through May 20th.
 Run up to Saratoga Springs and see it.  -  I'll roll along again myself!

 "Anxiety is the hand maiden of creativity."    T. S. Eliot

Down Time

   

So there I was  in the hospital again, with little to do but wait. The guy in the next bed kept me awake half  the night with his rambling delusional talk, mostly mumbling in his sleep. He was a real piece of work!  I never could speak with him directly.  He was mostly "out of it". ( I wonder, - could it be he was a drinker?  Nah!) As I do sometimes I added "text" to the drawing to capture the spirit of the moment.   Read it and, ...  Bleep!

On the left is the record of another time waiting in a hospital room.  This time, I think, in the aftermath of a "stent" procedure.  There were no problems and this time no "interesting" room-mate to keep me company so I did what comes naturally and made a drawing to memorialize the occasion.  It is self explanatory.


It seems to be in the natural order of things to spend a fair amount of time visiting Doctors and hospitals. Aside from the aging process, I have the additional problem of paraplegia so I guess it is my lot, (as it is with so many people) but I really do get tired of constantly "taking time" from the activities and people I love.  I swear, between the medical appointments, the additional time it takes for simple daily activities and the time I must be "horizontal" each day, there's little left for much else!



"A Hospital is no place to be sick."  Samuel Goldwyn

"There's time enough, but none to spare."  Charles Chesnutt

Clipped Nude

Since most of my figure drawings will not fit on the scanner at all, it's been quite awhile since I've posted a nude here. This one barely made it by clipping off a couple of edges. The elbow is no great loss but I'm really sorry to lose that left foot! I know it's possible to do separate scans of individual halves then use a stitching utility in some program like Photo Shop or Illustrator to seamlessly join the two.  Perhaps when I find the secret, that could be the subject of a future blog post. You never know!

For those unfamiliar with my figure drawings, the medium is Prismacolor Pencil on Canson Pastel paper.  I work directly without preliminary sketches. I never erase!  That's basically the same way I approach drawing figures with ink.  This technique often introduces distortion so I don't expect the figure to be perfect, - I love the challenge though! There is one thing here that I do regret. It's that we cannot see the right foot either!  Even tho' drawn correctly, having it lost in a fold as well as hidden under the calf  looks wrong.  Too late now!

                 "Naked is a human commodity. Nude is God's art."  David Allio
       

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

Pain Story

When we see a wheelchair using person it's natural to respond to the obvious; here's someone who cannot walk, - and if you think a bit more about it, bless yourself for having avoided a similar fate. It can happen to anyone, out of nowhere, in an instant.

A spinal-cord injury affects each in many ways well beyond the simple fact of paralysis and in unique fashion from person to person depending on a variety of factors like age, extent of damage, level of injury in the spine,  etc. Mine was a crushed T-12 vertebra, just at the bottom of the rib cage.  Almost a year ago, I did a post here entitled, "I lied!', about my emotional state after injury and wrote of my early "denial" and eventual acceptance of the situation. Drawings done then illustrated my mental state.  I was a real mess, but with time, rehab exercises and good counseling I made substantial gains.  With these small tempera paintings, derived from quick, almost automatic sketches, I  want to describe that personal journey and a few of its unique problems. As Sgt. Joe Friday always said,   "... just the facts, M'am".

Paraplegia impinges on major functions like those of bladder, bowel and mobility. (Sex is another story) While those are major issues, - obvious badges of "the club" so to speak, - it is the unseen, unexpected aspects of paraplegia that mark daily life minute to minute. My subject is "pain" and the wide variety of sensations present on a daily basis.

It was absolute numbness at first, a soft "nothing" from the waist down, - a total loss of function and control. This also implies loss of sensation but that's not necessarily so.  True, you can stick pins (or Nails!) into me without a twinge, but that's not the whole story.  Some seem to be natural pain, like "gas" or back pain from sitting in just one position but others are quite strange. My first time sitting up felt as if I were balanced on a soft, under-inflated beach ball, - an unsteady "non-contact".  Sitting here now, I'm "aware" of that contact, the weight on the cushion but it's "learned" rather than felt.  There's quite a catalog.

Now, my feet are burning!   The soles often burn and tingle!  When I have a full bladder, "Someone" twists my toes and pushes wooden wedges between them. Bubbles percolate up and down through leg muscles.  Everyone knows what a "wedgie" is, - how about a virtual "sandy-pants wedgie"? The crunch of new dry snow under foot is pleasant but vibrating through my ankles sans snow is not happy.  If I scratch a certain spot on my chest I feel it on my left shin just below the knee.  It's all just a bit disconcerting!

One very real curse is a hyper-sensitive four inch band around my waist. When first home from the hospital in an awfully hot August,  I could hardly move and needed help in many ways.  I remember my wife trying to wash me and asking for an electric fan to counter the terrible heat. It was impossible! The breeze passing over that part of my body produced excruciating pain.  I couldn't stand it!  You can rub a hand over that area or press down on the skin with no problem but dragging a light feather over it produces wild pain!  Mmm, Fun!

Within weeks of first injury a tiny pin-point of bare pain appeared deep in my lower abdomen.  Over time it has grown to dominate my days. Drugs have no affect. Even narcotics injected directly into the spinal column didn't touch this deep pain. It's not "horrible" pain (Been There!) but a constant burning pressure, hardly varying from day to day or hour to hour.  Only twice in twenty years has that fiery knot disappeared.  It was as if a plug had been pulled and the pain just drained away!  It was wonderful for a space of perhaps twenty seconds,  then slowly "re-filled" to its former intensity.

This part of the story is not all negative. A wonderful therapist helped me learn to handle that particular pain with a simple visualization technique.  With intense concentration on the pain and assigning specific characteristics of color, shape and texture, you can "see" it as an actual object. (In my case, a "Fuzzy Orange Ball")  The pain, then, is not pain but seems "something else"!    I love it!

Andre Breton said, "The man who cannot visualize a horse galloping on a tomato is an idiot."

Hey, maybe it's a good thing I'm an artist!


"We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey"  Kenji Miyazawa 

Time... and Time Again.

Just looking at older work, perhaps self portraits in particular, is often  somewhat strange. We have a mind's eye concept that persists for ages  until a time when life creeps up, wipes a slow hand over that image and makes you wonder where you've been.

The pencil portrait on the left pretty much meshed with my self concept for so long the mirror seemed immutable. Still a bit boyish in that drawing done at age sixty, I had an easy confidence in time's slow pace. While aware of ultimate mortality, it seemed so long too distant to matter but I've had a few too many reminders lately, - the deaths of old friends and colleagues who were much too young for that last occassion. Some are even now fitting foot to that proverbial banana skin.

Time matters!   For the most part,  I've tried to make it count.

This pencil portrait technique, tho' not exactly the same thing, came out of hours invested learning to draw with etching needles,  lithographer's crayons and then (again) with pen while pursuing my masters degree.  That pen, an earned favorite, was special.

Here on the right below is an early try at self portrait in ink, done well before my hirsute '"Hippie"days. There I am in 1966 suitably serious with my newly acquired Kohinor Rapidograph Pen. a beautiful black instrument looking much like the Classic Mont Blanc fountain pen but internally morphed directly from a technical draftsman's tool.  It could be quirky and temperamental, clogging almost every time used.  The later, newer ones seemed even worse!  They had to be dismantled, cleaned, refilled and re-started after each use.   I still loved them,  damned quirks and all!

I've included this early stab at self-portrature to demonstrate  progress over time. It takes practice to achieve a high skill level with any serious tool but once well used to the Rabidograph I produced a series of fine-hatched large (22x30) semi-surreal images that are included in good collections across the country and abroad.

Check the difference between the techniques in the ink portrait and the image below. They are worlds apart in quality! Sorry my color scan from a slide image is not the best, (Perhaps I can replace it later) but along with the close-up images below, you should have a fair idea of what the series was like.





Below left is a partial image, approximately one quarter of the 22x30 original.  On the right is an original size detail to give you an enlarged look at the hatching technique used. The image is on Arches Cover Weight, a print-makers rag paper,  a wonderful surface which works beautifully with the Rapidograph.  Even though these are 30 to 50 hour drawings, I loved the long hours building tone, texture and form. I enjoyed the repetitive strokes making marks add up to strong subject matter,  - Images consistent with my oft stated goal of objects interesting across the room and more interesting up close.

I want people to appreciate the actual work involved, the detail and texture, - the time spent as well as the "picture" itself.  Look at these side-by-side images.  On the left the original drawing,  - or  as much as would fit on the scanner,  - on the right an actual size "detail" where you can see the technique up close. I  haven't worked that way in a while but think I should give it a whirl again.  Y' think?

Hey, what do I have to lose? ... Life slips by, - well used or not!



"We work not only to produce but to give value to time."  Eugene Delacroix