Consequences

Back on May 7th I did a post titled "Adjustments".  One of the drawings there was the precursor to this painting. It was not a linear progression or logical developement from one to the other but an intuitive creation. I explained that it wasn't until the drawing was finished that I recognized it's origins. I'd been thinking about a painting series in which I'd consciously explore the story of my original injury, trying to recall, re-experience and react to the various situations in which I'd found myself 20 years ago.  Here pictured are two newly minted paraplegics in the hospital spinal cord injury recovery unit, cut off from past lives and cut from much of our physical selves.  I also explained my displeasure with the painting compared to the drawing and at that time did not post it, but now confined to my bed again (Again!) with another  wound,  I'm posting that painting, the only painting I can "reach" at this time via my laptop.  It is tempera on Arches cold press watercolor paper approximately 4x7 inches.  (Once mobile I'll add the drawing here but until then I suggest you check the earlier post for context and comparison)


When first injured I faced my new circumstance with a positive outlook, dealing with the losses and "additions", the wheelchairs, catheters, auto hand controls, etc.  I didn't see the long term aspects - the atrophied muscles, brittle bones, and fragile skin, - all potential problems, - all land mines!  Now I'm abed nursing a deep ulcer, attached to a vacuum pump to speed the healing, trying to avoid new problems posed by long term prone position.  If this were a conversation,  my good friend Garry would be saying, "You should have thought of that!", - a typically pointed Garry-ism.  I know he's  joking , but I hear his message. 


The subject  is "Consequences"!  A miss-placed mark or a minor ink spill in a drawing can be dealt with.  A major mishap may require trashing the paper and starting anew.  If you want, take wild chances in your art.  Draw with abandon!  Doodle madly!  Paint up a storm!  But ....... as Capt. Furillo of Hill Street Blues often said, "Let's be careful out there!"

Bed Time

W.C. Fields said, "The best cure for insomnia is to get a lot of sleep."

When you think about it, it's amazing how much total time we spend in bed. Ordinarily there'd be no one to observe you dreaming unless you are part of a sleep disorders research effort, but scattered among the pages of my sketch books are several drawings of my wife asleep.   Here we are in the early morning hours, she snug under the covers and I demonstrating my chronic insomnia and compulsive need to observe and draw.

For those who wonder, drawing folds in cloth is an age old drawing practice dating back to medieval times. I've drawn many a draped cloth! BTW, I've found that drawing a simple piece of crumpled paper is much like doing folds in cloth as well as excellent practice in "seeing".  Tho' simple, it's really more complicated than you might think.  Try it!

The best cure for poor drawing is to do a lot more of it.


This post is very topical!  I'm stuck in bed and out of commission for the next month, so will post when I can.

"Keys"

Drawing is like any other endeavor where skill is important. You must practice!  Unlike musical practice, you can work on your drawing skills just about anywhere, - anytime.  This drawing is a case in point.  Done a few years ago, it was the product of a long boring meeting, but could just as well have been one of those times when I wasn't able to sleep so put the time awake to good use.

Once I'd finished with the keys themselves, I started playing with the composition. I repeated the key shapes in a looser, sketchier fashion while adding other simple elements to fill the space and complete the composition.  Think of musical rhythm and how it carries you along, so repetition of design elements adds depth and fullness to a visual composition.  It's more interesting.  I also took into account the shape of the paper by making the background shapes' edges parallel to the paper's edges, the echoed edges becoming a frame of sorts. Repetition is a "key" idea in traditional design practice. (Sorry, I couldn't resist!)

If I had been intent on producing a finished work of art, I would have been more careful lining up those edges, thinking out the various background shapes, but this is only a sketch, - almost a doodle so I guess I can be forgiven. 

BTW, in adding those various elements, besides adding interest I may have introduced some confusion. While I like it as an example of drawing, I can't decide whether this is a horizontal or vertical composition.  Oye!  I'm getting dizzy looking at them!



Vertical, Right?



No?

Bad?

I spoke previously of the importance of a good model. This young woman is one of the best. She is poised, self confident and as naturally relaxed as anyone you know. She is an inspiration to the artists who surround her as they draw. Because of those qualities and because she is quite versatile, she is one of my favorites. She can hold an "action" pose, drape herself over a piece of furniture or do a languid "pin-up on pillows" pose equally well. 

One of her prime assets is the nice balance between flesh and bone which allows us to easily see and appreciate the total structure of her figure.  While not thin, as a fashion model would be, her bones are prominent enough to emphasize things like shins, knees, elbows and shoulders. I especially like her shoulders here. Too bad I didn't do as well down below. 

When drawing the lower limbs, I didn't do justice to the structure of that left leg.  It isn't finished and just isn't as believable as the right, possibly because the foot is too narrow. One excuse here; - that leg is in complete shadow, so with the technique I use that leg may have looked "flat" anyway. On top of that, I may have inadvertently shortened the left foot to make it fit comfortably in the space available. I would have done better to let that foot fade out as it approached the lower edge of the paper,  letting our minds
complete it.  As they say these days, "My bad!"

Small Loss!

And now for something completely different!  Looking way back in an early sketch book I've found a character I'd almost forgotten,  - probably a self-portrait of sorts.  This sketch was the forerunner of two large (22x30) ink drawings,  one of my most popular images.  They were both fairly straight copies of this "Guy" leaping forward, his foot pushing off from an old fashioned piano stool as he attempts flight.  One went to an active collector of my work, the other to a good friend who was just captivated by this foolish "Chicken Man", as he dubbed it, trying the impossible.  Only the second survives. The collector's house went up in flames a few years ago turning several of my works to ash and smoke.  I do miss knowing those pieces are out there giving people a bit of pleasure but, in the larger scheme of things,  it is a very small loss.

Following this drawing I did a number of works that reused the same basic idea but with other images  which were "darker" and therefor less accessible for many people. This image-idea was no doubt rooted in my responses to then current experiences and situations. At the time I felt compelled, in a sense, to create strong images and spent little time interpreting either my motivations or the results. 

I first started this post with my own interpretation of the image but in the end decided to leave it to viewers.  How would you describe this cartoonish "character"? What's his mission or motivation? What does he think he's doing?  I'd love to read your interpretation!  Please post a comment, here or on facebook!

Double Trouble

These two older drawings, done in the same session, are examples of a learning situation. The first, on grey paper was weak, - the shoulders and back were poorly defined and I'd elongated the body from shoulders to hips. I switched papers and started anew.  In the second I solved those problems and at the same time emphasized the "swing" of the body, taking note of the difference in  the planes of shoulders and hips and really defining the three dimensional aspects of the figure.  This is a better, more interesting drawing.

There may have been another factor at play here. This was likely a three hour pose and generally speaking, models do not hold a pose for long periods of time. They take breaks from time to time then get back into position. A good model has "body / muscle memory" and can regain the exact pose or very close to it.  There's another point too, - as time 'in pose' goes on, the model relaxes, the body slumps a little and the pose changes, so the artist has to compensate and make adjustments as he works.

In the end, I'm also glad I changed the paper color, it may have influenced the way I approached the work, giving the drawing more life.  On the negative side I did over-strengthen the bulge of muscle in her left leg just a bit.  Even so, while far from perfect, it's a more successful drawing. It was worth re-doing!

Just as it is important to look at the work of others, it is good practice to spend time examining and re-assessing your own product.  It's good to be self-critical, good to recognize your strengths & weaknesses, good to be aware of where you've been artistically and where you'd like to be.  Comparing one work to another or even to a range of pieces can be very beneficial.  Keep on Looking!

A Real Sketch

I've mentioned before that I keep a sketch-book in the car for those times when I may have to wait for doctor, wife or performance. These three pieces taken from my "waiting"  sketch-books, are for me the very definition of the word "sketch", - a drawing where details are barely noted, darks are massed hatchings and most lines are loose and approximate.  I use this technique when I'm sure that time is short and I want a work in which I can look back and feel that I know how the whole scene, object or building looked, - a good over-all impression.

Over the years I've found that people often use the word "sketch" as an alternative to the word "draw".  In the past when most of my drawings were many hours in the making, I cringed as they spoke, saying,  "No, a 'drawing' is a strong deliberate work, while a 'sketch' is a quick, almost off-hand sort of thing". It made sense to me, - but in the end,  as Gertrude Stein might have said, "A drawing is a drawing is a drawing".   I like it all!

Keeping it Simple

Here is a very simple drawing;  My usual combination, Prismacolor on Canson Pastel paper.  A line of varying weight describes edges and to some small extent the very darkest shadows.  White pencil highlights show not only where the light falls but also defines mid-range shadows, - the flat blue areas of the body.   Between the two we have a spare representation of 3-dimensional form viewed from ... where?   Where would you place the artist's eye-level?

It is fun sometimes to analyze, - trying to put yourself in the artist's place and ask if you understand why the work looks as it does, or ask how you would handle the same situation.  I don't know if the particular questions are important but I do know that looking at the work of others is very important.  Really looking can reveal a lot!

Early in my training a  2-d design teacher sent our class to the MFA with instructions to find an interesting work and make a faithful copy. I wandered the galleries with my little folding stool and finally settled on a one-foot square scrap of old French tapestry. It was displayed low down in a wall case, low enough that I could sit comfortably with the material at eye level.  I concentrated on the "simple" border design, - leaves, tendrils and small fruit.  Piece of cake!

Even with my intention to get through the assignment easily, I did my best to draw carefully and make a good reproduction.  It took hours of drawing and re-drawing!  As I worked I became more and more involved and began   following the artist's hand as he fitted the various elements together. It was amazing! By the time I was finished,  I was intimately aware of the mind behind the anonymous design and was literally in love with that scrap of beautiful cloth.  For many years following I never entered the Boston Museum of Fine Arts without spending time with that gorgeous little remnant.

"Some Day"

Looking through a portfolio of miscellaneous old pieces yesterday, I found this drawing done on a paper bag.  Back a few years I had a thing about pears, using the image in many different ways in major and minor pieces.  I still love the form.  In this fairly simple shape I found many references & inferences, both aesthetic and emotional.  At first glance I thought it an imaginary pear, likely done when driven to doodle, I'd grabbed my lunch bag and the nearest ball-point pen and went at it!   Closer inspection reveals the multiple shadows of an indoor setting and even traces of reflection up from the table on the lustrous underside of the fruit.  It is lunch observed!  I like the immediacy of it.

Now, seeing that mundane paper sack, I'm reminded of a certain little boy, sitting by a beautiful cast-iron  kitchen stove, drawing on a flattened grocery bag.  My grandmother had slit the bag with her bread knife, smoothed the folds and settled me down in front of her warm enameled stove to draw, not pears then but airplanes.  Her home was a stone's-throw from the airport, so planes were a natural subject. I drew all the time, every time I had a chance.  It was my recreation, my leisure time activity, and my way of exploring the world. 

It was years later that I actually thought about becoming an artist.  My mother had pointed to a Reader's Digest cover illustration saying the artist, 'Johnny' Pike, had been a schoolmate. What an amazing idea!  A real person had done that beautiful picture, a watercolor "Winter Woods" scene.  It couldn't have been much later that my blue-haired art teacher became ecstatic when she saw my purple shadows in a crayon drawing. She held it up saying how wonderful that I'd really "seen" those colors and proclaimed me a "Real Artist"!  

I didn't give John Pike credit for the inspiration then and truthfully, I discounted the appellation "artist".  It seemed to me a profession for which one had to have training, one where schooling was the answer.  While not entirely wrong, there was one major mistake in my concept, one I tried to correct  later when I had my own students. "Don't tell yourself you will someday become an artist", I'd say, "Be one now! Work at it! Do it now with whatever skills you have.  Be the artist you can be now and plan on growing!"

Perhaps you have a similar memory, a special someone who believed in you, an incident that set your direction or even an early determination of your own. Life's direction often turns on a "Time"! My friend Melissa Crandall, a wonderful storyteller, puts a photo of her young self on her published book jackets. Here she is sitting at the typewriter she asked for as a five year old!  She believed in herself early! She was then and is now, a writer!  This is the road to success. Set your sights on "being" the person you want to be.  Don't make "someday" a goal!   Just DO it!

About Accuracy

Every once in a while I'll set up a problem for myself,  - a  quick still life of sorts, - something different from the usual figures and organic forms which I've shown previously.  Here I've scattered a bunch of paint tubes in such a way that we see some in profile, others in end views, most all obliquely.  If total accuracy were my primary concern I might have resorted to linear perspective, a technical method of constructing and depicting 3-dimensional forms on a 2-dimensional surface, but that would take more time and effort than I'm willing to expend on a sketch.  Even tho' I say looking and seeing are very important, knowledge is power!   It does help to understand the rules of 2 & 3 point-perspective, so given a problem of this sort we can interpret what is seen more easily by keeping in mind the rules of perspective.   


Aside from perspective, one of the things I pay particular attention to is "negative space", the spaces between the objects. While looking at shapes of the objects themselves, observing the shapes of the spaces carefully helps over all accuracy. 

In the end, I love drawing without any intervention;  putting the pen directly to paper is a real challenge.   I accept the natural distortions resulting and enjoy the "hand-made" qualities of the final product.  For me there is so much more "life" in a drawing that looks as if a human hand did the work.  Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with accurate drawing.  A fine, beautifully rendered drawing is a joy to behold but if it truly looks like a photograph, why not use a camera?