Infinite pandemic = Infinite drawing.

The drawing and the dry painting all worked together toward a cohesive aesthetic.

I went back into this one to see if I could expand the greyscale, and refine the light vs shadow. Below is the former “finished” work posted last week.

I like to do drawerings…

Charcoal drawing on 18 x 24. Trying something new; dry painting with value design. Lots of potential.

Last week I finished out my online advanced drawing course, and this week I began a new course on figure painting. The first half of the course focuses on design ideas particular to painting, as different from drawing. First up, vine charcoal for reducing the figure to a pattern of light and shadow, cast shadow vs core shadow, then pulling bounced light. A lot larger scale, a singular focus for a longer set, and lots of new learning curve to grapple with. Arty Fun!

From last week. Five minute poses three times.

Final week of anatomical drawing-focused gestures, extended multiple times.

Art (drawing) & Craft (weld).

All three aero-mods with reinforcing weld along the bend lines. The raised tabs (left & right top) are fortified with triangular wedges, and I extended the mid-plate with tabs (bottom of image) to grab the factory original holes on the bumper.

To bend the metal I cut a groove along the bend-line, then used boards and clamps to apply even force (so much force that I snapped off the edge of my workbench table top). Once bent these lines become brittle, and the vibration and wind-force could cause them to shear- the little bead welds rejoin both sides of the line without blowing out the thinner metal of the cut-line.

Burly male model. At L are 1 & 2 minute gestures in sienna, then run once more for brown, black, and white. 5 min at R.

10 min. x 2 The whole session seemed just on the verge of collapse, and I felt I barely made it out alive. The struggle is in not copying, but in responding to the form. This means seeing the architecture of the body within the multitudes of specific confusions, and modulating response of eye to hand with a subtle constant corrective. Sometimes this is a fun flow, and others it is a mental gymnastic that seems just behind physical coordination- while also being the inverse, a physical infirmity that lags just behind a vast intellectual problem.

Non-sequitur creative outlets.

A quicker set today, doing only two rounds instead of three- with brown for the first round, then black, and white for the second.

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  One minute and two minute drawings, two rounds. I like the directness of mark making to build volume.

Our windstorm blew itself out and the day was nice enough to install/fit the passenger side aeromod. A bolt sheared off and needed drilling out and retapping- all because the hole in the plate was just out of alignment. All fixed.

Tomorrow’s job is welding on a few small reinforcing triangles. Along the lower drop line is a tab bent up to connect to the flange of truck undercarriage. The weld will ensure it doesn’t shear at the bend line. This is the third point of contact (held with a stainless steel bolt, not in place here, but you can see the hole), and although minimal, offers a huge amount of stability.

Satdoodles.

Putting lots of gestures on one bigger page, as I have a few old mostly used up drawing pads around. I like seeing the sketches all in relationship with each other. The gestures are 5 x 1 minute, 5 x 2 minutes, and 2 x five minutes; and then I break from the reality of life-model drawing and run the set twice more, so 5x3min, 5x6min, 2x15min. I do the initial set in a light h (hard) led pencil, the second set is an hb pulling out form, and the last set in b(soft) looking for weighted line and values.

I did the two longer drawings from this set in pen and ink, not picutred (and one from the set below)

I do like working one image per page, as the smaller size is constraining.

Big swooping gesture is particular to bigger drawing.

When a bigger individual piece is working, I may give it another five minutes- as in this 20min session.

Dream Gardening: spring giraffes.

Map out your garden when fall-planting, ensuring the location of each giraffe. Set no demarcations. When tufted black knob-horns protrude from soil, the giraffe is ready for gentle removal from the earth. Coax the giraffe out with the firmness of pulling a carrot. When you feel the giraffe stir and surge upward, ease your hand along the upper shell casing surrounding the neck (velvety feel). Use the shell to press a larger hole while protecting the giraffe. The giraffe can now be calmly lifted. Place giraffe on fresh-mowed grass in shade. Feed fresh Lilac bloom for the first hour.

Dreamed of a spring garden with hidden giraffes sprouting. Thought I’d share it, figuring it may be just the thing you didn’t know you needed right now.

Ink Sketch

Gymnast on bar. Dynamic pose with dual foreshortening  of up/in, in layered ink marker. Her L leg needs more lift, and her body should coil over her arms with more tension: ink is unforgiving, but brings added depth to a sketchy-doodle.

Figure Gestures

2 minute plus 2 minute: 20 count of 2 minute drawings, then returned for another set of 2 minutes per drawing. Then without the model, pulled out favorite lines in darker pencil.

extended drawing at larger scale

Because: overstreaming of Dead Author’s Podcast

graphite extended drawing

Sketch w/ exteded drawing

Sketch

Gravity-storm of Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving can make gravity seem extra aggressive. I liked the twist from pelvis to shoulder, and tension of the R leg through the torso to the L arm- lots of skeletal structure coming to the surface, offering tendon and muscle anchor points. Fun stuff.