Ever have one of those days? (Boys WIP 3)

You know the sort of day I mean...where every time you pour, you spill, every time you throw something away it hits the lip of the can and crumbles to the floor, where the grease monkeys at the car place look at you like "lady, even I know you should have combed your hair this morning", where you try to adjust the rearview mirror in traffic and it comes off in your hand...

Maybe you don't know, but I have plenty of them, today being my latest of these I'm-too-nerdy-for-the-world days. Normally, it would be a good day for picking up the pencil, but today I just knew I'd find new levels of nerdness, instead of peace and confidence. And, about that, I was right.

Since I haven't posted in a few days, I felt I owed it to you faithful few to post something. So, here's the latest of my WIP. I've messed all over this today. I'm hoping that most of it can be corrected with more values work.

As always, comments and criticisms are welcome...

Boys WIP 2

Just a quick post today, with the tremendous weather today there is soccer practice. As you can see, I filled in my second son on yesterday's work. I did the "auto correct" in the image editor just so that you can see more of the shading, because it is still light at this stage. There is definitely unevenness to how this is developed at the moment, but I will correct that when I move to the real surface. Also, there is some distortion at the top because I had the paper propped against a wall. Hopefully you get the idea anyway.

Tomorrow I plan to "fill-in" number three. If that goes as planned, I will declare myself happy enough with the drafts to move to the real paper. We'll see.

Quick Post of Stage 1

These two faces are looking at me from the screen, but their hands are scratching at my door. So just a quick post to say that I've made some headway in the rendering of one face. The other two are outlined and you can almost see one of those in the above image. I'll probably do a similar thing for the other two boys, and then I'll move off the tracing paper onto a real surface.

Polite comments and criticisms are welcome (do keep in mind this is a "first draft" and I wouldn't consider it finished.)

Off to bake cookies...

A Reference Photo

This is what I do when I am not blogging or drawing, do I have a good life or what?

This is the reference photo for my next project. I'm spending a bit of time trying to get the drawing just how I want it. Then, this is one of those things that I'd like to try doing several ways. So...graphite drawing on white paper, near monochrome on colored paper with white highlights, an Ann Kullberg style colored pencil painting, and who knows what else.

While I've been working on this the last few days Sargent's voice has come back into my head. How refreshing!

Sweet and Sour

Yesterday was a day of epic battles with the, for now, nameless computer store. We've got another loaner and serious doubts that they will ever fix our computer. The loaner has Vista, so we can call it our free trial!

But there was a bright spot in the day. I opened the Costco-laden refrigerator glanced at the sack of red bell peppers and the sack of Granny Smiths and just laughed out loud. It was such a funny juxtaposition of sweet and sour, I just had to race in and draw it.

A Language Barrier

Yesterday I promised that study of the self-portrait...today I am failing to fulfill it. I did finish the study, but it doesn't flatter Vincent or me. My goal in doing it was to try and get an understanding of what he was going for.

You see, I read somewhere, about his self-portraits:

• that the anatomy is different in each one (intentionally I presume - because he was a draughtsman)
• this was due to his desire to represent himself differently to different people.

And more generally,

• he was trying to give an impression, rather than realism in his work
• his stroke work was intentional, he wanted that barrier between art and life.

OK, so I figured the green face was trying to tell me something. (The print I drew from had stronger greens and blues than this image.) So, try as I might, with each stroke, I racked my brain about what he was telling me. But, I confess, I just didn't get it. I don't know what he was trying to say, or how he was trying to represent himself.

So, I decided that was the end of my Van Gogh study. Then, as I was falling asleep last night, I thought about doing something with his color choices. In the end, I came up with this still-life (the image isn't cropped well-the blank at the top should be ignored :-). It has the deep blue, orange-red, and sage green that his portrait has. I didn't want it to have a polished/smooth blending feel to the pencil strokes(which it doesn't), but I couldn't find a way to "translate" his emotive brush into colored pencil. Looking at it, there isn't much Vincent there, but it was an attempt to honor someone that everyone else finds so alluring.

This still-life will be the end of my Van Gogh study for the month. I have some other things that I want to get underway before there is an artist to study for March!

Back to a Portrait...

While I was still playing around with what to do for a van Gogh landscape, I remembered that I have a calendar with a van Gogh self-portrait in it. So, I am doing a little study on that. It isn't finished yet, so I just thought that I would throw something else up. Here's a sketch I did plein air several years ago. We took a marvelous holiday to the Lake District - I sketched every day and had a double scoop cone of mint chocolate chip ice cream every day...it was truly marvelous! At the time I was quite impressed with this drawing - as it went from eye to pen with no pencil guidelines. I felt quite brave. Looking at it now, I think my "constraint" shows through, to the drawing's detriment.

Hope to have the study of Vincent's self-portrait up soon.

A New Respect for Vincent

At the beginning of February I said that I took up this month's study of Van Gogh with reluctance. My "objection" is two-fold. For one, I hate that "tortured soul" aspect of his work. Secondly, while others praise his patterned stroke-work as emotive, I just see "this is all I can do with paint." So I quickly moved onto his drawings. (I was just trying to be honest, not arrogant. He was, after all, human and our society has made him into something else.)

My last post had a quick study of his "Landscape with a Church." Today I went for a fuller study, above is my effort. I must say I have a new respect for Vincent (this is how he would want me to refer to him, as I'm an American and don't pronounce his name as he wanted it pronounced.) Yes, his work is filled with "patterned" strokes that are not always successful - look at those twigs in his trees (I know that his drawing is not a finished work, but the same thing applies to some of his paintings.) But it is also filled with strokes that are successful, deceptively simple, and difficult to replicate.

As I worked on this I had all sorts of questions...

• what is his focal point? The church is in the center and the most detailed, but it's in the back.
• are the people important? I nearly missed them.
• is there a door on the church? Is that intentional? Wait, maybe it's open...well, no, I don't know what that is.
• did he just find bare trees interesting? Maybe they are not such metaphorical insights into his soul as we make them to be.
• why does this drawing appeal to me if I can't find a focal point or emotional emphasis?
• if I tried to just draw a building, with trees in front and a few random backsides, would it be nearly so successful and engaging - I know the answer to this one, NO.
  

I also found that my hand was trembling at the end of this short drawing. I've done pen and ink work before, that doesn't usually happen to me. So, I'm being honest again, there is more to Vincent's drawing skill than I before admitted. As well, I think his composition choice here is masterful.

So, I am thankful to the Fine Line Artists for their push in the Van Gogh direction. Be sure to check out Katherine Tyrrell's post about the project and her list of participants. They are all very talented artists with insightful blogs. I benefit greatly from their work and wisdom.

Falling...into a Snowy Lane

Just a quick post today, again, life is moving at a fast pace. Here is the waterfall to date. I hope to have it nearly completed after this afternoon. The second image is a 5 minute sketch from one of Van Gogh's drawings "Landscape with a Church". It is from 1883 - so an early work. As I search for something to do with this project for the month I am finding myself more drawn to his early works.

Things I like about this drawing of his:

• the church is done almost entirely with values and no outline
• the church also has surprising suggestion of detail to it
• the figures are quickly done and yet suggestive (something that he later strove for, according to a letter I saw quoted)
• his pen and ink work is well done

Where my project and this drawing may collide:

• I'm going with the bared tree look
• it seems he always has a "lane" going somewhere in his landscapes, so I gotta have one of those
• I may do a "translation" (as he called some of his own work) of this - so I'll have bared trees along a road, four figures with backs turned, a building in the middle of the background (i.e. all the same elements, in the same places) but somehow make them my own - so they may be people in modern dress, trees I see everyday, a building I am familiar with, etc.
• something I read said that he would look at a scene and then turn his back and do what he wanted with the impression that the look left on his mind - so I may go for that, the 5 minute sketch being my "look"

Those are my thoughts for now...no guarantees, it may all change. Off I go...

Blasts from the Past...

Well, that busy weekend has carried it's busy-ness right into the week. Here it is Tuesday afternoon already. I did manage more work on the waterfall this weekend. Most importantly, I decided that I really only want to do half the waterfall and no more. So, I am nearly done, despite the little progress I made, but I think that I've gotten out of it what I wanted.

Part of the busy weekend was a baby shower - I was supposed to bring a baby photo. I spent five minutes looking for one as I doubted that I had one. But, in the five minutes I managed to find an old sketchbook (this is what happens to people who move inter-continentally - nothing is ever where it should be :-). Anyway, these are circa 1999. I did several versions of the bottles and peppers, attempting various pen-and-ink styles. The flowers were a WIP (and still are today!) And on that note, off to my waterfall, lest it suffer the fate of the flowers.

A Bit More...

Second post for today. Just wanted to show progress is being made. I'm off to frying taco shells and a busy weekend...

Still Freefalling...

So I moved out of the moleskine and onto bristol board (approx 7"x12"). I've done maybe one more level of rock and laid out the rest of the fall and the surrounding greenery. That was all I could manage yesterday. For some reason, I am having to concentrate much more on this than on the portraits. I suppose I am just less familiar with this and so caution weighs me down with each stroke and I tire more quickly. I am still enjoying it, immensely, in fact, but after forty minutes I was ready for a break.

February's artist is VanGogh. I'm going to be honest here. I struggle with Vincent. Bottom line, I think, is that I am only familiar with his more famous works and most of them have that "tortured soul" aspect to them. Some people call this his genius, after all his torture still speaks to generations whose lives are completely different than his. But, I feel like I am rubbernecking at a crash site when I am looking at his works. That is a very "Pollyanna" kind of thing to say (and reveals the deepness of my ignorance, I'm sure). But, I'll confess, I like happy endings, I don't like unhappy endings. I read alot of non-fiction, so I have my fill of unhappy endings. In fiction, and art, I look for happy endings. In artwork, I even appreciate intense "unhappy" if there is a "grander plan" aspect to it. But his work tends to just be too much for me.

That said, I have plenty to learn from him, he is a genius, and a master worthy of attention. In fact, I began dabbling in his drawings and am very intrigued. He has a bunch of landscapes - so therein probably lies my participation in the Van Gogh project for this month.

The Plunge

This is a bad photo - you can't really see anything, but I just wanted to keep myself honest and blog something today. (If you click on the image, it does get a little better.) I began this waterfall yesterday. Initially I thought, I can't pull this off, but I'll try it because I don't want to run scared from waterfalls forever. I've succeeded enough that I think I'll have a go at doing the whole fall. Hence, I feel myself to be taking a plunge.

Hopefully the next post will be a stage 1 shot of the fall with surrounding greenery...