Sweeping out the Woodshop

Here's the "finished" effort on the woodworker. That's in quotes because there is alot more work to be done on this to make it right, but enough is enough. For instance, the proportions are all wrong, more so as you go down the body! I had fun with the clothing in parts and then lost interest in other parts - all of which is clear. But for this, I was just gunning for getting in some graphite time. All this work in colored pencil has changed my graphite habits - I am constantly sharpening my pencil, as is necessary with CPs. I just get annoyed with a dull tip and the lack of control that I experience with it.

As July ends I am considering what to do in August...certainly another master...but which one? Also I need to decide whether or not to continue with the Hale's Masters series or wrap it up in a few more posts. If I continued on with it, I would likely spend some time going over his detail in the anatomy section - which bones are important and why. That is tempting for me, but maybe I'm just geeking out on it. Is anyone else interested in that sort of thing?

In the Woodshop

Found a lovely image of a woodworker today on WetCanvas. Here's where we are at after around 30 or 40 minutes. With that I am going to have to get off and take care of some other responsibilities. Sure feels good to pick up a pencil again though!

Have a nice weekend.

Having a Freak-out

Ever have one of those dreams where you come to class and you haven't done any homework all term? Ever have one of those days where you suddenly realize that you have a huge to-do list segmented all over your brain...you calmly think to grab paper and pen and let it all spill out, but then you can't find paper or pen and well, then freak-out happens?

Today is a bit of a freak-out for me. I've spent most of the day in training for my son's schooling. He is to begin a part-private-school/part-home-school program in a few weeks. It was all good information. But realizing the level of organization and discipline I am going to have to pull out of my pocket in the next few weeks was overwhelming. After I got home and started to think about it, I realized that in my feast/famine program of running our home it's bill-paying time, house-cleaning time, etc. (In other words, I have a feast of little chores that require doing and then things will quiet down for a few weeks again.)

On top of that my blog has been ignored this week and so has my art! All that to say, bear with me. I'm pulling myself together here and will be back shortly! I will have to get some sketching in, because nothing relaxes me more than that.

Two Dollar Books and Other Finds

Last night my husband and I were given free babysitting by some very generous friends of ours (our 3 + their 4 = 7 kids, with the oldest being 5!) Being the consummate nerds that we are, we went to two bookstores, a restaurant and a coffee shop. Honestly, we had a fabulous time. We came home with 14 new books! The real buying came when we hit the $2 clearance racks - in case you were curious. I must be honest, the majority of the books were mine. I've stocked myself up rather nicely for some art history reading!

Onto to Hale and his Drawing Lessons from the Great Masters. The next chapter is on artistic anatomy. Hale recommends that you find a medical supply store and buy some bones. Then, you can study them, discover where the bones and muscles meet and then you too can draw like the greats - from your imagination. While I have no trouble believing that he is right, I don't actually envision myself getting around to buying bones!

A few weeks ago though, I found a great alternative...posemaniacs. First, I didn't really find this, I saw this on someone else's blog - I think it was Dan over at emptyeasel, although I couldn't find it on a search this afternoon. If someone else saw it and knows where it is, let me know and I will give proper credit. The site is in Japanese and I think geared towards the manga crowd, but nonetheless it is very useful. For the last few weeks I have been doing 30 second poses to warm myself up for a drawing session. On other days I've just concentrated on the daily pose. They have a computer generated bones and muscle person (i.e. no skin). There is the daily pose, a gallery where you can choose poses for a certain amount of time, recent poses, and some other areas for customization. Each figure can be spun around so you can choose your viewpoint.

I am very excited to have found this resource, above is one of my sketches. If you are in the habit, or want to be, of drawing accurate figures, take a look.

Paint Spots

Just a quickie today. I'm reading Betty Edwards' book Color. One of the first exercises is to mix paints and place them in one of the seasons. It was a nice easy thing to do on a Saturday. Can you guess the seasons?

Lessons from Parrish and Rockwell

This is my review post on this month's artists: Maxfield Parrish and Norman Rockwell. I should really have a final color study to show you, but well, I'm too vain to show it. So, the month didn't turn out as I had hoped, but I have learned a few things and for that I'm grateful. Here they are:

Lessons About Parrish and Rockwell:

• They worked out all those details in their work - and it was work. I have a greater appreciation for what it takes to achieve a composition like theirs. They didn't knock those up in a day or a week. Rockwell always did a final charcoal drawing before being on the final canvas. When you look at those, they are identical to a black and white version of the final - he did dozens of charcoal drawings and color studies before that final charcoal drawing. That was weeks of work.
• They planned. Both of these artists were perfectionists. They worked each detail to it's own advantage and the advantage of the composition as a whole. That takes planning and experience.
• They had a great knowledge of their medium, the "rules" of drawing, and combined that knowledge with experience. So, their knowledge (I believe) became very instinctual to them. This enabled them to achieve more and more.
• They had confidence in their abilities and vision. They combined that confidence with perseverance in hard work.

What I bring in my backpack from this experience:

• I still have more to learn in working with color, values, and colored pencils.
• I need to keep drawing in graphite while I am working on something like this, just to keep up my confidence.
• I have grown discouraged with this project, but I don't want to quit, I'm just hungry for more knowledge.
• I need to find my strengths and play to them.
• I need to find my weaknesses and strengthen them.

Drawing from the Masters #6

This is my next installment in the Drawing Lessons from the Great Masters series.

Hale's chapter five is entitled "Position, Thrust, or Direction." He defines these terms and discusses the different uses of thrust and movement in drawing. This chapter is filled with tremendous drawings by famous men, each handling the concepts in their own way. Many of the drawings have examples of the artist figuring out the best way to place limbs or draperies.

I was quite taken with this drawing of Botticelli (go look at it, that's why I didn't include an image today). After reading Hale, here's what I see:

• Botticelli has conceived simple masses for each of the parts of the body.


• He's given general lighting characteristics to show the forms of those masses.


• He then went over the body with drapery to reinforce more of the form.


• The drapery also gives excitement or a bit of "dance" to the drawing - emphasizing what he wants to capture.


• He does this without the aid of a model.


• He does all of this consistently - to masterful effect.

Seeing drawings like those in this book, reading Hale talk about hard work, knowledge and perseverance, well, it all just makes me think da Vinci's thoughts after him...namely, that the best artist is the scientist who fully knows and understands all the parts and whole of his subject and that I want to be that scientist/artist.

Cheaters Always Finish Last in the Game of Life

Here's my second color study.

Improvements:

• the uniform is closer to the right color
• the yellow and orange underpainting worked quite nicely
• the hair is a more sensible color
• reflected light on the face has helped that side

Still To Work On:

• I'm still "jumping the light" - meaning that the lighting is not consistent. The trouble is, I really like that highlight on the soldier's right shoulder - Rockwell had that in his work, but that's because he had the soldier between two windows. This is why I initially thought that I would put the soldier on a train, so I'd also have two windows.
• I've shrunk the eye somehow, I'll be careful about that in the final.
• Deciding the background...I thought about doing a mountain range back there, with the sun rising and just hitting the tips, an echo of his face. I'd have to go dig up a reference on that. Then I thought I ought to just put a night sky behind him and call it "Watching the Campfire" - save myself some trouble. But that seems well, lame. And I'd have to darken everything again for that to make sense.

I had planned to offer some little tidbits from Hale here, but this post is already too long. I'll do that tonight or tomorrow. I'll just part with this...I'm VERY tempted to quit on this. I'd like to just say, "it's too hard" or better yet "it's not really what I want to do," but you know, that would be cheating...cheating myself. No one is making me do this. I do really want to learn, and I think that I (and you dear readers) are going to have to put up with some mistakes and ignorance along my little path of learning. But if I want to be able to do this well, then I have to learn how to do it well.

So, if you are reading this and are tempted to quit on something because the longer you work on it, the more problems you see with it...join me in not wimping out! Decide to finish because it might be your next masterpiece, or because you can be humble enough to admit that learning is good for you, or because it builds character...or just because you are stubborn. And leave me a comment, because I'd love to know that I'm not alone :-).

Playing With Colors

This weekend I did a color study for the Parrish/Rockwell project this month. I started out by doing a monochromatic blue underpainting on the back of my vellum. Parrish did blue monochromatic underpaintings - to great effect in the lighting of his work.

What I found:

• Note: the background is the blue coming through the back of the vellum.
• All that blue coming through made it difficult to get the right color choices in the outfit. (This is why the uniform is well, not a uniform color - I think maybe the combination on the hat is the closest to what I want, but I'm not entirely happy with it either.)
• All that blue coming through on the face was near impossible to get rid of - as a result the face just kept getting more orange.
• I need to be more careful with the underpainting, if I do it too quickly it will be streaky.

So, I'm on to another color study. This time I may choose something entirely different for the underpainting - I rather like that idea, but the blue may not be working because its CPs and not oils, or it may not be working because I'm not Parrish! :-)

Tough Day

Here's an update on my Rockwell/Parrish project. I refined the drawing and worked on some of the values. I'm still not happy with it, but I'm not sure why or where to go next. And I still can't decide what to do with the window. I'm almost tempted to just leave it vague back there.

It's been a tough day around here. Think I better just let it lie for now...

Drawing from the Masters #5

This is my working draft for the Parrish/Rockwell project this month. The soldier is from a Marine Homecoming cover that Rockwell did. The window is inspired from some train windows that Rockwell drew on a troop train. The lighting will be inspired by Parrish, so it is different than on the original soldier. The window or framing idea is also common to Parrish. I am still playing with ideas for what to put out the window. Nice trees are found in both illustrator's works. Certainly there will be blue sky, but what else? I thought about an oak tree and then calling it "The Mighty Oak", but the soldier looked rather young to be called a mighty oak. Any ideas?

Now a bit from Hale, which dovetails in nicely with all this consideration of lighting. He's discussing light and planes in chapter 3. He says "the contrast of light and dark is one of the most important devices we have for creating the illusion of shape...Be careful not to put a black line or blotch in the highlight. Your line or blotch usually represents an unimportant detail; but it will be in extreme contrast with the highlight and will seem like one of the most important elements in the picture."

Hale seems to repeatedly stress these two themes:

• drawing takes practice (he constantly uses phrases like "hundreds of times" when refering to doing exercises)
• artists don't draw what they see, they draw what they want you to see

Both of these points can be controversial, but in a great measure I think both are very true and part of what makes this book such an encouragement to me.

Boy Scouts Across the Finish Line

Last night I found (I think) the Norman Rockwell image that I want to rework with Maxfield Parrish lighting. So today I am keen to get started. That means that I just did a quick one on the the second boy scout in this sketch.

I have to say that Rockwell meticulously planned out his paintings with charcoal studies and color studies - and it shows in the final product. Each value and shape is just so to express exactly the thing he wants it to say.

All the more reason to get on with my real project for this month. Off to make beef tamale pie!

Drawing from the Masters #4

This is another Norman Rockwell copy. This time of a Boy Scout print called A Guiding Hand. I'm just doing the heads for now. I still would really like to take a Rockwell image and change the lighting to more Parrish-like dramatic lighting. (Do people apply the term tenebrist to Parrish? Perhaps not, but the drama of tenebrism is there.) This isn't the image for that, but I am still learning about Rockwell while doing it though. I sincerely doubt that I am going to be able to pull off the tongue pressed against the upper lip in concentration, but it is fun to try.

Now for a little wisdom from Hale. He is discussing a drawing from Durer, the one on the cover of Hale's book. He mentions that Durer shaded both the side plane of the nose and the side plane of the head. He says that most beginners will shade the side plane of the nose but forget the head. Hale stresses the importance of putting "first things first." That is, "Heads are more important than noses. Hands are more important than fingers." That is good advice - it is very easy to get caught in the details and miss the forest for the trees. On many occasions I have found myself doing just that and ending up with a few good branches lost in a tangle.

Finally, one of the major points that I learned last time I read this book: "The ear is well drawn. Get a medical anatomy book; study the helix and the antihelix, the tragus and the antitragus; and you will be able to draw ears for the rest of your life."

That being able to draw ears for the rest of my life bit really appealed to me. So, in January, I studied how Sargent did ears. Granted, it wasn't an anatomy book that I studied. But, just taking the time to really study how Sargent portrayed ears on a number of faces, gave me a great deal of confidence. I no longer have the fear that I used to have about them.

Frozen right off that frozen lake

This pen and ink was taken from a reference photo over on WetCanvas. I had planned to use it for a Maxfield Parrish warm-up project - the colors in the photo are delightful. Trying to emulate him, I decided to do a pen and ink first, trying to be as thorough as he was.

Having done that step, I've now decided that this isn't a good choice for me. So, being thorough has saved me from investing time in something that I am not likely to be happy with. I would enjoy playing with the colors, but I don't think I could bring real "punch" to them or the subject.

Busy day today...I'm off to try and find something else.

Drawing from the Masters #3

Above is my finished copy of a Norman Rockwell print about Summer. I took it from a 3x3 image in a book I have, Norman Rockwell Illustrator by Arthur Guptill. My version was done on 11x14 paper.

Of course, Rockwell is detailed. His drawings and painting are full of (seemingly)effortless detail - that he can wave around such skill all over his canvas so easily makes for greater impact to his work. So often the humor is in the details, something Rockwell combined to a charming degree. I am keen to do more copies, just to get more of his sense of detail and emphasis.

This all dovetails nicely with what I am reading in Drawing Lessons from the Great Masters by Hale. Chapter two is called Line. Hale then proceeds through all types of lines an artist encounters...where plane meets plane, color meets color, tone meets tone, etc. He talks about using contour lines in figures to define shape:

It is too bad that human beings are not striped like zebras, because then it would be very easy to explain the shape of the nude. But since they are not, the artist is forever seeking and even inventing such lines in his search for the illusion of form. He invents all kinds of lines he cannot see at all. This, I assure you, takes a thorough knowledge of the elements of drawing...

It is said that as soon as you can run contour lines perfectly in any direction over any part of the body, you have really learned to draw.

Today I had the morning off (thanks to my husband) and went out for a troll through the art shop. Afterwards I sketched a statue outside of Borders books. It began to rain, so I only got in a few minutes. While I was drawing, anticipating the rain, I kept thinking about much better it would be if I had the skill to know where to invent lines or emphasize lines on a figure. If I had more anatomical understanding, which Hale encourages, I could be quicker in getting information down. So I guess I'm back to practice, practice...

Maxfield Parrish #2

Although I can't deny Maxfield Parrish's reputation and am duly impressed with his lighting, color technique, and skill, I don't necessarily love his work. The mythical setting...robes, greek columns, lutes, etc. don't reach out and pull me in. So I decided to study him and just change the subject matter.

My final project (I'm hoping) for this month will be a "Norman Rockwell subject meets Maxfield Parrish lighting and color." In light of that, I'll be doing a few copies of Rockwell prints. Above is the start of a copy of a "Summer" print he did in a series on the seasons (they might have been in a calendar).

I was trying to come up with a jazzy title for such a project:

• Norman Parrish - sounds like a horror movie character
• Maxfield Rockwell - sounds like I'm explaining a painting of my dog in the country by a large stone and big hole to someone who doesn't get it.

Perhaps just "a synthesis of great American illustrators of the 20th century" will suffice. :-)

I was hoping to find a link to the Rockwell version of the above image, but I can't find one this morning. It was part of a set of a boy, his dad, and his dog doing seasonal things. I found the dog in several other prints. The father was also a popular model for Rockwell.

Drawing from the Masters #2

Just a quickie today.

A most inspiring quote from Hale:

"You must realize there is no royal road to drawing. It is practice, practice all the way. So get your pad of paper and start drawing simple lines. You will find it very hard to make a really straight line, and harder to make a vertical than a horizontal. Try drawing a perfect circle. Draw a few thousand and they will get perceptibly better. Above all, don't get discouraged. It is said that only the divine Raphael reached circular perfection." (Hale, p. 14--15)

The images are courtesy of my adorable husband, who awoke this morning early, planned the shopping list for the July 4th cookout, went to the store and got it all, and came home with "get well" flowers for me. All this after making dinner last night. He's a star and he's taken :-).

Off to practice, practice, practice!

Maxfield Parrish #1

This month I am going to have two series running concurrently. The first, "Drawing from the Masters", began yesterday. Today I begin the second. It is also on a master, but this time a more contemporary one, Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966).

He is known as an illustrator. At one time prints of his works were in nearly every home in America. He was born in Philadelphia, but spent most of his life in New Hampshire. There is a short biography filled with images here. Note the "doodles" from his childhood.

He was the consummate perfectionist in his art work. As these links will tell you:

• Color and Light


• Harry Roola Art

Here's another page with several nice pictures of his work:

• Good Art

He had an incredibly detailed technique that led to a style all his own. The basic technique he learned from "the masters," but his own innovations led to his fame. So, I'm playing with the CPs and vellum to see what I can come up with that's interesting...(forgive me for showing you scribbles above in the images - playing is not exactly a science! :-) I do have an idea for a composition I'd like to do, but I need to keep digging around for some reference materials.

Drawing from the Masters #1

This is the first in a series of posts I'm going to do this month based on Robert Beverly Hale's Drawing Lessons from the Great Masters. Essentially, I plan to read through the book again (yes, it is that good) and post about hints, suggestions, or observations he makes.

The first chapter is very fundamental, it's entitled "Learning to Draw." He basically discusses the technique of breaking objects into simpler shapes. For example, think of a head as a sphere sitting on a cylinder, rather than just plunging into drawing all the details at once. He then encourages you practice drawing as many lines, circles, cubes, spheres, cylinders, etc as you can. This is a very common technique used in art instruction books.

The other most common early technique, somewhat at odds with Hale's suggestions, is that championed by Nicolaides and others, that of gesture drawing. Basically just doing a scribbling technique to block in quickly a gesture or movement.

Both of these techniques are useful in different ways. I use both and I imagine most artists do.

Reading this through this time I was struck with how much planning is inherent in the "breaking down into simple shapes" method. Particularly in the works that Hale looks at, artists spent a long time planning where light would fall, how it would fall, where people and things would be placed. This was all to be sure that when they got painting all the problems of structure were laid out. I certainly try and do a quick value sketch before beginning something, but I may need to think more about actually planning out the work more. Some more rigorous planning may help me make decisions about what to simplify, what to include, what to exclude, and what to emphasize.

After reading I spent a few minutes imagining a scene in my mind (me trimming my tree in the garden - as opposed to the reality of lying in bed with a cold). I then tried to block in shapes like I had seen in Hale's Cambiaso sketches (Here's an example, wish I had time to find others). Above you see the effort. Not a fine work of art, but honestly, a vast improvement over my usual "without reference" works.

Two Looks on Post 100

I'm happy and surprised to say that this is my 100th post. I'm celebrating with:

A Look Back

1. Goals I Set in January that I've Met by July
   - Get in the practice of drawing everyday - measured by filling a moleskine (which is close to filled)
   - Read through Colored Pencil for Serious Beginners (Bet Borgeson)
   - Read through Colored Pencil Portraits Step by Step (Ann Kullberg)
   - Copy several Sargent portraits
   - Copy several Ingres portraits
   
2. Themes I've Kept To
   - Portraits: spent all of January doing only portraits
   - Landscapes: worked on this in February
   - Nature in color: did this in June
   - Everyday objects
   
3. Artists I've Studied
   - January: John Singer Sargent
   - February: Vincent van Gogh
   - March: John William Waterhouse
   - April: Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres
   - May: James McNeill Whistler
   - June: Georgia O'Keeffe
   
4. Things I Didn't Plan to Do, but have done
   - Start and continue a blog
   - Successfully complete a paid commission
   - Begin looking at the art market
   
5. Goals That are "In Progress"
   - Working on Perspective
   - Get started in acrylics
   - Get started in colored pencils
   - Drawing more from life
   - Drawing from memory, eventually as a daily goal

A Look Ahead

1. Goals I Set in January, Still to be Met
   - Finish a work large enough to go over my couch
   - Finish 12 works that would fit nicely into a calendar
   - Continue on the "In Progress" goals listed above
   - Work on some architecture in pen and ink
   
2. Artists To Study
   - July: Maxfield Parrish (with Maggie Stiefvater)
   - Aug-Dec: Winslow Homer, Degas, Turner, Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Da Vinci (I will adapt this to enable myself to join in on any groups that are studying a master)
   - Also in July: I plan to buoy myself against discouragement with "Parrish blues" by also working through (again) Hale's Drawing Lessons From the Masters - any tidbits I plan to pass along on this blog.
   
3. New Goals To Add
   - Continue with the blog
   - Tweaking the blog as time permits
   - Look at building a portrait commission business
   - Learn more color theory and application

Finally, a special thanks to all those who have commented and emailed their encouragement and advice! I have learned a tremendous amount in just a short time, largely because of the kindness of others. I never expected this to be such a rewarding experience!

Onward and upward...