Here's one I did today. I want to do a series of paintings to go with a book I enjoy, and today I went looking around the internet for somebody who looks like the somebody I want to paint. This guy might do--we'll see.
You can see that I hung in there for the interesting parts and then got scritchy-scratchy with the outlying bits. Also, now that I look at it in scan form I see that one of his eyes is waaaay higher than the other. Oh well…practice. Practice, practice, practice. Until it becomes a practice.
I find it so interesting what you say about drawing. I find I enjoy drawing more than painting but often wonder if it is that for a drawing I often have to take more time and it's just I like the shift in my mind. I sit a computer all day and drawing is like a meditation and often a brush stroke is too quick for that mood to happen. It's just a random thought I had when I read your post and the next one about being able to lay down a block of colour with paint where a drawing takes more time. I would love to know what attracts people to various media but I don't think any of us know!
ReplyDeleteI'm actually a pretty slow painter, but for some reason that doesn't make me impatient. I think it's a combination of the fluid medium and the color--I'm all about the color. I've never tried drawing with colored pencils or pastels, though--maybe a new medium would re-energize drawing for me? Anyway, thanks for your comment!
DeleteI really like this drawing! - both parts - the "interesting parts" and the "scritchy-scratchy outlying bits". Here's my take on this - I am impatient many many times in both my paintings and my drawings. But impatient is part of who I am, so it is part of what makes my stuff mine. Some people would take the picture you worked from and get so detailed that the drawing becomes overworked. Your outlying "bits" are spare, which is an effect that I like and something many people will seek to do intentionally. I rarely do only because I can't stop myself from filling in the detail! I don't think that is better - many times I'd like to keep it spare as you have done. Well done!
ReplyDeleteHappy new year!
Thanks so much, Dan! A good perspective. Pardon the pun.
DeleteI can so relate! Never liked drawing. Even when I was in art and architecture school and spent an unbelievable amount of time on graphite drawings, I rarely enjoyed it. It always seems so slow, compared to loading a big fat brush with paint and slapping it on!
ReplyDeleteBut you're right that an artist, at least an artist interested in any kind of realism, has to be good at drawing and practice it often. I think of it as I do of exercise: it's not much fun, but it's good for you and you can make it more fun by turning on some music or, perhaps, choosing a subject that is interesting to you. I also do "watch" TV or listen to podcasts when I draw - something I can't really do when painting, since it requires more focused energy.
BTW, don't be too hard on yourself here - it's a pretty good-looking drawing, and nobody said you are required to pay the same attention to detail throughout. As a matter of fact, it is better to have areas that are more pronounced and others that are not.