Continuous line, contour line

Every once in a while, you need to go back and remind yourself of the basics. Since I've been teaching the occasional contour line drawing workshop at libraries this summer, I've returned to the continuous line drawing as the basis for everything. Can I make a better drawing, if I really concentrate, check all my proportions, maybe use an eraser occasionally? Sure. But who's to say it would be better than simply eyeballing the line of an object and following eye with pen in hand? As I tell the students so eager to find out that they can, in fact, draw, it's not a matter of perfection, it's a matter of personality.

So this morning I decided to do a continuous contour drawing of my desk lamp. The drawing has its flaws; the arm of the lamp is too small, the base too big, and I didn't focus carefully enough on the curves to the right of the lamp as I returned up that side from the base after delineating the left. But does it have personality? Definitely.

I then decided to paint it, because for me, color makes everything come alive. The colors of the base were complicated by the light from above as well as the light from the window, and ranged further in tone than one would expect from a basic gold-toned metal. The glow of the lightbulb was intense. I went back and forth over whether to include a background, and finally settled for an anchoring shadow, a few strokes to indicate the bookshelf on which it sits, and a few light reflections on the turquoise wall behind it.

My only other foray into art this past week was a drawing at a new favorite breakfast hang-out, Bobby's Coffee Shop in Woodland Hills. Kirsten and I are still continuing our sporadic exploration of breakfast places in the Valley, and this one was a favorite of Kirsti's and Aaron's but neither of us had ever been there. We liked it so much that we have returned, once together and now once for me by myself. As I have mentioned before, Kirsten doesn't like it when I draw during our meet-ups, so I decided to treat myself to a solo date at Bobby's to see if I could capture its ambiance.

There are several angles to capture, but I decided this time on the counter and cook-space behind it. Maybe next time I will go for the booths and 1950s signage on the other side of the room, or the tables down the center, populated pretty thoroughly no matter what time of the morning. (The lettering is an addition by me—not in the scene itself.)