Finit..

Just finished the first of two commissioned pieces. Again, so nice to have a sound drawing down before beginning shading and color...it makes everything a lot easier.

Pictionary doodles....

My daughter Miriam loves to draw. And she loves the game Pictionary.

She is constantly asking me to play, and sometimes when the rest of the family isnt in the mood for a board game, her and I will go through the cards and draw from them.

It's a good exercise in developing quick drawing skills and making your lines more light and "impressionistic"....I remember in college when my professor placed a rabbit in an open cage and had us draw it as it moved around. This exercise produces a similar effect....

Here are some photos from a recent Pictionary session of ours. See if you can guess which are hers and which are mine.

Portraits

I have been working on these two portraits for a commission and am really enjoying drawing them.

I've been moving the drawing lines back and forth from negative to positive space, and carving away at the facial features (which sometimes is just plain therapeutic)!

why drawing is so d#*m important!

Ok, so I just spent 2 to 3 hours drawing my friend Liz's 3/4 profile (the background landscape/seascape was done in the last 15 minutes or so), and while it was frustrating to wipe down and rework the drawing so much, I know it will make the final product (and process) so much more enjoyable.

You see, I have been developing a thought lately that I believe to be universally true of any visual artform: ITS ALL ABOUT DRAWING. Essentially, Im drawing with the paint, but, even if I was using clay or metals or a design program, the basic fundamentals are the same: Im working with lines, contour, composition, and ultimately, subject matter. These are all the basics of any good drawing--in fact, they are more exposed and raw in the drawing process.

So heres what it comes down to for me.....Drawing is key. If I can find life and vibrancy in my initial drawings, then adding color, shapes, planes, etc. will be a cake walk....in fact, it will do best when it builds upon the solid foundation of drawing I've already set in motion.

Often, I will find myself working and re-working the paint over an area until Im completely frustrated and confused as to why it doesnt seem to be coming out "right". When I step back and ask myself if the initial drawing of the subject is right (questions like, "are the proportions right?", or "are the angles on or off?", "is the whole composition falling flat or is it dynamic?", etc. etc.), the answer is almost infallibly "no". Its only then that I realize I have been approaching my work ass-backwards and that I need to restructure some foundational issues before I strive anymore with mixing colors or shades or any other esoteric procedure.

So here is my nugget of advice: draw ALL the time. In fact, look at your work as one giant drawing. Because ultimately, if you find yourself drawing all the time in your work, you'll begin to connect with some solid creative axiom's, making your work deep, rich, and as effective as you want it to be.

a little progress.....

A little progress on the new painting of Nicole and I. I feel like Im trekking up a loose graveled slope. I scratch and scratch away at it, but there is still something missing and it seems to becoming more and more banal the more I work on it.

I tried a few new things like using heavier amounts of black in the mix, letting the actual drawing show through, and even having the kids draw on it with me. Nothing seems to be able to break the spell.

HMMMMMM.....

Think I will set it down for awile and move on to some other ideas. I need to place some more purposeful hurdles between me and the canvas to help stretch my legs. Got some ideas on how to maybe do that.