I Drew a Bunch of Pictures Last Night

I have this concept. I'm not ready to talk about it yet. But here are some concept drawings. We'll see where it goes...

Life Drawing Sketches

Okay, changed my mind. Thought I might throw these up here. I did about eight sketches over the course of the 2.5 hours I was there; these were the most "finished." I think it's very telling that the last one looks the least complete, when I actually spent the most time on it. That was supposed to be a 30-minute pose, but she broke after 15. I'd been pacing myself--concentrating and moving very slowly (I didn't have to erase...that's how careful I was being)--so when she broke pose, it was very frustrating. I'm glad I was leaving the head/face and for later, or else I really would have been behind. It's very easy to get caught up in the details of drawing a face. But unless your focus is portrait studies, it's best to leave them till later or last.

The first three were 6B charcoal. The last was HB graphite.

Live Nude Girls

Well, just one live nude girl. And "girl" is generous.

Anyway, I went to my first ever life drawing session last night at the Towson Arts Collective, which I found out about on Craig's List. Sometimes, it's hard for me that, with all the art study I've done, I've never worked with a live model before. But I guess that's "inappropriate" for high school art programs, and Goucher's art minor is not set up very well to allow in-depth study. I only had cursory level courses in a variety of areas, and did not get to focus on anything, like drawing. In Drawing I, we only ever got as far as still life and one day of portraits (which we did of our classmates). We didn't get to the point of drawing models.

In light of this, I was really excited about the chance to try it out, and also to meet some people in the local arts community. I realized recently that I don't have many friends anymore (at least locally) who are really into producing fine art, so I saw this as an opportunity to expand my social circle to include some more like-minded people.

I was actually very close to talking myself out of going last night, as I'd had an exhausting weekend. Monday was spent preparing my house for guests, and Tuesday was a house full of guests. Wednesday, I really wanted nothing more than to crash out with a couple DVDs and a frozen dinner. But I knew that if I didn't push myself to go that first night, I'd never actually make it at all.

In a sentence: it was not what I expected, and was disappointing in many ways. But it wasn't so awful that I wouldn't give it a second chance.

I had to park far away (parking meters operable till 9?? damn you, Towson!), then I found the to-be-infamous "red door" and navigated through a rather labrynthine art gallery in search of the naked lady. I finally found the session, and it was in a large, white, ugly room lit from overhead with harsh fluorescent lights. About half a dozen people where in there--a girl about my age, two men roughly in their 30s, and several older gentlemen. I'll admit it wasn't who I expected. I expect younger jaded generations as the ones to form "arts collectives." But the crowd was friendly, and there were varying levels of talent.

Besides the ugly, unpleasant room, there was really horrible music playing over the PA system. At first I thought it was just Muzac, but then I heard some vocals and assumed it was light hits or something. But then some really weird dance music came on. It was seriously the grossest music I've ever listened to for any length of time. I was relieved when the mixed CD ran out...

The final negative aspect of the session was the model herself. A consumate professional she was not. She did not have the ability to pose for longer than 15 minutes at a time. And she would take a 5-10 minute break (getting fully clothed and leaving the room) between nearly every pose. Even when we asked her to do a 30-minute pose, she secretly set the timer for 15 minutes, and when it rang, she got up and put her clothes on. She said she would "get back into it" after her break. I feel like I spent almost as much time waiting as I did drawing. I'll bring a book next time. And an iPod. And lots of quarters.

Besides those aspects, however, I generally liked the experience. I craved better atmosphere, better lighting, and a better model, but it was still an opportunity I'd never had. I could see myself learning a lot and improving my skill significantly if I do this on a regular basis. Also, the participants were pretty cool, and maybe next time I'll have the nerve to chat some of them up. One man in particular was doing really amazing watercolor sketches, and I really want to ask him about the paper he was using.

The gallery space itself was really nice, and there was a wide range of pieces on display, from what looked like paint-by-numbers, to really beautiful and technically advanced pieces. I will spend more time looking around next time. Also, if I start to produce more work, I will have the opportunity to join the collective and participate in juried shows--something else I've never done but have always wanted to do.

I couldn't spend enough time on any one drawing to have anything worth posting on here (too bad, really). Hopefully, next week will be better. If it's not, I'm not sure what I'll do. We'll see...

Sketches From the Walters Art Museum

Not scans, just photographs. Too many to scan (and I'm too lazy).

This is the first one I did. I realized quickly that it makes more sense to do quicker drawings than to spend a lot of time and energy doing detailed rendering. In other words, I got tired and frustrated with this one and that's why I didn't finish it. I can definitely spend more time on a drawing if 1) I am sitting, and 2) I'm using a medium I can erase, so I'm not married to all the mistakes I make.

Three attempts at the same head. Man, she was a tough cookie to capture. I will be trying again. This particular statue really evoked a mood, and I am determined to capture it.

This, too, evoked a very strong mood. I really enjoyed trying to render it. It's probably my favorite 3-d piece in the whole place. I'll definitely be working on her again.

I made this guy too efeminate, I think. :)

Last one I did--I was tired at this point.



Gesture in sharpie (pic is sideways).

This is my favorite so far.

A gesture of the same statue.

Detail of her knee, which is really cool-looking.

Sharpie marker.

Gesture in sharpie:

I've been having trouble with proportion, and often make the heads of these statues way too small. I think that will improve with time and practice. I'll also try using pencil, so I can erase.

Gesture in charcoal. I like this one, too.

Gesture in charcoal. A little 8-year-old girl watched me working on this one and came over to admire my work. She expressed frustration that she wasn't that good at drawing, and I gave her some sage advice. Then she sat down next to me and proceeded to draw the same statue with her crayons. :)

Two attempts at the same face. This is another one I want to try again. It's a great little sculpture, only a few inches high--but SO much emotion in the face and posture.

Drawing Lessons

Just a brief, brief background of my art study: I took at least one art class every year from the time I was in fourth grade until I graduated college in 2003. I wanted to be a fine artist or graphic designer up until I was 17, read Faulkner for the first time, and decided to become a writer. I was an art minor at Goucher College. I did it for the sheer love of creating art, not because I ever thought anything would come of it (and that's why I didn't choose to double-major).

Anyway, I haven't made much art in the past five years since graduating school. Of course, I've had my Etsy endeavors, but that is largely outside the realm of what I consider to be "fine art": drawing, painting, and sculpture - the classical kind of art I was learning in school.

I don't know what exactly prompted it, but I've recently started to make a serious effort to continue my art education through self-teaching. It might have been when Chris gave me a sketchbook and travel watercolor set as a gift before our trip to Montreal. When we visited the Musee des Beaux-Arts, I used that sketchbook to draw sculpture from life - the first time I'd ever done so in a museum. I was hooked. For months, I vowed that I would go back to a museum to spend time doing it again, but I just never got around to it.

Finally, two weeks ago, I spent my Sunday afternoon at the Walters Art Museum drawing statues from life, and I went back again the next Sunday. I plan to go once a week for at least two hours, as my schedule allows. But more on that in another post (I still have to scan in my sketches).

I've also started some exercises at home. Before I dive headfirst into some juvenile attempt to create a "masterpiece," I feel like I need to hone--even remember--my basic skills, since they've been so long out-of-use. I also need to give props to an artist I've come to admire and respect, Jason Sho Green, who, though his talent and brilliance is evident, is still pursuing self-education in traditional technique. I've definitely taken cues from reading his blog about different exercises to pursue.

Outside of working on quick sketches at the Walters, I wanted to have a longer-term piece that I could work on for several hours with a "slower mind." So I set up a simple still life of shoes at home. Shoes are some of the first things I remember drawing when I finally started to feel like I was learning real technique from my art teachers (about seventh grade). They are simultaneously organic, recognizable, and easily accessible, so it is no surprise they are common subject matter for young art students. I put a sheet in the background, because I'll eventually be working on tonal value, and set up a harsh spot light to increase contrast on the objects. Here's kind of a blurry picture from the angle I'm drawing from:



I started out with an old standard: the blind contour drawing. It's an exercise I love and hate at the same time, but the results never fail to be interesting. Unfortunately, I was interrupted by a phone call and unable to complete the exercise. I felt it would be a waste of time to start again, so I moved onto the next phase.

For this phase, I did a pencil contour drawing of the shoes. It was minorly frustrating because I could feel in my mind how out of practice I was. I was trying hard to draw with the "right side of the brain" - a fantastic hand-eye coordination technique taught to me by Glen Grove at North Harford High School - but I felt myself slipping into "symbolizing," the bane of life drawing. I had to work hard to stay on the right side and draw what I was seeing instead of what I thought I was seeing. This difficulty goes back to the fact that the shoes are easily recognizable.

I didn't time myself, but I think I spent a little over an hour getting all the contours in. I used an HB graphite pencil on a Strathmore sketch pad that I've probably had for ten years. I drew very lightly because I do plan on filling in tone next (would have used a 2H if I could have found one laying around). Here's the result (not a great image, because this is a digital camera picture, and not a scan):





I think I did pretty well, but there were definitely some errors that I was feeling too lazy to correct. For one, I was pretty sure the toe of the front shoe was too narrow. That could have stemmed from any number of errors in proportion/distance judgment. But I didn't think the problem was so eggregious that it merited erasing and re-rendering such a large portion of the drawing. I'm also dissatisfied with the composition. I really need to try harder to get the subject more centered on the page, or at least in a more purposeful composition. But I'm not too concerned about this because it's an exercise, and not to be a final piece or anything. Again, not worth starting over to fix this problem.


Out of curiosity, and because I have access to digital tools that I never had in high school or college, I decided to see how "well" I did with rendering the still life. I overlayed the photograph of the still life with my contour drawing to see how they matched up:





I was right: the toe was definitely too narrow. And there are, obviously, other errors, but I'm not a camera - I wasn't expecting perfection. In fact, I did better than I imagined I would, being so out of practice.


The next time I have a free evening (and who knows when that will be), I will spend a few hours working on filling in tone. I'll post pictures of my progress.