Figures drawing revisited

Today was another attempt at figure drawing. My friend, Maurie, came to do some sketching and she was happy for me to draw her but she was painting and constantly moving.
The folds in her top were changing all the time as were her legs and feet.


The first was a drawing with intense pencils on A3 using one colour then a wash on top. Because her drawing board hid most of her legs, I found it more difficult to get her legs in proportion.


The second sketch was on grey pastel paper, between A4 and A3, intense pencils, marker pens and white chalk. I was trying to loosen up and concentrate on tone but in the process, lost the proportions. As her hands were moving constantly, I found it tricky to get any detail.

This sketch on the left was started with intense pencil, wash and then sepia ink wash. I then drew into it with a quill (feather) with sepia ink. I had very little control over the marks as it was either thick and blobby or running out of ink.











The next drawing was done in charcoal on A2 paper.

In spite of finding charcoal easier to handle, I found that going  to a larger size paper was more difficult to get anything in proportion and the tones got messier and less defined.

I then had another try at redrawing Paul using intense pencils and wash. I was trying to get the darker tones and drama of the composition to work.

On the whole I am happy with some aspects of getting the figure more or less lively and looking as though they are sitting  not suspended in the air.
I am not happy with the solidity and use of the different media. The composition is boring and needs to be worked out and redesigned. They are all very rough and I think I have problems in getting a finished drawing put together.

Pushing my boundaries

After spending quite a time thinking about how to push my own boundaries in order to move away from the tight figure drawings, I decided to experiment with abstract marks with pastel. The first was on grey pastel paper and I used a selection of orange, purple, complimentary colours to see how they worked together with white linking and soften the colours.

I then tried a similar thing on pink pastel paper starting with blue, then adding greens and yellows, trying to get more movement into the piece.

 The next attempt was to use the drawing of Kate resting and try to simplify the drawing into a selection of shapes of colour and tone.
This is something I would like to take further and do far more abstract exercises. It seems a good way to experiment with composition and juggling line, tone, colour and marks.









Then I tried some pencil drawing into the abstract shapes to see how it would work.
I put more white on the knee and foot to try to bring it to the foreground.

The next attempt was to use a charcoal pencil to bring more definition to the form. Bottle and wine glass, hinted at, brings narrative into the picture. The dark tone brought across the background to simplify the shapes.
What I am finding now is that I am slowly getting away from the abstraction and getting too nitpicking with detail. Time to simplify again.


Too much drawing, too much white...

The drawing on the left is the latest attempt at simplifying. I feel I have got back to the original idea and pushed the drawing around with the pastels to prevent getting too preoccupied with detail.
Although the last two drawing look very similar, the difference in softening the white and adjusting the tones has made a big difference.
The next step is to try to get back to drawing the figure without losing the overall composition.

What is drawing?

Having got nearly half way through the drawing skill course, I have only just realised, I think, what drawing is all about.

I was reading "Rocks and flesh" an argument for British Drawing, selected by Peter Fuller from the Norwich school of art gallery.

The light slowly dawned as I read " a drawing is not so much the reproduction of the image of something seen, as a record of something made."
Ruskin pointed out that everything we see is like patches of different colours in various shades. This explains why I see everything in paint not line. Of course I don't see line. It is not there!

Lines and contours are concepts. A drawing is always created not just a visual image of the subject.

Vasari said that drawing starts with the intellect of the artist and Zuccari said that what is revealed through art starts with the mind. In other words, the idea comes first.

Ruskin believed that only through observation of nature could one see the visible handiwork of God. From this came the belief that painting landscape would be a means of conveying moral and religious ideas.
This was thrown into controversy when Darwins' Origin of the Species was published. The debate on nature versus God led to drawing dwindling into more mundane expression of forms.

Henry Tonks.. Taught at he Slade and helped change the concept of drawing.


The drawings in this book are works showing the different approach to drawing and how it changed during the last 100 years.

Research/Timelines

After spending time thinking about researching other artists, I realised that my knowledge of history, (of anything) was minimal. I know about the history of music and musicians and a little about the history of costume. ( early years spent doing theatre and costume design)

I found that when I research an artist, I have no idea of their place in history because there is nothing to pin it on. Dates are meaningless to me, just numbers.
So, I decided to investigate doing timelines and found an app on the internet, downloaded it and started with putting in musicians for the last 200 years. Then I looked up artists, found who was around at the same time as Prokoviev and Shostakovitch and discovered it was Picasso. Richard Strauss was around the same time as the impressionists and so began a long investigation into the history of artists and musicians.
Getting the hang of this, I then started another timeline of the Kings and Queens of Britain.

For the first time in my life, I am connecting events in history with artists/musicians. Because it is visual and I can see all in a line, it makes more sense than remembering dates. ( which I have never done.)

This is going to be a long, learning session and will continue in various forms but it is the start of getting better at research into artists.