As a street sketcher, I’m used to coming to these blog posts with stories about where I went, what I saw, and why I drew what I drew. What do studio artists talk about anyways?
Here’s a little sketch from my imagination. I spent a few minutes trying out some Fabriano Artistico hot-press paper. Watercolor acts very differently than on cold-press paper and It’ll take a while to figure out how to use it.
My wife has been way too nice to me as I’ve hobbled through life for the past few weeks. I feel guilty about the burden I’ve placed upon her, but I’m grateful that she’s been there for me. She’s very special.
A couple days ago she came home with a wad of nature in her hand. She put it on the table and said, “I thought you might like to draw this.” She is a sly one. She knows I’ve been fighting motivation and energy levels but she also knows that when she gives me something I feel a compulsion to draw it. She also knew that it would only remain draw-worthy for a couple days.
And so, I drew it. I decided to skip pen hatching, one of my favorite things, and rely upon watercolor for shading and once again I demonstrated how little understanding of watercolor. I should stick with pen (grin).
Hi guys, I thought I should keep the blog rolling with a brief update on my do-nothing life. I’ve mentioned my leg problem and associated fatigue and my fight against indifference towards doing much of anything.
I’d linked these two things together in my mind, but I’m beginning to wonder. My leg is no longer the diameter of a telephone pole and my knee is now improving, thanks to physio treatments and time. But my constant feelings of fatigue, sour stomach and a desire to sleep all the time remain and I don’t think it is related to the sorry state of daytime TV.
The fact that I can walk around the house without pain is good but it’s this other problem that is the most sinister. Now that I’m convinced that these problems aren’t because of my leg, maybe the health care system can help me figure out what’s really going on.
Anyways, I haven’t been doing much sketching. I try, I really do. It’s just that my attention span between naps is short. Here’s a typical page from a Stillman & Birn Alpha 9×6 that I’ve been working in though. I chose this one because it represents the sorts of things I’ve been doing.
Not your typical urban sketches, for sure. I don’t think I’ve done a sketch in the last few weeks that has taken more than a few minutes. The one on the right represents a series of experiments I’ve been doing with gouache. Specifically, I’ve been drawing heads and people directly with gouache (from internet photos) and then adding some ink on top. I find this a fun way to draw people but I have no idea how I could operationalize it on the street. The gouache dries quickly but people move too much to allow even gouache to dry before I add the ink.
The cow is, well, just a cow. I saw a picture of a hyper-realistic painting of this cow and I was struck by the asymmetry of its ears. I assume it reflects how the cow had its ears rotated when its image was captured but to me it was humorous so I quickly drew it.
Hopefully I can bounce back from whatever ails me and that it happens soon. I hope all of you are enjoying Inktober. I’m enjoying all the sketches being posted.
I’m not one to have heros or to worship celebrity. But I am one who appreciates people who are the best at what they do and Tom Petty was one of those. As I write this I’m listening to I Won’t Back Down, a tune that was meaningful to me at a time in my life when meaning was important and hard to come by. I’m not much of a portrait artist but I felt the need to draw this. Rest in peace Tom.
When my knee problem started to limit my walking, I started thinking of alternative ways to feed my penchant for moving pointy devices across paper. One alternative was to sign up for one of several ateliers offered here by La Collectif, here in Quebec. These aren’t instructional and mostly about drawing nude models and portraits. I’m not much interested in that sort of thing but they did have one atelier called Nature Morte (Still Life).
I decided that drawing vegetables and wine bottles would be a lot more fun than sitting on my couch so I signed up. There are twelve of us in the atelier, which is organized by Celine and Robert Poiré, two of my favorite people in the Collectif so I know it will be fun. This first week I sort of had to grit my teeth to muddle along because the pain made it hard to concentrate but we had fun nevertheless. Heck, we were sketching, we couldn’t avoid having fun if we tried.
Here’s my sketch from the session. I’m not sure that my pen and ink, cartoon style is the best for drawing vegetables and maybe I’ll take some pencils with me next week.
After a short break there was still a few minutes left in the session and others were still finishing up their drawings so I decided to do a quick experiment. I got a piece of Bristol from my bag and gave myself 2-minutes to capture the same scene I’d just drawn. I’ll let you assess how I did, but I had a lot of fun doing it. With the remaining minutes I scribbled out some poor depictions of some of the participants. Can’t wait for next week.
