Pencil portrait

Trying to keep the site fresh. This is not a new drawing, but I don't think I've posted it here before. Forgive me if I have.

I remember when I did this I wanted to do a straight-on side portrait study. The interesting thing about a side portrait is that most of the work is in getting one line correct, the profile. In that single line, you define the proportions of the forehead, nose, upper and lower lip, and chin. Short of the eyes (although you do define the point they are by the furthest inset of the nose), that's a considerable amount of "lifting" that the one line has to do. Make the upper lip too far out, and the face is completely different. If you don't get the implied line that the lips and chin make to the nose right, and you have yet another face than the one you intend.


Makes me want to do another portrait! Enjoy.

Sepia Ink life drawing

Since I'm not doing anything new, here's another from the archives. I was told at the time that it was a good likeness of the young man. This drawing/painting was from a 2 hour life pose. I took the first twenty minutes to make a pencil sketch, then the rest to lay down the ink. Not all of the pencil lines were picked up with an eraser.

One lesson on this one was that chemicals in cheaper water color paper, especially with ink (I think), can sometimes cause the ink to "rainbow". There were certain places that had a distinctly different color of sepia than the others. Not so bad here, but could be trouble in other paintings.

Sepia Ink sketch

This is a sepia ink sketch I did a couple of years ago. It's from a photo that someone else took. I was trying my hand with ink vs. watercolor at the time, and wanted to see how the various effects were if I laid the ink down thin (with water) or thick. The wavy lines are some experimentation with a larger dry brush, most certainly inspired by reading some of Craig Thompson's work at the time. Actually, I think that was about the time I was reading his Carnet De Voyage. He's a great storyteller and amazing with a brush.

I have a few more that were done in sepia ink, with slightly different styles. I even got bold enough to do a few live models from figure drawing classes. I can post more of those if there's an interest. Some are men, though (gasp!)

The Capitol

I've been reading Edward Hopper's biography lately. It's taking a while for me to finish as I'm a slow reader and it tends to be held together with details of when certain paintings where shown/sold without actually showing any of the paintings. I bought a second book with images of his paintings to cross-reference, but even that gets tiring.

One thing I have noticed is that after seeing how he looked at architecture, especially how light hits them, I've been noticing them also. It's kind of wild when someone else's art can have that effect on you.

As a result of paying more attention to them lately, today I decided to go out and do a plein air painting of a building while the sun was low. The bold subject I landed on? Our state capitol. This is a very intimidating subject, at first. I certainly didn't come close to capturing it's glorious detail, but I did get (what I think) was a nice representation of the color and light present as the sun was setting.

A technical point to remember about painting in the summer time: While it's certainly hotter in the summer to paint outside, the sun will stay in position for you for a longer time. Just bring a big bottle of water, and try to pick a place in the shade to paint from.

View in Mclean

I haven't done a lot of drawing lately. That last painting seems to have left me spent. So it was nice to find myself ready to take 20 minutes and make a quick, none technically accurate pen sketch the other day. I was sitting in a hotel room, looking out at a fairly non-impressive scene: parking lots, semi-tall buildings, roof of a mall ... but was able to flip a switch in my head and say: there's got to be something there, what is it? And found it. The shapes of the buildings, edged by trees, lit sideways from the sun, and countless accoutrements of various functions decorating their tops. Once I noticed those, there was plenty to keep my pen and eye busy recording a moment in a day. 

Tulips in niché

The tulips are complete.

As always, I'm glad to see it finished, but this one had a different feeling all the way through. I liked it from the beginning. I'm not sure if it's because it was a better idea, or because of the positive feedback I had early on.

This painting doesn't have the glitzy reflections, or the intensely details of bubbles. Instead, it's more about the back lighting, the composition, the slight bend of the tulip stems under the weight of the flower, and the fold and dimensions of all the leaves. There are still some subtle areas of light where great attention was given, and it certainly plays a huge role in this painting. But instead of being about light it simply feels like what it is: a nice bouquet of flowers patiently sitting in a window niche. And that's why I like it in the end.

Hope you like it too.

View of Great Shiplock Park

This is a watercolor I did last year from the public landing off Brander St. It's not a very pleasant side of town, within smelling distance from the waste-water treatment plant. The area is a public boat landing and "park" where, judging from the debris left in all nooks and crannies, people who don't have much respect for their environment like to hang out.There were families attempting to "pic-nic" in places that looked like they were usually inhabited by people who are trying to find a place to hide out.

Despite this, I sprayed on some bug-spray and found a quiet "Kill me here and leave me for the raccoons" spot, and painted this pleasant little memory.

I don't have a lot of experience painting trees, even less in watercolor, so I wanted to try and give this a shot. For someone with good eyesight, it's hard to look at trees as large shapes instead of branches and leaves. If you squint enough, it can sometimes help. The surprise for me was the boat. I really liked how it turned out. It was just a few key strokes in a few places and it turned out really well.

In the end, I guess I wish it was in oil instead of watercolor. But the truth is that it probably only happened because of the limited time that watercolor affords.

Hedge

 
The opportunity for art is everywhere. It takes more time to create it, and it doesn't always make sense. But if it makes you smile (or me smile), then it's worth the time spent.

This is a picture of my hedge. I thought of a few crazy things I could try and make it into (a long dragon, some funky aztec pattern...), but in the end the simple statement of "HEDGE" seemed like something that couldn't be argued with. It takes more time to trim it, but somehow making it into a work of art, made it twice as fun to maintain. 

Naturally, it wasn't until after I put the "HED" in that I had a second idea ; I should've put "BUSTLE" in my hedgerow. The downside to that would be that I'd be singing 'Stairway to Heaven' every time I pulled into the driveway. Party on.