Falling into Place

There are drawings where everything seems to go right. There is an instant connection with the pose, the colors immediately come to mind and one leads into another, even the re-work and corrections are effortless. This drawing, Torso I, is a case in point. I am submitting a drawing to an exhibition and my last effort was forced, tight, and unrewarding. Possibly because I was thinking too much about "getting it right". This time, for some reason, I did not have those concerns, and everything flowed easily, in two three-hour sessions. I am pleased with the freedom of the strokes, the color choices, and most importantly, that I "put the pencil down" and didn't overwork it.

My only bit of 20/20 hindsight: it probably could have been cropped a little more aggressively to improve the dynamics of the figure to the frame edge. A lesson for next time.

Way too fussy.

When I originally began working on this drawing, I was pleased where it was headed. I like the slight distortion to emphasize the emotion in the pose, with perhaps hints of narrative. But as it neared completion, I became more and more dissatisfied with the final. After some thinking and feedback, I re-worked sections, to no avail. It simply did not zing me. Finally it dawned on me that the problem was that the drawing was too tight: too much drawing, too much clarity and not enough ambiguity, stroke quality, and gesture. I've filed it away as a lesson learned and moved on to another, which I promise myself will be less "thought-out" and less fussy.