A friend and I were having coffee a few weeks ago and while standing in line I happened to notice a particular color combination on the in-store video monitor. We walked over and, pointing to the monitor, I asked Kate "cardboard and mint?" This is very often how I start off a drawing. After I have selected an image (in the final below, a black and white) I then think about a color scheme, usually based on a swatch, or sample, or brief glimpse in the oddest of places.
As much as I like the dynamics of this pose, the final result has some noticeable problems. While the underdrawing is solid, the proportions where I want them, the final lacks "punch". I track much of this to the fact that it was completed over an extended period of several weekends (long for me), a length of time where I was not immersed in the drawing: not engaged in the act of looking, drawing, reacting, and redrawing that help pull together the final. This drawing, more than others recently, remind me that I need to be physically involved in drawings to have consistent results. I need to be around them daily, regularly looking, making marks often, scrubing, erasing, reworking continually or the final result is "flat".
I also failed to achieve a heavily worked surface that, though light in palette, retains enough stroke variety and intensity to be interesting. And after much fiddling with the "cardboard" color the original scheme of "cardboard and mint " was not fully realized. I'll redraw this image; I think it has strong possibilities for a good result.
A postscript: I happened to open the studio shot on my laptop the other night and the screen cropped the large image in an interesting way that strengthened the drawing by eliminating excess and emphasizing the dynamics. The lighter sections at the top and bottom reflect the parts accidentally "cropped" by the monitor, parts that will be cut away from at least this version of the final.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)