The First Third

Drawings Two and Three follow to complete the first third of this nontych, if the jazz parallel of a nonette applies. I'm am trying to keep in mind the previous drawing when completing each subsequent one, but not comparing to the point that I am sacrificing uniqueness for continuity. There will be dissimilarities with each component, that is the point. Individual portions combine to form a composite that exceeds the parts.

Moving on to Something Bigger.

After breaking for the holidays, developing some marketing materials, and updating my website, it is good to be back at the easel. During the process of reviewing images of my last six months work, I realized that I needed to loosen up a bit. I took a break from nude figures and did a series of drawings based on images pulled from current events. I focused on being gestural and less planned, with little or no under drawing. While I was not satisfied the final drawings, I was pleased with the way that I was drawing.

Two aspects that have been in my mind for a while are scale and series. I work at a four foot square easel and have been looking for a way to produce bigger drawings, without having the paper flop over the edges and become creased and stained. One solution is to break the final image up into sections of manageable size. An interesting by-product of this process is that, by working on portions of a drawing, I am one more step removed from the final image, less likely to be focused on "getting it just right" and more attentive to the act of drawing itself.

The latest drawing will be composed of nine sections, each measuring 20 inches square, and will yield a final that is five feet square: my largest drawing in over 30 years! Here is the first panel, and subsequent posts will detail the progress.

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.

In Transition

Well, I finally got down on paper an image that had been hanging around the studio, actually the last three studios, for almost five years now. Every now and then I would take a peek, perhaps stab at a sketch, but never take it to completion. I'm not sure why. I really like the emphatic pose and the subtle "horizontal V" formed by the right elbow to left elbow, then left hip to right.

I think it fits nicely into the series of diptychs I have been exploring where the two drawings function independently, yet tile together to form a stronger whole. I also like how the color schemes are similar yet not identical, with the highlight on the right forearm echoing the pale blue green that dominates the left side.

I feel the need to transition into something a little different. I've been wanting to work in more emphatic, pronounced strokes, producing a less literal result. Also, I am thinking of exaggerating body parts and figures with distortion, increased depth of field, angles, to produce a result that is less literal, yet still recognizably figurative.

Sun-drenched.

During bright daylight I always wear sunglasses. Outside, indoors as well. Bright sun light really bothers my eyes for extended periods and I am uncomfortable without them. The other day, I was going to my car to retrieve some drawing materials and I took a chance and went "unprotected". The sun was shining fully in the garden: the flowers, leaves, all surfaces were bright and painfully vivid. I had forgotten how the highlights bleached white at their brightest point, almost to a flare, and everything was awash in color. My mind instantly went to Van Gogh and his time in the sun-drenched town of Arles, in Southern France. Bright yellows, pinks, greens and blues: a world of high contrast, wonderful color.

The image I had chosen for my next drawing was far from the bright sunlight of southern France, or where I live for that matter. But the form let itself well to the diptych format I am currently exploring and I wanted to capture that moment I had glimpsed in my sunny garden. So I purposely shifted the palette to the vivid end of the spectrum for my next Odalisque.

The left panel was drawn twice. The first version was clumsy and didn't fit the space correctly. I don't want my drawings to be pinpoint accurate, detailed renderings (that would drive me insane) but they need to be plausible.

The whole point of my work is how shapes and colors fit together on the page. The figure is my starting point. I like monumentality in shapes. Subject (or gender, in answer to those who have asked) is irrelevant, simply how light and shadow jig saw together with the edges of the page.

Fresh Eyes

Sometimes, time away from a work in progress can be really helpful, allowing me to come back with a fresh set of eyes. As I mentioned in my post below, I was pleased with this image, the drawing, and its progress, but it was lacking a finishing touch. Taking a week off to look at the drawing and consider my next steps allowed me to identify the spots that needed strengthening and finish the drawing.