Rainbow Bisque

Having been away from figure drawing for a couple weeks, it was not surprising to come away from this session feeling like I lost a step. The charcoal in my hand wasn't following along with my eyes. I struggled to get the full value range onto my paper. This man with a stick, holding onto the top of a chair was the best of my four drawings for the day. Sunday figure drawing will be on a slight hiatus soon. I will need to find something else to do in order to keep practicing. This might be a good time to start trying still-lifes.

I continue trying to use hatching to describe areas of shadow - but my lines seem to read more as wrinkles. I don't really care for the way the eyes turned out either. Looking at the drawing with fresh eyes, the one on the right is much smaller than it should be. One thing I haven't tried in a long time is to study and practice the techniques of the artists I admire. No doubt some of my favorite artists have banged their heads against problems like this.

The model in the magazine didn't look as angry as drawing makes her out to be. She had the blank, emotionless expression of a model in a magazine.The more lines I added, the more the face seemed to turn to anger. I am still trying to figure out the best way to use hatching as my shading method without suggesting hair or texture.

Though I have been away from the blog for a bit - I have continued to draw as usual. Life once again brings changes - moving to a new place and looking for work there. I will use this time to reflect on all of the things I learned this year and see where that can take me in the future. Today's drawing started as an attempt to draw with one, continuous line. Eventually, I broke away from that plan to try more overlapping lines. The likeness is almost there, but the sense of movement is exactly what I try to achieve with my drawings.