12-4-12 Drawing night

I bought some different paper by accident. I had intended to buy some Strathmore 400 series medium drawing paper, and I got Strathmore 400 series smooth paper, suitable for pen and ink. I first thought "Oh Phooey!" - I don't want to go to all the trouble of taking it back, so I decided to try it. It has a very smooth, almost satiny surface and it warms up to charcoals very nicely. As you will see it behaves well in pastels too - who knew?
This is the first warm-up (15 min) drawing with charcoals and smooth paper.

Drawing 11-27-12

It has been quite a while since the wheels came off the cart, and I have been able to create anything I thought was worth looking at. This is the final drawing of the night - the others did not promise this ending. Been struggling with an idea about how to start and develop a drawing in a more "painterly" style with pastels, decided to slow down and look instead of jumping in. Had been practicing just blocking in basic areas of color specifically lights and darks, and then refining as time permitted. -This has been good practice but not producing exciting drawings, or even completed drawings, and things have been looking pretty stiff in spite of the idea of loosening up. So in complete frustration, I gave up (mostly); just started responding in a more typical way for me - more spontaneous and voila! - the result! I like this one!

October 8, 2012 Part Two

Same situation as the first, a bit stiff, not quite accurate, but developed more color - what a challenge! I struggle with the desire to depict the figure accurately AND do so with expression. The battle continues . . .

October 9, 2012

It is a challenge to draw even one figure sometimes, two figures can be overwhelmingly complex. So the thing to do that works for me is to simplify, simplify. This drawing was the second of three - the first was a 20-minute charcoal, this one was 30 minutes (?), and the last was about an hour with a break in the middle. While this drawing is stiff partly because of the inaccuracies and partly in the apprehensive rendering, I do like the simple blocks of color. - Not too much finish, or too much detail.

Fallen Angel

This week's drawing was uninspiring until we did this pose. Still not a masterpiece (what IS???), but some interesting things are happening - particularly the way the complementary colors glow when side by side. And except for this one which is interesting, a not great night for me.

9-25-2012

Trying to not smooth out pastel marks so much - let them speak on their own, just trying to be a little freer, simpler. This was a salvageable drawing - the rest are headed for recycling!

Throw caution to the wind!

And fire away! I was worried I couldn't get the color to read the skin tone right, I was worried I couldn't get the figure on this small (16x20) format, I was worried blah, blah, blah . . . so, I said the heck with it, let's just do it and if it's worse than the first - we'll just scrub them off and have at it again - just like drawing!

And I really like this red sheet, too!
I am happy with this one.