Continuing with the exercises in the book, Expressive Figure Drawing (by Bill Buchman). This exercise was assigned after you read about the Guiding Principle. What is the Guiding Principle? Well, according to the author, it means you choose, before you even touch the paper, the one fundamental quality you're going to concentrate on and then you choose a drawing implement, medium and method that will help capture/emphasize the quality.
So...you can choose
1. one of the elements of drawing like line, mass, negative space, light and shadow, structure
2. an idea, subject, skill, technique, plan
3. moods, thought, emotions, experiences
You should ask yourself: What am I trying to accomplish? What do I want to say? How much time to I have?
Choose your guiding principle and stick with it from start to finish of the piece. This means totally trusting the process of moving that conte crayon around, sculpting the shapes of the body.
Mr. Buchman says this exercise takes the guiding principle of HOW and helps your hand follow your eyes in a fluid way around the figure. Using conte crayons again. His example didn't use several colors and crayons - but I wanted to so I did.
I used the same model for the painting. This time it's watercolor on Canson (I think) 140# watercolor paper, 15" x 22"
I could do these paintings smaller, but I think doing them at least half sheet size gives me room to explore the inner shapes of the figure and not just focus on the negative shapes.
I wanted to work with light and shadow and kept to the colors I chose before beginning the drawing - violet (cobalt violet deep) and green (a mix of hansa yellow light + some blue in the middle of the palette) - (with Lunar Earth for the hair and other reddish touches).
The shadow shape on the wall is too strong.
So...you can choose
1. one of the elements of drawing like line, mass, negative space, light and shadow, structure
2. an idea, subject, skill, technique, plan
3. moods, thought, emotions, experiences
You should ask yourself: What am I trying to accomplish? What do I want to say? How much time to I have?
Choose your guiding principle and stick with it from start to finish of the piece. This means totally trusting the process of moving that conte crayon around, sculpting the shapes of the body.
Mr. Buchman says this exercise takes the guiding principle of HOW and helps your hand follow your eyes in a fluid way around the figure. Using conte crayons again. His example didn't use several colors and crayons - but I wanted to so I did.
I used the same model for the painting. This time it's watercolor on Canson (I think) 140# watercolor paper, 15" x 22"
I could do these paintings smaller, but I think doing them at least half sheet size gives me room to explore the inner shapes of the figure and not just focus on the negative shapes.
I wanted to work with light and shadow and kept to the colors I chose before beginning the drawing - violet (cobalt violet deep) and green (a mix of hansa yellow light + some blue in the middle of the palette) - (with Lunar Earth for the hair and other reddish touches).
The shadow shape on the wall is too strong.
10 comments:
I came upon your blog because it has two elements in common with my own. We both like to write and we both like to paint. I like the idea you have of exploring a book with blog posts and I will be back. I really liked the sketch you did with the same body pose 3 times in a row. I thought it came out very well. I also liked your salt experiment
Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting, Mimi. I hope you do return :) I LOVE your mirror self-portraits - you are so brave to conquer this. I will return to visit your work again. (I'm currently reading a bio of Alice Neel and may share some of that - a big book and not as full of paintings as the Schiele book - and maybe too much detail about her friends and acquaintances than about Alice herself).
Looks like another interesting book and you're following instructions! I've always loved Conte.
The body of the second model came out excellent. Always follow your blog and enjoy learning from the various instructions. Wish you a happy week end.
Rhonda, I like the study and the painting you've begun. You were one of my inspirations to create my own painting journal. It's nice to keep in touch!
Hallie, I find conte really messy but I think the same with charcoal - and I can make a mess with graphite, too :) But it is teaching me a bit about colors and blending.
Thanks so much, Jane. I hope to do a few more as I work through the book of drawing exercises.
Linda, you are too kind :) I am so glad I can inspire others to create art.
Rhonda, always a pleasure to visit your blog to see what you are up to. I'm enjoying your comments and take on the studies you are doing. I especially enjoyed your watercolor of the seated figure.
Thanks, Ann. I'm enjoying your latest drawings, too.
Seems like a great book. Nice article. Keep up the good work!
Thank you, Frank, for stopping by and taking the time to comment. I enjoyed a short visit to your blog today - looks like you have a lot of info to share (I'll have to return and translate more into English later).
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