Sketch Book in April

Detail of the face.  

 Full Drawing.  I decided not to put the hard exterior line on this drawing. 

 This drawing has the hard exterior line. 

These are found images that I drew in my sketch book recently.  The exhibition in December and January went well, but took up so much time and effort that I did not get to my studio for a while.  I'm back!  I am playing with the exterior contour line: whether to use it or not.

Figure and Ground Relationship

For this series, I have decided to use a thick, dark line to outline the figure. You can see this in the detail above in the forward hand, arm, and leg. 

Where the shadow meets the edge of a drawing, as shown in the back hand and arm, I will usually not use a hard line.  This allows the dark values do the work of the line. 

With the rock overhead much of the figure is in shadow.  So both the rock and figure cast shadows on the ground.  I kept this shadow minimal so as not to overwhelm the figure.  However, I used the cast shadow to bring out the highlights and middle gray areas of the foot and leg. 

Lines and Shadows

One thing I have done over the years lead to the concept for this series. I try to get to my studio as often as possible. I usually have some painting or project I am working on, so I always have something to do when I get there. However, sometimes the spirit is not in me to work on the project that is pressing. So, when that happens, I work on my figure studies. I have hundreds of sketchbooks full of figure studies now. These studies lead to my drawing the figures holding things and eventually rocks over there heads.

For this series, I have decided to use a thick, dark line to outline the highlighted side of the figure. Where the shadow meets the edge of a drawing, I will usually not use a hard line and let the dark values do the work of the line. Because of the rock being overhead, much of the figure is in shadow. Also, the rock and figure will cast a shadow on the ground. But this shadow will be minimal and hopefully not overwhelm the drawing.