Drawing in the Highlights

In my series of large scale figures that I have been working on recently I used color paper and pencil or graphite. I did not add highlights with white charcoal or color pencil. So now I am beginning that process. To do that I am completing some sketches on a smaller scale. This drawing is only 18 x24 inches. The drawing above is the first experiment with highlights. I need to see what medium will work the best as a highlight: color pencil, white charcoal, white conte, etc. The top sketch is the first several hours effort. There are no exterior contour lines yet and just a little color pencil highlight. In the bottom drawing, the pencil dark values and the white color pencil value have been more fully developed. I have not addressed the rock yet. The arm is turning out well.

Thoughts on Life

When I am drawing in my sketch books my mind wanders. Here is something that came to my mind while I was drawing recently.

Life is coffee, outside in the morning enjoying the breeze blowing through the leaves in the trees.

Life is birthdays.

Life is riding with your son in the car, when he suddenly bursts out laughing and tells you a funny story.

Life is waking up late in the summer.

Life is summer camp in the NC mountains.

Life is reading a comic book.

Life is sitting alone in a museum in front of a masterpiece.

Life is a song so beautiful ti makes you cry.

Life is homemade chocolate cake with M&Ms used to write the words.

Life is a roller coaster and tube rides with all your friends.

Life is sleeping under the bed or in the closet when you are eight years old.

Life is watching a TV series with your son.

Life is two people doing their different hobbies in the same room at night.

Life is sitting outside in the summer, listening to the cicadas and tree frogs battle of the bands.

Life is watching humming birds and bees fly around the flowers.

Life is listening to the rain.

From sketch book to art book

I call these sketch book drawings. Some people say that they are not sketch books, but art books. I have some sketch books that contain drawings that are very different from these figure studies. In my other sketch books I put drawings of anything: leaves, notes, concepts, etc. In the sketches I am showing on this blog, I only put figure studies. So since they have a theme, some artists call them art books instead. That is a fine distinction, but its OK. I really zeroed in on the face on these drawings. Finally reducing the drawing to just one eye, the nose and part of the lips. The face is so fascinating with all its proportions, yet not in exact proportion. For this book I turned it sideways. Each drawing crosses over the gutter or seam of the book.

Figure Sketch Books

"I'm not in the mood to draw!" My students say this to me a lot; I even say it to myself. You never know when inspiration is going to strike. Many times I get to my studio and I do not feel like doing anything, much less painting. So at times like that, I draw in my sketch book. I draw a lot of different things, but I draw figures most often. Some are made up out of my mind, many are just copied from magazines. The drawings above are from my figure sketch books. These are all in Moleskine books. I bought my first Moleskine book in Chicago on a trip in the 1990s. I had never seen one before. Then, for a few years, I had to order them from Chicago or New York. Now you can buy them any and everywhere. These are bound bristol like paper with a slight yellow tint. I use red prisma color pencils or conte pencils to draw with.

Paintings At Redsky Gallery in Epicenter

In a change from the usual theme of this blog, I wanted to let you know about some of my architectural paintings. This painting and one other are on display in downtown Charlotte. They are in a gallery called Redsky in the Epicenter complex. The painting above, titled " Water Tower at Night", is an oil painting 24 x 18 inches in size. When I paint in oil, I use many techniques that I use in my drawings, for example, this painting was painted light to dark. So, I painted the sky first and then gradually added the darker parts until arriving at black. This is the water tower on Camden Road in Charlotte's South End Historic District. This painting was awarded a second place prize by Joie Lassiter in an urban landscape show in 2008.

Drawing Six Complete

Drawing six is finished to the same level as the first five. I may go back into all the drawings and add some highlights with white color pencil or chalk. I will decide in a week or so. I want to live with all six drawings, at this stage, for a while. Just as in any major decision, I am going to 'sleep in it.' The shadow cast on the ground came out well in this drawing. It allowed me to do some interesting and different things with the shadows in the legs that I otherwise would not have been able to do.

Details of Drawing Six

One of the reasons I selected this pose is because I love drawing peoples backs. They are fascinating, to quote Mr. Spock. The back has a great combination of dramatic bone and muscle structure that is easily seen. Also backs have a lot subtly of highlight and shadow. Above is the line drawing.

The shoulder blades are going to be key to the success of this drawing. I will put a great deal of detail into them before this drawing is finished.

At this stage, I began putting some details into the rock above her head. I did a lot of work on this darwing today.