Merry Christmas from The Bosbyshell's

Here is a snap shot of our lives in 2009. Allen, who is 13, has added his comments in italic.

Wil had eye surgery to remove his cataracts in February. He has 20/20 vision for the first time in his life and only needs reading glasses (since he is so old). Papa can see better so now I have to clean more. Great . . .

Allen is the troop guide for Boy Scout Troop 1. He earned his Star rank and was inducted into the Order of the Arrow. Wil is still the scoutmaster. They hiked Grandfather Mountain (it rained), Table Rock (more rain), Cowpens Battle field (15°), and the Uwharrie trail (12 miles). My favorite part was messing with the knives and fire.

Maura branched out from quilting to designing jewelry and recycling clothing. She will donate over $150 to charities this year from her sales. Maura plans to sell jewelry on the internet in 2010.

The Art Institute of Charlotte granted Wil its first sabbatical this summer, and he began a new series of large scale figure drawings. He chronicled the series in a blog: www.bosbyshellart.blogspot.com.

In 2009, we exploded into the digital age! “Exploded” is taking it way too far! My parents are so not cutting edge. Wil also posted videos of his art technique demonstrations on Youtube. And all three of us have Facebook pages - friend us!

Maura still teaches fashion marketing and Wil graphic design at the Art Institute of Charlotte. Allen still studies languages and is now selecting a high school for next year!

We wish you and your family the best for 2010 and a joyous Christmas!

Your Friends, Wil, Maura and Allen Bosbyshell
mbosbyshell@aol.com
www.bosbyshellart.com
704-527-8231

Highlight Drawing 2 with Charcoal

I began a new sketch to determine my method for adding highlights to my series of drawings. I am using charcoal on this one. I like it right from the start! The blending is going very well; much better than color pencil. I think: Should I stop here? I keep going.



Here I am working on the highlights on the rock and beginning to add some dark values with pencil. I have decided to use the color of the paper as the middle gray value.

At this point I darkened the shadows and increased the brightness of the highlights. Still no outlines. I am thinking about that.

Now I am erasing and blending both the pencil shadows and the white charcoal highlights. This is the same pose as my very first drawing in the series which I began in June of this year. I have made some different decisions at this point. I added the pony tail; I left it off the first time. I have five values at this stage in the drawing: the gray paper, two highlights and two shadow values.

Hightlight Drawing 1 Complete

This drawing is finished. I did it to work out the highlights. I used color pencil on this one, but it does not erase or blend well. I did a major change to the head today. I decreased the height from the ear to the top of the head and increased the space behind the ear. I also elongated the neck and shortened the chin. I am happy with the rock with the highlights.

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.