Curled in a Ball

14 x 12 1/2

Silverpoint on off white prepared paper

This is what I consider a perfect subject for silverpoint.  Light on light with no large areas of dark.  Yet I still think the lights and darks balance out fairly well.   It has the light, airy, etherial quality that plays right into the strengths of silverpoint.  Pretty happy with this one.

Child of Water

Silverpoint heightened with white gouache on light blue gray prepared paper

15 x 11ish

A lot of my favorite things here, white dress, reflections in water, hazy background, curly hair.  Well, maybe not so much on the curly hair.  Not that I don't like curly hair, drawing it can just be a bit of a challenge.  

detail about actual size 

This is a second version.  The first was doomed from the very beginning.  After I'd started and gotten well into it I just felt the paper was too dark to convey the mood I wanted.  After that it just got away from me probably because I'd already lost confidence in what the final piece would look like.  Lesson to be learned -- get it right from the beginning.  If a mistake is made, fix it right away or if it can't be fixed, cut your losses and start over.

Silverpoint Landscape

I did this one back in the summer when it was about 1000 degrees outside.  I thought maybe drawing a nice wintery landscape would cool me off some.  Didn't work, but it kept me occupied for a while.

Silverpoint on light gray ground

8 x 6.5

I've never really done a landscape in silverpoint before other than something seen in the distance through a window.  There's a reason for that.  Silverpoint just doesn't have the range of values to quite do the job. Now, this image isn't horrible, but if those closer trees were darker the whole scene would have so much more power.  This image really needs to have a more graphic quality.  I had wanted to do a version of this in ink just to illustrate the difference, but I just can't seem to find the time.  You'll just have to use your imagination.  If you're going for a more etherial look, silverpoint might be just the thing so maybe this is just a case of the wrong medium for the wrong image.  

I've seen a handful of silverpoint landscapes.  Most left me feeling like this one, not bad, but it would be better if there were darker darks to give some more depth.  I've also seen a few that fit the medium nicely.  They were all more dreamy, fog shrouded images.  But they were all mostly gray of virtually the same value.  So if you like mid-tone gray images there you go.

The thing I'm finding with silverpoint is that if you have one or two they can be really nice if they're not competing with something with more range of value or color.  If you get too many together at one time they start to take on an overall grayness and they start to blend into the wall.  That's a problem with drawing in general.  It just seems to be particularly problematic with silverpoint.  And that's why you don't see many shows featuring just drawings I think.  Remember this is coming from someone that likes drawings.  

Well, I'm rambling today.  Not quite sure where that came from.  Any of your thought are welcome.  Thanks for looking.

Forgotten Images from the Vault

A few days ago I was looking through an old portfolio.  It was full of older drawings and things from several years ago, and I wasn't entirely sure what I would find.  Since they were older I expected to find a lot of junk to throw out.  There was some of that, but not nearly as much as I expected.  What I did find were some of the things I did while relearning how to draw.  Some of them weren't half bad if I do say so myself.  At any rate I thought some of the old master copies would be of interest to you.  So let's see what I found.

Look familiar?  A nice little silverpoint copy of Leonardo's silverpoint study for an angel.  It's heightened with white chalk.  This is one of the earlier silverpoints I have done.  A handful came before this, but you don't want to see those.  Trust me on that one.  The ground is a watered down acrylic gesso toned with some dry pigment, prussian blue I think.

I love old master drawings.  The St Louis Art Museum has a gallery devoted entirely to works on paper, drawings, prints, the occasional watercolor, and I always make sure to spend some time in there.  When a list of the greatest draftsmen of all time is put together Leonardo is always on it.   Albrecht Durer always makes the list too.  If you're looking for drawings to copy he's got some nice ones.  He also has a great list of engravings.

Another pretty famous image.  Well, if you're going to steal, steal the best.  Now this isn't a bad bit of drawing considering it's me and all, but compared to the original it definitely blows chunks.  I've seen the original print several times, and it never fails to amaze me.  It's not very big, only about 10x 8, but there's a lot packed into that small space.

This might not be quite a well known, but still a pretty sweet image.  This is Goya's The Sleep of Reason Produces Demons.  It's from a collection of etchings (maybe they're classed as aquatints) Goya produced called Los Capricios.  Pretty sure I spelled that wrong, have to check.  For all the non-etchers out there an aquatint is a resin dusted over the plate.   The plate is heated just enough for the resin to melt creating a resist to the acid bath.  When etched it will result in a wash-like tone like the background here.  The longer the etch, the darker the tone.  In the case of my drawing here I used charcoal.  I always liked etching.  Really should have broken down and bought a press.

A copy of Rembrandt's etching Woman with an Arrow.  Another of the world's all time great draftsmen and one of the great etchers too.  Nobody's quite sure what's going on in this image.  Venus giving an arrow to Cupid?  Maybe, as good a back story as any.  Personally I don't really care much.  I just like the image.  That's the reason I did most of these.  I also tried to copy them as closely as possible, trying to figure out the whys and wherefores.  Honestly I don't remember what I learned on any individual drawing.  It was more of a cumulative effect.   I have sketchbooks full of quick versions of things like this and other assorted objects.  The more you do the better.   One more today.

Recognize this guy?  If you don't you're in the wrong place.  I'm sorry, you'll have to leave.  I can only take this inclusive stuff so far.  I mean we're talking Rembrandt here.  Okay, the pose is based on a rather well know Titian portrait, but this etching may well be equally famous, and I do like a good etching.

Last thought for the day comes from Rembrandt while we're on the subject.  "Take the brush in hand and begin.  When you have said all you wish say you're done."

Playing with the Wind

Silverpoint on off white prepared paper
14 x 10

This is the companion piece to the last one I posted.  The size and paper color is identical.  The value range is about the same too.  If it looks different here blame it on the white balance.  It also illustrates the problem in photographing artworks.  I've seen the same image posted on different sites, all well respected art sites, that look totally different.   So maybe I'm not such a bad photographer after all.  Well,  I'll admit to being adequate.  Now there's something to aspire to.

I've been trying to think of something to actually say about this piece, but I really got nothing today.  The two drawings do go together fairly well.

or you can put them together the other way which I think I prefer.

That's not so bad a pairing.  I've considered doing a third figure to put in the middle, probably a standing figure about twice as big.  I think that might look pretty good.  Gotta give that some more thought.

Waiting for Spring

Silverpoint on light blue prepared paper heightened with white gouache
14 x 10

We didn't really have to wait for spring this year. It got here a good month early, and it feels like it's already over now. That's not so bad except for all the lawn mowing. I need the exercise.

Anyway this is the last of my small efforts to give the people what they want. A fair number of people come here from the silverpoint web presumably to see the silverpoints. So here you go. I rather like this one, unfortunately it refuses to be photographed accurately. This is a bit on the dark side. Hope you find it worth the visit.

No idea what's coming next, but I promise there will be something.

Something for the charcoal lovers

Charcoal and white chalk
14 x 26

According to the stats for this blog a lot of people come here via image search for charcoal drawings and portraits. Considering how few charcoal drawings i do that strikes me as a bit of a surprise. But I'm all about making people happy so here's one for the charcoal lovers out there. I'm still having trouble getting comfortable with the medium, but I like the look enough to keep trying. For bigger drawings it's much better than pencil and a silverpoint this size would take forever. That in itself makes it worth pursuing.

The stats also say there are even more people coming here for the silverpoint drawings. Not today, but there are more on the way. Stay tuned.

Candlelight II

Silverpoint heightened with white gouache
10 x 14

A return to the candlelight theme here today. This is one of those things that practically drew itself, once it got started at least. It had a rather inauspicious beginning. I do all the hard drawing on regular paper with a plain old everyday pencil. Once I'm satisfied with the basic line drawing I'll transfer it to the prepared silverpoint paper. I wish I could tell you that I'm good enough to do it all right on the final grounded paper, but I can't. Deal with it, I have. You've got to remember that the grounds are pretty fragile and you can't erase a silverpoint line. Anyway, after I'd transferred the drawing I noticed a charcoal smudge right off the end of her nose. Being that it was charcoal I could just erase that, except as it turned out the eraser was a little on the dirty side, and it left and even worse smudge than I'd started with. I've tried to correct things like that in the past, and found out that the best way of dealing with it is to cut your losses and start over from scratch. So I had to trash this before I'd even started. Glad I started over.

What to say?

I saw this video over on the Gurney Journey and just had to pass it on. Strangely enough it kinda fits into what I have been thinking about the last few days. You see, I couldn't quite come up with what I wanted to say about today's offering. That's mainly because there's really nothing to say from my standpoint. So I could make something up that may well be marginally interesting or just punt. I've never been particularly good at creative writing so maybe the video will be a good lead-in. So here's artist's statement along with translation.



And here are today's drawings.



Both are silverpoint and 10 x 8

While these are both nice little drawings, more or less competent, let's face it, they're not exactly earth shattering. Don't get me wrong I like them both quite a bit, and I think they're worth looking at, but neither have any great message. And that's all right too. Everything doesn't have to be a metaphor for something else. Sometimes a drawing is just a drawing. I did them because I liked the poses and the overall feel. The second one is actually a rather sissy pose with no face and just the back of a hand without any fingers showing, but I like it anyway. Deal with it. How's that for an artist's statement?

That being said i'll bet that somewhere out there somebody is going to like these even without all the artistic gobbledygook. Maybe they'll even find a message of their own. So much the better. Maybe they'll even want them for their own. That can be arranged too.

Well, y'all take care out there and try to retain your sanity.

Figure Drawing

pencil and white chalk on Bugra paper
20 x 30ish

More in my continuing effort to improve or at least maintain my drawing skills. I really do like doing these larger, more finished drawings. They take some time, but that's all right. I think it's time well spent.

I still can't decide if I like this Bugra paper or not. It's awfully soft and rough for my taste. Still it holds up to erasing pretty well and it does take pencil nicely as long as it's a nice sharp pencil. And then there's the fact that I still have quite a bit of it left.

Asleep

Silverpoint on blue gray prepared paper
5.75 x 12.75

It seemed like this thing took forever to do. I don't know if it really did or if it just felt that way. It shouldn't have. It's not bigger than usual or particularly complicated. The dark background did take quite a while to build up which is a pretty boring activity. And I did take a few elements out of that background. Speaking of the background, sorry about the glare. It's a much flatter tone. Photographing silverpoint is the only thing I don't like about the medium. That's probably why they tend to back up. I've got a bit of a backload to post in the coming weeks.

Angry Eyes

Silverpoint
8 x 10

I did this one a while back when I was thinking about The Lady in the Lake that eventually turned into a watercolor. I wound up going a different direction, but at one time I had thought about using this or something like it as the lady. The expression would have worked nicely I think. She would have been in the lake with the water bubbling up around here gradually turning into her white gown. Still like that concept, may have to go back to it.

Over the Horizon

Silverpoint heightened with white gouache
14 x 11

Is there room in the world for another picture of a woman looking at some unseen thing? Hope so.

I'd meant to put this up a couple weeks ago, but something just didn't feel right. It seems I'd forgotten the cast shadow. Who was it that lost his shadow, Peter Pan? Wendy had to sew it back on for him. I guess I've sewed her shadow back on now so it's ready to be seen. Strangely enough that's about all I have to say about it. Hope that enough.

My 100th Post

Blogger informs me that this is my 100th post. Seems a bit of a milestone, modest by some standards but still. I should have some kind of big important thing today in honor of it, but I got nothing. So we'll just consider it business as usual.


Silverpoint heightened with white gouache

Not only do I not have anything planned for today's momentous posting, I don't even have a title for this piece. Suggestions are welcome. I still think it came out pretty good. Originally I had planned to just do a vignette, but as is usually the case, it just kept growing outward. I rather like the pose and can see it growing up into something bigger. Don't hold your breath on that one though.

I see a lot of these drawings growing up and so far very, very few have. I seem to draw a line between preparatory drawings and finished drawings. It all has to do with the original intent apparently. Some of the prep drawings could easily stand on their own, but they usually get stuffed away. Most of the finished drawings could be carried further into paint and color, but the original thought said drawing is as far as they should go. No good reasoning behind it really.

I'm rambling today. Nothing much to say. Just wanted to put something up for y'all to look at.

A Pile of Portraits

Let's look at a few more drawings this week. Instead of full figures maybe some portraits for a change. And just to mix it up, how about a variety of media. I may use all the labels today.

Why do I use different media? Sometimes it's a matter of size. Silverpoint is good for smaller things, charcoal works better bigger, in my case at least, and pencil works for everything. Sometimes it's just a matter of, "I haven't done one of those in a while." Perhaps not the best of reasons, but it's all I got.


Pencil on Stonehenge paper


Charcoal heightened with white chalk


Silverpoint heightened with white gouache

This is me after all. There has to be a silverpoint drawing.

And for those who are wondering if I have forgotten how to paint.


Oil on canvas
16 x 12

I had a tough time photographing this one. Hope I got the correct picture.

As it turns out these are actually pretty good likenesses. You might recognize a couple of the models. The last is Elandria. She's been here at least twice before. And the first is Jessica who you might recognize from some earlier portrait studies. Thanks to all my lovely models.

Studies in Charcoal

Last time I mentioned that large figure studies in pencil may not be the best idea. Pencil works fine, but it just takes a while on a larger scale. That's why charcoal is used so often. You can lay down larger areas of tone much quicker, and it's relatively easy to model 3-dimensional objects.

Personally, I have a love hate relationship with charcoal. Love the look, hate working with it. For some reason I've just never gotten comfortable with charcoal, but I'm still trying to get there. So here's a couple of my more recent attempts. All in all I think they came out fairly well. It just seemed like it was more of a struggle than it should have been.


I'm experimenting with papers for charcoal too. This is a full sheet of the Strathmore 500 series. It's not a bad paper at all. I've used it on and off for quite some time and really have no complaints. It's a pretty good all purpose drawing paper.


This was done on a piece of Hahnemuhle Bugra. I've been wanting to try this paper for a while, and finally got around to getting some. First off the sheets are about twice the size of the Strathmore. If you want to do some big work that's a good thing. For me and the room I have available to work, that's really too big. Nothing says I can't cut it in half though, so I did. It's marketed as having a rough side and a smoother side like Canson Mi-tienes. And while that may be true, both sides are much toothier than that the Canson. Not necessarily a bad thing but something to be aware of. For me the biggest thing was the softness of the surface as compared to the Strathmore paper. It takes charcoal and pencil quite well, but it's real easy to scuff up the surface. So be a little gentle and keep erasing to a minimum. Actually that's probably a good idea regardless of the paper you're using.

He's Baaaaaack

He's back. What's happening? Has hell frozen over, is it a cold day in July? That can't be it, it's pushing 100 and besides it's August. Maybe I just finally got around to taking some pictures, and it just seems like a good idea to start up again. So here goes.

Ever wonder what goes on during these long breaks? What's that, you don't. Just as well since nothing exciting has been happening. So let's come at this from a different direction.

I operate on the assumption that one can never draw too well. Since I'm nowhere close to drawing too well and actually testing that assumption, I draw a lot. I do quick sketches that no one will ever see and a fair number of pretty highly finished studies. Let's start off this rebirth with some figure drawing.

Why draw figures? Why not? When it comes to drawing practice anything will do, the important thing is to do it and observe and record carefully. If you draw a tree or a pile of fabric you can get away with a certain amount of errors. Does that branch really go in that direction? If you really pay attention and do a careful study those errors won't be there and it suddenly makes absolutely no difference what you draw. With a figure though, there is less latitude. While bodies do vary, an error in proportions will just look wrong. There is a constant battle to render a solid 3-dimensional form that actually looks like a figure with all the right pieces in the right places.

So that's why I do this kind of figure drawing. Fairly tightly rendered and studied to the best of my ability. Ideally that ability will continue to improve, that is the object of practice after all.

Both of these drawings are pencil on Stonehenge paper in the 30 x 22 inch range. Given that size, pencil may not have been the best choice of medium, but it gets the job done even if it does take a while. I rather like the idea of having a drawing that I can go back to and chew on until it has been carried to the degree of finish desired. When doing one of these I always think back to my school days when a teaching assistant informed my that no one likes doing careful drawings like this. Well, I do.

Candlelight

14 x 10
Silverpoint on Cream color prepared paper

Here's the latest silverpoint offering. I really don't have much to say about it. Hopefully it speaks for itself. I think there will be another candlelight drawing or two coming down the line.

On the technical side this is about as dark as silverpoint gets. I might be able to push it a bit farther, but not much, and I don't think it really needs to be any darker. If it were I think it would lose that quality of softness it has now. It would take all the air out of the shadows, and they would become more ominous and dramatic. Not going for the Rembrandt look here. Maybe I'll get a chance to play with the image in Photoshop to illustrate the point. All that silver in the darks also makes it almost impossible to get a decent picture. I bet I took 100 pictures of this before I came up with one that is usable. If you look close enough there is still some glare in the hair.

The color of the paper was a bit of a happy accident. Originally I wanted just a light, warm gray, but the raw umber gouache didn't tint out quite the way I expected. I was about to prepare another sheet, but decided to give this a try. I didn't have anything else to use it for after all. I'm glad I continued on with it. The color actually works quite well.

Winter Day

Silverpoint on a warm light gray toned paper
18 x 14

I may have mislead you. Unlike a politician this was not my intent. I have always said that silverpoint was good for smaller pieces, but couldn't really hold up for something bigger. It just can't produce the dark darks needed to be noticed from across the room. I may have to rethink that. After looking at some of Dennis Martin's work I noticed that many of them are pretty big, much bigger than I had expected. So I took a shot and tried something bigger myself. Now this is not a huge drawing by any means, but it's about twice what I'm used to. It seems to hold up pretty well both near and from across the room, at least the size of my rooms. So bigger may be better.

On the downside it takes forever. The earlier parts had already started to tarnish by the time the last lines were added. I started this back in May or maybe early June and just finished it up a couple weeks ago. I didn't work nonstop on this though. There were quite a few weeks that it didn't get touched at all actually so it's hard to guess exactly how long it really took to finish. It certainly felt like a long time. Then again, it was nice to have something to go back and chew on.

Enough about that. What I was trying to do here was show how nice it is to curl up with a book when the snow in laying on the fields, the warmth of the figure against the cold of the landscape. Besides I loved the light. I hope I got somewhere close to the feel of it.

Twig

Didn't mean to be gone that long guys, sorry. It's been a long and rather interesting summer. Overall not that great but there were flashes that kept me wanting to see what would happen next. It looks like that the way it will be for a while to come too. At least now I'm used to it. On to the pictures, that's what you're here for.

I've done virtually no painting or drawing at all in the last few months so this had the potential for complete disaster. I'd wanted to do this piece for quite a while, but something always seemed to come up and push this to the back burner. Instead of going right to the finished picture I thought you might like to see a couple of the studies that I do beforehand. There's a lot of stuff done that nobody will ever see, but are nevertheless important to the process. This is where all the drawing issues get worked out. Before I start the final piece I have a pretty good idea of exactly where I'm going.


pencil heightened with white
22 x 15

So here's the final drawing of the figure. If it wasn't right there would be no reason to go any further so it was pretty obvious that I needed to spend as much time here as necessary. Besides I like to draw, this was the fun part.


Watercolor
15 x 11

So now that I've got a figure I need to put her in a landscape or some kind of environment. An excuse to go for a walk in the woods, most excellent. Not the best watercolor I've ever done, but it serves the purpose. She should fit in there nicely. It's really best compositionally to do this all at once working with basically abstract shapes and then adapting the shapes to figure and surroundings. Sometimes you get lucky though and this way will work out all right. Let's put it together and see what I've got.


Watercolor
30 x 22

This is what I thought would be the final piece. I'm not so sure though so this could turn out to be another study. There's some good points but I think there are parts that I could and should do better. And this is why it is best compositionally to work on the whole piece at once instead of putting together pieces. On this particular painting there is no deadline and no one is dying to see it (as far as I know) so why not keep going and do it right.


Watercolor
22 x 15ish

This is a detail of the previous piece and makes a pretty good image on its own. Right now I'm leaning toward cropping it down and salvaging this part and later going back and repainting the whole piece, maybe an oil next time.

Edit: I've switched out the last two images with ones that are closer to actual in color at least. Images seem to come out about a step lighter here than anywhere else. Anybody else have that problem?