Bellydancer Sketch

I've been busy recently with non-art related stuff, but I've been trying to get in one sketch per day. Usually I spend no more than twenty minutes on a sketch -- sometimes less than ten if it's a simple pencil sketch.




This particular sketch was a bit of a challenge -- partly because I started with a dark, random blotch of watercolor to sort of prime the paper. The reference photo, courtesy of elflands-workshop, was particularly lovely and I wanted to do it justice. As a result, I ended up with one of the most mixed media pieces I've ever done (ink, watercolor pencils, watercolor, graphite, gel pen, colored pencils, and acrylic), and I spent a bit more time than I normally would have on a simple sketch.

But I'm happy, and that's what counts, right?

Male Figural Sketch

Another one of my daily sketches, and this one's not nude!

Erm, not that there's a lot of detail anyway. It's just one of those quick little twenty minute sketches. Graphite, InkTense pencils, India ink, and Prismacolors. The original photoref can be found on this site.

Some of my daily sketches

Uploaded three new sketches to my scraps at deviantArt. They're nudes, otherwise I'd post 'em here.
http://winteryvisions.deviantart.com/art/05122008-sketch-86275178
http://winteryvisions.deviantart.com/art/05132008-sketch-86275374
http://winteryvisions.deviantart.com/art/05202008-sketch-86275625

April Showers Bring . . . Lots of Shows, Apparently!

So -- the show I was frantically preparing for has come and gone, but meanwhile it seems like everyone and their dog has a show this month! In the span of about a week I've attended three receptions! Even the show I was in had its reception earlier this month. What is this, June for weddings and April for art shows?

Anyway -- I ended up primarily hanging drawings at our Emerging Artists show. It was a serendipity that allowed a friend of mine to end up posing -- fully clothed! -- in our figure drawing class, and she was an awesome model. I don't think there was anyone that day who didn't come away with good drawings of her. Paintings take me far, far too long, and I'd rather take the time to consider how I REALLY want things to look and work on my skills besides. I will say this, though -- it was hard for my drawings to compete with the paintings that the other artists hung. Bigger doesn't always mean better, but it sure as hell helps.

Another Quick Post, and a Congratulations to --

-- my buddy, Ari, for winning Best of Show (2D) in the student show last night. Despite the rigors of a tornado drill, a fire alarm, and lightning streaking across the sky, she managed to kick all of our collective asses with this gorgeous piece of hers that can be found here.

(I knew I should have switched the tags on our pieces! She got more money than I did!)

Great job sweetie!

Quick Post with Underpainting

Thought I'd show what I had so far on the underpainting front. The figure is underpainted in purple (dioxazine violet mixed with burnt umber and titanium white). And yes, what you're seeing is the image painted over two canvases, each measuring 20" X 16".

Still got a ways to go.

And a closeup of the face:

I'll post more when I have more progress. Or when the nice men in white coats come and take me to my new studio with padded walls. Wheee!

Cartoon

I've been busy recently trying to get work done for an upcoming show. The good news: I have an upcoming show. The bad news: they won't let me hang nudes.

Now doesn't that sound all kinds of perverted.

So, between schoolwork and house-hunting, I've been frantically stretching canvases, priming canvases, measuring frames, and so on. I much prefer drawing, because I'm a great deal more competent at it. But drawing requires matting and framing in order to be presentable. A painting on canvas needs only to have its sides neatly painted, either in a continuation of its painting, or in a solid color (such as black, or the background color of the painting in question). Right now I can't afford to mat and frame five or six pieces. But with a little effort, I can make my paintings ready to hang.

I do have something to show for my absence -- a full sized cartoon of the painting:




Charcoal and carbon pencil on brown paper, 40" x 16".

I've never really done a full-size cartoon before -- usually I'll have a sketch in my sketchbook, and I'll take it over to the artograph at the school and use that to enlarge the image so I can transfer it to the canvas. This time, though, I wanted to work out the composition at size instead of fiddling around on a smaller area. It's actually pretty liberating: I don't have to fudge on some areas that would be too small on a 5x7 sketchbook. I also know where everything is going. Sometimes, working in the sketchbook, I won't get the proportions of the composition right, so when the image gets enlarged, the composition gets thrown out of whack. What I mean is that I'll scribble a haphazard box to work out my composition in, but the box (picture plane) doesn't have the same proportion as the canvas I end up working on. So, the arrangement of elements I worked out in that box doesn't work well on the canvas.

Closeup of the figure's face.

I'm still working out exactly what I want and where I want it in the composition. I'm anxious to get started on it, but I know if I don't finish the drawing and know where everything is going to be and what direction I'm going in, I'm going to flounder somewhere between 60 and 75 percent of the way through the painting. Happens every time. You folk who work so spontaneously and on the fly -- you're lucky dogs. Nyah.

This is a little scary for me -- I'm still afraid that I'm going to irrevocably screw up and have nothing to show for it. I'd cross my fingers, but it's rather hard to hold a brush that way!

Next time I'll post some of the progress on the painting itself.