Monday, October 6, 2014

Force-tural drawing #1 - ordered a new easel, and busting out the compressed charcoal sticks


I was dismayed to discover I had exactly one more sheet of newsprint left! I ordered more, in fact after ordering 2 more pads, I decided to get serious and order a shitload of loose sheets - buying in bulk FTW!! So much cheaper that way. I guess I'll find a box to keep the drawings in.

Anyway, I'm really stoked at how well this 1st attempt went!! I had the video freeze-framed @ Croquis Cafe and didn't time myself - I'm trying to learn how to do something new here, not set speed records. That needs to be done slowly and deliberately, with Deliberation Aforethought (close relative to Malice). So I looked at the image for a while, deciding how to exaggerate, thinking about bent triangles and curves etc, and decided to exaggerate the teardrop/pear shape of the torso and the size of the hips. Sketched in some light lines first as guides, then drew slowly and deliberately, but fast enough to get that nice loose line quality. I guess I just took the time to decide exactly where I wanted each line to start and stop, and were it needed to visit along the journey. Then I committed and scribed my line (old Architectural Rendering term from high school). Really surprised how well it went - probably beginners' luck.

I considered flipping the pad over and drawing on the backs of all the sheets, but that would result in charcoal from old drawings transferring onto new ones and vise verse. Screw it - I'll wait till the new paper comes in. Meanwhile I need to get back to my Bridgeman studies and regular figure drawing, which can be on smaller paper. It sucks though, right when I'm super-stoked to do this!! Aint that the way it goes?

I also decided I need a good freestanding easel for the upstairs studio so I ordered one off Amazon - I'll post a link to it later.

Aaaannnd - I got tired of all the problems I've been having with these damn charcoal pencils - using a 2B today and it was too hard to draw with. So I dug out an old General's box I had got my last set of charcoal pencils in - it has a section with compressed charcoal sticks that were starting to look pretty damn good to me. When you're drawing as big as I am now (one sketch per sheet @ 18x24) the sticks work a lot better than scrawny little pencils, no need to sharpen them up and get wood shavings all over the floor.

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