Paul’s 100 Day Challenge; Sketchbook

[PaulDidier]

Thanks Taghetti. Due to some back issues it’s taking too long to do these and I’m not sure how they look when I post them so I appreciate the encouragement.

[PaulDidier]

Thanks Taghetti. I appreciate your comment. Been struggling lately with proportion, gesture and lines. I’m very stiff because of my back and it’s really impacting my drawing and the looseness I normally try to get.

Here’s day 63. It’s a good example of what’s been going on. I usually don’t do a pencil sketch for my pen and ink quick sketches, but this was supposed to be a quick pencil sketch to do a more studied pen and ink than I normally do.

Instead, I decided to try to do some of the things Joshua suggested, in the pencil sketch, about the major masses. But then I noticed the hips were way to far down from the torso. I erased and redrew the pelvis about four times to get to where it is now. The head is also too large. I’ll try to fix that tomorrow. And of course the figure is positioned poorly so her arm is running off the top of the page. Not much I can do about that so it stays.

I may decide to go forward in ink but maybe just try another figure.

 

[Donatella Taghetti]

Hello Paul , ( call me Dona) , this rabbit look so sweet.. it seems i can see the nose moving… it give to me a sense of action!!! very nice ! i m a fan of u noe 🙂 !

[PaulDidier]

Hi Dona. Sorry I got your name wrong! Thanks for the comment on the bunny. Appreciate that. I really enjoyed hanging with that bunny while he, or she, was living in our backyard.

[Joshua Jacobo]

Haven’t checking in on this thread for awhile but it’s looking great!

[PaulDidier]

Thanks Joshua. I must say I think I’ve been really struggling the last couple of weeks. A little over two weeks ago my back kind of blew out on me. can hardly bend, climb stairs and sitting or standing for more than about 10 minutes becomes very painful.

I’m frustrated at how this seems to be really having a domino effect on my drawing. At least I’m assuming it’s at least part of the cause, (along with very poor sleep). Basically I’m losing much of the looseness I usually have in my quick sketches, my proportions are generally way off and even my placement on the page is awful. I’m trying lots of things to try to compensate like taking a break every 10 minutes to stretch, using a heating pad and doing some stretching. Anyway, enough of that. I’m feeling confident that I’ll get a better handle on this and find ways to improve the back in general.

Here’s my gouache study for day 64. Right away I’m seeing that I’m very comfortable rendering the coat sleeve but when I start doing flesh tones as on the hand I start having lots of trouble. Any ideas anyone has as to why this may be the case I’d sure appreciate hearing them.

 

 

 

 

 

[Joshua Jacobo]

I’m sorry to hear that, Paul. To me the work looks much stronger. My guess would be that as your skills improve you’re becoming more critical of your work.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 9 months ago by Joshua Jacobo.

[elizabeth hone]

Nice work. I like it

[David Carter]

Hey Paul,

Your studies are looking awesome as usual.  Perhaps for your flesh tones try some experiments with less/more texture, less/more contrast, less/more colour etc to find something that hits your eye better.  I notice the background has a flesh tone as well in the study above – perhaps if that was black or white (or any neutral colour) it would change the appearance of the hand.

I’ve had back issues before – the two most helpful things for me are swimming and alexander technique.  Swimming is an issue right now because of Covid but you can do the semi-supine exercise in alexander technique literally anywhere.

Good luck, David.

 

• This reply was modified 3 years, 9 months ago by David Carter.

[PaulDidier]

Thanks Elizabeth.

Joshua appreciate your comment. I hope that’s it. The last 3-4 weeks have been so uncomfortable at times they seem a bit surreal. I find myself doing a drawing or a page, noticing problems and saying to myself, “oh that’s good enough” and just posting it , then lying down. Not how I like to work at all.

David, thanks for the suggestion.  I agree about swimming. That absolutely saved me in the past when I had back issues. Difficult now though with the Covid.  I’ve never heard of the “Alexander technique.” I’ll look into it. Saw a highly regarded chiropractor yesterday and will be seeing a woman I know who does Rossiter, who’s been really helpful in the past, this Saturday.

Thanks again folks. Will try to get a page done early today before I feel wiped out. Looks like this 100 Day Challenge may end up being a 200 Day Challenge for me. Whichever, I’m determined to finish it! It’s been so helpful for me. Wonderful feeling like I’m in a community of supportive fellow artists!

 

[PaulDidier]

Here’s day 65. Still struggling with proportions, (her right arm), and placement. But otherwise enjoying the process a bit more.

 

[PaulDidier]

Here’s my gouache study for day 66. Above it is my grey-scale gouache study from day 14.

 

[PaulDidier]

Here’s my Day 67 page, (finally). Been seeing doctors all week about my back and will try to start swimming tomorrow. Hoping to get back into this challenge!

 

[PaulDidier]

Still trying to get into the flow of things again. Decided to do a perspective study. I used to like doing these where I’d establish an eye level and just free-hand shapes using the eye level for vanishing points. Sometimes I’d end up with industrial or city – like images. Just random though as I go along. Took pictures with my iPhone in not so great light so images don’t look too great.

Day 68

Here’s the first step.

 

 

 

[PaulDidier]

Second step didn’t post. I’ll try again. Was going to post a third one but maybe not.

 

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