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Day 17 Back to the flower pots. A bit more depth now. Still lots of work to do.
Day 16 Not a great day in either focus or output, but I did something rather than nothing. Just some random sketching
Day 15 Out of town for the weekend, so a break from the flower pots. Reading Alfonso Dunn’s “Pen & Ink Drawing” and practicing some marks, along with an attempt at an orange (ugh) and the end of a stick (better texture match)
Day 14 Goal: use values that create visual interest and represent form and texture. Started rendering; still in ugly duckling phase. Will it turn into a swan or a turkey vulture?
Day 13 Pulled out a ruler and triangle and couldn’t help tweaking lines. Is it so bad to use “technology” to render symmetrical man-made objects? – For the time being, I’m ok with that approach. I then used a light table to trace the sketch onto “good” paper – the result is the lower sheet in the pictures. I’m cracking up; the line quality is absolutely horrid. I couldn’t see the line I was drawing; it’s way too much pressure and it’s absolutely halting and wiggly. But the picture will be a medium key, so it may not matter. This is just one giant experiment now
Day 12 Futzed a little more with the ellipses and then added the board that one of the pots is resting on. Angles are slightly wonky – I’ll try to correct that in the morning. Started to shape the succulents. The one in the back has a lot going on in terms of leaves – I think during rendering, I’ll pick out a few for detailed emphasis and let the rest get lost. My eye can’t even make fully sense of it
Day 11 A second attempt – I’m not sure it’s much better, except for the thinner plumb lines. This feels like a portal into potential madness – “she started drawing two flower pots in 2021, and she still does the same drawing every day, ten years later…” I think I can let the ellipses rest for a few days. I think I’ll draw the rest of the scene, and then maybe transfer it to better paper to do a full rendering. Still burning to read more about ellipses in perspective
Day 10 Initial attempt at a line drawing for another little still life. Drawing two identical flower pots in perspective and in relationship to one another is still quite a mental and kinetic effort – I guess that just means I need to keep doing it. Wrong pencil angle for the plumb line – it made a broad stroke which added to confusion when pencil measuring for symmetry. I’ve been meaning to create a “stencil” of ellipses of varying degrees and widths on tracing paper, both to practice the true shape as well as to have an objective tool for evaluating hand drawn ellipses. These aren’t “quite right”, I know
Day 9 Back to the very basics – trying to create 10 step value charts in different media, without smudging. I’ve realized that in my portrait and figure attempts so far I have neglected the basic value range assignment
Day 8 Second attempt today; third overall. I need to remember to pause after the rough in to evaluate proportions and alignment. I still have a long way to go in rendering subtleties, but this one is better than yesterday’s. It’s funny that I see flaws more easily in the photo than the original drawing
Day 7. Portraits are calling me again. Used one of the NMA references. My goals were achieving resemblance through accurate shapes, and creating depth through shading. As for overall resemblance, I’m fairly happy with how it turned out, although I tend to not allocate enough space between eyes and brows . The shading is pretty awful. The reference was a light skinned woman of middle age. My marks are very harsh and streaky (with mechanical pencil. I should practice value ranges through mark making. Maybe I’ll take another pass tomorrow
Day 6. Line drawing for a still life. Since January, I’ve been meeting with a local artist and art teacher, Robin Cole of Arvada. NMA has been a wealth of education, but I also benefit tremendously from personal feedback. It’s that fresh eye that notices that my ellipses need work or that the sides of my box don’t converge. – Blocking in and relative measuring seem relatively easy now, and I’m closer to symmetry for the vessel. Box shaped forms still give me a run for the money – they seem so simple, but they also offer no room to hide. The ribbon also needed quite some updating after my first pass.
Day 5 Late in the day and didn’t really feel like doing anything, but I did it anyway, so I’ll count that effort as success today. Back to drawing eyes from the Fialetti plate; they are getting more complex. Focusing on matching line shape as well as the overall form of the example. I finally “found” the G nib in my set of Tachikawa nibs. It really is my favorite so far
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