NY: Beacon
a view of the Hudson river from the train station in Beacon. We went to visit the Dia museum, which was amazing in terms of its airy gallery spaces and architecture as well as the art works, but more on that later. The landscape as seen from the Metro North railway was of the Hudson river and some swamps and a horizontal mountain wall. It is surprising how rural the land becomes as you ride out north from Manhattan.
in color
wut’cha lookin at?, oil on 16″X20″ canvas
Finally, I followed the advice of Mr. Giovanni Civardi (whose drawing book I picked up at Borders) and tried another medium. The oil colors unintentionally look dismal. A small feat, although this may account for the muddying of paints, is that I painted the whole thing without a drop of turpentine.
I almost want to apologize for putting up not the best paintings for anybody to see. The shading is blotchy. But, hey, this is painting number one. I hope to see some progress as the posts multiply.
self
finally, a self that sort of looks like me.
I haven’t been able to fall asleep at night until at least 3am for the past several days. This would have been frustrating if I had an early morning commitment every day, but since I don’t, I’m rather grateful for the extra time that’s been allotted to me in the odd hours . During the day, it’s hard to stay calm and patient enough to draw, especially with the sunny weather outdoors and millions of other more active things I could be doing. But at one or two o’clock at night, the only activity I expect to do is rest. And that means if I’m not sleeping, I could be drawing.
hands and a foot and a self
hands
hands
Feet are difficult to draw because their shape is not clearly divided into geometric blocks. This one looks cartoonish toward the toes. I vow to spend an hour drawing just a foot for once. But not tonight…
Self.
Drawing from observation gets me better results than drawing from memory or drawing the figure from a formula. But it can be frustrating when I forget to memorize an anatomical detail I observe and end up having to observe the same point again each time I draw.
So, for the hands, I analyzed the comparative lengths of the fingers. I also bought and looked into a book called “Complete Drawing” by Giovanni Civardi’s, because not only was it on sale at the bookstore, but the author draws very well and has great practical advice for setting up for a good drawing session. For the hands, he shows various ways that he simplifies the shapes before drawing. He also points out that, although analytically drawing the figure is helpful for a beginner, people should not get caught up in drawing by the ‘formula,’ because figures would turn out to look stiff and mechanical. Instead, one should always capture the attitude of the body and its gesture.
What I’ll do next time is 1. spend more time on one drawing. And, 2. draw from angles I have never tried.
sketchbook figures
drawing and referencing Andrew Loomis’s book again for the proportions of the “ideal figure.”
Lazy doodles.
and more lazy doodles. with some perspective line practice.
I should draw something real… not just sketches.
sketchbook figure
Grandma. It suddenly got dark so I had to stop drawing. Anything I shade in without looking at the real figure looks unnatural.
