Anatomy Drawing #3 - Devin Week 3 - 03/10/2016

Day 3 of the Drawing.

The model was late today and then there was a long demo. I was eager to start drawing.  

I took a photo of the background to work on the setting during the week. The shapes of the background are starting to crystallize. The are really useful in the drawing as the shadow of the heater is darker then anything else on the body. So it allows me to adjust his shadows against the shadow of the heater.

I had to buy another lead holder for 6H Lead. That is the hardest lead I could find in a lead holder format. I'm finding the lead holder is really dark for a 2H or maybe its just my heavy hand. That means im working on this drawing with 3 lead holders: The main one is the 2H lead (Blue), A 6b for the dark shadows (Yellow) and now a 6h (Red) for Half tones. It is allowing me to build a system for the rendering.

The Chalk is the highlights and then all the light parts of the body are rendered with 6h lead. In the shadows and turning (transition) I use the 2H pencil. Then Where i need the punch of a super dark i use the 6b. I am really happy to be building this system for myself it should make the future drawings for this class easier.

Amaya was showing me her work.  She doesn't fear the mixture of the white chalk and the graphite. She actually uses it for the turnings. I may try this in the next drawing. The model's complexion is not really conducive to this method of working. It was an insight. I have always been taught to avoid mixing graphite and chalk as the blue it creates is unpleasant. Its probably why I am so reticent to use chalk generally.

When I was starting off drawing. I used to have the bad habit of  using chalk to recover the white of the paper in intense drawings.  It took some convincing but I finally dropped using white chalk for that purpose, instead I would build line weight over time and it was not needed.

It is a natural adaptation to working a paper so much that you cannot erase the mark any more. It is actually a common stumbling block for heavy handed drawers like me. I actually have encountered others in drawing classes with this problem and it is something that you grow out of like I did. As you get more familiar with the materials and mark making this is less and less and less a problem.

So with that stumble I am a bit gun shy about white chalk. This will change.

Figure Drawing 2/29/16 - Experimenting

Mark 02/29/16, Mixed Media on Paper,  18" x 24". 

Figure drawing class today and I was fresh with the inspiration from Vincent Desidario  (I choose an image of his mountain of amazing work that utilizes this process) Working on the paper with a drawing material, shellac, the surface then building back into it with paint.

I have been using sharpies a lot for drawing, I bought a large colored sharpie pack from staples because they were on sale. There were some odd colors i thought I would never use until now. 

This piece was part of an afternoon pose. I drew the model three times rotating around the room to create this image. I liked how the layout of this page worked then shellacked the surface. The Sharpie began to run and smear, tinting the shellac with the sharpie ink. 

This made sense in hindsight. I remember doing craft projects with sharpies and using alcohol to turn them into a wash. Shellac is an insect excretion that is thinned with alcohol. I stumbled into this but I really like the result. I will try how a few other colors to see how they react with the shellac. 

The painting is working on many levels. I am liking the interaction with the drawing then the painting the toned shellac.