Category: 1) Drawing-in-Place

I reloaded this so that it could be opened larger with a click. Love that you included the text, which is like concrete poetry–poems whose graphic design contribute to their meaning, such as the word “louder” too big to fit in its space, spilling over twice to a new line. The contrast between this sentiment and the apparent calm and domesticity of the chair is very powerful. Great drawing.

Raymond Pettipon, another artist who uses text and image very effectively:

Very good drawing, but could be better still with a more forceful line quality. You’re being too circumspect, and your theory about the small finger doesn’t hold up. Better the thumb, to bring it closer. Some other examples:

Ben Shahn

José Clemente Orozco

Henry Moore

 

 

Giorgio de Chirico

Lois Dodd

You asked about whether the photo could be better, and it could, starting with a better exposure in the camera. Make sure you have abundant indirect natural light. In Snapseed I used Details/Structure to bring out the lines (thanks, Max) and also increased the Highlights (under Tune Image) to lighten the background. Then a few touches of Selective to decrease shaded areas (on the white paper). I also used the perspective tool to straighten up the upper right corner.

Using Photoshop I moved the bed closer to the plant to fill the rectangle more effectively. Note how this also uses the rule of thirds to strengthen the design:

I like the way this places the right edge of each window frame on a third, and how the plant, while mainly in the middle, sticks its nose into the left third, and the bed, while mostly in the right third, dips its toe into the middle third.

Finally, a painting by English artist Lucian Freud that your drawing brought to mind (good company to be in):

After squaring the image and increasing the contrast:

After straightening the verticals, adding perspective lines in the disaplay cabinet, cropping the vase, and adding a baseboard and glimpse of picture frame to the far wall:

Claude Monet

Ernst Kirchner

(Bolder!)

Marsden Hartley

Neil Welliver

 

Fairfield Porter

Just a couple of suggestions. I know they can’t be made once the ink is down (well, one of them), but the lower window sills are angling up to the right, pulling our attention away from the cozy bed. By leveling them, or even dropping them on the right just a little, as I have below, they harmonize better with the silhouette of the bed and keep the focus in the room.

The second thing could still be added, which is carrying the trees all the way to window frames, so that the windows eclipse the view out the window, create a stronger, clearer sense of overlap, and create more depth (as I’ve done here in Photoshop). Yours also suggests that nature doesn’t continye beyond what we see in the window.

MW, Miami, 1974, Graphite on paper, 9 x 12 inches