Category: Drawing

Hollow Apple Duo

 

graphite on 18 x 24″ drawing paper

X (especially if any of my suggested revisions make sense to you)

See my version (below). It seems to me the star of this drawing is that gaping hollow. Yours is too sharp-edged and reads very flat as a result. I’ve tried to soften those edges (based on memory of similar things I’ve seen), but even so the interior of that space needs more volume (it will have to do with the modeling). It has farther to go, but this is the direction I recommend.

I’ve darkened the negative space to the right of the trunk to highlight the light along its edge (and throw the hollow into greater relief). I’ve also softened and lightened the opening in the tree in the background which was competing for attention–especially since the edge of its hollow was much too sharp and graphic. I don’t see this as a duet, as your title implies, but a soloist with a back-up singer. Just as darker notes and advance and lighter ones recede, sharper edges advance and softer ones recede.

I also darkened the shadow side of the foreground tree and started to let that shadow overtake the hollow, to pull it around to that side of the tree. Then I added vaguely grass-like hatching to the shadow rather than the more generic diagonal hatching.

I often liken the second half (or last quarter) of a drawing to what a conductor does–the music has been written and the players know their parts, but it’s up to the conductor to “mix” the sound, to bring up this and subdue that in order to capture the essence of the whole–the same thing that recording engineers do with the parts in recorded music.

The best way to develop an eye for this, besides experience, is emulating how others have done it–today’s recommendation is Seurat—

I went looking for a Seurat drawing like this one to demonstrate simultaneous contrast–the way adjoining values exaggerate one another a bit, and how he likes to play this up, subtly but definitively, but…

…I came across this one, below, which is such a great example of what you’re doing in terms of balancing and integrating foreground and background (ultimately dissolving into the paper), establishing focal points and hierarchies of value. Even his touch–note how he draws the shadow of the tree to evoke a grass texture without resorting to cartoon-like blades of grass. A great drawing for you to study (and once again, your answers seem to be found c. 1890-1910).

Just as an aside (less relevant) you might also enjoy the work of my friend Bill Richards, who gets a very silvery light out of his low-contrast graphite drawings:

But your drawing of the hollow also brings to mind O’Keeffe–

Love the way she keeps one foot firmly planted in the natural world but allows the other one to amplify, refine, and distill the elements of the image–contrast, hard and soft edges, etc.–to greater effect.

In short, that’s what this drawing needs–a more confident and authorial “conductor” to push the image further (an ability you certainly have if this drawing is any indication):

Portrait of my grandmother

 

Pencil on paper 7×9

John Currin (see my comment)

Hi! Sorry for my late post. I was traveling cross country all day yesterday and didn’t have time to work on it. For this week I decided to draw a realistic portrait of my grandmother. I think i had some successes in the features like the eyes, nose, and mouth, but my proportions are off. The head is slightly larger and it’s angled more than it is in the photo. Because she is in a 3/4 pose, I had trouble with the shoulders. Her left shoulder kind of slopes down too much.

In Depth Portrait Week 3 Olivia Groell

Acrylic Paint Marker on Paper, 17 1/2 x 22 1/2 inches

Notes:

1. The whites of the eyes are never white, and in this context they look unfinished. Most people’s “whites” are actually a pale grey-violet, which I’ve added here, but you could make them any color you want (of course). I think you want something there, though, to soften and deepen the eyes.

2. The eyes will look much more dramatic and alive if you include the black iris and a serious glint of white highlight (which in fact is white). You have white highlights but keep in mind that’s a reflection of the light source, coming from a specific angle (the same in both eyes) and falling on a sphere. Getting that “rivets” the eyes much more.

It’s also the confluence of the lightest spot in any portrait and the darkest spot in any portrait that help make the eyes “the windows on the soul.”

3. I’ve modified the cheek shapes on 0ur left to make them simpler and more anatomically correct (location of cheekbone, especially judging by the other side.

 

Another way to color in shapes:

Matt Phillips makes the “filling in” marks–thoughtfully applied–part of the work, as does muralist Sol Lewitt, with his mottled paint application:

 

Fellow Travelers:

Peter Max

Kate Tova

 

Francoise Neilly

Sarah Austin ’21 / Painted directly on a photo

 

 

 

Mostly More Still Life

 

micron on paper, 8 x 9

My fave–as my comments will attest. Curious how this would look in a horizontal format.

One of the earliest images in this genre–the single, isolated subject–comes from Albrecht Durer. A great part of its power is his clear devotion to what his eyes could reveal. Yours feels like it might be on a similar path, which would be great–maybe one incredible drawing of a chocolate chip muffin between now and May 5th?

I’ve always loved the work of Los Angeles artist Martha Alf. These are pencil drawings but very finely hatched.

Maybe play even more with the light?

Another California artist, 100 years old this year, Wayne Thiebaud:

Or, quite different than the artists above, you might prefre a looser, “cooler” hatching style (also by Thiebaud).

Okay, it’s official. It’s a California thing. Vija Celmins painted these there in 1964, but now lives in New York:

There can be something wonderfully dumb about staring at a single object, front and center, and she captures that feeling perfectly.  A lot of people (me included) think that this is one of the best paintings of the 20th century. Not kidding:

It’s like Magritte’s famous painting, but without the inscription. You just *know* that’s what it’s about.

Or, if you look at the rutabaga in this still life by Gregory Gillespie, you’ll see if you look at something long enough and intently enough it can become bizarre and grotesque (what Freud called “The Uncanny,” which we’ve talked about):

micron on paper, 9 x 12

micron on paper, 9 x 12

micron on paper, 9 x 12

More Buildings

 

 

 

cctv building BJ
CCTV tower BJ
the vessel NYC
the vessel NYC

X

See my remarks about this Leon Kossoff drawing in my comment.

Leon Kossoff

 

This week I decided to tackle the structure of a building. I switched back to micron to gain finer and smoother control. This comes with the opportunity for me to first make more gentle and suggestive marks at first, to indicate structurally outline, then move in with the bolder and affirmative lines for details and correction. I also included a few prospective studies to help me understand the irregularity of the building’s form. The CCTV tower turns out to be slanted, even before perspective skews it. The vertices had an inclination rather than being perfectly normal to the ground. It turns out even if I used to see it every day back when I lived in Beijing, I have no idea of its exact form unless I make a visual study of it.

I enjoyed this kind of drawing a lot more than I thought I would’ve. The switch of the medium was uplifting since I no longer have to worry about control over ink volume. However, the switch does come with a drawback of less vibrant lines as well as reduced confidence both in line-quality as well as my decision making, inherent to the fast-paced nature of micron.

 

References:

 

Through The Looking Glass-Week 3

This week I did a drawing on just the reflection of glass and water in the glass (however, the colors of the reflections are influenced by the environmental colors around it). I found that the reflected colors are very rich and has a lot of ‘layers’. This week I had better chance blending the colors, although I still haven’t put pastel white onto the drawing (I found some pastel pencils that I bought, so I could add some highlights and post again). Think I will stay with drawings reflections with coloured pencils from now on. 🙂

X

O’Keeffe

Arthur Dove

Charles Burchfield

Odilon Redon