You never know

Those ten minutes before she closes her eyes, I do not find her more relaxed. And beautiful in many ways. Those were the reasons, I wanted to turn this image into a drawing. But I remember being frustrated over the outcome of this painting. The pencil drawing looked fine and I already figured out the technique. But the final transition from dark to light proved to be difficult. Plan was to try pointillism but I ended up using the black ink I started with on a dry brush and work my way into the light. I may not even have finished it before storing it for good in some drawer.

Yesterday, while cleaning and rearranging our living room, I found it. And it made me remember what I have heard and read now a couple of times from different artists lately: Keep your drawings out of sight at least for a year, no matter how terrible you find them. Either, you will be much surprised and wonder why on earth you ever considered it trash. Or you may use it to compare with your recent drawings, checking progress. Or... okay, now it is time to throw it in the dumpster.

'At bed' - Paddy 2013 

Painting at the Museum

Last Sunday, our local urban sketchers group went to the Neanderthal Museum Mettmann. It is the site, where the human fossil of the same was found in 1856. Several of us were able to show off an unbelievable amount of creative output, whereas I only worked on this watercolor painting.

Lately, I am concentrating on nailing overall forms and proportions first. I still catch myself diving straight into interesting details. But what is the use of a well-drawn nose when it sits too high and so does not resemble the model. For more than two hours I studied the tent and the Neanderthalian preparing his prey. Having ten minutes left on the clock, working on last details of the hide above the entrance, it struck me! I already did feel, that the structured forms and placed shadows were somehow strange for what I thought it was. And only because of an unintentional visual zoom-out, I realized: Man, this is the head of a bison!

See, even if it is your deliberate intention to follow a thought-through plan, sometimes habits are hard to break. It is practice that will help you leaving those old, wrong-proved paths.

The Owly Illustrations

Recently, my wife worked on a 12-pager concept about child's care. To give it a neat touch, she asked me to do some illustrations. The theme, or how she called her hypothetical group of Under-Three-Year-Olds, was 'The Owl-Nest'. The painting below is the finished front cover. It was done with watercolor pencils and wet brushes.

Here are the very first sketches from imagination with the help of some internet pictures of owls and their babies, to close in on their basic structure. See... even at this early stage of the process, some of them made it into the final picture.

This is the tight comprehensive pencil drawing I used for tracing the composition right onto the watercolor paper (you might still see the marks). A tight comprehensive is a detailed sketch which will be used as the ultimate reference for the final painting. Of course, since I handle my wife's request just like a job, she had to approve before diving into the full color finish.

I knew, there would not be enough time to do more colored owls. So... as it goes, the last evening before putting the whole concept together, ready to be submitted, I quickly doodled a couple of stand-alones with a brush pen to fill in some blanks.

'The Beagle' in Gouache

Gouache is such a versatile medium to paint with. It was my first try and I am amazed by the freedom it gives you. This is a painting of Darwin's ship 'The Beagle'. 1831, it took him on a 5 year long journey which triggered his most important work 'On the origin of species'. Source was a black & white internet photo of a faithful replica. I intentionally did not do any color research of ocean and ship, but am thankful for the help of an art instructor to push me in the right direction. There was not much time to finish, but, on the other hand, I cannot say I rushed it, since I ended up spending about an hour on one wave,... which was cut off, of course.

I do not have much practice with color and thought, gouache would be perfect to start with. Because it is a water-soluble medium, you can do wet washes as in the sky. And it is also no problem, this time contrary to watercolor, to set highlights with whites or working over parts you don't like.

First Live-Drawing-Session... Ever!

A bit hidden in the internet and else not well known, the drawing club I visited yesterday evening seemed a bit like a secret society. They all know one another very well from the art academy way back... greeting hugs & kisses, they pursue a decades long tradition. Initiated by their former art teacher, they regularly get together to draw from live models. I never would have known this is happening just right around my corner, if it was not for my wife. Probably disguised as a local, small art school by day, it just took a little slip of comment from the instructor whiles chatting.

Actually, this small group of artists turned out to be a very friendly and welcoming bunch and we had a great evening drawing, painting & drinking wine. The model was a young, outstandingly well build guy. He posed, and this was the only thing I was not prepared for, in intervals of 10-15 minutes. Going bold with quick lines and shading was an exercise I am very much in need of, I realized. But there are sessions coming up, which I am looking forward to attending, since drawing from live models seems to be a rare opportunity in this town.

On that matter, you might want to check out this post: DR. SKETCHY’S ANTI ART SCHOOL

A quote I cherish

Had to think about this one while talking to a fellow sketcher today:

'Begin with a proper sketch book. Draw in ink. Finish each drawing you begin, and keep every drawing you finish. No erasing, no ripping out a page, no covering a page with angry scribbles. What you draw is an invaluable and unique representation of how you saw at that moment in that place according to your abilities. That’s all we want. We already know what a dog really looks like. I found this was a benefit that rendered the quality of my drawings irrelevant. Whether they were good or bad had nothing to do with their most valuable asset: They were a means of experiencing a place or a moment more deeply.'

— Annette Goodheart

DR. SKETCHY’S ANTI ART SCHOOL - also a great resource for photo reference...

... if you cannot be there in person. 'Dr. Sketchy is when Cabaret meets life drawing'. It is a rare opportunity to draw from accordingly-to-the-theme dressed up live models. The "Faster, Pussykatz! Sketch! Sketch!" Session is what you will miss this coming weekend in Berlin. Luckily, should you be living too far away, like me, or just do not have time to take part, you can visit their Facebook or homepage to look up pictures, which were taken at the event. Turns out, you hardly find any better photo reference if you are looking for a theme like: 'Animals Are People Too', 'The End Of The World' or 'The Little Red Riding Hood'. Have fun browsing their stock! At least I will be using it extensively for private drawing practice.