This drawing is from my Life Drawing class with Scott Noel. This week Scott had us tackeling/exploring space yet again. In fact we set up and started drawing this weeks in class drawing without the model who was a few minutes late. After getting our weekly pep talk and lecture from Scott who showed us more work by Dega and two more artists my tired brain can't recall at this moment we looked around, chose our view and started drawing.
The basic idea is that the drawing was about space , about creating a sense of space and then the figure would be included instead of the figure being the main object and the enviroment being secondary. I choose a good angle I think which had a nice passage of objects from the foreground intop the back but also a deep back space that included the open door to studio 6. A small shaft of light shown through and across the floor giving yet another compositional device point toward the models head.
By the time I had my block-in going teh model arrived and took his place. I worked on massing shapes creating a sense of depth and trying to mass together areas so the drawing wouldn't be like a thousand shards of glass all vying for your eye's attention. Scott pointed out how brilliantly both Dega and Ingres massed drawings into simples shapes and thoes shapes also helped create a sense of depth even in silouette.
This drawing is in new pastel on Reeves BFK paper and 24 x 30. as the time wore down I was rushing to get the drawing to a good complete state. I then had a choice, I could spend the last session drawing the face of the model or unifying, finishing the background and now the drawing just wasn't about the models face. I choose to finish the overall drawing to push/united space, value and shape and didn't spend that time on the face. I think it worked and Scott did too, he said that I made the right choice and that a drawing can become about something else than you intend it to be.
3 comments:
Hey Mike,
Try to eat more seafood (for the tired brain!). Cool drawing, again giving me a retro vibe (late 30's or early 40's to be exact). Maybe the models robe is doing that? Not sure! What do you think of NuePastels - better than the traditional? I guess the "point" (pun intended) of learning with pastels is that you can't get into busy details since the darn things can't hold a point. Is this close to what you surmise?
Best2u, (bsafe: Philly it was said today on NPR has the leading murder rate - a dubious distinction indeed!)
-JG
Nuepastels are what Noel recommended and so I am using them, like the paper too. The pastels come in a nice value range. Both sold at the school so that makes them easy to get. I can't say if they are any better than anything else yet though. I guess as try more pastel drawings I'll let you know.
Philly is killing itself in certain places and with a certain demographic which is jusy fucking sad. But that seems to be ow some people settle things as their value system is so horrible. None of these social ecomonic issues can be created overnight, nor cured. Yestreday they burried the officer who was gunned down by a 21 year old in the Ducan Donuts. A tragedy for everyone. I think in the end the community and individuals have to decide they don't want this anymore and take steps to stop it. More police on the street won't stop the bleeding.
Don't worry though, I play it safe and use the street savy I got growing up in dteroit. Nobody can can control fate but you can be smarter and aware.
Mike-- I hadn't dropped by your blog for a long time. It's impressive to see all your work from school, in all these varied styles. It looks and sounds like you are learning a lot. I'd like to do this someday.
It's a good thing, I think, that these don't show evidence of your many commercial art styles. They seem responsive to reality and the teaching, free of preconceptions.
Good work, old pal.
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