Saturday 3 October 2009




Course work: Three 10-minute drawings, each with proportional errors. The drawings measured 7 ¾, 8, and 9 heads tall (the model is 7 ¾ heads tall). Arms seem to be harder for me to get “in proportion” than legs, though I am by no means satisfied with the legs. One of today’s drawings was done with a ballpoint pen: it is the worst of the three. I think I see a bit of improvement in the two pencil drawings when compared with earlier work.



Reading:



Clint Brown and Cheryl McClean, Drawing From Life (2nd Ed)

Harcourt College Publishers, Orlando, Florida, USA, 1997

Pp 36-60



Claudia Betti & Teel Sale, Drawing, A Contemporary Approach (4th Ed)

Thomson Learning, Inc. (1997)

Chapter 7 (Pp 195-208)



Ian Simpson, The Complete Drawing Course

Running Press, Philadelphia, PA 1993

Human proportions (Pp 94-95), Lesson Fourteen (Pp110-117)



Personal sketchbook work: Another drapery study, in preparation for the forthcoming exercises.



Total time: about two hours



Sunday 4 October 2009



Course work: Drew one more 10- minute standing figure with water-soluble pencil in hopes of improvement. I managed a 7 ½ head figure, with improved arm proportions, but was otherwise not pleased. I then switched to A3 paper, and moved on to the one-hour pose, where the time pressure was a good bit less. I was startled to find that I was having more trouble with drawing the large chair than I was with drawing the model. I think that I got the proportions and angles reasonably accurate, but my hour ran out before I finished the shading or the details of the chair. Having been pretty dissatisfied with my other work in this assignment, it was a relief to be able to produce something with which I was moderately pleased. Thinking it would be interesting to try a pen and ink drawing similar to the one on page 6 of the course material, I had a try at it, first doing a pencil sketch for positioning. I don’t think this experiment was very successful: shapes and proportions appear fairly satisfactory, but my hatching started off too tight, and ended up too loose, resulting in an inconsistent mess.



Reading:



E.H. Gombrich, The Story of Art,

Phaidon Press Limited, Oxford 1978

Chapter 11 (pp 155-166)



Bridget Woods Life Drawing

The Crowood Press, Ramsbury, Marwood, Wiltshire. 2003

Pp 35-66



Summary Observations on Proportions (Check and Log):

My two-minute poses were weak, with a range of head-heights from 6 ½ to 9 heads. The ten-minute poses were somewhat better proportionally, but only slightly. The one-hour seated pose was satisfactory and made a reasonably complete pose, with a solid-appearing figure. My main problem with much of this exercise was capturing the essence of the pose in the minimal time allotted: I am by nature a fairly careful worker, and do not do my best work under pressure of time.



Weekly thoughts on learning experience: Completed work on Assignment One and started on Assignment Two, thus transitioning from work with which I was beginning to feel comfortable to a new and challenging set of exercises at which my performance was quite poor. I realize that this I will do better as time passes, but at present I am quite frustrated.



Total time: About 2 ½ hours



Monday 5- Saturday 10 October 2009



(An emergency 800-mile round trip drive severely curtailed my drawing during these dates. I did manage a drawing of an unmade motel bed, and two small sketches in the motel breakfast room, but learned that hospitals and motels are highly unsatisfactory places to sketch.)



Total time: about 30 min



Sunday 11 October 2009



Back to work at last!



Course work: Twelve 2 ½ minute stance drawings done from CD “Nude Female Model No 3” © 2001, Glenn Vilppu, Acton, CA USA. (This CD contains a series of poses in which the model has twisted, turned, and bent herself into quite difficult-to-depict positions.) Although I found it relatively straightforward to determine the central axis (line of balance) trying to draw anything resembling a figure in such a short time was challenging, and I did not do well. I followed this up with four three-minute stance drawings from life, of which two were arguably a bit better.



Reading:



Bridget Woods Life Drawing

The Crowood Press, Ramsbury, Marwood, Wiltshire. 2003

Pp 67-93



Clint Brown and Cheryl McClean, Drawing From Life (2nd Ed)

Harcourt College Publishers, Orlando, Florida, USA, 1997

Pp 61-116



Claudia Betti & Teel Sale, Drawing, A Contemporary Approach (4th Ed)

Thomson Learning, Inc. (1997)

Chapter 7 (Pp 209-235)



Sketchbook work: A wild persimmon, sketched in the field, color added later.



Weekly thoughts on learning experience: Since I was only able to work on the course for one day this week, there is not a lot to reflect upon. My attempts at sketching in public places were not very satisfactory. My sketchbook work for the week as a whole was very poor, and my reading was very limited. My coursework did not please me. I will do better next week.



Total time: about two hours



12 October 2009



Course work: Not a good day. Did two stance drawings (2 ½ minutes each) from the source referenced on 11 Oct. They were so unsatisfactory I drew no more.



Reading:



Claudia Betti & Teel Sale, Drawing, A Contemporary Approach (4th Ed)

Thomson Learning, Inc. (1997)

Pp 239-258



Total time: about ½ hour



13 October 2009



Course work: Did six stance drawings (5 minutes each) from the source referenced on 11 Oct.



Reading:



Claudia Betti & Teel Sale, Drawing, A Contemporary Approach (4th Ed)

Thomson Learning, Inc. (1997)

Pp 259-282



Bridget Woods Life Drawing

The Crowood Press, Ramsbury, Marwood, Wiltshire. 2003

Pp 95-113



Sketchbook work: Two drapery studies done on A4 blue-grey paper, one with charcoal and chalk, the other with graphite and chalk.



Total time: A bit over three hours



Wednesday 14 October 2009



Course work: Four “stance” sketches from life. (I found it particularly difficult to determine in this exercise just exactly what was wanted of the student: every figure drawing book I own has a somewhat different definition of “gesture”, with wildly variable techniques: none of these definitions is congruent with the limited description in this section of the course. The second part of the exercise, titled “Energy,” seems a bit more like what I think of as gesture, and, rightly or wrongly, I have so interpreted it.) I then did eight gesture sketches from life, two each with charcoal, marker, graphite, and ballpoint pen. I found these difficult to do, as they seemed contrived (I’m sure that I’m overlooking some simple explanation or technique that would make them more straightforward). I lost track of the process at several points and ended up with some distinctly non-gestural drawings.



Reading:



“Spot” reading in several books, trying to come to grips with the concept of gesture.



E.H. Gombrich, The Story of Art,

Phaidon Press Limited, Oxford 1978

Chapter 12 (pp 167-182)





Personal sketchbook work: A tiny sketch done in a coffee shop. (These are challenging to do locally, as our only coffee shop has only five tables, and it is difficult to sketch inconspicuously, especially so as I know most of the patrons.)



Total time: About two hours



Thursday 15 October 2009



Course work: Drew eight more gesture figures, possibly a little better than some of yesterday’s. After searching through an almost-forgotten box in the attic, I found an old VHS tape on gesture ( Ruth Block,Gesture , Artists interactive Video Productions, Berkeley, California, 1989) that was quite helpful. I then drew 32 more gesture sketches, with times from 30 seconds to 2 minutes. I think I understand it a bit better now.



Reading:



Claudia Betti & Teel Sale, Drawing, A Contemporary Approach (4th Ed)

Thomson Learning, Inc. (1997)

Pp 283-314

(I am glad to have finished this book. The authors appear to have written a textbook of drawing for those students who prefer politics and polemics to learning how to draw: I am surprised that the book has gone through four editions. Although the text contains a useful overview of “contemporary” (i.e., primarily nonrepresentational) drawing, the authors’ political opinions so infect and infest the text that it is no more a pleasure to read than would be a book of contemporary politics heavily laden with ongoing discussions of the role of art in political discourse.)



Ian Simpson, The Complete Drawing Course

Running Press, Philadelphia, PA 1993

Lesson 13 (pp 104-109)



Personal sketchbook work: Tried to do some drawings of one of the cats, but she became suspicious and left before I got very far along.



Summary Observations on Gesture (Check and Log):



After finally getting a fairly clear (I hope!) idea of what gesture is I did a total of 74 sketches for this exercise. Many were pretty unsatisfactory, but they improved toward the end of the series. I was able to keep the figures fairly well balanced, even though in some of the more challenging ones the balance line was mostly outside the figure. Some of the sketches from late in the series do appear to capture the energy of the pose fairly well.





Total time: About 2 ½ hours



Friday 16 October



Course work: Started the “Form” exercises, with three drawings from life of the seated figure, (one almost frontal, one almost lateral, and one a fairly steep anterior oblique) paying particular attention to careful measurement and foreshortening. Even with this care, I think that the thighs on the frontal view may be just a bit too long, making the figure appear to be almost half-standing. In one drawing, I added a highly simplified chair



Reading:



Keith Micklewright, Drawing

Harry N. Abrams, Inc. New York (2005)

Chapters 13 & 14 (pp 130-146)



Clint Brown and Cheryl McClean, Drawing From Life (2nd Ed)

Harcourt College Publishers, Orlando, Florida, USA, 1997

Pp 117-167



Sketchbook work: Two pencil sketches of a manikin in my A4 book. Then, just for entertainment, I sketched a third and added muscles.



Total time: About 3 hours



Saturday 17 October 2009



Course work: Drew the final three seated figure drawings for the “Form” exercises, two anterior oblique view in different degrees of obliquity, and one posterior oblique view, in which I added a simplified chair (that didn’t quite work out correctly). Each drawing was carefully measured, usually using head height as a standard, but occasionally using some other body part more closely proportional to that I was drawing. I think that the foreshortening came out fairly well on these drawings.



Reading:



Betty Edwards, The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

Penguin-Putnam, New York, 1999

Chapter 9 (pp 162-191)



David Corbett, Walter Sickert

Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, USA, 2001

Pp 7-39



Personal sketchbook work: Two drawings of a manikin, strongly lit, with shadowing hatched in, as partial preparation for the next part of the “Form” exercises. An exercise from The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, (done in the companion workbook).



Total time: about 3 ½ hours.



Sunday 18 October 2009



Reading:



E.H. Gombrich, The Story of Art,

Phaidon Press Limited, Oxford 1978

Chapter 13 (pp 183-201)



David Corbett, Walter Sickert

Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, USA, 2001

Pp 40-53



Sketchbook work: After the longest wet spell in several years, the mushrooms are numerous and diverse: I sketched ten in my pocket sketchbook while out walking, took color notes, and added watercolor later. In my A4 sketchbook, I did a study of the muscles of the upper extremity, and a manikin sketch with particular attention to foreshortening.



Weekly thoughts on learning experience: After floundering around with uncertainty about gesture for several days, I think I finally got a reasonable grasp of this somewhat elusive topic, and drew a substantial number of sketches, some of which I thought were satisfactory. I was better satisfied with my work on the first part of the “Form” exercise. After the disruption caused by my mother’s emergency surgery, my sketchbook work is gradually improving.



Total time: About two hours



Monday 19 October 2009





Course work: Did three drawings in the “Essential Elements” portion of the “Forms” exercises. I was unable to complete the work even superficially within the ten minute time requested: the three that I did required 12, 14, and 15 minutes respectively, and even so I had no time to strengthen my lines or my shading.



Reading:



David Corbett, Walter Sickert

Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, USA, 2001

Pp 54-73

This too-slender volume provides a very brief overview of the life and works of Walter Sickert. I must confess that I like little of his work, but I admire his persistent dedication in the face of frequent adversity.



Personal sketchbook work: A sketch of a semi-prone manikin, with special attention to shadowing.



Total time: About 1 ½ hours. Two months into the course today. Feel like, overall, I have made a good bit of progress: have worked about 135 hours on the course through today. Most work has been uploaded to the OCA site, though several days of sketchbook work remain to be photographed and uploaded.





Tuesday 20 October 2009



Course work: Three more drawings in the “Essential Elements” portion of the “Forms” exercises. Again, the time limit of ten minutes seemed unrealistic: to even minimally meet the goals of the exercise required ten minutes for the pencil drawing, 14 for a pencil sketch overworked with pen and ink, and 18 for a water-soluble pencil sketch.



Reading:



Bridget Woods Life Drawing

The Crowood Press, Ramsbury, Marwood, Wiltshire. 2003

Pp 115-135, 149-53



Personal sketchbook work: A hasty sketch of a man in a baseball cap, fumbling for his cell phone in the coffee shop. A drawing of the superficial muscles of the back and shoulder.



Other activities: My painting group met today (time not included).



Summary Observations on Form (Check and Log):

Form most of the work in this section, I think that I got the feel of each pose, balanced (or nearly so at least), and, especially in the final six drawings, produced the impression of three-dimensionality and weight. The proportions appear correct or nearly so. I think the best sense of the pose is captured in the standing pose with the model looking somewhat upward, with the semi-prone pencil drawing a close second. This latter pose also had some axial rotation (the shoulders are more nearly prone than are the hips), and I think that I was able to capture this.



Total time: About two hours. (28)



Wednesday 21 October 2009



Course work: Drew several small sketches in preparation for the seated drawing in the “Structure” exercise. The pose was then photographed so that I can return the model to it more easily when I start the actual drawing.



Reading:



Burne Hogarth Dynamic Wrinkles and Drapery

Watson-Guptill Publications, New York, 1992

Pp 9-61





Personal sketchbook work: A drapery study.



Total time: About 1 ½ hours



Thursday 22 October 2009



Course work: Drew the first drawing for the “Structure” exercise. I was unable to complete the drawing in the 60 minutes suggested, and was forced to finish, not from life, but from the placement photograph taken yesterday. Graphite pencil on A3 paper was employed, and total time of 80 minutes was required.



Reading:



Keith Micklewright, Drawing

Harry N. Abrams, Inc. New York (2005)

Chapters 15 & 16 (pp 148-162)



Ian Simpson, The Complete Drawing Course

Running Press, Philadelphia, PA 1993

Lesson 12 (pp 96-101)



Total time: about two hours (31 ½)