pre-instruction drawing #3

"draw your hand"

this is my left hand the the fingers raised slightly off the table and
my index finger pressing down.

I COULD HAVE PICKED AN EASIER POSE TO DRAW, THAT'S FOR DAMN SURE.

it's not bad, but it's not great.

the pinkie is too long and the index finer isn't quite right. the
thumb's too meaty and the middle finger isn't meaty enough.

the left side of the hand as it rests is good. the little flecks of
hand hair look really good on the drawing, but aren't that obvious in
the real world.

the shiny part under the index finger (right under the joint) isn't good
enough.

the veins in the back of my hand are apparent in my my super translucent
skin, but they're hard to draw. i have redness around my joints (rather
than obvious knuckles). i try to shade them, but that's not quite
right.

what's weird is ms. edwards spends time stressing how important it is to
SEE what you're drawing ... but in both this one and my self-portrait,
there are things i add THAT YOU CAN'T REALLY SEE, that make 'em look
better.

hmm.

ms. edwards predicts that this drawing may well be a person's favorite
of the three, but my self-portrait might be better.

pre-instruction drawing #2

"draw a person from memory"

well, let's see, i could choose my dad, but that's a cheat because i
look sort of like him. i could choose my brother, but ditto. i could
choose my mom but i'd end up slaughtering her and that's bad because i
love my mom.

after thinking, for some reason, the image of ronald reagan came into my
head. i have no idea why.

i couldn't shake him so i drew him.

OR RATHER I DREW THE MONSTROSITY ON THIS PAGE.

goddamn it's bad. i swear to you, if it'd drawn this first, i'd have
quit the whole course right here, right now. it's bad at a level that's
hard to define in words but easy to laugh at.

as i was drawing at times it looked like lon chaney as "phantom of the
opera," in others (much to the pleasure of mikkel, i'm sure), adolph
hitler.

i made it a point to not cheat and look in the mirror at myself, nor
look back at my self-portrait so i couldn't use any "live" visual cues.

the only nice thing about this image is i've already hit rock bottom.
there's no where to go but up from here.

break it up. move along. there's nothing more to see here.

pre-instruction drawing #1

a self-portrait.

let me be very clear here ... this is the first time i've tried to
"seriously" draw *anything* in twice the lifespan of pickles.

overall i'm shocked at how good it is. then again, my self-expectation
bar was so low that if it didn't end up looking like a building block, i
probably would have been happy.

the head shape doesn't look quite right to me ... i'm more charlie brown
and less JFK than that.

the nose is probably my favorite part.

the beard's good, but it's hard to draw the white part down by my chin
... i don't know how to draw white with a pencil.

the eyes are psycho, which is probably the right mental attitude, but
not the right look for what i was seeing ... my complexion is pretty
pink under heavy lighting and it's hard for me to get that delicacy
that's around my eyes.

the shadow from my glasses is there, but when i draw it, it looks (or at
least hints) to be wrinkles.

i like the eyebrow above the right eye image. that shape and look is
right ... my true eyebrows are not that pronounced because they're way
more blond, but i don't care.

the perspective is good with the shading on the left, but off on the
right ... when i look at the picture for a bit it feels like it crosses
from 2D to 3D at the center.

i hate the lips. they feel ridiculously amateurish.

the hair's not quite right. it's accurate on the right but simplified
on the left. maybe i should have erased one side and copied across the
same style to the other.

the semi-jowliness on the left looks right to me and on the right it's a
little off.

i had originally left white reflections in my eyes as pencil rings ...
when i tried to erase them, they smudged, ending up with the opposite
effect i'd hoped for.

i'm including a photo of my subject (i can't get the exact same lighting
for the pic i put here as what i actually see), so you can compare. i'm
sure this is probably some kind of huge drawing student no-no to compare
to a real photo, but once again i don't care.

even though it's not the point of this exercise, this drawing convinces
me i have potential and can turn something of quality out. to be
honest, i'm a little surprised i can do *anything* in this world.

note for the drawings that follow

in her book, betty edwards suggests writing down what's pleasing and
displeasing, easy and hard, about each image.

i'm including page number references for our review and anyone else who
may stumble across this site. ms. edwards doesn't ask for the time it
took to draw, but i'm including those as well. i'm just curious how
long all this stuff is going to take me.

artistic expression progression

"i believe the logical progression for a person starting out in artistic
expression should be as follows:

from line > to value > to color > to painting"

-- betty edwards

the 5 basic skills of drawing

1. the perception of edges
2. the perception of spaces
3. the perception of relationships
4. the perception of lights and shadows
5. the perception of the whole

just that side of "stupid"

about a year ago, pickles gave me a copy of drawing on the right side of the brain.

it was an interesting but mildly anxiety-laden gift because although i was somewhat familiar with the book (i'd worked through a few exercises in a copy that my wife had), my formal art training ended in 5th grade. which is to say i haven't done art of any type in almost 40 years (assuming lining your car up in a parking space doesn't count). in the roughest artistic terms you could safely say that my abilities lie slightly above the stickmen-with-fingers category.

this wouldn't be that big a deal except pickles wants to work her way through the book with me as i go along. a problem because she is not merely a budding, but accomplished, artist. easily able to do things like oil paint realistic versions on chuck taylor sneakers or craft paper mache mermaids with their hearts hanging out "for fun."

pickles and i share exactly three traits: we're both human, we both speak english and we both have inferiority complexes that include thinking we're bad at art. in almost any other way you could imagine we're different -- much to our collective relief.

my pal louella suggested blogging our progress which is not only a good idea but also makes it easy for pickles and me to track each the progress as we go along.

i'm looking forward to the experiment. i like to push the boundaries of my thinking and ability occasionally, but this particular effort isn't going to be without a fair amount of self-loathing and pain.