A Giveaway

Greetings, my lovely blog readers! I am happy to announce a new giveaway. This time, I am going to let the winner choose between two different pieces of art. These are both giclee reproductions of a charcoal drawing. Each one comes with its own mat and backing board, all acid free. The paper they are printed on is high quality giclee paper, and the inks are archival. So yes, they are reproductions, but they are good quality reproductions. The original drawings have both been sold. They both measure 14 x 11 inches for the outside mat dimensions. That means they will fit perfectly into a standard sized photo frame, making the framing easy and cost effective. The first one is called "Island Girl" and it is a portrait of one of my friends. I drew it while we were still living on Maui. The second one is called "Woman with Veil", and it was also done when we lived in Hawaii. This woman is another friend, and one of my favorite models.





All you have to do to be entered in this giveaway is post a comment here in the next week. Tell me which one you would like in your comment. I will pick a winner next week.

Here is another new monotype. This one I called "Departure" and it measures 7 x 5 inches.


This is the desert denizen who helped me create the new monotype. Mr. Roadrunner! Usually, they are cruising much to fast for me to get any decent photos, so I was happy this one stayed long enough for me to grab my camera and click away. I did take this photo through a window, which will account for the strangeness. Doesn't it look like he has something to tell us??? Too bad we don't speak roadrunner.

Drawing with a stick

Last night in my drawing class with Luther Broome, he had us draw with a stick dipped in ink!!! It was so much fun! I had never done anything like that before, and even though I struggled at first, I stuck with it, and towards the end of the class, I really started to feel like I was getting the hang of it. He told me to try to capture the pose of the model with the least number of lines, and that really got me to streamline my drawings. Even though it looks like there was no effort involved, in some ways, this was harder than how I usually draw. Usually, I "scribble" a lot, making lots of lines and I really "search" for the pose that way.



For those of you who don't know this, when you draw from a live model, many of the poses the model takes are held for only a short time - perhaps a minute or maybe two minutes. The purpose of doing these quick drawings is to force you to really capture the "gesture" or essence of the pose. When you draw quickly like this, it also prevents your brain from getting in the way of the drawing. I find that it also helps me with proportions. When I do quick gesture drawings, I like to alternate drawing with first my right hand, and then my left hand. I normally draw, paint and write with my right hand, so the left hand doesn't have the same confidence. What I find interesting is that I tend to prefer the left handed drawings! If you have never tried this, I highly recommend it. It really loosens you up!



Below, you can see one of the first drawings I did with the stick, before we sharpened the stick, and before he had me simplify everything. (It was also done on a different kind of paper.) I can see the value and beauty in the way he had me draw, but there is also something very expressive about my original approach. The struggle is much more evident, and for me, there is a truth in that. Think of how life is often a struggle, and yet, when you persevere, it pays off. The more simplified approach has a confidence and elegance that is not there in my more agonized approach. I like them both, for different reasons. Which do you prefer? I am really having fun, trying new things in this class. It just goes to show you that learning new things is always a worthwhile endeavor.

More of the figure

I have been working exclusively on the figure for the past two weeks. I am on my second self portrait, and this one is in oil. I think it is beginning to resemble me, a bit. I am not sure I am ready to post it, but maybe by tomorrow I will feel a bit better about that. Instead, here is a charcoal drawing from yesterday. I struggled on this one!

Oh, and I guess you can see the final version of the pastel self portrait. It isn't too much different, but at least I have eyebrows now. Too tired to write more.

And the winner is...

Lee!!!! My fellow blogger Lee has won the drawing for the framed art!!! Congratulations Lee! Thank you, everyone who entered. I am sure I will be having more fun contests, as time goes on. Lee, I will ship your art to you on Friday, since I am not at home right now.

Matthias and Pono and I loaded up the new-to-us VW van yesterday, and drove up to Reno. We needed to see how the new engine would run. So we are in Reno right now, and we are going to drive back later this week. It is fun to get a chance to get away for a couple of days, and I am happy that there were some fall leaves to enjoy on the drive up here. Now that we live in the desert of Joshua Tree, we don't see many leaves! Isn't Pono cute, stretched out on the backseat.

I finally found a group of artists that draw from the human figure in our new area, so Thursday night I joined them and got to draw. It felt good to sharpen those charcoal pencils, and work from the human figure once again. Here is the drawing I did during the longer pose. I could tell I am rusty, from not drawing in a while. You can see how my proportions are not quite right. Practice, practice, practice!