Disegno And The Day Job

Between the day job, various bits of travel, and the ongoing work on The Green Experiment, I have not had much time to devote to drawing. There has been some sketching here and there, but the last time I did anything even close to a finished drawing was back in April.

Untitled- Seated Nude
Graphite On Paper

This was done at one of the Thursday evening drop in sessions at Washington Studio School, the first I had attended in a couple of years. It is three hours (minus breaks) with a single pose.

I was wanting to ease back into figure drawing, and for whatever reason thought it better to work from short poses rather than launching into one pose for the entire time, so for a few months prior I had been attending the Monday evening sessions, which are three hours beginning with two minute poses and working up to fifteen minutes.

I was finding the Monday evenings frustrating, but it wasn't until I went in for the longer sessions that I figured out why; I wasn't being given enough time to work down from the generic to the specific, to have the opportunity to focus on the details, especially shading.

I am working on finding the time to draw more, specifically figure drawing. I am planning to take an academic figure drawing class at Winter Palace Studios this fall (as soon as they get the fall schedule up on their website). And now that the day job has calmed down a little, I will be spending more time in the various open studios around town.

What is now painfully clear, however, is that my current day job is incompatible with my goals. I am exploring what the other options are, but I suspect my immediate future will involve a return to the freelance lifestyle. This is both exciting and terrifying.

And with that, I am going to go draw some more.

Peace in yer crease.

The Green Experiment, Phase One

I am a little behind in posting about what has been going on in the studio. I spent much of May traveling, Paris, then Alabama, then Baltimore, so there was not much time for being in front of the easel.

I did manage to finish up Phase One of the Green experiment:

I have now moved on to phase two. It began with making a cartoon:

Then piercing the cartoon for transfer to canvas:

I am transferring the image to canvas and blocking in the background, one canvas at a time:

Once I have done this for all nine canvases, I will start with the Greens. Each canvas will be an exploration of the range of Green between a single Blue and a single Yellow, using a nine step scale.

The final phase will be three 36" x 48" canvases using the entire range of Greens using all three Blues and all three Yellows, each canvas using a different Red for the shadows.

I am planning a studio showing of the all the completed works at the end of September. Then it will be on to Orange.

And with that in mind, I must head to the studio to do more painting.

Peace in yer crease.