Figure Drawing

-

I wrote a paragraph about this last night when I was pretty worked up for no particular reason. But I thought better of posting it in the moment ;) I can get a little depressive about this sometimes--the thought of doing what I want to do and actually doing it well is just really daunting. And somehow, standing at an easel working over a flailing drawing for two hours provides ample opportunity for overthinking. 

I know I shouldn't get so worked up about this stuff. It's irrational, and I know it. I'm doing fine for the amount of time I've been trying. That one semester of figure drawing when I was 16 wasn't really much prep for what I've been learning here. It's a crazy steep learning curve, so it's silly to be so hard on myself. I know that. But then, there have been other thoughts I've known were completely irrational at the time, and that knowledge didn't stop me from thinking them over and over and feeling their effects. I'm not sure what fixes that--probably being hard on myself for being hard on myself, right? Ha. Oh well.

With regard to this particular drawing, I definitely didn't capture the character of the head--I think I tried to work on different parts of it at different times and it may have been positioned slightly differently so I didn't quite get the big shapes right. And I should have placed the figure a little more left so I could fit that foot in. But it's fine. It's much better than what I was doing six months ago.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

April News

-
Image
I'll admit I've been less than diligent in caring for this blog lately, but it's for good reason--life! Life, for me, is always full of more to do than could ever be done. Maybe I have too many interests. Or maybe I'm too interested in the interests I do have. Whatever the reason, I'm always busy and rarely bored! Anyway, I'm happy to announce a few updates here for my handful of readers ;) 1) I've recently accepted a role as the Utah Ambassador for the Portrait Society of America. It's an organization I absolutely love being a part of. I look forward to becoming more involved with the Portrait Society as I act as liaison for a state full of incredible artists. 2) Although I may have seemed a little quiet in terms of production lately, it's because I've been working on a complex, multifigure commission that won't be released for public view until 2026. So... stay tuned for that one! 3) I'm painting full time now. Side gigs disbanded, I
Read more

Yellow is not a happy color.

-
Image
  6x6, 6x6, and 6x4" I've been trying to paint this poor yellow lily for the past few days--I'm not doing it justice. I've decided that yellow is just the most difficult color to paint. It's the shaded part of the petals that gets me... what  is  that color? Greenish? orangish? brownish? nothing-ish? Whatever that shaded stuff is, I'm not getting it. When you add black to yellow, it turns green. Blue, it turns green. Red, it turns orange/brown. So what is it? Probably something in between (or maybe a little of both). I'd like to figure this out, but today apparently isn't the day ;) On the first two, I had a white background, and on the third one went for a gray for contrast (and actually tried to paint it sight size--teeny tiny--thinking it might help me simplify all that yellow. and maybe it did. but still...). I've read it takes miles of canvas to make a good painter, and I certainly haven't filled miles yet, so it's fine. Mayb
Read more

June

-
Image
June really snuck up on me this year—but I’ve been making the most of the beautiful late spring weather/cooler temperatures to get outside and paint. It’s always a challenge to find the time during the summer months with the kids home from school, but they’re getting old enough to manage themselves for a little while and that’s nice. This lilac study was painted very quickly—I had only been painting 30-40 minutes when the park landscapers informed me they needed to plant a tree right where I was standing :) It’s always an adventure painting outdoors!
Read more