Were you thinking that the future would be crystal-clear to me after my personal critique with a wise and generous artist/teacher? Maybe you assumed that with new insights, I'd march forward in a straight line? Not likely. Did you forget that I belong to the tribe of Geminis? (...you never knew?) Split Personality is our collective middle name.
On the one hand, I'm very excited that I've been encouraged to press on with things that fascinate me -- like my Flash Mob series. Even if they're far from the mainstream, even if they're "flat" and graphic, rather than painterly, even if no one else responds favourably except me, myself, and in this case, Generous Artist/Teacher.
I'm also excited as I discover a kindred stream of artists that were recommended to me -- Alex Katz (coincidentally a favourite of my friend A) and Milton Avery. Along with them, I'll place a lesser known favourite of mine, Fairfield Porter. And what the heck, for a timely touch, how about David Hockney?
So: Fair warning from both sides of my Gemini split. There will be shifts and turns in the year ahead -- new things in the spirit of what I've been doing, but also things in the category of "stuff I've been wanting to try" or "stuff I need to get out of my system" or "stuff I could learn from by doing."
For now, as a kind of kick-off, I have the benefit of a recent 5-hour workshop with Artist/Teacher, who offered some new and sometimes surprising ways to tackle figure drawing.
How about this? Start with a stick figure. Seriously??? Yup, the trick is to start with the feet (to push yourself not to run out of space at the bottom) and to include the key anatomical landmarks -- knee, pelvis, elbow, base of neck.
When everything's in place, flesh it out:
Who's responsible for that idea that artists must be able to draw a straight line? Well, it's helpful in this exercise -- capturing the shape of the body strictly with straight lines, as another kind of preliminary step in developing a drawing.
It's tempting to consider the following idea as "full of beans" -- but it's surprisingly useful to realize that the human torso can be seen as bean-shaped, and to use this insight as another kind of preliminary layout.
So: Give the bean a try and then begin developing the figure in terms of simple shapes.
Similarly,
there are other "templates" that can be captured and put down as preliminary guides. Here's a front view, then a back view.
Or, for study purposes, do drawings focussed solely on the torso. Note how these figures end at the knees and elbows. (It felt weird doing this!)
There were lots more ideas flowing in this workshop, and I'll conclude with my favourite -- something I've worked with for decades: the contour drawing. Look intently at the figure, select a contour, and move your pencil deliberately along that line. Invariably in my experience, a remarkable likeness can be captured as you notice and record the unique turns and directions of the particular body.
You can see that the model (an impressive 6'5" Scandinavian, who didn't flag through five hours of almost uninterrupted posing) is looking off into the future, wondering ...."What did she mean by 'shifts and splits'"?
