7/15, Textures and Gestures

Today's Riverbanks Zoo outing focused on fine tuning direction and quality of the line within each environment.

Sketchbook page, Riverbanks Zoo for long term drawing #14, marker, 

 and pen on paper, 9" x 12"

Sketchbook page, Riverbanks Zoo for long term drawing #15, marker, 

 and pen on paper, 9" x 12"

Out of clutter, find simplicity.  - Einstein

7/13, Major progress

...on the large scale, long term drawing (originally posted about on 6/24/2013.)  The sketchbook plein air drawings are really helping to provide structure and context for the imagery and narrative.

The landscape is like being there with a powerful personality and I'm searching for just 

the right angles to make that portrait come across as meaningfully as possible. 

- Galen Rowell

7/12, Lost in translation...

...the translation of nature.  Today's Zoo sketchbook outing ended accidentally two hours later than planned.  It was quite nice losing track of time.  Two young kids passing by promptly sat next to me while I was drawing, and they ignored their parents attempts to lure them away with cotton candy or popcorn.  Their mom said she felt they were hopeful that I would let them delve into my big bin of artist markers and draw, so there was a little bit of extra creative excitement for all of us.

Sketchbook page, Riverbanks Zoo for long term drawing #12, marker, 

 and pen on paper, 9" x 12"

Sketchbook page, Riverbanks Zoo for long term drawing #13, marker, 

 and pen on paper, 9" x 12"

Sketchbook page, for 7/11 long term drawing (below), marker and pen on paper, 9" x 12"

We are the children of our landscape; it dictates behavior and even thought in the measure to which we are responsive to it. - Lawrence Durrell 

7/11 the PM, The afternoon rain may be keeping me indoors...

...but life is not without color.  Another radical shift in color on a work.  Here is hoping that it will all go well when taking the work to the next level.  Like when drawing the figure, the proportion within the torso seem work itself out quite easily, it is the addition of the length of limbs and position of the head that seems to provide the most difficulty.  And likewise, the middle of almost everything in art (and life) is the easiest - its what is on the other sides, the top and bottom, or the beginning and the end which are the most difficult, risky, and complicated.

Untitled work in progress, marker, ink, and acrylic on Yupo, 30" x 40"

detail of work in progress, marker, ink and acrylic on Yupo

This is a detail of the drawing prior to the work 

conducted in the studio this afternoon.  This detail

originally appeared in a 7/1/13 blog post.

While the river of life glides along smoothly, it remains the same river; only the landscape on either bank seems to change.  - Max Miller

7/11 the AM, The green today

...is cool enough to make me want ice cream.  Grasshopper ice cream that is.  The perils of being a painter - dietary cravings.  The morning was spent again at the State Capitol.  I am feeling uncertain as to the affects of the Yupo paper on my linear marks.  The synthetic paper suspends material and transforms the materials - thus making each edge smoother.  It has made me question artist intention and chance - how much of the marks are mine?  or are they now the residue of a "filter" which is an inherent property of the support, the Yupo?

State Capitol painting, acrylic ink on Yupo, 11" x 14"

Life is like a landscape.  You live in the midst of it but can describe it only from the vantage point of distance.  - Charles Lindbergh

7/10, More Certain Times

Sometimes it is important to remember when a drawing is just a drawing, and let it go.  When color comes into the mix, there is the urge to make it a painting.  However today, I decided that this is as far as I want and should go with this drawing.  Keeping it loose - the lines, the forms and the features.  It is based on one of my favorite maquettes, and I think that maquette deserves more exploration through other drawings before proceeding to a more long term work.

Don't wait for ideas, they come with production. If you prepare yourself too much, you might never be ready. Creation is itself a preparation. I have been producing like a madman ever since I was 16. Don't be afraid to do inferior things, the first fruits are always small & sour. You must work a lot, it clears the brain.  - Chagall

7/9, Uncertain lines

This drawing progressed today (see previous 6/21 post) with a radical addition of more color, particularly green and yellow and a radical change in the outer shape.  It is almost complete and more linear work will be added later this week.

Every child is an artist.  The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.  
- Pablo Picasso