7/26, Sketchbook Friday

Sketchbook page, for long term drawing #20, marker, 

 and pen on paper, 9" x 12"

Sketchbook page, for long term drawing #21, marker, 

 and pen on paper, 9" x 12"

Are we to paint what's on the face, what's inside the face, or what's behind it? 

- Pablo Picasso

7/25, Zoo day...

...with the sketchbook.

Sketchbook page, Riverbanks Zoo for long term drawing #19, marker, 

 and pen on paper, 9" x 12"

He who binds to himself a Joy

Doth the winged life destroy;

But he who kisses the Joy as it flies

Lives in Eternity's sunrise. 

- William Blake

7/24 the PM, Leaves and trees in the plein air...

...I continued my landscape drawing this afternoon with more exploration of the curves and diagonals at Finaly Park.

...must we not distinguish between 'artiste' & 'artist': the one who enables us to forget what we do not want to remember, & the other who enables us to remember what we do not want to forget?

 - E. Stuart Bates, INSIDE OUT An Introduction to Autobiography

7/22, 7/23 & 7/24(the AM), When a painting is in the final...

...stages of its development, things progress quite a bit...but in ways that are not as dramatically obvious as in the beginning stages.  To prevent blogger redundancy, I am posting the culmination of the past three days today.  For progress comparison, 7/19 would be the previous for this stage.

While science follows the stream of reason & consequence, & with each attainment sees further, & never attains a satisfying goal, art is always at its goal. 

- Schopenhauer

7/19 the PM, Now I think...

...that I am really getting somewhere with this image.  With the sketchbook and the art syncing up, it has been a day's time at work in the studio well spent, with big improvements to the large scale, long term drawing/painting.

We make a living by what we get, but a life by what we give. - Churchill

7/19 the AM, I think there is a solution...

...to some of the spatial and scale issues within my large scale, long term drawing/painting right outside my window, my kitchen window.  Morning sketchbook work explored the possibilities.  Off to test my theory.

Sketchbook page, long term drawing #18, marker, 

 and pen on paper, 9" x 12"

A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be.
- Maslow

7/18, Another sketchbook day at the zoo...

...resulted in too many fun, quirky, and invigorating conversations with children, tweens, and teens to recount all of the words.  Most just wanted to watch me draw, and several asked to look through my entire Zoo sketchbook (I keep multiple themed sketchbooks simultaneously.)  One tween came up and introduced himself as an artist by saying "I am an artist myself and can I asked you about what you are doing?" - he then proceeded to discuss my drawings and aesthetic choices.  Another tween proclaimed that he thought I could beat his uncle in an art competition, however to be fair, I believe the outcome of any competition with his uncle would be unpredictable as his uncle is a forensic artist and thus he (the nephew) has very limited exposure to his uncle's talent.  

Sketchbook page, Riverbanks Zoo for long term drawing #16, marker, 

 and pen on paper, 9" x 12"

Sketchbook page, Riverbanks Zoo for long term drawing #17, marker, 

 and pen on paper, 9" x 12"

Forever honored by the Tree 

Forever honored by the Tree

Whose Apple Winterworn
Enticed to Breakfast from the Sky
Two Gabriels Yestermorn.

They registered in Nature's Book
As Robins -- Sire and Son--
But Angels have that modest way
To screen them from Renown.

by Emily Dickinson

7/17, Nothing like a rainy day...

...to keep things moving along in the painting.  My plans to do some plein air painting at Finley Park were cut short by the afternoon thunderstorms.  My untitled, long term work however benefited greatly from the indoor focus.  Today's progress is posted below:

Memory is the fourth dimension to any landscape.  - Janet Fitch

7/16, Seven hours in the studio...

...felt like a wrestling match - but one well worth it.  Shifting the brilliance and saturation of colors has resulted with the spatial relationships becoming more strategically defined, more distinctive from front to back, or rather foreground and background.  Looking forward to making the saturation of hues in the foreground more distinct from those in the middle-ground.

There is no strong performance without a little fanaticism in the performer. - Emerson

If you're willing to fail interestingly, you usually succeed interestingly.
- Edward Albee

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

7/8, the PM: Almost

This is finished, or I should say almost.  It is finished, but as with all of my works, I will leave it hanging in my studio for a bit as there may be an area or color for me to revisit.  The State Capitol sketchbook drawing (posted below) helped to resolve the blue light on the right side of the work.

State Capitol painting, acrylic on canvas, 30" x 40"

ALMOST!

Within my reach!

I could have touched
I might have chanced that way!

Soft sauntered through the village,

Sauntered as soft away!

So unsuspected violets

Within the fields lie low,

Too late for striving fingers

That passed, an hour ago.

by Emily Dickinson

7/8, the AM: Pragmatic and practical

The morning was spent outdoors, onsite making practical sketchbook choices that will facilitate a finishing of some long term studio work - a landscape painting and the large, long term drawing.  Back to the indoors to apply the insight.

Sketchbook page, State Capitol drawing, marker, 

watercolor, ink and pen on paper, 9" x 12"

Sketchbook page, State Capitol, foliage study for long term drawing #11, 

marker, watercolor, ink and pen on paper, 9" x 12"

Live to paint, don't paint to live.  - Darby Bannard 

7/5, Indoors, resolving and hopefully completing...

...two studio paintings.  With only one drawing completed, the rain has disrupted my work out of doors, so I must retreat to the studio for the remainder of the day.

Sketchbook page, Riverbanks Zoo for long term drawing #10, marker, 

watercolor, ink and pen on paper, 9" x 12"

"This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body."

- Walt Whitman, from the preface of Leaves of Grass. 

7/4, Its in Plein Sight, Plein Air Sight...

Morning spent drawing in the sketchbook, and I survived the mugginess long enough to complete two drawings...I think that there is some good stuff which can be incorporated in long term works.

Sketchbook page, Riverbanks Zoo for long term drawing #8, marker, 

watercolor, ink and pen on paper, 9" x 12"

Sketchbook page, Riverbanks Zoo for long term drawing #9, marker, 

watercolor, ink and pen on paper, 9" x 12"

Fine art is that in which the hand, the head, and the heart of man go together.

- John Ruskin

7/3, Starting at the bottom

Today begins with working out details of the embellishments in the foliage at the bottom of the drawing.  During college, Richard Mattson reminded me to think about each painting's outer edges, and Lester Goldman reminded me to think of the bottom of the composition.  Frequently Lester would have me raise the bottom edge of my paintings to my eye level while I worked on them.  He was right, of course, and the composition and cohesion in each work benefited greatly as a result.  I will be following Lester's advice again today, and jump start the day's work with a sketchbook study of that area.

Sketchbook page, for long term drawing #7, marker, ink and pen on paper, 9" x 12"

Long term drawing sketchbook drawings are based on.  Area of pictorial study is highlighted.

The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward 
significance.  - Aristotle

7/2, Its all in the details, the layering of details

Today, I made significant strides in the long term large drawing.  Figures, space, and shapes are now much more unified with the addition of a buttery yellow.

Zoomed in area detail of long term, large scale drawing.

Reflexes and instincts are not pretty.  It is their decoration that initiates art.  

- Martin H. Fischer

7/1, Simple Gestures, Simple Beginnings

Sometimes I think a painting should only take one hour.  If only each work could be built with an endless flow of simple lines and simple gestures that never needed to be erased, re-proportioned, or reconfigured.

Great art is as irrational as great music.  - George Jean Nathan

6/29, Afternoon Studio

There is work still to be done but time in the studio progresses the long term work to a denser and warmer pictorial space.

Sometimes, to pursue a new idea, the artist must forfeit his deposit on an old idea.  
- Robert Brault

6/28: Sketchbook destination by air *plein*:

Productive morning drawing at the Zoo as I continue to build the visual environmental vocabulary for my large long term drawing -- ready for an afternoon in the studio.

Sketchbook page, Riverbanks Zoo for long term drawing #6, marker, 

watercolor, ink and pen on paper, 9" x 12"

There is no surer method of evading the world than by following art, and no surer method of linking oneself to it than by art.  – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

6/27, The great plein air escape:

Another day, another page in the sketchbook.  Exploring a landscape that has color and elements which can be incorporated in the large, long term drawing I am working on this week.

Sketchbook page, Finaly Park for long term drawing #5, watercolor, ink and pen on paper, 

9" x 12"

What art offers is space - a certain breathing room for the spirit.  - John Updike

6/26, Sketchbook page take two:

Today there is better color, better line, and better space.  Better day.

Sketchbook page, long term drawing #4, graphite, ink and pen on paper, 9" x 12"

Every creator painfully experiences the chasm between his inner vision and its ultimate expression.  - Issac Bashevis Singer

6/25, Sketchbook study continues to progress long term work:

I am thinking that not everything is meant to be beautiful.  As I look at work from today I am not satisfied with the lines in this sketch as I continue to develop the spatial configuration of the environment surrounding the figures - however, the layering, scale, and color are more effective in this study than in the large, long term work below.

Sketchbook page, long term drawing #3, graphite, ink and pen on paper, 9" x 12"

   Long term drawing sketchbook drawings are based on.  Area of pictorial study is highlighted.

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes.  Art is knowing which ones to keep.  
- Scott Adams

6/24, Sketchbook study progresses a long term work:

Time spent inventing and figuring out the forms, colors, and spaces surrounding the figures in a large long term drawing.  The progression is pointing toward a solution of a unifying blue light  throughout the space and forms and the incorporation of landscape elements from my daily plein air sketchbook.

    Skectchbook page, long term drawing #2, watercolor and pen on paper, 9" x 12" 

     Skectchbook page, long term drawing #1, watercolor and pen on paper, 9" x 12" 

    Long term drawing sketchbook drawings are based on.  Area of pictorial study is highlighted.

Visual design is often the polar opposite of engineering:  trading hard edges for subjective decisions based on gut feelings and personal experiences.  It is messy, unpredictable, and notoriously hard to measure.  The apparently erratic behavior of artists drives engineers bananas.  The decisions seem arbitrary and risk everything with no guaranteed benefit.  

- Scott Stevenson