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Sunday, November 1, 2015

Just A Pencil


                       


Sun Torch season, the dark days of winter season when thirty plus or minus minutes in front of a  high intensity lamp is used to lift spirits and brighten outlooks, was kicked off yesterday with the first session in drawing with John Singer--you fill in the last name.
 
 After a long time away, copying Sargent seemed to be as good a way as any to slip back into the art habit.  A drawing a day is as beneficial as stretching limbs and raising your heart rate.  Free hand sketching is as simple as art gets. There's nothing to squeeze out, no big deal clean up, just a pencil and a reference. 
 
The reference I chose to explored today was exciting--full of strategic points and sweeping movement,  an excellent subject for a large painting with sweeping brushstrokes--once relationships are worked out.
 
 
Wrestlers, graphite study #1
 

12 comments:

  1. Limited materials and time, allows a concentration that gives extraordinary results.
    "Linda sessions" at morning with your special light are now a myth!
    So since you did a group on FB, I also hope draw some quick work, after coffee, as the past winter and share with group friends.

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    1. The Wrestlers were actually inappropriate in my 6 x 8" morning sketch format. A charcoal drawing will be much more beneficial. I think I love the subject. I will have to start bothering my son for photos of my grandson in a hammer lock. :-))

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  2. Linda, I could not agree with you more on the benefits of drawing!!! Your Sargent is a beautiful rendering of a handsome man, and the wrestlers - the movement and shapes - are fascinating.
    Kathryn

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    1. I'll never forget a boy in art college who turned in six smashed beer cans stapled to a board instead of a drawing. I asked him why? He said not all of us can draw. That's true I suppose, but what was he there for if not to work on the fundamental craft? Till this day, I can't decide if I had been mean to him for thinking he should make the effort--beer cans are cylinders for Pete sake! Cezannes! Braque! Cubism! The wrestlers are Round and oblong spheres intertwined. Simple forms.

      My wrestlers have a ways to go. You can tell by the heavy lines. I kept correcting associations as I went and there's more to them. Today charcoal. It corrects easier. :-))

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    2. Somehow I just can't see crushed beer cans on a board as art either!!! :)

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  3. Lovely work. The geometry of the wrestlers is really flowing and dynamic.

    My way back into sanity is in building my boat which is much a black art as Dylan Thomas poetry (http://techssimboats.blogspot.co.uk/).

    Stay mended please, get bags of your light box and 10 minutes laughing every hour! really happy to see you creating again

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    1. Nice to see you too. How's that studio/storage building you were working on before life attacked?

      Copying a master is a way to ease back in and maybe pick up a trick or two, but doing what speaks to you personally gets your blood flowing. Wrestlers immediately sparked interest -- probably for the literary analogy? I have been wrestling life myself the last months! nothing complicated here.

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  4. I finished the 'workshop' see here http://gatepostpicture.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/so-what-have-i-been-up-to.html

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  5. Hi LInda - good to see you getting back into the swing of things. Thinking of you and wondering if you have started your time under the special light.
    Copying Sargent's drawings has to be fun. Have you seen Nicolai Fechin's drawing? He combines the clean line of Holbein with exquisite drawing skills and texture. Amazing stuff.

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    1. Copying is a good passtime when I can find no reference of my own, but I do prefer to use my own material. Trouble is no one of interest has passed through my life with an attitude that sparks my curiosity. I will find those folks in Mexico on the beach come the end of the month. Till then, puttering with landscape and tHinking thoughts of returning to acrylics while finishing up all the PT,my insurance company will allow. The op was a huge success, but it left me with a leg that screams from nerves if I stand longer than an hour. Time, they say, is the cure. I can sit with a pencil. I must stand when I paint!

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  6. I recognized Sargent in my sidebar! Your drawings are always (reliably) a treat for the eyes!

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  7. Thanks Celeste! It's been a while/ Sargent is always a good way to warm up and slide back into the practice.

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