Clean As A Whistle

JD, Lake Swimmer, Graphite, 6" x 8", TMDD

While we sprang forward an hour this morning, I used my Sun Torch anyway.  It looked as dark outside at seven thirty today as it did at six thirty yesterday. I have eight more sheets in my drawing pad. I think I will continue the drawing series with the extraordinary light that  is excellent for seeing exactly what I'm doing. In front of the light with my pencil, I've picked up a few insights:

AS IN PAINTING, DRAWING TOOLS REQUIRE CONSTANT CLEANING.

I walk around the house with my knead eraser in my jean pocket so it's warmed by my body heat, easier to knead clean and handy to knead clean when watching TV, talking on the phone,  reading a book.

Stubs get dirty fast and when very dirty can be used as a pencil. that could be a good thing? But  dirty stubs used to blend will darken the value you so carefully laid down.  To avoid that, either don't go as dark as you would and let the stub do the rest or  use a clean stub.  I'm thinking I have to buy them by the gross and think of them as being disposable. I would have used a stub on JD, but I didn't have a clean one, so this drawing is a bit "grainy."

A drawing bridge sized to your format is better than a piece of vellum under your palm.  Should you get so absorbed in the drawing and forget to actually pick up the vellum and move it to the next spot, the paper will drag the graphite.  But keep cleaning the feet of the bridge too, for those will drag graphite and possibly even  mar the surface of the paper.

After sharpening or shaping leads on a sandpaper block, wipe them with a shammy. Graphite particles cling to the shaft.

A piece of vellum over the drawing will cut the drag of graphite by the cover of the drawing pad or the back of the last drawing. Just closing the drawing pad without the drawing protected this way  invites graphite transfer to the back of the previous sheet as you handle the pad. 



















 

Rough Start

A Quiet Exchange, graphite, 6 x 8, TMDD Series 2015

Rough Start, a working title, graphite, 6 x 8  TMDD IN PROGRESS

I knew I was off to a rough start this morning when I almost fell through the glass shower enclosure and then had a toilet overflow.  By the time I sat down to sketch, I knew I couldn't expect  much.  My pencil was out of control as the minutes ticked away.  Composure finally returned five minutes before the Sun Torch turned off.  This lovely lady with the smile will just wait till tomorrow for brilliant.

Yesterday's rendition of a serious Ellis listening to a friend came off a lot better. I had had no rude awakenings to raise my blood pressure.  Done in the quiet of morning, this sketch was not affected by stress; it has painting possibilities.  One of his eyes is a tad off, but overall that's my baby. Rough Start isn't even close to a  likeness; I started it too close to the morning's irritations.  I should have waited till one twenty over eighty returned and the bathroom floor was dry.

If you've been following my Thirty Minute Daily Drawing Series, you know there is no rule about finishing the sketch in that thirty minutes.   The only rules are to draw daily. and stop on the half hour--don't make a big deal out of it.  Next Monday, Daylight Savings Time begins. I will put away my Sun Torch till next October. I don't think I'll put my drawing equipment away though. Sketching has been a wonderful way to start the day, on a par with meditation.

From Statesman To Toddler To Great Grandma's Cookies

Zac At Disney World, Graphite, 6 x 8, TMDD Series

It was hot. It was humid.  His hair was wringing wet with sweat but he was at Disney World sitting on a curb watching the parade!  He was having fun they said.  From the look on his face in the photograph his mom took, I thought he'd rather be somewhere else-- like a water park.

--And that's all I wrote yesterday when the wireless and cable went out all over the neighborhood--FOR TWELVE HOURS!  If you don't think you're addicted to your devices, try going twelve hours without them.  I couldn't think of anything to do but call and recall our service to see when I could expect some.  By the time  night fell and still nothing,  I reluctantly pick up Samuel Adams to bore myself to oblivion.  Then Ellis said we could watch  movies.  How, I said. He said the VHS still works.  Joe And The Volcano was our first choice. A New Leaf was the double feature.  War Games followed till ten twenty six when e-mails started ringing my bells.  A lovelier sound was never heard. The pounding in my chest subsided. The cold sweat disappeared. The theme to Murder She Wrote was better than any Beethoven symphony.

Great Grandma Suzy made the best cookies ever, Graphite, 6 x 8, TMDD Series 

 

Time Flies, Coffee Gets Cold

Kissinger in progress, graphite, 6 x 8, TMDD Series
Tomorrow, there will be hands.

My Guy, graphite, 6 x 8, TMDD Series

Time flies and the coffee goes cold when my Sun Torch goes off and thirty minutes runs to forty and forty five.  When I'm drawing, the clock disappears--not so when I'm painting.  Not so in the beginning of the morning drawing sessions, but as they went on.   When drawing, I feel in command--even when my son is looking like Kissinger,  Now he's looking like himself.  I added a bit of sparkle to his eyes even though there wasn't one in the reference--and to the rims of his glasses. I made a couple of adjustments to his mouth and moved on to Kissinger.  I decided to attempt  the statesman since my first attempt at my guy reminded me of Nixon's learned and talented Secretary of State.    Besides, all my beach people are still visiting Dell Repair. Today is day six that they've been gone--not that I'm not counting.  I miss reliving the warmth of Mexico when I was drawing them.  So it will be for eleven more days--if Dell  told me right?

Again, I apologize for the poor reproductions here.  I am confined to photo editing through Windows Photo Gallery and Microsoft  Office Picture Manager circa 2007--eons  ago!   I miss my Photoshop too--AND MICROSOFT XBOX SOLITAIRE COLLECTIONS!  How's a person supposed to collect their thoughts?

Parting note: We watched Close Encounters of The Third Kind yesterday, a Steven Spielberg movie made in 1977 starring a very young Richard Dreyfus.   Do you know how they had to live back then?  With no cell phones, no PCs, not a  notebook in sight and tube televisions!  Ghastly Sy-Fy flic.

Who's Drawing You?

From Across The room, graphite, TMDD series

As I was drawing this woman I saw across the diner, I was wondering who was drawing me?  Could  happen.   It looked like she was involved in a serious discussion with her husband and she didn't like how it was going.  I've been there.  Off to the doc for mid year check up.  Rain and ice out there.  If I didn't need a script for the  new pneumonia vaccine I'd cancel. Wish me luck.  I'd rather be scumbling.

Free Hand Weekend

Michael's eyes are driving me nuts--the reference is driving me nuts.  I must get a better one.



Steve, graphite and charcoal pencil study

Free hand drawing time at my house begins at seven AM, or earlier, when I sit down at my SAD light for a half hour dose of ionized air and a brilliant facsimile of sunshine.  I'm back into my boys these days.  I really made a mess of the painting I had the audacity to attempt in 2012, I thought I'd give it another try.  These are warm up sketches and something to do while just sitting there in front of the light getting rid of winter doldrums.

 I bought a starter drawing kit from the General to see what they had to offer and I love it.  It comes with a complete range of charcoal pencils of varying grades of hardness, white and black chalk like, conte like crayons, a knead eraser and the sharpest little sharpener--the kind you wish you had in your grade school pencil box, the kind that doesn't break the lead.  I am really enjoying this half hour of free handing with the General.

 I am also enjoying the fact that the grand monochrome painting exercise I've taken on has had a positive effect on how quickly I'm reading the tones in my grayscale references. The burnt umbra/white, nine step value scale seems to have been burned into my brain...

BUT I KEEP WANTING A DARK DARKER THAN BURNT UMBRA CAN GIVE.. So I added Ultramarine to the BU for a darker than the darkest tone for this alla prima oil study and I like it!  The other color I'm missing is Burnt Sienna.  I guess I'm really missing the play of cool and warm? While BU washes out warm, add white to it and color goes blue--too blue for someone who sits in front of a SAD light every morning. 



Alla Prima weekend with Michael.  Trouble with the reference is the photo was taken with a flash. Shame on me.
But that was way back when I didn't know any better--though this is a better likeness than the one in the 2012 painting.