It's been a quiet month around The Jettstream as I've spread the energy elsewhere. More on that later. In between finishing projects, entertaining 14 for Mother's 81st birthday, preparing gifts for DD's baby shower, and giving lip service to my paid employment, I sqeezed out some time to start the color study I'd been looking forward to. I managed to complete the Unit 1 contour drawing task Sunday night. Here's my still life:
The first blind drawing was completed with 3 minutes left. Not bad timing, though I confess the drawings in the upper corners were extra attempts at apple stem and tangerine navel I did to fill the time.
The second semi-blind drawing was completed with 10 minutes to kill. Not so good on the timing, though I kind of liked the drawing (...well, kind of).
The last drawing was completed with 15 minutes to spare. Was I getting weary of the exercise? Probably. But I think my left brain took over in that third phase--look at the cheesy "artistic" shading I attempted! The deliberate effort is evident.
Musing over my coffee the next morning, I realized why the 3rd drawing "failed": it was contrived, too studied ... and it wasn't contour drawing. I'd jumped from contour drawing to a feeble attempt at perspective drawing--the left brain had taken over. I should (if there are any "shoulds") have added the dimension by outlining the contour of the highlights on the apple, the planes of the banana, and the gnarly navel of the tangerine. That's what I like about the second drawing. It would translate better to fabric than the last drawing. And probably I like the second drawing better because I looked at the subject while I drew, not at my drawing—just what the teacher wanted. Interesting.
2 comments:
Very nice! It sounds like you learned a lot from the excercise. I know I did.
Not yet. But it was an interesting revelation to me--why I like the second drawing better and why I think it more correctly fit the task. I love this kind of stuff--makes me see things I never would have otherwise.
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