Fast & Loose...

An unnamed flower, more like a cone, with big fleshy leaves...
This was drawn on Mylar with ink...
Tonight Jan had us stand at easels (like real artists) and paint flowers in drippy wet ink on big sheets of paper. It was uncomfortable and so unnatural. As she passed each flower to me I found myself drawing smaller and smaller portions with tighter and tighter brush strokes - like a falcon circling in on prey. Any appearance of looseness was due to the limitations of the brush. I only became happy again when I taped up the small sheets of mylar on the big white sheet and used them as my target; small pictures filling all the space on a small canvas.

I'm sure there is a psychology to each artist's selection of space. The tension and anxiety of space unfilled; the comfort of nestling up to the edges. I like borders and plans, lists and lines. I also like the fun of transgression, an act which requires a boundary. Unsurprisingly I like tiny, bordered, dense needlework patterns, small engravings, illuminated letters, centres and borders, 5x5 square frames...

My Gerbera...

OK, I finally scanned it and my disatisfaction has abated. The critic does settle down after a while. Pencil on mylar is thicker and smudgier than on paper and much less amenable to shading strokes. Watercolour pencil is lovely but takes a long time to dry if you use too much water.

Next week we are exploring looser, less scientific botanical styles which will be good for the draughtsman in me.

Botanicals are harder than Beasts...

Beautiful isn't it?

Last night I drew one of these simple bold Gerbera Daisies. I love them for their intense colour and leafless stem. They are compact, graphical, tidy.

Alas, there is a reason that I posted a photo of one - drawing from life is the opposite: sprawling, smudgy, messy. There are no lovely black lines to copy; the proportion IS known and judgeable by all who look at it. I must learn to loosen up and to not require outlining!! Or to find a way to draw that allows me to be a draughtsman with organic subjects.

Jan showed us slides of botanical illustrations from the 16th Century onward. In one, DaVinci had grid lines visible; in another the outlined flowers had parts numbered. I would love to do something like that but feel inadequate when it comes to putting pencil to paper. Perhaps practicing will alow me to overcome the self-consciousness of doing something so studied. I'll try this weekend.

This evening's doodles...

A Wyvern and Squid...

And a Black Squirrel for my aunt in Australia...

Finally the scanner works...

The Mermopard...
The Beaveriwinkle...

and the Lionagon...

More beasts come into the world...

Last night's class was a continuation of the bestiary drawings. The evening was broken up with a birthday celebration for Jan, who turns 49 today. Happy Birthday, Jan! It seems Jan, Debbie and I shared a High School back in the 70s. And while I didn't know Jan then we were able to conjure up some shared memories. It's strange how when you start stirring the memory-muck things drift into view that shock you; "where did that come from?'" is a frequent question. The shock isn't for the images themselves, it's for the act of remembering. These memories are all fragments, usually visual - snapshots of people and places that have been kept by the brain for unknown reasons. Perhaps there is a cataloguing system that says "this is a good exemplar of 'Winskill Park' I'll keep that image for future reference". Because, when I think of Winskill Park I see a static image, perhaps a montage, of bleachers against green. I know Winskill Park is important in my teenage life, being the place where I taught Susan Evans and Debbie Dalgety to smoke (sorry girls), but obviously not important enough to keep a "movie" memory. Interesting.

As for the art, my new beasts are a Flying Beaver/Hermit Crab cross, and a Leopard/Mermaid - names are slow in coming.

Next week we begin the botanical drawings on mylar with Chinese ink. Hopefully I can get my scanner working and post some of the images