More watercolour pictchas. Hotcha!
Above and at bottom are done on my Mom’s old paper, almost like paper towel, which is very thin, buckles like crazy (I can flatten it, but it’s some work), and which absorbs tons of paint. No little puddles or run-backs (those little flower-shaped flaws) here. Still, it is very thin and not that strong-looking.
These middle two pics are on not so watercoloury paper. Notice how the paint pools and dries rather than sinking in:
… and another naked guy as the cover photo! Truthfully, I couldn’t be happier. A little controversy is good. Start things out with a splash.
The next one (next week, if things turn out) will be a little different.
Not sure if I should call them “Colour Pencilled Couple,” but maybe someone will advise.
I’ve written another art article for Rover Arts. As time goes on, I will figure out a better way of sharing these.
Tags: art criticism, Rover Arts
Still drawing computer faces. Not quite “there” yet, even though I’m getting more comfortable. Have to try drawing more subjects, backgrounds, even fruit. Learning to loosen up, yet stay accurate.
But the neat part about computer drawing is the amount of messing around you can do with it. I can put him in a different background, squish his face around, work on him forever. The deal is that you never really know when you are finished.
But I think for the moment, the paper page is my real muse.
Drawing is very calming for the nerves. Tough stuff around me, so I’ve been watching art-instruction Youtube videos, and drawing a lot of faces from Tumblr and my private photo file. Mainly Hollywood and TV people, done in pencil and sometimes watercolour.
Watching this Youtube of a TV show featuring men throwing paint onto a giant piece of paper inspired me to paint this:
Had a bad professional experience the other night. So today, rather than do anything productive, I’ve been drawing things and posting. Also reading and watching. Playing with cats. Hope things recover!
I don’t know where any of this leads, but things tend to fit together in different ways.
Apparently it was his birthday yesterday.
The older, goofier William Shatner actually reminds me a bit of my dad. I’ll have to draw him, sometime. He actually rode in an elevator with Shatner and Brooke Shields, once, at the Banff Springs Hotel.
I think my face drawing skills are progressing as I practice them. The bad thing is if you stop, you lose a certain amount of skill, and have to roll the rock up the hill again.
This is the late Mavis Gallant, whose collection “Home Truths” I am reading, for the second time. The stories are funny, if mordant and somewhat gloomy. I don’t think I’d be happy hanging out with her in Paris, and she’d probably not want me around.
Still, she’s a brilliant writer, and many images and observations of hers will stay with me for a long time, even if she does remind me of a black and white wartime and 1950s Canada.
Went to the Writer’s Guild of Canada Montreal meeting. This is the guild in Canada working for film and TV writers, which I am, occasionally. They were handing out free pencils and pads, along with other swag, so I couldn’t resist. One person here saw me drawing her, so I never finished that sketch. This is rare, since I seem to be rarely caught out drawing someone, but there’s always a first time. Not that I’m terribly subtle or secretive when I draw.
Saw her in the Tom Cruise movie Jack Reacher, which was a little better than the Lee Child book that I read featuring the character, but that’s not saying much. Anyhow, she as pretty enough, so I searched out a photo to draw a portrait.
Here’s a page of faces. The woman in the upper right hand corner is Kady O’Malley, a reporter in Ottawa, covering Parliament usually in an interesting way.
Had a terrible scare the other night with this site. Not going to talk about it online for fear of summoning the devil. But that can rest for now, and I’ll do a comprehensive backup of all this stuff.
For now, I’ll just put up some things I’ve been drawing, more as an exercise for myself rather than showing what a great artist I am. (I know I’m not). Still, I’ve got the urge to draw, and I find similar things useful when they come up on other people’s blogs. I’m interested in how artists start out. It’s too bad that I feel I’m constantly starting out, even though I’ve been drawing for a while. But maybe that keeps me from feeling jaded.
