Bob's Bridge
I was painting in the park by a fishing stream yesterday. The view was downhill of a little bridge over the stream, a house, some trees and a full figured man leaning over the bridge. (It was a very steep incline and I had to place a thick stick under my toes so my feet would be level for the 3 hours or so I planned to stand there. Then the stick started to roll and I got a little rug remnant from my car trunk to wrap around it and my engineering feat was complete.) The man- I talked to him later, his name is "Bob"- stood musing there a good ten minutes giving me an opportunity to quickly draw his gesture and estimate his relative height on my sketchpad so I could include him in my painting. He had his own agenda, of course, but I appreciated his presence. He was long gone as I was painting him later and I mentally talked myself through the set of his shoulders, the incline of his hipbones as he'd planted his weight on one leg. It was a small figure, loosely painted within the thick paint of the bridge and background, but I wanted it to have as much life as I could give it.
Later on as I was packing up my stuff a young fisherman came rushing up and asked to see my work. So we both admired it and I asked him if he painted too. He said no, but he liked to draw. I told him that you can't paint unless you can draw and that he was taking things in the right order. Then I pointed him towards a couple of my artist friends and told him to go talk to them as they were very skilled at drawing. (I do that a lot when I'm with other artists and someone comes up to look at my painting. "Hey, great talking to you. Did you know there's some more artists right over there? You might want to see what they're doing!") Which isn't to say that it isn't a pleasure to talk to people. It is. I just like to bug my friends.
My point is though, that drawing, particularly life drawing is like going to the gym for an artist. Gotta work out to maintain those subject/eye/hand muscle connections or else you lose it and lose it fast. I find that even just carefully studying excellent life drawings or anatomy books on a daily basis (my bedtime reading ritual) makes a tremendous difference in my ability to see and draw the figure and accordingly, anything else.
In September, I have four pieces in a show at the Sidetracks Gallery in New Hope, PA. Their annual "Naked in New Hope" exhibition of nude figures is wildly popular and I am delighted to be a part of it. It is a pleasure to be in the company of other artists who appreciate working from life. If you're in the area, I hope you have the time to take in the view.
Read this Full Article >>
|
