Cactus Study

Cactus Study

24" X 36"

Charcoal on Paper

2012

One of the aspects that I most enjoy in drawing is the linearity in form description. Although working in mass can also be easily achieved as well through various methods, to me drawing is very much about working in line. I feel it is one of the definitive differences between how I approach a drawing and painting.

This difference is especially true of working at larger scales. It is uncommon to see artists drawing at a larger scale than 18" X 24" and whenever I show up to a workshop with a  24" X 36" drawing board I am typically the only individual working at that scale. One thing this scale brings out in drawing is the relatively small proportion of the tool to the working area. So in this way many small scale strokes have to be laid down to achieve tonal differences. An advantage of this is that you can emphasize directions of form in each stroke that build up to larger overall compositional patterns as I've done in this study.