Daily Figure 2-26-2020

There is something so striking about an untouched solo mark. Pure. Unfussed. To the point. Efficient. Using a massive chunk of charcoal here on those large peripheral strokes.   

Daily Figure 1-27-2020

Using a multitude of various charcoals and tools here. Of particular usefulness as of late: Prismacolor Art Stix for upper-tier halftones and incredibly light values. It doesn't play with other media so well due to the strong wax content and a heavy application really puts this into high relief; but strategically used—it's perfect for gentle, light, and subtle gradations of value. Especially on really light or bright white surfaces where subtle slight value shifts can be difficult to keep tamed.   

Not filling in the shadows

In having spent so much time drawing from life—you are continuously forced to make editing choices due to the time limit of the pose. What to include, what to exclude. Over time, I've come to appreciate that this creates it's own aesthetic. As in life, sometimes the things left unsaid are more beautiful than anything manifestly expressed. 

The forever moving target

A recent exercise in drawing the figure from reference with a bit of experimentation in tools—using one brand of compressed charcoal for the core shadows and another to fill in the shadowed sections. Whereas one of the brands (Cretacolor) is much more loosely bound and softer, and the other (Conté à Paris) is much harder. I used the softer of the two for the core shadows and the harder for the fill shadows and mid-tones.

 The advantage with this approach was that a dark registration of the shadow cores was quick and easy with the softer charcoal, and then I could more easily control the structural reveal of the forms in the half-tones and fill shadows by using a slower application process with the harder charcoal. Using the harder charcoal was particularly useful in taming the level of reflected light bounced into the shadow fills—so that the nuances of the anatomical construction were retained with subtle fidelity.

There's a tendency for many to use the same tool or approach in their work over and over, as it's how they were taught. I did this myself—often. For years in fact. Although as I've learned, and come to enjoy—the application of specific tools and techniques for specific circumstances is so much more effective in terms of speed, control, and/or effect. It just takes some time to work through where, when, and how to go about it. And it seems that this process is never complete nor is there an approach that is 100% applicable to every circumstance or subject. Failure is a constant. Every work it seems, in some manner or another, requires a kind of special consideration—if you're really paying attention. Even a 5-minute drawing.