Squiggles As Inspiration

 

 

Pen and ink on notepaper

Leafless, not lifeless

Quick sketch with pencil on notepaper, 3"x2"

Shanghai Skyline

Shanghai happened to be on my travel itinerary and I was fortunate to be able to steal an afternoon off to see the city. Most of the modern sections, which are on the side east of the Nangpu river that is called Pudong, have been built during the past 15 years and include an impressive skyline studded with skyscrapers to rival any world city.

I used just an ordinary pen to sketch an interpretation of the Shanghai Pudong skyline. The building just to the right of center that looks like a bottle opener is the World Financial Center and one of the most unique buildings ever -- though Shanghai boasts quite a few.

Shanghai Cityscape, Pen on paper, 11"x12", NFS

Doodling or sketching?

Since I began sketching again a while back, I have found that thinking about art has become more and more of a constant occupation! On days when I have to spend long hours on teleconferences or have to wait between flights while on business travel, I can experiment with all kinds of images whether from my imagination or drawn from the surroundings. All that is needed, as in the current post, is a pen or pencil and a scrap of paper no matter how big or small.


Perhaps it is just my imagination, but sketching while my mind is focused on something else (such as a long phone call) seems to free up the hand and allows much looser strokes. It is also pretty efficient use of time and perfectly in the zeitgeist of our times where multi-tasking is a badge of pride.........


Untitled, Pencil on scrap office paper, NFS

Rough-Hewn Shapes

Isolating just one aspect of a landscape can create a powerful composition. So far I have only ever attempted this with organic shapes such as flowers in closeup. The finished picture often ends up looking like an abstract. But the image can still remain impressionistic or representational when a particular element is isolated but still recognizable.

Field Boulders is a charcoal sketch that attempts to capture the rough-hewn shapes arranged in a triangular composition with barely the suggestion of a grassy foreground. The highlights and shadows provide much to explore in the picture.

Field Boulders, Charcoal on paper, 4"x6", Not for sale

More sketching

Not much to say about this plain sketch of a bunch of bananas. I found that the shape of bananas makes it a bit hard to avoid making it seem like they are floating in space. With both ends rising upwards, the shadows are the only way to create a sense of form anchored to the ground.

Bananas was done with charcoal pencil on paper. I have tried to minimize the blending to convey a sense of roughness and energy. Of course, this limits the tonal variation that can be achieved. But then it is just a sketch!

Bananas, Charcoal on paper, 4"x6", Not for sale

Horse Heads

Every time I look at horses, in addition to their grace and sense of controlled power, I am struck by the beauty of their faces. There is something about the sculpted solidity of the bones in the horses' head that begs to be drawn or painted.

Horse Head and Horses were both drawn rapidly with Conte crayon charcoal sticks with digital photographs used as a reference. As I get better, I am planning to do a series of large line drawings of horse heads, so this is good practice for now.

Horse Head, Conte crayon on paper, 11"x14", Not for sale

Horses, Conte crayon on paper, 11"x14", Not for sale

Odd Composition?

For some reason asymmetric composition draws viewer interest a lot longer than complete evenness. Design elements with odd-number components suggest more movement and engage the viewer. Even or symmetric numbered elements are perceived as static and quickly quench interest.

There is no handy explanation for this phenomenon. Perhaps it has something to do with how the brain processes visual stimuli and its relevance for human survival. Movement in the visual field may indicate a potential prey or predator and thus holds interest a lot longer than static symmetry that quickly fades into the background and is of no interest.

Anyhow, Three Peppers uses the odd-number composition. In addition, the peppers are all different sizes too. In my opinion, this strengthens the composition even further.

Three Peppers, Charcoal on paper, 4"x6", Not for sale

Inexpensive Experimentation

Though I had read about the merits of adopting regular and frequent sketching as an essential component of perfecting technique, it is only after I started drawing that the full potential of this inexpensive activity began to dawn on me. Not only do sketches compel close observation but they also allow compositional designs to be tried out before committing paint to ground. In the absence of a formal education in fine art, it has taken me years to arrive at this obvious conclusion!

Waiting for Spring is a charcoal sketch that I did from a digital photograph. I was satisfied with the form and placement of the bird. Upon reflection I realized that the blank space in front of the bird allows the eye to easily travel out of the scene. It would have been easy to use another branch coming off of the bottom one to re-direct the eye back to the center of interest.

Waiting for Spring, Charcoal on paper, 4"x6", Not for sale

Three Pears -- Hardly Original!

Pears have been drawn and painted in numerous different ways. The most frequent composition I found is three pieces of fruit arranged in a row. Years ago I recall seeing a large painting with a row of pears (maybe as many as 8-9) receding into the distance. Set against a light background with the faintest of shadows, the pears created a feeling of infinite depth.

Three Pears was quickly sketched from a digital photograph using the fewest marks possible. I subtracted some of the highlights with an eraser. The charcoal marks were left unblended to convey a sense of energy and movement.

Three Pears, Charcoal on paper, 4"x6", Not for sale

Avocado Halves

Sketching from photographs is often most convenient for me because of my business travel schedule. I can use pictures from the web (free rights$ of use, of course) or magazines. And I can carry my own digital pictures as source material. The problem is that photographs often fail to fully convey the depth and shadows which are essential to defining three-dimensional objects.

Avocado Halves is a small charcoal sketch done from a royalty-free image from Public Domain Image. The photograph is sharp and clear, but it is difficult to get a read of the light and shadows. So I just invented the tiniest bit of shadowing at the bottom so as to anchor the object. Otherwise the avocado would seem to float in space!

Avocado Halves, Charcoal on paper, 4"x6", Not for sale

Another step forward

Drawing, sketching or painting images of household pets is probably one of the obvious pursuits for a beginning artist. I started with landscapes and for several years have done nothing else until trying still life painting and sketching. Each step is a definite confidence builder and I intend to continue down this path for the foreseeable future.

Mr. Cooper is my first attempt to draw an animal -- excluding, of course, the second grade art lessons! Technique leaves much to be desired here, but the likeness is close as you may be able to tell from the photograph. Cooper is my daughter's chihuahua-terrier mix and has no trouble posing for portraits!

Mr. Cooper, Graphite on paper, 4"x6", Not for sale

A Long Gap -- and More Practice

How can I explain my prolonged absence from the blog without a laundry list of pitiful excuses? Is earning a living and attending to the daily ups and downs of life enough reason?

Anyway, I am back and slowly returning to the rhythm of creativity. With no formal art training, one of the hardest things for me is to practice the discipline of drawing. So during "the break" (that is what I prefer to call my absence!), I decided that I would devote much more time to drawing before putting medium to ground.

The still life that I share here was inspired by a visit to a local farmer's market. North Carolina's long growing season allows for local produce to be enjoyed well into the fall. Among the most enjoyable bits of it involve tomatoes, especially heirloom tomatoes. Grown au naturel, they have all the imperfections nature intended -- including the surprise sweet-and-sour taste of a fresh fat fruit that is far from grocery-store perfect.

I arranged the large heirloom tomato next to sundried tomato halves (NC grown, of course) lit from the side. I drew a rough sketch that I could not finish in the few minutes I had so I took a number of photographs from which I completed the sketch.

Stay tuned for the completed painting.

Variation on Barn Window

Combining media in art is nothing new, nor particularly notable in itself. Ultimately, as Randall Tipton has pointed out, what artists do aims to produce a good painting rather than worry about rules. Indeed, if artists followed rules there would be no progress in art.

Rough-Hewn Barn Window is just another ordinary window, perhaps on a hay barn, consisting of rough-hewn planks nailed together, less a piece of marvelous carpentry than an example of ultimate American pragmatism. Therein though lies the character of the workmanship, however elementary, done by a human hand.

This piece is done with ink and watercolor which lend it both definite form and some texture. Prolonged study might even suggest directionality to the light falling upon this window that, even in the most fantastic of imagination, could only conceal the basics elements of farm life.

Rough-Hewn Barn Window, Watercolor over pen and ink on 140lb paper, 4"x6", $30 (unframed)