Revisions. “Work that page!!” I urge my students to make the most out of your sketchbooks and studies. This ledgerbook I’ve been drawing in since 2017 is getting worked over pretty thoroughly. I can’t leave alone pages of the quick 1-3 minute gesture drawings or sprints as I call ‘em. And if a figure drawing can’t stand on its own then I jump into any open space that begs to be assailed. Tends to keep things nice and loose. Robust. It’s a learning process in which I don’t want to be prissy or treat my studies as precious. The studies over the last 3 weeks of Elizabeth, Tor, Gretchen, and Bobby were slung onto sketches from 2017 and 2019. All done at the Palette and Chisel. I may like a figure but still feel the page needs work. Or, I may like a page as it’s developing but am disheartened by some of the studies. The first page, for instance, the drawing of the model on the step ladder irritated me for a few years and last night I dropped a pose of Bobby on it that I felt was one of my better studies this last month, and the gray background only served as a challenge to work highlights back into his shoulders and torso. The page of Elizabeth and Gretchen was fun and I liked the color play but Gretchen doesn’t look like Gretchen. And while I let go of getting a likeness if the structure and values and marks all add up to a well constructed head, but….I have drawn Gretchen scores of times and I confess, it bugs the bejezzus outta me that I miss the mark on her likeness. Maybe if I actually spent less time on the bloody internet and more time drawing.
Consider me a devout practioner of pentimento and palimpsest. sprawling the thought process out onto a page.
As for medium used, all the usual suspects are here, fountain pens, Platinum Carbon and DeAtramentis inks, grease pencil, and Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pens.