I returned to the Human Anatomy Lab at Rush Hospital last night and continued drawing from the same cadaver featured last week. More dissection had taken place, as shown here, where the trapezius, still attached to the skull ( the external occipital protuberance to be more exact) having been laid across the towel covering the cadaver’s head. Other muscles around the shoulder/neck area have been partially removed to show substructure. The main muscle of the buttocks, the gluteus maximus has also been partially removed to reveal deeper tissue and the sciatic nerve. In future drawings I will clearly label the muscle groups, bones and key features.
Well, this may be helpful. I worked with videographer Hiromi Sogo to give y’all some sense of how I manage, or try, to sketch people who are not posing but rather engaged in some activity. This I do and have done, as those who follow me know, for more than four decades. This practice has helped me in many ways, but greatly in one in particular. When I had the chance to draw in court, I was already up-to-speed with capturing people in motion.
Here are close ups of the drawing used in the video: just a note, when transferring the video to this platform, some of the soundtrack drops out; a glit I look to correct and avoid in future videos. Learning curve stuff, my bad.
As mentioned in the video, I number the drawings in the order they were begun. To my eyes, there was a lot of “meat on the bone”, I.e. an interesting looking dude holding great poses about concentration, wearing a shiny, puffy jacket made more dramatic by the raking light that accentuated surface features with the cast shadows of near and mid distant structures. Drawing multiple perspectives or postures on the same page makes the transition from one position to the next easier as the subject moves and/or returns to a similar posture allowing you to add or complete the drawing. Afterwards, it also makes for better side by side comparisons since you’re not flipping back and forth to compare and contrast drawings.
You can see the preliminary or searching sketch for which I used a light Flesh tone. That establishes the general silhouette and will be a place holder if the subject suddenly moves just after I’ve begun drawing. I managed to knock in a good deal of his face and hair but he moved before I could get to his hand. When he returned to this pose about 45 minutes later, my “notes” were in place and I was able to pick immediately where I’d left off.
Evident in these drawings ing s is my use of several tools, one very important amount them are my fingers as you can see the marks left by my fingerprints.
Those fingerprints create hatch marks that are quite distinct from the hatching created with a stylus be it pen or pencil. Varied marks have great appeal to me in that they can enrich the drawing and their combined effect is to increase the descriptive nature of the marks. But another, very crucial reason I draw with an array of different tools is to take advantage of the inherent attributes of a given tool and by doing so save myself time. Most important in drawing a dynamic subject where you’ve no idea when your subject could move or altogether leave, is to draw efficiently. Why overwork a small nib when a big brush affords greater coverage. Fingerprints create multiple hatch marks simultaneously that are also very difficult to emulate with the stroke of a pen. An inky finger will come in handy if you should want a smudged tone. Add to this collective of mark making, a variety of hues and the drawing gains in richness and description. For the combined effect simply examine the close up below of figure #5.
Drawings were done done with a Faber-Castell Basic Black Leather fountain pen filled with DeAtramentis Document Black Ink and F-C Pitt Artist Pens on a Stillman and Birn Gamma Series sketchbook (S&B is now a subsidiary of Clairefontaine) which takes ink and pencil nicely and can handle watercolor, plus has a little pebbly surface that creates nice textures when smudging or scumbling.
Working with various fountain pens filled with DeAtramentis Document Black Ink and Pitt Artist Brush Pens in Stillman and Birn Gamma Series sketchbook. #draw #urbansketching #stillmanandbirn #fountainpen #deatramentis
Went to see the screening and discussion of the film FIRSTHAND: Gun Violence, at the Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership. On stage we’re two of the five panel members, Dan Protess, producer and director of the film and Reality Allah, outreach worker for READI Chicago. FIRSTHAND is a 15-part digital series that follows the perspectives of five Chicagoans living with firsthand experience of gun violence in Chicago.
The gentleman on the right, Reality Allah, spent 20 years incarcerated and has since his release vowed to dedicate his life to reducing violence. He is now an outreach worker for READI Chicago where he uses 30 years of his experience and knowledge to engage men at high risk of violence with transitional jobs and cognitive behavioral therapy and to connect them with other critical support services. He is featured in the documentary series FIRSTHAND: Gun Violence.
At last night’s panel discussion Reality Allah said that a billboard for the documentary was erected in south Chicago with his face featured. When he saw the billboard, he realized it had been placed five feet from where he was arrested prior to beIng incarcerated for 20 years.
When I’m working in a sketchbook I like and am having fun, I hate wasting paper so, I will work and rework pages that are full of doodles only meant to quickly demonstrate a technique. Occasionally, those pages become real exploratory exercises on imagination and improvisation. This was just such a page. Pitt Artist Pens on Clairefontaine Goldline sketchbook. Below are shots of the page as it developed.