Buttnekkiddoodles

Head studies done while traveling on public transit or in public spaces. Drawn in ink.

 

A selection of head and hair studies while out drawing in public. A few friends graciously held still for me, but most were captured while drawing in transit, in cafes, airports, and a couple during life drawing sessions. You can tell these were executed on a variety of papers, some in ledger books, some on watercolor paper, Tomoe River Paper, in various journals, but all of the drawings were made using ink and pigmented pens.

Can you ever get bored drawing heads and hairstyles??? Trying to capture as wide a range as I can, the tonsure zoo of hair. Dreads, ponytails, crew cuts, B-52s, pompadoured crowns, flips, dips, cowlicks, comb-overs, straight, Boticelli & Michelangelesque curls, sprays, tinted, two-toned, razor cuts, haze cuts, feathered, bed head, pig-tailed, braided, gathered, bearded, moustachioed, Van Dykes, Imperials, goateed, sideburns, mutton chops, pencil-thins, cornrows, bobs, top-knots, bro-knots, high-n-tight, Mohawks, faux-hawks, French braids, Amish bowel cuts, Page girls, conks……yee-gads!

Staying close to home and watching the citizenry. Pat, one of the residents in my apartment compound watches a movie set up in the courtyard. I found her much more engaging than the flick.

And so, after forty years of watching others  build their chops with watercolor, I have decided this month that I am to take the plunge with the medium. Previously, I have used watercolor and gouache to tint and hand color prints and drawings.

i know several masters of the medium, Clive Powsey, Shari Blaukopf, and Ron Stocke, whose work will serve to inform and guide me with the additional benefit of keeping me humble.

The above watercolor, done while in a cafe with the added fun of a fidgety student, has some light guide lines but I also tried to just knock in shapes with a flat brush.

       

The above watercolor of the parking lot and club house of the Jackson Park Yacht Club, was actually, my first, plein air watercolor in forty years. My color may have reflected somewhat, the washed out summer day in a parking lot with white, silver, and black cars, but felt muddy so I did a study after John Singer Sargent, the gourds below, to hopefully  amp up my hues and loosen up my brush work.

Above, I ventured to a rose garden in Evanston in the late afternoon, but failed to catch the brilliance of the light. Again, I tried to use minimal structural lines and worked as directly with the brushes as I could. All the other figures, save the blue shirted guy and the window counter, were executed with Pitt Artist Brush Pens.

Some more captures from a street festival, a movie in Pulaski Park, this cluster was drawn from life with my standard gear.

The challenge is to grab what you can till the moment passes. There are times when I can feel the pose and see the angles clearly; where my focus isn’t too tight and my field of vision is such that the connections and relationships of major structural parts and key details are apparent. Then, a relaxed but progressive pace that doesn’t overwork nor overthink the draughtinging and makes use of at least a few tools so that broad areas are developed quickly and details have clarity. The emphasis is on efficiency and fluidity rather than speed.

In the above drawings you can see several tools at work on different paper. Both papers have sufficient sizing so the ink stays moist long enough to be wiped or smeared or dabbed brining the finger into play and adding finger prints and a hazed or brushed look. With a broad brush nib, strips are done in one stroke passing the need of predawn outlines. A range of tones, even if it is only a couple, help distinguish separate elements making features pop and giving the lighting more character.

 

I like to work in ink which once it sets up, prevents further smudging, has tonal strength, forces my hand to limit over drawing contours, and can have cool and warm hues to aid in distinguishing different elements, i.e. a scarf from a shirt, and holds the same edge not requiring constant sharpening.

Vintur ist icummin in, lowdly sing the thrush. It’s here for real. Maintaining a regular practice of catching scenes and studies in public, in coffee shops, eateries, and on public transit systems.

            

Man, while I love the Southwest and south and central California, I have to live somewhere where snow is a winter feature. Even if it is wickedly cold as has been the case here in Chicago this year. One of the more brutal winter’s in the 15 years I’ve made my residence in the Midwest. I have a super warm and cosy apartment and I know how to dress for it even though I damn near lost my dick to frost bite one night while tromping for 20 blocks in 20 below zero weather. Last time I head out with boxers on. But the weather here has been beautiful and the feeling of living on the edge of climatic habitability gives one a sublime sense of the amazingly special place in this Universe we call home. Don’t know if y’all are getting a little bored with the usual drawing tools and predictable line quality, but I have been thinking about changing to bristle brushes or something a little bolder. Platinum Carbon ink in fountain pens, and Pitt Artist Pens in one of my favorite ledgerbooks to date.