Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Way too long


At the end of last night’s drawing session, Pat told me that it’s been way too long since my last blog. This was accompanied by an exaggerated rolling of the eyes. Which was very impressive for an Asian guy. So, after a good laugh and mourning the season end of Burn Notice, I told him that I would write a post this morning just for him.

I like it when I get a good female back, and Irene packs good back. Faces are all about details, and that is a battle fought one inch at a time. The front is a symphony of contrasts, and one must try to conduct that beautiful noise into music. The side is a UFC caged fight between the poet and the mathematician, and they both will make arguments of whom is best at handling a particular curve or angle. Each of these areas call on a different artistic discipline and approach. But then you have the back, and it requires all of those disciplines at once. This is not to say that it is more or less difficult, but that it needs a holistic mind to drive your hand.

I think of placing shapes in space when I'm drawing every other part of the figure, and those shapes go from simple to progressively more complex. When I'm drawing a back it's the opposite. I think of removing shapes from the given space, and it's more like uncovering than it is like building.