I was able to put a lot of time into my self portrait today. All the while I focused on filling space with initial values and texture in my drawing.
Many artists know all about the basic fundamentals: line, value and edges, but many forget about texture. I first became aware of the importance of texture through the works by Andrew Wyeth. He was a master of texture in drawing. One drawing in particular that comes to mind is titled Beckie King and is in pencil.
This drawing is simply done in pencil, probably graphite, yet you can tell where one type of fabric ends and the other begins. The difference from skin to fabric is rather easy to understand for many artists but the ability to depict silk in a different way than cotton is on a whole new level.
In fact looking at this drawing by Andrew Wyeth I’m excited to continue working on my self portrait and further separating all the different textures.
Previous Self Portrait Posts
Warm-up and DrawABox.com exercises
The normal 15 minute warm-up in graphite.
The challenges continue with the 250 box challenge. I’m very happy with this page today. Some errors but they were minimal.
Modeled Drawing in Watercolor
The modeled drawing exercise from The Natural Way to Draw is a difficult one to understand and even more difficult to do when working with watercolor, which I’m currently no good at… yet. The basic idea is not about accuracy but about weigh and feeling the form recede and advance in space. This is a longer exercise, I have a couple more sessions to finish it.
Daily Composition and Daily Sketch
I’m almost deaf in my left ear, have been for a while. I’ve been living with it for years until recently when I became willing to make a change. I realized that when you only have one ear left and if that goes you can’t hear music any longer or your wife’s voice the issue becomes urgent.
This is what my composition is about today. I was in a super quiet box yesterday with super thick ear plugs stuck deep in my ears. I was staring at an audiologist for a few minutes while she tested my ears with various noises and static. Overall it was an interesting experience. She was very nice and I liked how she customized her work space with hearts flowers and rainbows.
What went well, what was awesome! Celebrate It!
Tons of work on my self portrait today with filling in all of the drawing with an initial layer and getting the texture setup. I feel super accomplished today!
What needs work? What did you learn?
After looking at Andrew Wyeth’s drawing I realized that not only do I need to reference other master artists often for inspiration. But It would be nice to have some posters up of their work so I can compare and contrast my work against theirs all the time.
How am I going to Optimize moving forward?
Exactly what I said above. I put it on my to-do list.