Sketchbook Excerpts #7

Well, this isn't really a "sketchbook" post, but I wanted to keep all the non-commercial work labeled together. This post comes after a weekend conversation with Peter Wonsowski in which he asked if I were doing any personal projects. My response was that my personal work right now was just trying to draw as much as I can. It sounded weird to say out loud so I figured I should elaborate via internet. 

Sometimes its just nice to draw without an idea or abstract concept that I need to be sure comes through the image. To me, that is what I enjoy most about drawing: the act. The field of illustration can be very rigid with assignments seeming to run together in an endless wave of formulaic process. So I feel I have to break that with a routine of drawing in a sketchbook or figure session.

Recently, I have also decided to start tackling mediums I have very little or no experience with in a non-commercial setting; this adds to "getting out of the comfort zone" of commercial work. So I have been taking time at the end of my nights to do some observational drawing in charcoal; it is a medium that I never really explored other than a required day here or there in art classes; I despised it as I was all about pen and ink at the time. Oddly, now that my work is so bold and clean, I have been wanting to work in more subtle means for no other reason than to experiment and have fun.

I set up an old pc that was gathering dust bunnies in the closet, loaded it up with nude photos from the internet and art model cds, and I have been doing an odd approach to figure drawing. Now obviously, this is no where near as good as a live model, but the sessions in Philly are hard to attend with my schedule so I gotta make do:

I set up for 20 minute "poses," and will sometimes work with a clothed figure in a 40 minute session. Now I must say, there are A LOT of failures that you will never see. Reasons being, I am not used to drawing larger than like 8x10 on a table(these are 11x17 on an easel), the lack of experience with the medium is distracting (I'm "out" of the drawing because I'm wondering why something doesn't get dark enough or why a stick feels waxy on the paper), and I just plain have a worry that it will suck (I'm uncomfortable in a new medium and setup).But, I keep trying. These are the ones I don't totally hate, but even ome of these are a bit uncomfortable for me to share due to bad proportions:

I have also started attending what Tim has titled "Casual Figure Drawing" once a week with some friends; we basically pose for each other in a very relaxed atmosphere (Tim's living room). Luckily, we found a night that we could all attend. In the image below, the top three are from these sessions, and the bottom books are from an online source and sessions at the now defunct Bell #3 figure drawing. Again, there are SO many pages of failures, but these are what I consider the top 5 out of like 200:

 

And so that's my "personal" work lately. I just want to be able to work well in a plethora of mediums; its a life goal. Yesterday, I finally found a 3-hour weekly model session I can attend, and it may even lead to more opportunities to explore other media if I have the time. I realize that it may come across as weird that a professional artist would spend time doing "academic" exercises, but who cares? I just want to always be getting better. Maybe turning 30 on Tuesday has something to do with it, but I have done a yearly assessment of "are my skills improving" since I was like 15. 

Seeing improvement but never being satisfied with the result is kinda the ideal place for me.

Enjoy the Day,
Chris