The Red Sheet

     The world is a looking glass and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face.

                                                             William Makepeace Thackeray

 Since this blog is called One Artist's Journey I have decided to go back and start posting some of my works in progress.  This is the next drawing of a woman done in charcoal pencils and red colored pencils.  Her face is wrong, wrong, wrong.  Somehow I have managed to put her nose as if it is being seen in a full frontal view.  Hopefully, in the next session I will be able to give her a nose job.  That should help with another problem I see ~ her eyes.  As it is now they look too close together as their placement on her face don't agree with the way her nose looks.  Basically there are two different perspectives which leads the eye to be confused.  I am also having trouble with the shadows in her wrap.  Even though I was trying to stick to only using red pencils it looks as if I am going to have to add some purple in the shadows to give it more dimension.  There is red in purple so I am only breaking my made-up rule a little!  Looking at the picture as a whole, I also think I have way overworked her face.  I like the gentle shading on her body so will try to erase some of my darker lines when I get back to her features.  Anyway, there is a long, long way to go on this one but thought I would put it up now to show how things are constantly being worked and reworked.   Привет

The Redhead

       A man of eighty has outlived probably three new schools of painting, two of architecture and poetry, and a hundred in dress.

                                         Joyce Carey

      The pictures that I am working from for this series of drawings actually come from a black and white clip art book I have.  When I first saw this one I was tempted to make her necklace the red component in this drawing.  Once I got into it, though, I realized her hair was the feature that demanded the most attention.  It is always difficult to draw young, thin people ~ any artist that has tried her hand at life drawing will tell you that.  The more wrinkles the better ~ no matter where they are.  That fact is obvious in the picture.  One can only look at her face for so long before one's eye is drawn to her ribbon necklace.  Even though it is not done in color like her hair, the shadows and highlights created by all the folds in the ribbon make it an equally strong part of the drawing.  Also the shape of the necklace itself completes the circle partially created by her hair and the side of her face keeping the viewer's attention on her face.  Off she goes to join the other ladies!

Red Ribbons

There is in every true woman's heart a spark of heavenly fire, which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity, but which kindles up and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity.

                Washington Irving

 This drawing is number three in my series of charcoal pencil drawings of women highlighted with red pencil.  She looks like a woman that gets done what she sets her mind, too.  I tried to convey a little bit of spark in her personality by making her ribbons red ~ they help to give the impression that she walks her own path.  Again there is a lot of value work here.  These exercises are a great way to learn to see the value of being able to see value!

Lady in Red

Would that life were like the shadow cast by a wall or tree, but it is like the shadow of a bird in flight.

                   The Talmud

      After I posted this yesterday and got ready to put this lady aside I decided it needed just a little more work.  I am frequently asked when I know a piece of work is finished.  The honest answer ~ I don't.  They just get put aside and then usually pulled back out after some new change pops into my mind.  Anyway, this is the semi-final drawing of the Lady in Red.

Lady in Red

A very beautiful woman hardly ever leaves a clear-cut impression of features and shape in the memory: usually there remains only an aura of living colour.

               William Bolitho

      This is the second drawing in the series I am working on of women.  This one appealed to me because of its simplicity ~ simple hairdo, simple dress, no jewelry and yet she conveys such elegance and style just in the way she holds herself and the way she gazes so confidently into the distance.  I am toying with the idea of drawing some girl children but am finding that the older faces give me more chances to work on mastering value ~ lots of wrinkles to work with! 

The belief that youth is the happiest time of life is founded upon a fallacy.  The happiest person is the person who thinks the most interesting thoughts, and we grow happier as we grow older.

                William Lyon Phelps 

      Well, after finishing the drawing of the old woman I have decided to do a series of women of all ages.  I have got this one on the page and have made a start on her hair and her eye.  I have always wanted to try my hand at portrait oil painting so this will be a first step.  These drawings are a real lesson in value and composition.  Already I am seeing a problem with her eyebrow ~ some plucking to be done next session.

Solitude

Night, when words fade and things come alive, when the destructive analysis of day is done, and all that is truly important becomes whole and sound again.  When man reassembles his fragmentary self and grows with the calm of a tree.

                                         Antoine de Saint-Exupery

         While I may have inadvertently added glazes to my paintings before I am consciously using them on this one.  Even though I feel as if I have been working on this one for years (which I actually have off and on) it also feels as if I have just begun.  So far I have only glazed over the windows in the boat and the inside of the row boat.  And I have only added very light glazes.  Over the next several weeks I plan to experiment a lot more and see how the glaze applications will add depth to the overall composition. This technique takes quite a bit of patience as each coat must be allowed to completely dry before the next one is applied.  Thank goodness I have many other projects to work on ~ too many!