I think every AAU graduate has drawn this guy about 20 times by the time they get through. He pops up all over the place.

I braved the cold tonight. And brought along my copy of “Creative Illustration” for everyone to ooh and ahh over.

Once again, I mostly sat out the gesture drawings. Well, no, actually I did them. But still, right now I’m not seeing the point, and in fact I’m barely seeing the point of life drawing at all if my goal is to produce highly finished, Prud’hon-style drawings. All a 40-minute pose teaches you is how to draw a pose in 40 minutes. You don’t, and can’t, get deeper study and information about form. You can’t do an eggshell-smooth finish on a gloriously polished figure. I’m doing it because I don’t know what else to do, so there it is.

Let’s just skip on to the 30, and the 40, and that’s that for tonight. I was actually somewhat happy with the 40… insofar as what was possible in 40 minutes. I was thinking that if I had had 3 or 6 hours, I could have had a decent start on a nice portrait. Oh well.

This is next. These are the three that “Joe Smith” said I should copy for studying feet.

These are the first plates to feature fine variations of tone. I’m working on 140lb hot press watercolor paper now for these… expensive on a per-sheet basis, but smooth as eggshells. No more toothy bumps and valleys. Vine charcoal to start, charcoal pencil in the final stages of modeling.

These three will probably take at least a month, possibly two. Let’s try to get them done before spring, yes?

I went on a rampage tonight and finished up the remaining ears, bringing to a close Bargue plates 2, 3 and 4, most of which I drew on a single 18 x 24″ sheet in a somewhat unplanned fashion. It’s good to have them done.

For the last three ears, I did all three at the same time, three passes over each, going straight from one to the next at each stage: all three block-ins, then corrections, then lines, then corrections, then values. This actually went faster than rendering them to completion one by one, since switching to the next one gives you an immediate “fresh mind” and perspective, rather than needing to break for a bit and wait, which I at least find pretty essential.

Here’s the final piece. This concludes the “early plates” of facial features; now they get more ambitious and substantial. I’m switching from Canson 500 series charcoal paper to 140lb hot press watercolor paper, which is smoother. I may also do two at once, for the same reasons listed above. Onwards.

For the win.

(charcoal pencil, vine charcoal, titanium pastel, sanguine, turps)

Sometimes it’s the little victories.

…with yet another sphere.

And in case anyone’s wondering, I tried to figure out the Munsell values for the Strathmore charcoal gray paper, and the Carbothello Martuum Red and Titanium White pencils (as used in the Head Drawing class and Bill Maughan’s “Drawing the Head” book:

Paper: 10YR 7/1.5
Red: 2.5R 4/7
White: N 8.25/

This means a nine-step value scale from 4 to 8.25, with roughly half-step values between each, and the paper falling in the 6th slot, so 5 values of red, the neutral paper, and then 5 values of white.

There are probably about five people on the planet who would be interested in this information, but for the five of you, there it is.

Tonight I basically sat out the gesture poses. And the 10 and the 20 weren’t really worth looking at. I’m definitely shifting in my thinking about all this. It’s still better than nothing, I guess, but all I ever get is frustrated that there’s never time to do something well.

Our model tonight had a very striking profile, and I decided to just try head drawings for the two 40-minute poses. Mostly what I learned here, again, is that with more time it might be possible to do a nice drawing. In 40 minutes you just panic and then you have to stop.

Fine art is not produced this way.

Anyway.

Has anybody ever drawn a perfect sphere?

Probably not, which is why we keep doing them. This is a start on this week’s homework – long way to go yet.

I spent around six hours on this one with “Joe Smith” in Texas. There are nine modeling factors that need to be distinct and perceptible on a sphere for it to seem real, and they need to blend seamlessly. I’ve got most of them here, but the blending isn’t quite right, and it’s not done.

And here’s one in oils, which is part of a larger piece that has a LOT left to go. And it shows how much trouble I’m having handling oils in general.

Why do this? Because if you can’t paint or draw a sphere with accuracy and control, there’s no WAY you’re even going to begin to be able to pull off a human face.