Monday, April 15, 2013

Drawing Sessions

charcoal on 11"x 17" smooth newsprint

click on pick for sharper image

For many years I have attended figure drawing sessions once a week. Many successful artists continue this practice throughout their entire careers. The above charcoal drawing is from one these drawing sessions.It is important for an artist to continually draw from life (nature), photographs and his imagination if he would like to improve. I find it a good practice to draw the model from memory at home after attending a drawing session. Drawing from your memory will help you to retain some of the knowledge you acquired from the model.The axiom is: if you can’t draw, it you really don’t understand it. I draw from my memory or imagination to find out how little I really know….

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Slow -Mo

BALL POINT PEN 8X11ON BOND PAPER

GARRET

CLICK ON PIC FOR SHARPER IMAGE

It is evident that the design of the human body and the other animals was to create a system for the efficiency of movement, not to sit all day staring into a computer screen.To understand the mechanics of movement it was at one time important to study the stop-motion photography of Eadweard Muybridge. These photos have had a great influence on both artists and scientists over the years.

However, we now have slow-mo videos on the internet that we can download and stop at a particular frame. This is an ideal way to study the body in motion.

The following above sketches are drawn with a ball- point pen from following video, as I sat staring into a computer screen...

Eadweard Muybridge multiple exposure print

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

The Violinist Niccolò Paganini

borrowed from wga.hu

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
Ingres at the Morgan | Thaw Conservation Center - to see close ups

Ingre, who was a French academic painter, is considered, by some, to be the best pencil draftsmen of all time.

An academic painter first creates a preparatory drawing to obtain necessary information for a proposed painting.

Here, Ingre takes extra time to familiarize himself with the typography of the sitter's face by creating a tightly modeled rendering of the head.The delicate modeling of the face is in contrast to the gestural handling of the rest of the figure. Thus, Ingre has controlled the viewer’s eye movement across a composition by the degree of rendering of a particular element.

The Violinist shows how a preparatory drawing helps the artist plan the overall composition ( the gesture, the arrangement of half tones, highlights and shadow, etc.) as well as study the forms of the attire and anatomical features of the sitter prior to paint on canvas.

From Wikipedia

Self-portrait at age 24, 1804 (revised c. 1850),

oil on canvas, 78 x 61 cm, Musée Condé

Born: Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
29 August 1780
Montauban, Languedoc, France

Died: 14 January 1867 (aged 86)
Paris, France

Friday, April 12, 2013

Mohawk

CLICK ON PICKS FOR SHARPER IMAGE

GARRET

CLICK ON PICKS FOR SHARPER IMAGE

one pencil drawing: on 9x12 Strathmore 400 series paper

one acrylic painting: on 14"x 8" masonite

two sculptures: 18" oil clay over metal armature

one photo: 4"x 6" color print film

CLICK ON PICKS FOR SHARPER IMAGE

edition of 12 to be cast in bronze

one pencil drawing: on 9x12 Strathmore 400 series paper

one acrylic painting: on 14"x 8" masonite

one sculpture: 18" oil clay over metal armature

one photo: 4"x 6" color print film

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Unrealized Monumental Horse Sculpture

From Garret's file of unrealized monumental sculptures

The surface treatment on this sculpture idea from 2005 is of a highly refined "brushed" metal surface.A brushed metal surface is created by an uniform orbital texture of very fine scratches. This texture defuses the light as it hits the surface of the form creating an overall softening of the reflection and thus creating a more visually readable form. This project would be nice in a brushed nickel plated bronze.....