LOST ITEMS, DRAWING
THESE WERE A COLOR TRY, JUST COLOR, BUT IT STILL WILL NOT SIT UP SO I PENCILED OVER THEM. THERE ARE TINTS OF COLOR, I DON’T KNOW, MAYBE IT WOULD HAVE LOOKED BETTER IN BLACK & WHITE ONLY. MY PROBLEM IS STILL HANGING AROUND.
I came up with this. I liked it on my computer. There is a person on the internet that does mouths just like this. She really likes art too. I guess she played around with photo programs too. And just kept painting the mouth. I am sorry. You can use my lines if you want to. I tried a line for the mouth and it looked better this way. This is the only way to do it, for a digital picture!? I don’t feel like an artist when I have to copy, but I just made it smaller, then I recognized how I remember seeing these paintings. Don’t know what else to do or say.
Forgetting. I’m really prone to that. I’ve always been like that. I fly around and without thinking about anything, put down glasses, pens, papers etc…. Then I spend time trying to find these things. Like I said before I haven’t lost too many important photo things. A tripod clip which may or may not be in a river, or a long lost pocket. A cheap lens cover, at night on the ground. A lens cap. I lost another lens cap, but found that. Like I say I don’t think about what I am doing with the items because I am thinking about pictures. But the other day I lost a battery. I can’t figure out if it was lost in the change or after. But I just wouldn’t put a battery on the ground. Maybe while putting it in my pocket and not looking it didn’t get all the way in and fell soundlessly into damp dirt. I went back and really looked over all the ground I took pictures in and didn’t find it. Not in a pocket, not anywhere in the car. Unless someone picked it up before I got back to the site. But it is gone. Sometimes the problem is that I put stuff on my lap while driving and then stop and get out of the car. I think I’ve had that happen with art supplies. Or it gets wedged between the other door and falls out when you open that. I couldn’t believe it. One time I got to the site and didn’t have the camera!!!!!! Mother used to laugh about this. Back then I was always losing or misplacing my car keys. I do that less now because I put them on a strap around my neck. But other things. And things not really lost, but I am looking for. Satellite things, not much a part of day to day life but stored away - I can’t find them. I have to go through the whole house! But it struck again a couple of days ago. I locked the house door and didn’t have my keys or my purse. A neighbor helped and took off the outer kitchen window (thankfully the window was not latched inside) and I climbed in. Better than paying a locksmith. Now I know that. If after locking myself out of the house I happen to have screwdrivers handy.
Does anyone get tired of continually having the promise of finally “a good day of up” and it continually being dragged down? Sometimes I wish I had another life!
I’m spinning. It’s getting to the point I have to do serious fighting to get time for art. I’m really not doing good in the anger department. Specific things I’m just not going to put up with anymore. It is bad, but frees me up. It’s wonderful not to be under the cloud. I won’t have it. I’d rather fight. Not really. So I don’t know, it’s not a big thing, but it is a thing.
I’ve been drawing as much as I can. I’ve practiced. Going out in the car is a drain on losing drawing implements so I cut it to one pencil and a pad. The old blind contour drawing practice. It doesn’t matter what the outcome is on the pad, just don’t look, and try and feel the lines. After awhile, you can’t see your lines among all the others anyway. This does work. I can feel something changing. It’s like learning to play the piano or anything, give it a good slog and then quit, relax forget about it, it’s all in your bodies court. The body takes care of the whole thing then. Eat, sleep. Skip a day. Then go back draw a picture or practice again! That really has helped me to loosen up some (when I want to). I need loosening, some people may be already loose and need to see or concentrate on how to draw more. Or these people may take being on track too far in the other direction! And be careful when you go ahead and practice this that you don’t lose your original eye type drawing that you naturally started out with. So far with me most drawings are a mix of blind contour and looking up every now and then. And if the drawing get too lee and does fit together well anymore, I trace on glass (from life or a photo [which ever I am working from] and overlay a part on the outline on the glass over the drawing and look thru the glass and draw the lines on the glass on the drawing. You would be surprised at how you don’t have to be so exact with all this to get an okay outcome. (For me.) I’m also stretching some drawings up and thinner so the fill in looks more professional. I seem to know what to do with what so far. But round about loosening while your drawing comes from practice. But be careful you don’t loose the old way as the new fits into place. It’s easy because the new way is more comfortable and faster.
I’ve tried a drawing on gray paper. The second try. There is only a limp white sky, but I consider it a success (when I can get more finishing expertise in my body - this one needs looking over for fine tuning). My drawing overall is coming. It’s great that I keep hitting my head and body against the wall of drawing. That’s what you need to do. My body has to put this together on it’s own. The more I hit and hit and hit, the more my body learns. Then my body can feed truisms to my brain for processing. My brains processing is all ready - to come to any conclusion. (All my study in human evolution really gets me around anything that might crop up. I also have the fact that I can do realistic drawing already to lean on.) It’s the body that has to determine truths. And that takes practice. And with these things to lean on, I can gamble on pictures and go ahead and make or break decisions on a drawing at some stage. This has become easier since I have some better drawings already done to back me up. It really hard with some drawings to work so hard and long and then do one thing that can’t be undone well and ruin the whole thing. Compter people will say, just scan it and do this on computer, and they are right. I also keep a pencil holder envelope full of different sizes of paper pieces with different grades of pencil shading on them . Sometimes you can lay in a dark or light patch over the area in question to kind of see the outcome of the drawing if your not sure. If you can hold the light so most of the shadow line is out from around the piece when it’s laying on the drawing. [You can also trace a more complicated area and shade it and cut it out and lay on the drawing to see how it looks!] This is a crutch of mine because I can’t see to finish 100% yet. Sometimes these shaded pieces look better on the drawing than your put down! Sometimes I don’t want my passion broken into and I just want to go ahead and follow my desires and not stop. But you can use these pieces. I never remember using this in college (just my hand block in front of the drawing ) when I knew how to finish 100%. It’s, like I said before, perfect finishing is coming back and is almost 100% again, but not all is back with me yet. So sometimes I preview with these pieces. My drawings vary so. Sometimes you want half not even done! You never know.
So I’ve been whacking away. My question is how much freedom is freedom? Do I drop everything and just swipe emotional lines? I know this can’t be all the time because I want to represent some things. Or will my body learn to break into the swipe naturally and fill in, or will a feel a knowledge of root shape take hold (which I don’t have now). And I’m constantly wanting to put in slight backgrounds when the drawing looks great as it is! What to do? One drawing of a doll’s face with a full dark background, I swiped in the background first and didn’t worry as much about the face shape! I went ahead and then filled in the face and the drawing was a resounding success! I have problems with coarseness and dark patches. I don’t like these gravel tones with some dark areas. Rubbing does not always help. I don’t always want the grain out. So that’s it. But really, I have intellectual horizons with this! I have interest. And for those of you just starting out. Keep at it. It really is not too much a waste of time if you are drawn to art. Doing so much of it, you will get better, or art will reveal itself TO YOU and will lead you over to something else (maybe close) that IS RIGHT ON FOR YOU. If your trying to find your way thru college, it can lead you to that place, or help lead you, if, after awhile, you decide that art isn’t quite right. Best though to know all that art has to offer - 3D - COMPUTER ART -
To continue my drawing tips…
When using glass (I use Plexiglas, not glass that will break.) the distance of the glass (with the tracing on it [tracing can be from life or from a photo etc…]) can vary widely from picture to picture because your trying to overlay the tracing (on the glass) over the drawing your trying to produce. You have to try to get the tracing the size of the drawing. To do this the distance of the glass over the drawing varys. I mostly now hold the glass. But I used to use Kleenex boxes on top of one another on both sides of the drawing to lay the glass on. Then look at the glass lines and trace on the drawing from that. You don’t have to be so exact, this method gives too much of an exact result.
Your head will move as you trace and move the glass lines off the drawing underneath. I try and find a key place on the drawing and keep lining that up again before doing more tracing on the drawing. You must really freeze when doing this. You don’t have to be exact, close is good. Maybe trace to the inside of the line.
Like I said, I only use this when my drawing falls off the beam or when drawing by hand and see a critical passage I know I can’t do well by hand, or exactly.
I’m very light and not dense. I can’t grasp a feel for the pit of human form. I’ve been at this. I’ve done gesture, contour, blind contour, and practiced a bit and still I do not even feel a whisper of a feel of human form. I’ve seen others painting prep drawings and know others my age and younger have a more solid feel of form. It seems easy for them! So I go on with my practice. Not going to say I will never grasp this, but sometimes being so light, I wonder if I ever will. That is one of the reasons I keep practicing. I would love to establish that I hit a wall in form and will never get it because I am so light. But, I am alive, not too many problems, so it might come out of nowhere sometime. I really don’t know.
I have also used glass tracing to narrow an object (move lines off the drawing) or squat it down. (Sometimes when you fill in a drawing with tone it does not look as sophisticated as it should so I narrow the width and make it slightly taller or the opposite of squashing down and making a little wider. Depends on the subject matter). I have also used this method to blow out a part (make bigger{move glass further out] or smaller, or screwed up some way). I have used it To find an area that is more exact for subject matter that has already been drawn (note the better area and erase the part on the drawing. Then put down the glass and draw the part in the new place you noted in the glass. Or do the opposite of what I just said, move an opject to a new , out of exact area. Erase, note the better area and put down the glass and draw the object in the new area.)
And of course you can trace a picture fully with this method. It’s up to you. Some people may produce better art by tracing than others. Especially since this method is less exact than tracing paper, or printing out as outline from a digital image. But for some people, tracing an image always gives an exacting machine like stiffness. No life at all. Very student like quality to the finished image. It’s awful! But like I said, with some people - this just doesn’t happen. Looks wonderful. It’s all with the person doing it.
But if your aim is to draw by hand. You like this type of drawing. Stay away from tracing. I sometimes insert a bit this into drawings that I can’t get the part right. I don’t know if I should be doing even that now. ( I got this by studying Vincent Van Gogh. He cartoons and distorts the image, but then something somewhere is dead on exact.) The inset part doesn’t seem to stand out, you can’t tell, but the drawing becomes more photographic.
I’m drawing all kinds of ways now. I started slow and all by eye. It took me time on the outline. Now I’m striving to feel the form from inside. No tracing. It’s much quicker. Fully by hand, fast, slow, gesture, blind contour, looking at the paper. I try to balance my self out. I practice, then do a picture, which can also be counted as practice, even if you keep it. Keep everything. Date everything. You passages could be a hit! I look at a picture and figure out how I should do it when I’m not practicing. Decide what paper. I do the same picture different ways! So I have a piece of Plexiglas around if needed. Like I said, I don’t know if I should be doing this. Because I’m not back yet health wise 100%. I picked up my drawing as I got better. I’ve been down for many many years, so I’m just learning MY way of drawing! Maybe when I get back to 100% health wise I will not like the drawings with the glass inserts!! And I can’t see it now! I ‘ve done drawings in the past that I thought were horrible (some I’ve cartooned) and I when I see them years later I love them and think, yes, they do work! And I have done plenty of dog drawings that remain bad today, in my opinion.
But the Plexiglas in the past has kind of helped me develop ideas about drawing, what I should do and what I should not do. I could draw subject matter with it I could not do otherwise. But I’m not using it as much now. All this stuff I’m doing now could just give way to just a type of free hand drawing in the future - just that - only that _ and I will leave all this behind! I don’t know. I’m just climbing the ladder too - I’m not a teacher.
If you going to try inserting things with glass, don’t leave the glass on the floor, stand it up or you will step on it. Wash it. The lines get harder to wash off in time. I use a felt tip ink pen. Wash with dish detergent and rinse. Not in warm or hot water, that will warp the glass. Wash in cool water. I have different sizes of glass. But If you like free hand drawing. Practice and don’t use the Plexiglas when practicing. Don’t use it at all. I don’t know.
ect… Ask teachers!
Like I said in the future I don't know. My lines alone are a best fit in the art of today. My images are always a bit logy. I like doing images. In the future I may develop into just liking lines.
IReally sorry I’ve not been here. It’s impossible in today’s world to be everywhere at once. Today I got immersed in cleaning living room, a closet, bathroom, and parts of the kitchen. A real swab job. I got the book on art I was taking notes on. Among other. I don’t have enough time to take care of everything! The leaves are starting! I am fitting blind contour drawing practice in but I’ve got to get back to photo indexing. I never thought the last half of life would be a car crash. Sometimes it feels like nothing is being accomplished. But I know art practice is making headway because I sometime feel like my head is reading to receive input from my bodies learning curve. I can’t do both at once. There is too much going on in my life. I really wish I didn’t have to work to pay bills or my drawings or photos could do that. I wish I could get married or win the lottery. It’s like the whole of society is structured to keep you busy! It’s too structured. I really can’t take any more stuff I have to do. It’s a relief to eat. So simple and whole, nothing else is right now but house cleaning!! I wanted to make this background stand alone and I am working on another digital picture...Wooo Wooo!!!!And those pictures at the top are too wide. I've done others, but it's different looking at them for real, in the physical world and putting pictures up in here.
I’VE GOTTEN THRU HALF OF LEAVES. YAHOO! I’VE GOT A FEW JOBS COMING UP. IT SEEMS THEY ALL GO AWAY IF I DAY TRIP, TAKE PICTURES, OR USE MY CREDIT CARD. (ISSN’T THAT MY OWN BUSINESS?) I HAVEN’T HAD JOBS FOR AWHILE. MAYBE IT IS COINCIDENCE, BUT THIS IS THE THIRD TIME.
I DID TAKE SOME PICS WITH THE FALL. I MADE A 1ST MISTAKE BECAUSE I WAS SCARED AND IN A HURRY. I DELETED ALL THE PICS ON THE CARD. [I HAD LOCKED ALL THE NEW PICTURES FROM DELETION…BUT I FORGOT I DIDN’T LOCK THE LATEST. I LOST ABOUT THREE I CAN REMEMBER I DIDN’T WANT TO LOSE, AND MORE THAN THAT. BUT THE NEW PICTURES I TOOK WERE BETTER THAN THE LAST, BUT I DIDN’T WANT TO LOSE THE THREE. I’M BACK INTO PHOTO INDEXING. BUT I’M JUST SPINNING MY WHEELS, NOT REALLY GETTING ANY FURTHER IN IT BECAUSE ALL I AM WORKING ON IS GETTING MY LATEST YEAR PICTURES TOGETHER IN FOLDERS. THAT MAY NOT SOUND LIKE MUCH, BUT LOOKING OVER PICTURES FOR DELETION ON SCREEN IS SERIOUS THINKING. I TRY TO PROJECT WHAT MIGHT BE AVAILIBLE TO SAVE A PICTURE AND AGANOIZE OVER ONES I DON’T WANT. IN THE END I THINK I AM DOING A GOOD JOB AT IT. ALTHOUGH, I WISH THERE WAS A QUICK WAY TO STICK CHANGED ELEMENTS FROM ALMOST IDENTICAL SHOTS INTO ONE OR THE OTHER, THUS SAVING SPACE. I’M TRYING TO CUT DOWN. I DIDN’T GO TO THE FAIR, I DIDN’T GO TO THE PARADE, I DIDN’T DO FARM PICTURES. I GET SICK OF THE SAME THING. TODAY I’M OFF BECAUSE I WORKED LIKE HELL ON THE LEAVES FOR THE PAST TWO DAYS. YESTERDAY I WAS OUT TIL PAST DARK DOING UP THE FRONT AND BACK YARDS AGAIN!!!! BUT, NOW, IF I GET IN TROUBLE, THE YARDS MAY BE ABLE TO RIDE OUT THE LITTLE LEAVES WHILE I GET TO THE BIG. I HAVE ONE TREE THAT DOESN’T LOSE IT’S LEAVES TIL, USUALLY DEC!!!!! SO I CAN BE OUT THERE OR NOT TRYING TO RAKE FROZEN OR SNOW LEAVES! I’VE GOT TOO MANY THINGS TO DO RIGHT NOW. BUT MY UNHAPPYINESS AT NOT BEING WITH FRENDS IS GROWING AND THAT PUTS ME AT PEACE. BECAUSE I’VE GOT TO FIX THAT.love val!