21 June 2009

20 June 2009

So long since I last posted!

I can't believe how long its been since I last posted! And have I been busy in that time? Well, probably not in comparison with some, but a new job has taken my concentration for the last three weeks or so until this morning, when I realised how much I'd missed picking up a pencil or a stick of pastel!

So when a very hungry cat woke me up this morning at half past six and as I obviously wasnt going to be allowed to go back to sleep until I remedied her rumbly tummy, I decided to stay out of my lovely warm bed and get cracking.
This was the result.
A2 orange cartridge paper, pastel, charcoal, coloured pencils, markers & ink.

I'm still working on the abstract theme for my OCA project and this piece started well with the irises but rapidly moved away from anything remotely looking abstract!

I beginning to understand that this tendancy to wander off course is my biggest challenge, to keep my work in as abstract a format as possible as I progress through every stage of the drawing. I get so involved and carried away as I'm working that I forget my original intentions, and considering I've spent the last 18 months trying to produce as realistic a piece of work as possible, its proving very difficult to 'retrain' myself.

But I havent really been totally 'artless' during the last few weeks. Here are some of the sketches that I've been playing around with.

I love this. I felt so pleased with myself for having got the perspective so very nearly right! And I just love the heaviness of the grey pencil/pastel lines with the added touches of skin toned pastel and brown highlights in her hair.

This is probably one my favourites. I think it has a good sense of solidity and the pale highlights really suggest light from an unseen light source coming from the left side of the figure.

And this is just another sketch which I find very pleasing to look at. I think it has something to do with the dip in her waistline and shape of her bottom!