Four-hour charcoal drawing at the P&C, drawing with the “pros.” It's been a long time since I went to a Monday long pose open studio, and I was really intimidated to go back. But I “toughed it out” and came up with this drawing, which I like. Of course, the face and arm are over-worked,… Continue reading No Where to Hide
Category: Drawing
Down the Rabbit Hole
I wasn't having much of a day drawing at the Palette and Chisel, first in the morning and then in the evening yesterday. I was getting discouraged, so I thought I'd try something different—nothing to lose after all. Then I came up with this drawing using compressed instead of vine charcoal. I was trying to… Continue reading Down the Rabbit Hole
A Night with the Devil
The devil in this case being the seduction of details. I went to Philip Solomon's open studio last night and started out reasonably enough, using my newly-learned technique of roughing out the pose with the side of a short piece of soft charcoal. But I knew I had 4 hours and very quickly I was… Continue reading A Night with the Devil
Charcoal in Chicago
One day's half-hour poses at the Palette and Chisel, trying to do things á la Graves's Life Drawing in Charcoal. 12 x 18 or 18 x 24 inches using vine charcoal and a kneaded eraser for the highlights. I'm working on my edge control. Right now I'm doing too much line drawing and… Continue reading Charcoal in Chicago
Practice, practice, practice
This is a half-hour charcoal drawing from a photo on the http://artists.pixelovely.com/practice-tools/figure-drawing/ Web site. My new large monitor makes it fun to draw at home. Although it's often-repeated that you shouldn't draw from photographs, I think it's helpful for practicing the basics such as proportion, layout, etc. and makes it easier to draw from a… Continue reading Practice, practice, practice
Moleskin Gouache Figure
Putting this figure on two pages is almost ironic, since you could pretty much divide it down the middle vertically and say the right side held together pretty well—nice edge where the right side of her back is in front of her right arm; nice substantial right leg and buttock; decent head angle. This against… Continue reading Moleskin Gouache Figure
Gouache in Chicago
I'm finally back in Chicago on Fridays: 1, 5, 10, and 15 minute sketches in charcoal, and 30 minutes in pencil and gouache. This painting was done in my 5 x 8 inch Moleskine sketchbook, so the lighting is different above and below the fold. I'm looking for larger paper that takes the paint (or… Continue reading Gouache in Chicago
New Drawing Set-up
I had to upgrade my computer system to be sure I was compatible with others I work with when I design books and newsletters. A side benefit of upgrading is I can rotate the 24-inch Dell monitor so I can draw from reasonably large photos on the Web. In the photo I have a French… Continue reading New Drawing Set-up
Class at Madison College
I usually take some kind of workshop every summer, and this year I signed up for Chris Gargan's Life Drawing for Illustration class at MATC here in Madison. It runs for three weeks, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. I took the same class 2 years ago and really enjoyed it. So far it's been a… Continue reading Class at Madison College
Portrait of a Friend
After my friend Richard saw a watercolor self-portrait I did a few weeks ago, he asked me to do his portrait and sent me some photographs to work from. He probably expected a watercolor, but this is the result, done using Procreate on my iPad. There's a lot more smoothing in this picture than I'm… Continue reading Portrait of a Friend
Ken Crocker Artist 