Back in the comfort zone

The previous 3 sessions were quite wasted. Last week I decided to explore a new angle,

but instead I fell back into a known territory. Fountain pen drawing and ink wash. Just to comfort myself on the fact that I "can" sometime. It felt good, I left the workshop not fully satisfied but at least with a smile. During the session I was remembering to myself, a book a read fews days ago, Art & Fear. I need to learn to let go, and just do, knowingly 2 things. 1st I will be disappointed, 2nd there is no perfection. The perfect balance of beauty is imperfection. And this is the main things that attract me to watercolors. The looseness of that medium, it imperfections, is at the core of it beauty.

Zen was her name, but zen she was not.

Yesterday session was akward, the model showed 1 hour late. And maybe because she felt guilty, she was kind of uncomfortable. It was just strange to draw someone, naked, who didnt want to be there. I tried to make abstraction of it but in the end that particular mood showed up in my drawing in a very particular way. Every drawing I could do, was when she couldnt make eye contact with me. Every front drawing, are just worthless. I'm feeling kinda stuck with watercolor, having difficulty to judge my improvement, I decided to do some india ink. I also tried a reese pen, and a wet brush to smear the ink for shaded area. I really enjoyed it.

Revisiting Magalie

I`ve been revisiting some old work... and I started to like this two pieces. I rejected them at first... but now seeing them few months later give me a fresh perspective. Like if it was the work of someone else, now that the reel scene has vanished in my memory. I see them as what they are now, and not what they could have been. I always find it very hard to judge my own work. Especially while doing it. It usually take at least a day or two to be able to select or reject. Sometime I really feel ashamed.

Johanna Session #2

Magalie Session#2

Natasha

Following last week experiement with the fountain pen, I decided to crank up the difficulty level, and add some colors this week. I went there with a limited palette. I mainly used Venetian Red and Ultra marine blue with very light touch of Yellow Chrome and even lighter touches of Ivory black. The last week exercice, working with india ink only, helped me seeing value instead of local colors. Charles Reid is right, tonal value is more important to understand a shape than actual hue. Therefore you can make abstraction of colors hue and work only the value. I've read this a thousand time... but if you dont experiement it... you're doomed to fail.

Johanna and my Custom 823

Yesterday was quite exhilarating, Johanna posing was superbe, and I was in the zone. I left all my watercolors gears at home. I just had a pad and a my new foutain pen, Pilot Custom823. Medium nib. Expectations were low. I was there just to draw. During longer poses, I borrowed from Yannick a brush and few drops of india ink, 2 smalls glass container, one with clear water and the other with diluted ink. I believe yesterday was one of my favorite session so far. Directly drawing with ink is unforgivable, so one really think before touching the paper with the nib. Once the line is on the paper, it is there to stay, so you have to deal with it, and compose with them as you proceed in the blank of the paper. The lines drawings are 1 minute poses. and the inked ones are 5 minutes poses. I like the way the non waterproof ink smugded when I passed the wet brush. The paper is Lana Esquisse sketchpad, 96g/m², not made for watermedia, but still held pretty well.