New City of Bottles

Today's piece. I did the wash yesterday and the drawing today. I don't know that I am particularly taken with it. They are starting to merge in my mind. It has a different composition than the others, but they are all starting to seem similar. I think I definitely need a new subject matter!

New Drawing for art class

What a relief, my last drawings were well received for a change. I finally get ot move on. Here are the final versions of the last ones. The last three together:


I think this ne has improved a bit. There are better relations between the objects.

This is the last one.


This is the technique applied to a figure:

New Knitting and More Drawings

I started a Knit A Long in one of my Internet groups. We are doing a Herbert Niebling design called Trollblume - with some 14 rows done, here is what I have!


I worked a little on my last picture - trying to improve the eye movement. I think it is still too busy and needs toning down in some places.



The new one was an attempt at not rendering everything. It is probably still rendered too much, but I'm working on it.


The upper right side needs work.

Class tomorrow New modified versions of old not-so Favorites!

So, I have art class again tomorrow and a new assignment (or rather the same assignment )- I am supposed to fix my old drawings. Here they are together on my studio "wall" so that you can see the relative densities and values.


I tried to improve the composition on the two assigned drawings, but also went back to some of the older ones and worked on them a bit. See if you think one or the other is more interesting visually. I've paired the new versions with the old ones:

This one was disliked by my teacher, and I liked it. Is it any better?

I played around a bit with the vine charcoal drawing too. (I do like the changes in this one a bit better.):


Okay now here is one of the assigned images. (I don't see much difference between the two images below!):


And this is the other:

The ones above have too much dark on the left - I'm going to have to lighten them a bit.

So now (drum roll please) .... here is the newest one.


The drawing itself isn't beautifully rendered, but I feel like I'm solving the problem of moving the eye around the image better and finding/setting a focal point too. I guess we'll see what the teacher has to say tomorrow.

Here is the new one with an earlier version, just for value comparison.



Okay - off to try and remove some of the dark on the left side of that one in the middle. (Oh, and the top versions are the new versions. I hope you could tell!)

Yet another attempt an Interesting design (sigh)

I'm starting to feel lost among the (drawings of) bottles. This photo looks better than the original, but I don't know that it is any better than what has come before. I need to stop and look for awhile. I am losing my bearings.

More Drawing Changes

The photographs I have been taking haven't been great, but this gives an idea of the contrast of the early drawings.

The recent assignment was to bring up the (I think the values) of this piece. At first I had no idea what to do, but maybe I have figured it out. Here is the original.


Here are the changes I made. I think it is better.


Here is the second sketch that we had for homework.

Two More Versions

I'll write about ths after I do my second version, but in the mean time here is the drawing from this evening. I decided to use the graphite sticks that arrived in the mail today. I laid out the basic design with an "eye" to the way the eye would move across the page. It's not exactly minimal but I do have a stronger focal point and a simpler composition.

Update on third attempt of Bottle City

Okay, I did a tiny bit of work on the third series (Fifth picture) On the left you can see what I had at the end of class. On the right you might notice a couple of changes. The right image isn't as accurate a photograph, (both should have about equal contrast!) (Click on the picture to see the full version with the whole of the image on the right.)

So, what difference is there? I did a bit of rendering around the central figure and lightened some shadows. I also moved those two vertical lines that bothered me so that the image was not cut so clearly by the bottles on either side of the figure.We'll see what the teacher has to say tomorrow!


Updated version. The teacher liked it better than the prior drawings but didn't feel it was finished. I've sat in front of it a bit now and just really don't know where to go with it, but this is what i have for now!

Assignment 2 Redo

My recent drawings were not well received. I was instructed to simplify, to reduce images down to the minimal needed for recognizing what they were. The drawing was to be based on my most simple drawing and I was to narrow in on an even simpler subject.


I was told to simplify, render as little as possible and develop a focal point. Here's the unfinished work from this morning's class. I already see problems, because there are certain vertical lines that go straight up the picture without enough break. I guess I'll have to keep working on it.

Assignment 2 Update

Okay I looked at my assignment - I was supposed to do a contour drawing and simplify my work. (Neither of which I did, SO..... off to the drawing board again, literally!!) Here's what I did today. Ink first:
Then I added charcoal. Not so minimal anymore, but I like it a bit better.