You're Gonna Need a Bigger Brush
This week you’ve gotta forgive me for the Jaws pun (watched it over the weekend), but it certainly sets the tone for the paintings I completed in “Drawing a Head”. Before I go into those, I first want to show some 5-minute line drawings I got going at the start of class. I figured 5 mins wasn’t really enough time to focus on tone so I went with line:
5 Min Studies, Gouache on Paper
The drawings came out very Matisse, probably due to the book I had brought in to reference colour (also have a new YouTube video out on books I’ve enjoyed), but for the rest of the day, I left line and turned to larger gouache pieces. It took me a while to warm up, tutor Ishbel Mc advised me to try and use the marks I was creating imaginary backgrounds with on the face too so there wasn’t a disconnect or a lack of focus between the two. I started off quick and experimental:
Experimental Studies, Gouache on Paper
Towards the latter part of the afternoon, I began to register what Ishbel had said to me but I felt I may have been going a bit too fast because my drawing wasn’t up to scratch (compared to my morning line drawings).
Afternoon Gouache
As for The National Gallery this week unfortunately my whole household came down with a stomach bug so I only made it in half the day to continue my medusa drawing, so I’ll wait until next week to give an update on that.
Disaster with Diane
In "Drawing a Story" we were looking at Diane Williams this week, and God knows how one is supposed to follow her style of writing. Personally, for me it felt like a collection of random thoughts placed in locations that were changing every few minutes. The day was a struggle for me and it was reflected in my drawing:
I Don't Speak Chinese, Gouache on Paper
I got so fed up with myself that for the afternoon I changed from using my beloved gouache to coloured pencils hoping for some kind of improvement. I also took a more comical approach because I felt like I needed to rid myself of my creative frustration so far:
Go Away Glasses, Pencil and Gouache on Paper
That's it for this week, don't forget to check out my new YouTube video "My Favourite Books for Artists", and do sign up if you're interested in being notified of my next post!
See ya next week,
Tomas
