Positive, Negative, Plane and Volume

Here are three gesture drawings to start out the week.

Here is a positive space drawing.

My wife's ergonomic office chair and my daughter's chair

contour-line positive space, extra-fine ink

Here is the same image, using negative space.

Negative space, charcoal

Original still-life set up.

The contour-line drawing.

Mixing it up with the blue sharpie

2 value drawings showing plane and volume.

Conte crayon

Charcoal

Contour Line Drawings

Here are a few line drawings done with different mediums.

 This was a continuous-line drawing done with a thick red sharpie of various kitchen items.

 This was also a continuous-line drawing of the same items with conte crayons. The kitchen items vary from the first one because Molly wanted to do still-life drawings with me, but she picked items and took them for her "own view".

 This was an organizational-line drawing done with graphite. I wanted to keep the arrangement from the above drawings in front of my very large entertainment center to try and work on perspective.

This was a contour-line drawing done with extra-fine ink. The spots where the marker sat while I tried to figure out where to go to next bled through 2 sheets of drawing paper...

Gesture Drawings

Here are a few of the gesture drawings I did throughout the week. All of them were done using the vine charcoal.

 Standing up holding a newspaper

 My 4 year old holding a doll. She was wearing a oversized winter hat at the time

 Man sitting down holding a camera, then taking a photo

 My cat drinking water, then sitting up

 My cat again

3/4 back view of my wife in the kitchen stirring sauce

Still Life Objects

Here are my still life objects waiting patiently to be used in a still life setting. My daughter is patiently waiting to get her mini-soccer ball back (the sphere), the cone was handmade by yours truly, and the cube is a mini-puzzle (also liberated from my daughter, puzzle still inside) A sweet bread crumb canister and freezer bag box finish off this set.

Spatial Relationships

Here are some examples of types of "space" found in art.

Illusionistic or 3D space:

http://kurtwenner.com/pavement_gallery_1.html

Kurt Wenner is a true modern master of representing three dimensional space. If you have the time, click on his link. His gallery is amazing.  In this picture, Dies Irae, the last day of judgement is depicted. The illusion that bodies are being judged and some are "heading downstairs" is captured in this powerful image.

Flat or 2D space:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woman_with_a_Hat



In Matisse's famous painting, Woman with a Hat, the image of the woman is basically flat. Color provides some depth, but not a lot. This is 2D imagery, or flat space.

http://erinsingleton.wordpress.com/2011/02/15/cave-paintings-32000-years-ago/

Here is another example of 2D art. This one is from a cave in France, 32,000 years ago.

Ambiguous, 2D/3D space:

http://wernernekes.de/00_cms/cms/front_content.php?idart=519

In this example by Albrecht Dürer, the image of a rock face with trees can be manipulated by rotating the image 90 degrees. There is a 2D image of a horse with other trees in a 3D backdrop. This is an example of both 2D and 3D imagery, or ambiguous space.







Ahhh... the self-portrait

I have never been comfortable drawing faces. The dimensions and various features make or break the picture; and what starts as a portrait of the subject being worked on becomes that model's illegitimate brother or sister. I have attempted to draw myself, complete with as wide a smile as I seem to allow for your viewing pleasure. This was done with graphite, primarily 2H, HB, 4B, and liberal use of the 6B. Apparently my hair is starting to disappear and I am not sure if that is another chin forming or the lighting...

This one is the original, being pencil it didn't scan very dark.

 

I edited it to apply more contrast so it would show up on the web a little darker.

This was the picture that I used for the self-portrait.

Unified Field Experiments

This was the first unified field drawing that I did, and my first use of charcoal. This was done using all three widths of the willow charcoal. The thin width pressed with force in a fast motion provided the picture with emphatic motion-like lines while the thick width really allowed for shading and softened some of the crisper lines. I pictured a hike I went on this summer through a forest of paper birch trees at some point during the drawing.

This was another charcoal drawing, using soft vine charcoal. It looked like vine could be useful for emphasis lines as well as shading.



This was the second drawing as well as the first use of conte crayons.  I purchased the assortment of 12 conte crayons and tried to use them all. I titled the piece, Convergence as the reds and browns became black and vice versa. The white and grey crayon provided an avenue to create a subtle ray effect to try and convey the direction that the circles were going in. I was experimenting with how hard or softly I was pressing down with the different rows of circles. I found it easier to shade with the charcoal, but the two-tone effect was cool to do, and I had fun with this picture.

This picture was done with 4 shades of graphite, 2H, HB, 4B,  and 6B. After using the charcoal and crayon, graphite did not have the same excitement for me. I have used pencil before, and in the past I almost always went over the picture in ink and erased the entire picture of pencil. I wanted to experiment with continuous line use, as well as cross-hatching. At some point in the drawing what looked like a few eyeballs kept "looking" at me. I was turning the paper around every few minutes or so to try and limit my tendency to draw at a constant angle,  but no matter the angle the eyes seemed to be following me. Naturally I drew more of them...

  

My first india ink drawing. I know that many people are fans of ink; I was not comfortable with it. I have no problems with a sharpie or fine ink pen, but I had trouble keeping the width of my strokes even. It was enjoyable, nonetheless. I really appreciated how easily the ink flowed in the direction my brush took it. I definitely see how easily you can make a permanent mistake using this medium as well.





My Ideal Drawing

This is M.C. Escher's Day and Night. I have always loved and appreciated M.C. Escher. His imagination, mathematical precision, and subject matter all blend to create some of the best art out there. Growing up, my mom got me the complete works of M.C. Escher, and I would spend hours trying to recreate his art. I am a big fan of math, and as a result, Escher's work was appealing to me. This particular piece represents the ideal drawing because it does such a great job blending the real with the surreal. Like the Charles Addams drawing, Embellished Elevation of the Carnegie Museum, this piece is a both a subjective and objective drawing. I would classify this as a conceptual drawing. I have always liked this piece and his self portrait through the glass globe quite a bit.

About Me:

Hi there. My name is Evan. I have three children, a wonderful wife, and one large fluff ball of a cat. I a currently the kitchen manager of a large family restaurant in South Burlington. When not a work I enjoy time spent outside as well as in front of my computer. When I was much younger, I really liked to draw. I hope that somewhere inside of me there still exists that kid that could spend hours drawing. Welcome to my blog!