prep studies & sketches

Still working on getting a real feel (in painting terms) for the subject(s) in prep for the paintings. Even if I ended up with nothing else useful from this diploma (which is not and will not be the case, just saying) this insistence of Wendy’s on drawing and drawing and painting and drawing and drawing the same thing (where thing = the object/focus of your interest) over and over again would be worth the price of admission. I’m surprised at how much difference it’s made to my drawing – I’m pretty sure the improvement in my life drawing & portrait sketches can be credited to that absorbed observation, first of those bloody bowls and then of the shoes. Somehow it flows on: training the eye-hand in the task of accurately recording observation of a pair of shoes doesn’t just mean you will forever after be able to draw those shoes, or even any shoes; it translates to an increased ability to accurately observe & record anything including faces & figures. Which when I write it down like that seems like the biggest DUH in the world, but it didn’t seem that way ahead of time. Anyway, so I’m procrastinating on doing the other thing Wendy insists on by talking about how valuable I’ve found her insistence on drawing something until you could draw it with your eyes closed, so here are the studies I did last night & today.