Whiskers

Cats have obscenely long whiskers. Have you ever noticed? They overhang their petite faces like structurally unsound, delicately balanced see-saws.

One of the cats I live with was recently hovering over me, drooling, (as she's wont to do), and I got taken by the absurdity of these insanely thin long THINGS that sprout from her face. So I shoved her off me and picked up my charcoal.

I want to keep this piece simple, but still work into it somehow. I'm thinking about picking a single color, probably in watercolor, and working it in in shades. Or I might just define the lines in ink- not entirely sure yet.

EDIT: Oh hey, I just realized it's Caturday. Unintentionally appropriate art is!

Beginning

More to come. Lots of thoughts and images to get out of my head right now, but I thought it would be good to document the very first and absolute roughest layer of this as I lay it down.

Naked people Friday!

Not my best depictions of naked people this Friday, but I still dragged my ass out of bed this morning and made it to the studio with a few hours to spend on drawing. The first pose was frustrating as hell, and it didn't really mesh well for the rest of the session but I just focussed in on shading and worked it the best I could.

The little hand drawing says "can't draw today. bad hand!" I thought chastising it might help.

When I get blocked doing figure studies, I generally just zero in on one part, but the hands were coming pretty well so I sketched out some of the figure too. She's holding a mannequin head, so I decided to leave her real head out to balance it.

Last half hour pose, and I didn't trust myself to make it a single good piece, so I split it up into three. The yellow one is the most life-like, but the blue was the most fun.

Better stuff next week, hopefully!

On a Pedestal

Mmf, the first thing I've worked on in chalk pastel since getting home (save one shitty attempt that was more to channel angst than make art). I was shooting for a Grecian look, an interpretation of putting women on pedestals. Alternatively, I just couldn't get her legs to look right.

Dr. Sketchy's Scantily Clad Lady Emporium

I went out to Baltimore's Dr. Sketchy's (if you are unaware of this phenomenon, Dr. Sketchy's Anti Art School has your answers) on Monday night. I have mixed reviews- on the one hand, I missed life drawing, I like gimicky shit like this, and drinking accompanies drawing as it does stretching and MST3King in the rest of my life. On the other, the only thing more pretentious than hipsters are ARTISTIC hipsters, the mc really didn't impress (I have high standards from circus work, but still), and the soundtrack to the evening was pulled directly out of a Wed Anderson film. The Darjeeling Limited, to be specific.

Still, I got some good marker practice in, and I'm groping my way to understanding shading with prismas. I forgot my beloved chalk pastels in Pennsylvania, but Heather lent me her pastels and I went to crazy town and back with them.
There were contests, one of which was to draw the model in spaaaace. This next one got me in the running for the prize, but I didn't win anything that night. It was nifty getting picked the hang out on stage and get cheered for, though. More my scene than being an audience member.

They also did the opposite hand drawing, which I understand is a staple of Dr. Sketchy's fun time. I did it in charcoal, and carefully specified some elements to make it obvious.

One of my quickie warm ups I liked. I shyly started out with my faithful charcoal before I went media crazy.
They also did two 20 minute poses I threw some real work into, but I'll save 'em for tomorrow because this is already the Art Blog Post That Ate Texas.

Forgiveness and studio shots

Three days sans art posts! Believe me when I say that I am the soul of humility and contrition. But in my defense, I turned 21 on the 12th, and we're in the midst of Evergreen's graduation, of which three of my housemates partook. There's been excessive cooking and outings and parties and heavy, heavy drinking many nights in a row. Less time for art than usual, although my life'll no doubt empty out next week and I'll be producing work at a stupid rate yet again out of summer ennui and my emotional failings.

To make up for it, here's a shot of my newly organized studio space! I spent today re-doing my walls, which are crammed full of as much art as I can fit on them. I like to keep lots of figure studies around my easel for reference, but it was getting up the three layers of paper and ridiculousness. It's more nicely spread out now.

Note that all my supplies are crammed on a tiny two inch wide shelf jutting out of the wall. It's a pain in the ass it's a good way to make sure my space doesn't get too cluttered!