Jul 02 2008
GCA Progress in 3000 Words
Or at least the three picture equivalent.
The first cast drawing: I’ve filled in a little more of the wall and shadow. Things are beginning to make sense.
The figure drawing: Flattening the shadows. Tedious, but very helpful while modeling the form. Yes, I know the figure looks a little irritated at this point, but with a little subtle modeling, I hope he comes across as focused instead. We’ll see what I can do in six three-hour days.
And finally, the new cast drawing: I’m flattening shadows here too. With this drawing, I am keeping the darkest darks on the light side to really explore a truly compressed value range. If I can make the modeling effective here, I can pull off all sorts of lighting mayhem in a painting.
Every day here I appreciate the value of this community of fellow artists more. The fellow students are so much fun to hang out with, and Jacob, Camie, Sam and Nick are amazing…both as instructors and as fellow working artists. Rarely have I felt such camaraderie with a group of people I have known for such a brief span of time.
Jacob continued his demo during the figure drawing session this morning. He began this portrait last Thursday intending to demonstrate modeling today, but struggled a little with the initial block in. In his defense, he couldn’t have chosen a harder angle to work from. An incredibly foreshortened view of the face with dramatic but distracting shadow-play…on a model with such chiseled and classical features that it is almost impossible not to exaggerate them. By the end of today’s session, he had sorted things out and had a lovely likeness, but it wasn’t smooth sailing. The afternoon session has a different model, and by the time he got to their demo he was warmed up, and captured the gesture and likeness almost immediately. It was impressive to see the results of their demo, but I think ours was infinitely more instructive. Watching a truly skilled craftsman at work can be like watching a magician. The beautiful results are arrived at seemingly without effort. But in this case, we actually got to see something of the method. The careful, analytical, patient process behind Jacob Collins’ beautiful figures. Any artist knows that only the rarest of drawing sessions serendipitously yields perfect, easy results. Most of the time it is hard, frustrating work, and can be an emotional roller coaster. What was so fascinating about this demo was watching how calm Jacob was able to stay, how respectful he was of his previous day’s work even though with a fresh eye he knew there were problems, and how relentless and methodical, and in the end victorious he was at resolving those problems.


















