never throw away an old sketchbook

I found this sketch in one of my old sketchbooks... it's a drawing from Georges Seurat's charcoal drawing "The Black Knot" - 1882. I think I did this 2000 or 2001, working on a tonal exercise... and thought it was a cool drawing, which I may use as a basis for a new painting or collage (perhaps in colour to see what happens). I just love the stark contrast of the black shadows against the white back-lighting, suggesting a 3-D form of the lady in a very minimalistic or even, economical, way.

It doesn't hurt that I'm all about Victorian/Edwardian fashion at the moment, trying to come up with a detailed "steampunk" outfit for a clubbing night out soon... LOL... maybe that's why I like this drawing so much...

White stuff

I couldn't resist two posts in one day... but I thought this one turned out pretty cool. The brief was to draw "white objects" using a technique the Italians called "chiaroscuro" (light-and-dark)... and what's whiter than a pith helmet and afternoon tea? ;)

Here's how it's done:

- draw the objects using a single contour line (mind negative spaces!)

- draw the shadows, again using single contour line to describe the edge of the shadow

- fill in the shadows with dark charcoal (it will kind of negate some edges of the object at this point)

- smudge/muddle the entire page so, except for the darkest shadow, the page is now a dim gray (this really "flattens" the image)

- finally, pick/rub out the lightest parts of the objects (the highlights) with your eraser. If necessary, you may want to darken some of the shadows again with charcoal to accentuate the contrast.

In short order, the objects now seem to "pop out" in 3-D.

Fun times!

-- kelise