I haven't been painting. The big problem is these panels I'm priming, which have sat under a layer of Gamblin Ground for a few weeks, and yet the paint is still soft enough to take my fingerprints. I'm very angry about this because I want to paint very badly.
But instead of painting I've been waiting for my panels to dry and drawing. Doodling, mostly. Then I was thinking I could always break out the Canvas Paper just to play around. This thought immediately brought up an image I thought would make a nice little painting like the last few I did on Canvas Paper.
But the figure I had in mind wasn't in the easiest pose of all time. Mainly I was thinking I needed to work on the hands. So I decided to make some sketches, starting with sanguine chalk.
Now I've noticed most people who post their art on their blogs only post the good stuff. They want to look as good as possible. I've decided, just now, to post the bad stuff. I think it'll be more informative. Also, I can make fun of myself.
The first drawing was pretty poor. I liked parts of it but the body went all Mannerist on me and the hands were wrong and I was generally annoyed with it. I then did what I often do when working out a figure: I traced the first drawing on another piece of paper and proceeded to mess with it.
For the second drawing I fixed some of the proportions but she turned out really angry about it. Also, for some reason her chest above her breasts got all stretched out. And I ran out of paper for her feet (you can't see it, but these aren't the entire drawings in all cases, because I just scanned them quickly and don't care. Also, some of these drawings are on the same pieces of paper). Time to trace again.
Okay, now I'm just all lopsided. And what's with the tiny feet (which you can't see)? She's like some victim of foot binding. And the hands are all wrong. Maybe she's wringing them because her widdle toes hurt. At least she's less pissed off than before. Trace again.
While tracing I realized her legs were too long for her torso and head. Much erasing and redrawing ensued. Desperate, I scrawled in a vague skeleton, which sometimes helps me to arrange things more realistically when the pose is not straightforward. Well, the hands are better, if too big and not what I wanted. And, hey, didn't I want her legs together? She looks like a powerlifter. Too many pencil lines; time to retrace.
Okay, this is closer, the way New Jersey is closer to Brazil than New York. She looks less like a linebacker now. And the hands are...acceptable. Sort of. Now, who wants to screw around with foreshortening the head? Not me, apparently. Hmm, I see the legs are too long. And the crotch is too low. And...I'm going to have to trace this again, aren't I? If only because this face SUCKS.
Proportions rearranged. Hands are not the worst I've ever drawn, but they're nothing like what I wanted them to be. And apparently I was leaning back too far while drawing because now she's warping off to the upper right (which is a major problem of mine because I tend to draw with the paper flat in front of me instead of on an easel or drafting table). The face is even worse this time. I've seen better work in a Hanna-Barbera cartoon. And, geez, you know what? This whole thing just isn't going to work, not tonight.
And now for something completely not the same. Back to the sanguine I go to produce this. I started with the face and was so happy with it I don't care about the other little imperfections; the face isn't even perfect, but I like it anyway.
Now, I wonder what's on TV?
