Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Filling in the Blank

Many of you know about my Moleskine exchange with Raena of Raena's Sketch Journal, where we mail the Moleskine to and fro from Florida to Texas and back again, adding a little bit at a time, and post it on our blog, 2'nFro. I am excited to say that this is the page that I just completed.

Yes, page one is done. Finally. (Someone compared watching our page grow to seeing a movie. If so, it is a very slow movie.)

Before this installment, the page looked like this. I needed to decide what to place on the page beyond the ladies, and I needed to deal (gulp) with composition. Often I do sketches in my Moleskine and color them without giving composition more than a fleeting thought. In my few larger works, I have generally focused on one or two main objects. But here I would have to plan. I was nervous about this, but I knew that this was a skill that I need to tackle if I am to accomplish my long-term goals in art.

So I was kind of thinking about the gals being near some quaint shops - maybe an interesting storefront would fill the blank space to their right. My wife mentioned that to her the ladies looked like they'd be in a nice neighborhood, and I agreed. That shifted my thinking, and I snapped some photos of possible houses. It was my wife, again, that suggested the house I finally used - there are many interesting shapes in this house. It is kind of a shame that I couldn't use the whole thing.

So there they would be: two ladies standing in a residential neighborhood, one with dogs. A single word kept popping into my head: Boring.

There was another thing that bothered me too. It looked to me like the woman with the two dogs was looking beyond the other woman, and not straight at her. Why, I wondered, was that? What was it that she was looking at? It seemed a shame to just place them in a setting without rhyme or reason.

Then came the lucky day when I saw a dog near my son's school in the middle of the road. He had his nose in a paper bag. I knew then that this was what she had been looking at! I had the vague idea of her staring at this stray dog in a nice neighborhood with his nose in a paper bag, the other woman oblivious. So I snapped a picture of him with my cellphone. A few days later, I had a closer look, and snapped his picture again.







It was clear that I could not paint just the dog or the setting. I had to do both.

At first I laid out the page very horizontally: horizontal road, horizontal sidewalk, straight-on view of the house. Again that word, boring, sprung to mind. Finally one day I realized that I could use diagonals and it would be much more interesting. I drew a small thumbnail on a post-it-note, maybe a half an inch square, setting forth the basic arrangement. And I tried to apply (roughly) the vague recollection I had of the concepts of this post in Kathy's blog about composition.

I had to deal with perspective, how large the house, how big the dog. And the details of the composition: Where would the ladies be standing, on the grass? Was the dog in the street?

It was only after playing with this for some time that I wondered why it was necessary for the second woman to be in the picture if the first lady was looking beyond her at the stray dog. Woman no. 2 was almost irrelevant. So what if she wanted to talk to lady number 1, and didn't realize what was happening behind her? I finally realized that for her to be an integral part of this picture, it had to be her dog! But the dog was a little far, hence the retractable leash.

Raena made it very clear with her shadow where the sun was coming from, so I had to take another picture of the house when the sun was right, because try as I might I could not guess at the proper shading. Then the sketching in pencil (I never do this and I realize that I need a much more precise pencil), then the painting of the house (I needed many layers to get the values right, and some subtle splashes of color to make it interesting), the painting of the stark difference in color between the shaded grass and the grass in light(I had to make a color chart first to feel comfortable), etc.

At every step there was a challenge. At every step, nervousness and hesitation. So, all in all, it was a great experience.

Thank you Raena! I don't believe I ever would have put forth the effort had I not received such a wonderful drawing back from you.

I realize that ultimately I pretty much dominated this page. I give more reasons for this at 2'nFro. But I figure that some pages will be more Raena, and some more mine, and some pretty evenly half & half, and that'll be the way that it goes. Raena and I exchanged a few e-mails, and I believe that she understands this and agrees.

So it's off to Texas, and on to page 2!

22 comments:

  1. Wow! I think it was worth all the effort and time.. I liked the outcome.. Thanks for putting up the series of events.. I am sure you both had fun with the first page... Waiting for the second one now!!! :)

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  2. Well I'm afraid Raena has stepped out on you Dan...She's been hanging out with the "Portrait Party" of all things. Well I'm sure you don't mind cause you've put all that free time to great use on the project!

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  3. Thanks for all the details, Dan, and I love the final outcome; perspective, lines, composition and colours are really great ! Now looking forward to page two !

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  4. A most fabulous page, Dan! I loved following your thought processes too. It is so interesting to see a melding of two styles like this as well.

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  5. I think you did the job beautifully. It's possible one of the very best finalization I'd say, and I couldn't agree more with your decision. Beautiful background, great perspective, awesome details, and a lot of life!

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  6. I'm impressed with the amount of planning that you did to finish up the page. It came out great, it's interesting, and the colors are fresh!

    :-)

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  7. Oh how fun! I appreciate every detail that you explained. Super from both of you.

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  8. What a clever and fun solution!! I like your reasoning and ability to transform your work. Very effective and great results.

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  9. This is a great description of how much research actually goes into a drawing. Good work; I look forward to the next one.

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  10. what a fun post to read...to follow along the progress. Excellent result! Could not be better!

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  11. SIMPLY FABULOUS!!!! I think it's astounding how you and Raena have a dedication and thoughtfulness to this process. REMARKABLE!!!

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  12. You really pulled the drawing together and managed to tell a story with it--excellent!

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  13. Looks fantastic Dan, looking forward to the next page

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  14. Beautiful drawing and i love the story that went with it. i found your blog on the Art Bloghop.

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  15. Three dogs—only one
    curious enough to shove
    nose in paper bag.

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  16. Magical Mystical: That's because the other two dogs went to obedience school. Imagine what the woman in red is going to say about her friend when she walks away (Really, no control over her dog!!!)

    Dan, I applaud you for your ingenuity in finishing this scene and the delightful way it came about. I felt like I was inside your head for just a moment and realized I had to quickly get out - way too much going on in there... :)

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  17. Dan, I saw this just after you posted, but didn't have time for a proper comment, so I'm a little late to the party. I love this. I love how creative your solution is, and how you went out and took your own reference photos. And how funny that the house you chose would fit so nicely into my own. I live in a tudor (though I really don't like the style much...they're difficult to decorate because they demand traditional and I'm more contemporary), not as large as this one.
    Love the addition of the dog with leash. It fits so naturally into the scene. Ah, the pressure is on! What will I do, what will I do?

    Oh, and thanks for noticing my new banner. Really proud of that one! I keep opening my blog just to look at it and pat myself on the back again! LOL

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  18. oops..."into my own NEIGHBORHOOD!"

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  19. I really enjoyed the explanations of how the picture developed - especially as my drawing skills are those of a five-year-old! You might like to have a look at my friend Cathy's work ...http://cathyholtomdustylane.blogspot.com/
    Regards, Anne

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  20. Double portrait scares me too Dan =) I was always worried that I'd get the proportion wrong, as I had to modify the space in between to fit the paper. I would love to do 3-4 faces on a page someday though, that'd be a challenge! Happy Father's Day!

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  21. Its not just looking at your art (this and earlier posts) that amazes me, but reading about the whole creative process. Its like entering another world: and the results! Wow! Double wow! My respect for people who create with such thought, diligence and flair doubles and triples!

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  22. Thank you all so much for your supportive comments. I'm glad you liked the picture and my efforts at explaining how it came about.

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