I think this will be my first blog post on "Sequential Ramblings" with no art attached. I have been wanting, for a while now, to write a series of blogs about my process. By my process I mean the manner in which I get things done, specifically, my art. The drive behind these blogs is not that I labor under the delusion that there is some teeming audience clamoring for insight into my little world (though it is a fascinating little world, with exploding birthday cakes and hamsters with handguns) but rather that I find, like many others, that sometimes committing my thoughts to the written word seems to help clarify and organize my focus and intent.
The heading for these blogs is entitled "The Path of Most Resistance." The reason being that I often find that my life is defined by how I deal with the things in my life which cause resistance. You know what I mean... that hot and uneasy feeling in your gut when a subject or issue is brought up or broached that is something you need to do, or have been meaning to do or want to do but have been avoiding or putting off. We all have this, I think, to varying degrees. Whether it is going to the gym, doing the dishes or relationship or family issues. We all eventually find ways to deal with it. We put our heads down and push through or at some point we get frustrated enough or fearful enough and get it done. But I find that still, at the ripe old age of 43,that resistance, specifically in the area of my art but not confined to it, is something that I still really struggle with.
Bleh! Barf Barf Barf! Yup, there it is gang, my big secret... I'm not perfect even though I said I was and I even sold bumper stickers and T-shirts that had "Ted's Perfect" printed on them. I will buy them back at a percentage to be later determined.
So my idea for the coming year is to try a new approach. Traditionally, I put off that which I resist until there is no other avenue but doing that thing or facing failure, or ridicule or jail time. My goal will be that when I feel that resistance I will instead immediately do that thing. Simple! Right when my gut says "No, we don't want to do that thing!", we do it!
This blog will document some of this stuff mostly those things that have to do with drawing, my career and art. I will be starting with something that I have struggled with for years though I know it is one of the best things for me but from which I run like a rabid dog.
Daily drawings.
By this I mean a structured, daily series of exercises that are geared toward continuing to develop my skill set as an artist.
Easy, right!
Wrong! I hate, hate, hate doing this and my gut churns at the thought! Why? I don't know and I don't think that the reason really matters. It is a damn good thing for me and it is something I know I should do.
So for the next year, every day, starting today (gasp) 30 sketches. Mostly figures but lots of other stuff, too. Quick, fast gesture drawings developing my drawing technique and skill. Every day..... for a year. Yikes! At the most 20 minutes a day.
I will be posting some of this stuff, mostly drawings that come from the daily drawings that I think might be of some interest or are fun.
I should be interesting how my little brain tries to escape from this but I intend to persevere... I think it will be very informative to see what could happen in a year.
Here goes...
Here's some sketches from day 3. Again going for gestural and energetic. I realize after doing some of these that there is something going on between the torso and pelvis that I don't quite get sometimes. It is the relationship between the plane of the back as it inserts into the external oblique and the front of the ribcage and the obliques connecting to the crest of the pelvis. It is where all the turning, twisting and bending happens in the human figure and how you capture dynamism as opposed to stiffness. This juxtaposition is what can really make a pose POP and one of the aspects of my sketches I am going to keep focusing on.
