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Teapots and Hands

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This is Ursula, in Ustrasana, the camel pose.

I’m taking some sessions with printmaker Pam Lawson.  It is a joy to have access to a press and the wisdom of an experienced printmaker to go along with it.  That night I told my husband the bad news, I’m going to need a press.  He says fine, stop fooling around and let’s fix up our house and sell it, and then I can have a press and maybe a space of my own to work.  The problem with that is that I’m up against time constraints.  When I start fixing up the interior of our house, that’s going to eat up my studio time, at least for a while.

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Same pose, Peg Mulqueen this time.

There is so much potential here, I want to work with multiple plates, layering the figures in their yoga poses against Islamic tile patterns.  Meanwhile, Ellen Olson-Brown reminded me to get back to daily drawing, and I’ve been doing more or less that for a few weeks now.  Here are a few sketches.

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After a few sketches the teapot wanted more attention, so I’ve been working on this one for several days:

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The handle is a bugger, let me tell you.  What’s nagging me about the prints above top is the hands, I’m not drawing them terribly well and they need to be good, so once the teapot is done I’ll practice drawing the yoga poses for a bit, and try to get those hand positions down.  The two teapots here are a good illustration of a frustrating drawing phenomenon.  Quick sketches often have a life to them, a vibrancy that is hard to maintain in a longer more detailed drawing.  You can kill the darn thing so easily, and it becomes lifeless and dull.

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Skeleton

Oh boy, it’s slow going at the moment, but the skeleton is transferred.  I’ve taken a few more pictures for reference and begun drawing this metal wall/ barrier.  I have drawn a little every day, but I’ve only had 15 minutes or so at a time.

So it’s at this sort of ugly stage but hopefully it won’t be for long.  It’s going to be tricky figuring out how not to keep smudging everything.  It doesn’t feel quite natural to start in the upper right hand corner with the smaller branches, but I’m left handed and if I start with the trunk I’ll be constantly smudging the pencil with my hand.

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It’s done, or is it?

I added color today, probably too soon.  I see that I should have softened some pencil lines, especially around the floating leaves.  I couldn’t see that though until I added the color.

Here’s my best tip of the day.  If you’re an artist and you haven’t seen Joanne Mattera’s website, click here now.  It’s my homepage.  Look through her history of posts for some of the best information you’ll find anywhere about managing your art career.

Finally, I’d love to hear some of you weigh in.  What makes a drawing a drawing?  What makes a painting a painting?  Is it the medium itself or level of finish?  I’m truly wondering….