New Kitten

How she tucks me in:

 

Improv 2.1

 I played around with this again this morning, because I wasn't happy with the center of the drawing. This is the original orientation, which I rotated in the last post. It's still not exactly what I was after. I will try again.

Improv 2

To tell the truth, I'm not sure which way this drawing should be oriented. It started out as a pretty figurative thumbnail in my sketchbook, but little by little, it morphed into something that has only the bare bones of the original design. I think the reason I chose this orientation to post is that it's harder to see those original elements from this view.

 

Improv

Once, during a critique in grad school, the prof wondered why I shared myself so much in my work. I thought it was a strange question, because I don't know how else to make it.

   But lately, I've been tired of image. I think that is the hold up with my work right now. I'm tired of hearing my own voice, I think.

   Yesterday, I started out refining the lines of a drawing in my sketchbook that is a bit of a portrait of a dear friend who seems to be changing before my eyes. It didn't take too long for me to lose interest in it, because it was such a literal translation of that idea. 

   After a while I closed the book and decided to play with charcoal for a bit. Normally, I use charcoal reductively, which produces a very dark chiaroscuro effect. I'd intended to do that this time, but because I was testing out the suitability of the paper, the test shapes I put down began to look like elements from the drawing I'd just been working on. It was really freeing, because this drawing has the elements of the literal one in my sketchbook, but it also has the energy that the literal one lacked. 
 

Four Gargoyles

Four drawing classes, four demos. Reductive charcoal on Strathmore paper. About 30 minutes each.

Shades

I've been so busy with work and school that I haven't had time to make anything other than the things I'm working on for my MFA thesis show. I miss posting to IF, so when I saw today's prompt, shades, I thought of this drawing.                                                                                                                                                   It is really old, from my time way back at Idaho State. It was for my very first formal drawing class.

Static

For IF: The dictionary refers to a phenomenon as an extraordinary event. My ears visibly cracking because of my headphones, would be a phenomenon.

Aerial View

For IF: My late night wanderings...

Worry

Hands full of worries...

Sleepwalker

IF: Detached from consciousness.

For all of you studying for finals right now...

A Watched Pot

....never grows.

Green Willow 3

'Before the fire sat the good old man of the house, and the two old people didthe very best they could for Tomodata."

Administrative Oni

Oni are figures from Japanese folk literature and are like ogres in Western stories. There are some administrators who would eat tender victims rather than compromise their bottom line. This is a picture of how I imagine them.