Monday, March 23, 2009

Carefully Planned Spontaneity

I'm not really sure what I'm doing here but I'm liking what I see. Looks like a mess right? I deliberately tried to create this drawing right on the borderline of loosing control. I had confidence and rapidly lost it only to regain my direction and take back the reins on the work. Back and forth it goes. In the end I am confident I can prevail.

Lots of cinders are scattered over the board and I am grinding them in with my finger as I smudge over the surface. I picked up a sharpened carbon pencil to delineate some areas but overall the edges are very rough and free. A famous painter, Richard Schmid once stated that "edges are everything" and I couldn't agree more.

I'm pulling out highlights as I work with a kneaded erasure. I use stiff brushes to stab the charcoal down into the deep valleys of the gesso surface. So far this has been done mostly with a 1/2" diameter vine charcoal.

This is the most fun I've had with a drawing since I can remember! This completely changes the way I look at my work. Even if I don't ultimately conquer this thing my experiment has already proven successful for me.

3 comments:

Peter Brown said...

Dean, I can see the potential for learning by stepping out of your comfort zone and discarding tried and true materials and techniques.

However, what you're attempting takes the kind of courage I don't yet possess. It doesn't take much of a failure to totally destroy my carefully nurtured self-confidence!

This looks like it could be a real breakthrough for you. I look forward to further progress reports.

Grahame Butler said...

Hi Dean I agree with all that Peter has said, but seeing your results makes it very tempting to try something new, by the way have you ever tried using Blue Tack for lifting dark areas?

Dean Richards said...

You both bring up an unteresting point I'll talk about in my next entry.