Crowds 3

Finished up the third drawing of the series - Crowds 3. It's been really nice to just sit and draw. I'm also feeling more satisfied with my photographs from the San Francisco trip. I can see that I'm going to get a lot more paintings from the outing than I originally thought. The great thing about these characters is that I can use them a few times with variation of detail, compositional importance or just use their clothing style on another figure. I also see the advantage of having a large photo library. Granted I can compose these pieces from scratch without the photo reference, but the light, shadow and drape of the clothing can only be approximated and with that the work resulting will always feel "mannered or stylized". The only way I know to achieve a more naturalistic rendering of subjects is by either drawing from life or the next best thing my photographs.


I framed the first two drawings of the Crowds Series this morning and will frame this one before I turn in tonight.  The will be exhibited in a show called "Drawing from Reference" at Modified Arts.  The opening will be this Third Friday December 16th from 6-9PM with the second reception the First Friday January 6th from 6-9PM. I plan to attend both receptions.


I like the minimal starkness of these drawings.  I don't know if it would work on a canvas though. I think on a canvas it would feel a touch too spartan. If background buildings and figures don't work this may be the perfect opportunity to use collaged materials and silk screened text. I'm going to give the spartan look a try first. As for the drawings: I'm going to keep knocking them out while it's in my system and figure out the size of the paintings afterwards. I'm thinking a little larger than 24x48 maybe 30x60 or 36x72. I really want canvas to be part of a show, where these and the preliminary drawings are all that's shown.