Figures in Color

Figure in watercolor on Yupo by Meera Rao

Figure in watercolor on YUPO by Meera Rao

For almost three weeks now I have been practicing drawing the human figure.  Painting on Yupo was perfect for practicing with watercolors since I could easily rectify any mistakes by wiping off! I drew with watercolor pencils for the top one and graphite pencil for the bottom one before picking up transparent watercolors and had fun with it. It has been very exciting and challenging.  

Last year I volunteered to be a model for a portrait painting demo at our watercolor society meeting.  The one thing I noticed was that the artist constantly looked at me --as much or more than looking down at the paper.  Her rapid fire glances, constant measuring and checking the angles was my takeaway from the session --since I couldn't see what she was drawing only how she was looking at the model! 

I came across this quote by Leonardo da Vinci : "Life is pretty simple: You do some stuff. Most fails. Some works. You do more of what works."  So off to more practice :) 

Sacred Design

Sacred Design  Photography by Meera Rao 

To Erase Or Not To Erase?

Randompose pen by Meera Rao

I have been sketching these poses from the App Random Pose  for a few days now spending a couple of hours or more working on one pose each day.  It feels good to flip my sketchbook and see a collection of these.  But just as I was getting confident about the end results of each day, my ego got a reality check -- I was erasing so hard couple of days ago that the paper tore! I remember reading in Bert Dodson's book 'Fail and exploit the failure.'  So yesterday  I made myself sketch with pen only being more mindful of each line I put down.  I have to say it didn't take hours to complete the pose! 

Random Pose Graphite by Meera Rao





Random Pose  Graphite by Meera Rao



Bert Dodson in his book Keys to Drawing with Imagination writes: " I'm a strong believer in a quality I call 'wobble,' the less-than-perfect execution of things crafted by hand"   So I am setting aside my hesitations about using the eraser. Why unnecessarily make things harder on myself. As it is the human figure is complicated enough. I will concern myself with observation and practice and more practice alternating pen and pencil in my daily sketching and build my skills and confidence.

Habit Forming

Sketches from 'Random Pose'  5x7 graphite by Meera Rao

This past week, I started to sketch atleast 30 secs early in the morning as I sipped my coffee instead of reading the paper or checking the e-mail. I want to be disciplined enough to sketch every morning - so I signed up at http://tinyhabits.com/ to participate in 3Tiny Habits. Dr. BJ Fogg from Stanford has created 'a way to tap the power of context and baby steps.'

I started the tiny habit last friday (even though official start date was to be on Monday this week.) So far I have enjoyed sketching everyday. I keep sketching for a little longer or go back and finish them later in the day but I really like the 30 second option :) Rather than try to think of what to sketch, I have been selecting poses from an App "Random Pose" in my phone.  I downloaded the app from the iTunes store more than a year or two ago but was apprehensive until now about using it. 

While it is not anywhere  close to drawing from life, I am getting practice in drawing the human figure on my own terms. The poses show major muscle groups and I am learning with every sketch.  So far I have not pushed to finish a figure in 30 secs but at the website http://www.posemaniacs.com/thirtysecond a timer can be started to practice gesture drawing.  May be in a few days :) -- right now I am getting familiar with the body shapes, proportions etc.. I hope to add colors and washes sometime soon. Do you have any practices to help you be disciplined about your daily sketching or painting?  

I have added a page to my blog for my Sketch Book project "A Day in the Life."  Now you can see the book from cover to cover in the right order! Please do check it out  and leave me your feed back :)

Play of Light

Play of light  digital photography by Meera Rao 

Art has a double face, of expression and illusion, just like science has a double face: the reality of error and the phantom of truth.

Publilius Syrus

Food For Thought

Jam jar watercolor on yupo 6x4 " by Meera Rao

Presimmons watercolor on Yupo 4x6" by Meera Rao

I painted these two small paintings on YUPO  two weeks ago. They were both donated to a fundraiser for Akshaya Patra a non-profit organization in India that aims to make sure "no child shall be deprived of education because of hunger."  Their website www.foodforeducation.org explains: "A public-private partnership, Akshaya Patra combines good management, innovative technology and smart engineering to deliver school lunch at a fraction of the cost of similar programs in other parts of the world. The program started in 2000 by feeding 1,500 children from a temporary kitchen in Bangalore, India. Currently, we distribute freshly cooked, healthy meals daily to 1.3 million underprivileged children in 8,000 government schools through 19 kitchens in eight states in India." Recently, the organization's wonderful work was highlighted by PBS, NPR in their news programs.   

Speaking of education, I came across an article in Huffington Post: Drawing Ability Has Psychological Basis In Perception And Memory, Researchers Say  by Natalie Wolchover.  She highlights research on 'What separates the drawers from the drawer-nots?'  Of course, lots of practice is way up there along with some very interesting observations : Based on their research, the psychologists recommended the following techniques for getting better at drawing: Focus on scaling a drawing to fit the size of the paper; anchor an object in its surroundings by showing how it sits in space; focus on the distance between elements of the object and on their relative sizes; and focus on the size and shape of "negative space," or the empty space between parts of the object. Lastly, they recommend thinking of "lines" as what they really are -- boundaries between light and dark areas. I would love to read the original study in detail but then I should just go and practice sketching :) 

PS : If you have time to kill go on and watch the videos on creativity in the same link under "Also on Huffpost."  

Order From Chaos

A Day in the Life Sketchbook project 2011 page 26  G-2 pen

I realized that I had forgotten to post the last few pages of my sketchbook project for Art House Co-op from 2011- A Day in the Life -In Blue Jeans with Gold Embroidery.    One thing that came to be clear during the writing/illustrating of that project was that as in painting I found myself wrestling with wrapping up the narrative  - ending that neither stops short of a resolution or overdone :)  Eventually I followed  Frank Herbert's advice : “There is no real ending. It’s just the place where you stop the story.”  

A Day in the Life Sketchbook project 2011 page 27  color pencils & G-2 pen

I hope to make a page in this blog for  the book so it can be read from front to back. Now clicking on this link gives all the posts on the sketchbook that I have posted - from most recent to the oldest making you read it backwards :) - unless you go the oldest post first and scroll up! Meanwhile, let me know what you think of my project - the illustrations, the writings.

Miracle of Life

digital photography by Meera Rao 

“If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change.”

– Buddha

Textured Variations

textures and colors by Meera Rao

The last day of the "Variations" workshop was all about textures. We saw the possibilities with Myrna Wacknov's collection reference photos, her paintings, and use of gesso, stencils, stamps, patterns, tissue for collage, etc and  unlimited imagination :) The day's task was to bring color, texture, value and other design elements together. 

After the van Gogh like textures of my day 3 painting, I decided to tone down go for subtler texture :) and I like my final piece. 

gesso covering old painting

After watching the demo about applying stencils, tissues, and stamping, I proceeded to gesso -not too thickly or carefully- a painting I didn't care for. Applying the textures subtly with stamps and even fingers, and lifting some color with the stencils, I prepared the paper.  When the paper was dry I knew where and how I wanted my drawing to go. It did not really take much time to paint after that and I had to be especially be wary of not overworking it since it was so much fun to paint on the gesso prepped textured paper! Rest of the day I played with experimenting with preparing  paper in all different ways. 

Here is the photo with all my paintings of the week together:

variations by Meera Rao

Color Harmony and Variations

Color Harmony exercise  by Meera Rao

Using Faber-Birren color triangle, we explored color harmony on day 4 of the 'Variations' workshop with Myrna Wacknov.  The roll of dice said my combination for color harmony was Tint-Tone-Shade-Grey and to use intermediate hues.

I mixed the tints, shades, tone and grays for the two colors on  cards as reference as I painted the figure combining a shape drawing, value pattern and used the colors to create  mood.  This was the hardest exercise for me but well worth the effort. Once I had the colors down on the cards, the painting went very smoothly. Best part of the day was to see all the combinations and how they worked out in everyone's paintings during the critique session.

Fifteen years ago I had done a similar exercise with one color only in a Doug Walton workshop (only other workshop I have attended!) and suddenly color harmony theory became much clearer - I guess nothing like accumulating years of experience for an ah-ha moment!!! It also became clear to me that there is great value in methodically trying the color harmony combinations to get a better grasp of all the possibilities  and the mood they create.

Do you have tested and true color theory that you use? Do you use color wheels when you paint? I would love to know how you go about choosing colors and mood.  Or are you a 'fly by the seat of my pants artist' as I seem to be most of the time!!!!