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This Handcrafted Life

~ decorative painting, low-tech photography and paper craft

This Handcrafted Life

Tag Archives: drawing

On Getting Unstuck

11 Wednesday Sep 2013

Posted by ThisHandcraftedLife in Fine Art, Sketchbook Journal

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

art, drawing, sketchbook, storytelling, writers block

I’ve spent the summer between apartments, most of my belongings in storage. As I packed everything up in June, I wondered if it would make it harder to write my blog posts. I don’t think it did, really, but what did make it harder was the stress of selling and buying and feeling a bit unmoored, living in a new neighborhood with a whole new routine. The blog became one more decision to make and I was decisioned out, so I stopped writing for a few weeks.

I should be closing on my new place in a couple of weeks, hooray. And I thought of a way to get myself back into the swing of things.

Story1

Story2

Story3

What about you? Any tricks for getting yourself back on track?

Making Art Like a Little Kid

05 Sunday May 2013

Posted by ThisHandcraftedLife in Fine Art, Sketchbook Journal

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

art, drawing, fine art, making art, self criticism, sketchbook, sketching

Most people who work in the arts know one thing for sure: we’re our own worst critics. It’s easy to get discouraged by looking at great work created by others, or by picking apart our own work until we don’t want to show it to anyone because we think it isn’t good enough.

One way to get around this is to create a place to play, where self-criticism takes a back seat to the great feeling that we had when we were little kids, when we made art without a second thought, totally absorbed and unselfconscious. How many kids look at their drawings and say, “this isn’t any good”? All I remember is proudly showing my art to anyone who’d look. And I’d try new things without hesitation. Make a drawing out of macaroni, glue and a piece of paper? Yes! Build farm animals out of Playdoh? Sure! Sculpt a giant alligator in the snow? Okay! I didn’t feel like I needed to take a class to learn technique before I dove in. Imagination was everything. There was no such thing as frustration, just the joy of play.

Now, my place to play is in my sketchbooks. I have a few going at once, full of scribbled sketches, scraps of paper, notes on ideas, and little drawings. Everything’s jumbled together and it doesn’t matter because nobody’s ever going to see it. I can happily romp around because it’s just for me. It took me a little while to get there, though.

Way back in art school, I drew this walnut.

Sk:Walnut

I stuck it into a recent sketchbook to remind me that when I’m loose and relaxed, I draw better, and that this is how I like to draw — casually, easily, without hesitation, confidently. But sometimes it’s so hard to do because that critical little voice in my head won’t shut up.

I keep this drawing I did years ago of my friend Diane to remind me that I used to be comfortable drawing people.

Sk:Diane

I don’t draw people anymore because I get too fixated on getting a good likeness and end up frustrated. So how did I draw Diane? By not trying to get a likeness, by being relaxed and open until the drawing came together and it suddenly looked like her. By not trying so hard.

It wasn’t difficult to figure out that I’m more likely to get a drawing I’m happy with if I chill out, so eventually, drawing became a way to unwind, a way to clear my brain and find that pure concentration of fun, like when I was a kid.

A few things I like to draw:

Twigs. Why twigs? Texture, I suppose, and the bumps and dips. I don’t have to explain, it’s in a sketchbook. Nobody’s going to see it.

Sk:Twigs

Stuff I find on the ground. Why isn’t the leaf finished? Who knows?

Sk:Nature

I like drawing my art supplies.

Sk:2Brushes

Sk:Brush

The corners of rooms, little portions of places. A bit sloppy. It doesn’t matter.

Sk:Kitchen

Small buildings. This is Tom’s little house near the beach. Messed up the roof on the left. No big deal.

Sk:House

Big buildings. This is a streetscape near Madison Square Park in NYC. A little trouble with perspective? Oh, well. Whatever.

Sk:MadisonPark

I love playing with my nephew, Lukas, who’s now almost eight years old. He’ll say, “What do you want to make today?” We’ll pick a topic, like sharks, decide between crayons, markers or paint, then start in on one sheet together. We’ll color for hours.

So when I’m frustrated and unsatisfied with whatever art I’m working on, when that little voice starts saying, “it could be better,” it’s time to remember what it’s like to play with Lukas. If I can shift my mindset and tap into the feeling of making art like a kid, the sheer fun of romping around with my paints and pencils, well, then… problem solved.

Travel Sketchbook: Mapping it Out

17 Sunday Mar 2013

Posted by ThisHandcraftedLife in Sketchbook Journal, Travel

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

art, Australia, drawing, florida keys, france, italy, maps, sketchbook, sydney, travel, uae

I’ve been keeping a travel sketchbook for twelve years now. No matter where I go, one kind of drawing that makes it into almost every trip is a little map.

Drawing out excursions, whether made by foot, boat, train, car or plane, helps to remind me of the little moments that I might otherwise forget. It also helps me to understand the geography of where I’m traveling. By looking at other maps to guide me as I draw, I learn more about the place I’m visiting.

Here’s a little map of a walk I took in Sydney, Australia.

MapSydneyWalk

Sometimes I’ll start off a trip with a global map to emphasize the distance traveled.

MapAustNZ

Or an overall view of the destination.

Map:FloridaKeys

At other times I’ll document a small excursion, like this London walk…

Map:London

or a particularly memorable day, which in this case was a day spent puttering around Sydney Harbor in a little motorboat.

Map:SydneyBoat

I draw with a black pen, filling in with Prismacolor pencils. I like Prismas because they’re waxy, they don’t bleed if they get wet, and the colors can be blended, so I need to bring only ten colors along.

Sometimes I’ll draw the route of a long drive. This is on the North Island of New Zealand.

Map:NZ

This was my path by train through Italy to the French Alps in 2004.

MapFranceItaly

In 2006 it was off to Australia again. My sister lived there at the time, and this was my third visit. This is Magnetic Island, off the eastern coast of Australia, near Port Douglas. My sister and her husband owned a house there for a few years. Koala bears perched in the trees, Kookaburras visited us in the morning for their ground beef treats and a bird called the Bush Stone Curlew screamed all night long. Quite a memorable trip.

MapMagneticIsland

In 2007, we planned a family trip through Scotland and the UK. My black pen was on its last legs.

MapScotland

2007 was a fun year. In the fall, I went to Australia again. We planned on visiting Ayers Rock, now called Uluru. Where is it again? Oh, right, smack in the middle of nowhere.

MapAusUluru

While on our way to Uluru, we visited the gorges of the West MacDonnell Range, a beautiful area near Alice Springs.

MapMcDonnell

Here I tracked the routes we skied over four days in Zermatt, Switzerland in 2008.

MapZermatt

By 2010, my sister had moved to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. Abu Where? Notice that the Persian Gulf is named the Arabian Gulf from this vantage point.

Map:AD

Abu Dhabi is an unusual city, composed of a group of natural and manmade islands.

Map:AD2

In 2010, off to Florence!

MapFlorence

I tried to keep a daily record of our epic treks around Florence. It got a bit messy! Sometimes it’s good to know when to start a new map.

Map:FlorenceWalks

And to close, our drive on our most recent vacation to Vancouver and the Olympic Peninsula. May there be many more maps in the future!

MapVancouver

Sketchbook: Try, Try Again

30 Sunday Dec 2012

Posted by ThisHandcraftedLife in Fine Art, Sketchbook Journal

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

art, decorative painting, drawing, journal, new year's resolution, pen and ink, sketchbook

In January of 2011, I decided to start the year with a sketchbook journal, intending to fill it with a year of drawings. Wouldn’t that be fun? Sure, in theory. Chance of it happening? Yeah, right! Of course, the first order of business was to assemble the tools, because what’s more fun than going to the art store?

Sk:WNewton

What’s better than one set of paints? Two!

Sk:Opa2

Contrary to my sudden fascination with paint, my favorite way to draw is with a black fine tipped pen and Prismacolor colored pencils. Research was required. Because you can never have too many black pens.

Sk:Pencils

Okay, two weeks into the new year, going strong!

Sk-Tools2

Inspiration flowed…

Sk:Wood2

Work got busy, and I forgot all about my sketchbook. Periodically, I’d see it lying out on my desk and think, “Hey, I should get back to that.” Didn’t happen. A new year arrived and in 2012, I started again. One of my last sketches, in April, was inspired by the “What I Wore” trend.

Sk:wore

That was the end of my grand drawing plan for 2012. But it’s a new year, and time to give it another go. Hey, why not? Maybe I’ll make it to June this time!

Happy New Year! May all good things come your way.

All in the Family: The Anatomical Drawings

11 Sunday Nov 2012

Posted by ThisHandcraftedLife in Family History, Fine Art

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

anatomical drawings, anatomy, art, art history, drawing, fine art, italian renaissance

A few months ago, I wrote a post about my great-grandfather Karl’s evolution as a young artist toward his goal of becoming a Master Craftsman. (You can read it here.)

One of the steps along that path was learning human anatomy. Many years ago, my brother discovered a stack of drawings in my grandfather’s attic, which ended up being a complete set of anatomical drawings that my great-grandfather had completed in art school at the turn of the last century. The drawings were distributed among the family, so I don’t have the complete set, but I do have his drawings of the head, shoulder and arm.

At that time, anatomy was learned by drawing from cadavers, otherwise known as corpses. If you’re a bit squeamish about dissection, this post may not be for you!

First up is the skeleton and muscles of the head. Here’s the whole drawing. The drawings are in pencil; the paper has yellowed over time, although my scans exaggerate the yellow. The drawings are 11 x 17 inches (28 x 43 cm).

Below is a close up of the top of the sheet. As you can see, specific bones and muscles are named. Numbers are used to designate bones, while letters indicate muscles.

You’ll notice that there are a few red x’s on the drawing. A teacher’s corrections, perhaps?

Here’s a close up view of the bottom of the sheet. The musculature is almost full; only some of the muscles around the mouth have been removed to expose the muscle structure below. As you’ll see in the drawings of the shoulder, muscles are usually removed in layers, in order understand how they work together to create the body’s contours.

These drawings are done with such skill that this is clearly well-reviewed material, the final result of many hours of careful study and practice. Every tiny bump and curve has been carefully yet expertly rendered, without hesitation or erasing.

Now we’ll look at the skeleton and muscles of the shoulder. Below is the full sheet; I’ll explain what you’re looking at in more detail in the close-up shots.

Below on the left is a view of the right shoulder seen from the back of the body. The skin has been removed and two of the first layers of muscle, the trapezius and latiissimus dorsi, are gone, exposing the muscles below. We’re exploring the musculature that attaches your shoulder to your arm.

In the drawing on the right, we’re still looking at exactly the same part of the shoulder, except we’ve removed the deltoid and other muscles, revealing yet another layer of muscle below. We can also see how these muscles bind to the shoulder blade.

On the right hand drawing below, we’re still looking at the same shoulder. But now almost all of the muscle has been removed and we’re looking directly at the shoulder blade, one muscle layer above its rotator cuff muscles.

In the drawing on the left, we’ve switched to the right arm seen from the front of the body. It’s been lifted to better expose some of the musculature. This is the full musculature, what you would see if the skin were removed, exposing the pectoralis major and minor, the deltoid and biceps and the external obliques arriving from below, with the latissimus dorsi wrapping around slightly from the back.

This is the third drawing, titled Skeleton of the Bent Arm, although it’s obviously showing the muscles as well. Those cadavers sure were a muscular bunch!

Here’s a close up of the drawing of the skeleton. Again, look at how simply and confidently this is drawn!

Below is the full musculature as it appears if the skin is removed. The muscles of the forearm have long tendons that attach to the fingers, allowing the fingers, wrist and hand to flex and extend.

As I looked closely at these drawings, figuring out the musculature, I began to wonder how this method of learning anatomy came to be. Why do artists work from cadavers and when did they start doing this?

Artists first began dissecting cadavers to better understand anatomy during the Italian Renaissance, as they struggled to create a more lifelike, sculptural portrayal of the human figure. Opportunities for dissection were very limited due to its strong discouragement by the Catholic church.

While Leonardo da Vinci (his work is above and below) and Michelangelo, who set new standards in the depiction of human bodies, both dissected cadavers, Da Vinci became the foremost artist/anatomist of all time, dissecting over 30 human cadavers ranging in age from two years old to about 100 years old. He filled 120 notebooks with his anatomical drawings and notes.

Using his knowledge of engineering and mechanics, Da Vinci approached the body as an architect, drawing it in three-dimensional forms shown in plan, section, elevation and perspective, inventing a whole new language of scientific illustration which is still in use today. Beginning in 1489 with drawings of the skull, he produced his most precisely drawn works in 1510-11. Before Da Vinci and his contemporaries, anatomy had barely progressed since the second century.

None of Da Vinci’s medical discoveries regarding the working of the human body were published in his lifetime. However, his methods of illustrating the dissection of muscles in layers (as seen in my great-grandfather’s drawings), as well as some of his plan, section, elevation and perspective techniques, were widely circulated. The first illustrated Renaissance anatomical work, Andreas Vesalius’s “On the Structure of the Human Body,” published in 1543, incorporated Da Vinci’s approach.

Centuries passed before anatomical drawings became accepted as crucial for learning anatomy, although Da Vinci’s breakthroughs eventually became an integral part of how anatomy is taught. Isn’t it interesting to know that even if we learn anatomy today, we’re learning from Leonardo!

All in the Family: Becoming a Master Craftsman in the late 1800s

29 Sunday Jul 2012

Posted by ThisHandcraftedLife in Family History, Fine Art

≈ 75 Comments

Tags

19th Century art, drawing, fine art, life drawing, pencil drawing, portrait drawing, portraiture

My great-grandfather, Karl, was a Master Painter and Gilder in Hof, Germany. Before he founded his own workshop, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. Before he went to the Academy, he attended trade school. Before he began at the trade school, he served as an apprentice in his father Johannes’s painting and gilding workshop. And before that, he learned how to draw.

My father gave me a portfolio of Karl’s work years ago. Here’s a look at the art my great-grandfather drew between about 1885 and 1895, just before he headed off to trade school in Munich. Karl was born in Weiden, Germany in 1875. Happily, he signed and dated most of his work.

This little painting has no date, but looks like an early attempt at a narrative drawing. Notice that he’s trying to draw portions of the buildings in perspective without quite understanding how perspective works, and that he makes a stab at painting in watercolor, which he then abandons. Yet he signs the work, so despite his struggles, he considers it finished.

These two pencil drawings are from a series of undated animals sketches in a notebook. He seems to be practicing, and draws a series of five animals.

The final animal portrait is signed.

At age 12, Karl starts learning anatomy. Now we have a signature with a date.

Here are two portraits by a boy who’s trying to put it all together.

At 13, he’s onto the Greeks. At this age, he might have started his apprenticeship in his father’s workshop. Is he copying these from drawings? It looks like it. In his apprenticeship, he begins to learn every aspect of drawing, painting, sculpture and gilding required to eventually join the guild of Master Painters and Gilders, which will allow him to establish his own workshop.

Now we’re jumping two years down the line, to 1890, when Karl is 15. Unfortunately, we don’t have much documentation about what happened when, so I’ve tried to piece a time line together with my father’s and brother’s help and based on a biography of Karl’s younger brother Leo, also a decorative painter and gilder.

Most likely, he’s still in his apprenticeship, and look at his progress! What a huge difference. He’s learned shading, modeling, creating dimension and beautiful pencil work. As one of seven sons, he was possibly working alongside his younger brother Eduard in learning his craft. Girls were not taught these skills at the time, so his four sisters were learning traditional women’s crafts, such as embroidery.

Karl is also learning how to draw expressively. The woman’s hair in the drawing below is beautifully detailed and fluid. However, the face seems flat, and makes me think that he’s still copying the work of other artists, not working from life. This is speculation, but the angel wings on her back make me a little suspicious.

After his apprenticeship, it’s time for Karl to head off to Munich at age 17 to attend the first course for decorative art at the municipal trade school, a 2-year program.

Around this time, Karl changes his signature, and, much to my annoyance, leaves out the dates. Is this a result of starting at school? I’m not sure what’s happened, but his drawings begin to evolve. Now it seems as though a live model may be the subject, although he’s still much more interested in women’s hairstyles than their faces.

And here we are, a portrait of a little girl. Karl has learned how to breathe life into his work. Based on the natural pose, the simple design and the lack of extraneous detail, this work is believable as a portrait of a real person instead of an archetype. Although the eyes seem disproportionately large, this beautiful portrait is drawn far more realistically and simply than his earlier work.

Age 20, Karl begins his mandatory 2-year military service, and upon completion, returns to the trade school for the four-year second course of decorative art study. At 26, he begins a three-year study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, completing his education around 1905 or so, at the age of 30.

I’ll be posting the beautiful anatomy studies and other work he completed after he fulfilled his military duties in a future post. But let’s add things up… that’s 12 years of study in order to sit for the exam that will admit him to the guild as a Master Painter and Gilder! Bear in mind, he could fail the exam. Now that’s learning a craft!

Travel Sketchbook: Weird Animals of Australia

13 Sunday May 2012

Posted by ThisHandcraftedLife in Sketchbook Journal, Travel

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

animals of Australia, art, Australia, birding, birds, cairns, drawing, fruit bats, great barrier reef, illustration, natural history, sketch, sketchbook, sydney, travel, travel australia, travel journal, tropical fish

Australia has some pretty unusual animals. With their unique talents, odd names and tendency to want to kill you, it’s a whole new kind of Ark. Think I’m exaggerating? The ten most venomous snakes in the world? Australian. The most deadly spider in the country? Lives in the back yards of Sydney homes. Thinking of going for a swim? Don’t forget about the saltwater crocodiles and box jellyfish. 

Anyway, I keep a sketchbook when I travel, and the first time I headed for those sunburnt shores, I thought it would be fun to warm up to this new destination by documenting some of the most interesting fauna. Because on a journey that’s 22 hours from door to door, there’s time! On the plus side, Australia is home to koala bears, kookaburras, and some pretty sensational fruit bats with 3-foot wingspans who hang out in Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens.

We flew up to Cairns for more wildlife encounters (bandicoots running over our toes at an outdoor restaurant, swarms of angry bees) and spent a day on the Great Barrier Reef. I was swimming too much to draw, so this last page has a lot of white space, as they say. The reef was sensational. What a great trip.

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