Back To The Drawing Board, Quality Of Line

I have been overwhelmed with the outpouring of support after my last post. Don't worry everyone, I'm good. And I'll keep making art no matter what.

There are quite a few things that I want to change about my work. I figured it would be a good idea to start with the basics and spend more time with drawing.

Time to wipe the slate clean and start from the ground up.

Starting over has been scary. Spending time with the basics has helped a great deal. I can spend a few hours playing with the concept in pencil, instead of a few weeks (or months!) trying to get it to come together in paint. And since I see these drawings as experimental, I can mark up the paper all I want and not care about it looking "finished."

Untitled (cropped), Pencil and Chalk on Toned Paper.

Since I have announced that "everything is different now," only focusing on an accurate line drawing just won't do. Instead, the focus has shifted to quality of line.

Evelyn, Pencil and Chalk on Toned Paper

Quality of line can be summed up as simply as the thinness or thickness of a line. But I also think about whether the line is best represented dark or light, hard or soft, curved or straight,. (I'm finding that more and more I'm leaving curved lines as straight lines) And I'm pushing that further. Are there any lines I can change to better represent what it is that I want to see?

No more blindly following what I see in front of me.

While drawing, along with striving for accuracy and achieving a good likeness, I also pay close attention to how each line relates to the next. When finished, every line in the drawing should work together. Often there are lines that don't need to be there at all.

The more simple the drawing, the happier I've been with the finished work. And if you are wondering, no, this is not the beginning to my spiral into minimalism. Not going to happen. BUT, it does appear to be a transition into more contemporary art.

Until next time......