Duet Drawing in Progress

©2012 R.L. Delight,Duet drawing in progress

I know this is challenging to see. I didn't use a flash but the lighting is strange. Graphite is always a challenge to photograph and this drawing is large, 22"x40". I also had to piece the drawing paper together to fit the composition. I will be ordering paper in rolls so I won't have to do that in the future. It is very much a work in progress. I really just have the main proportions and angles and am starting in on the shading and tweaking the lines. Both instruments are a challenge to draw. That said, I am so very glad I decided to draw this out first. Here is a close up of the cornet just roughed in:

©2012, R.L. Delight, Duet drawing in progress, close up.

The cornet is very shiny and difficult to flatten out and see. There is a lot of foreshortening and tapering of the tubing combined with different angles and planes, well, it is definitely pushing me along. This is really a lot of fun, I really do enjoy drawing as much as I do painting and it is very easy to get lost for hours in the process. Actually, I would get lost in time longer but Twill the studio dog comes and gets me to take her on a walk at the proper time so I do have breaks. I have to be careful when walking by the drawing and stopping to look at it. If I pick up my pencil to add or change something really quick, the next thing I know, an hour has gone by without me realizing it!
The cornet, while challenging, is actually easier to draw then the cello. The cello has many subtle curves and plane changes. It isn't flat or box-like as a guitar is. As I mentioned before, drawing the cello is like drawing the human body. Of course, the cello holds still better than a live model.
If the drawing continues to go as it has been, I should be through with it this week and be able to transfer it to the canvas and begin the grisaille.
I don't have a title for this piece yet. I am calling it Duet for the time being. It has been a busy day. I went to life drawing this morning, spent a little time working on the drawing then it was time to get ready to go to the local music jam session. The instruments were taken from the still life set up and played. They will be back posing for me tomorrow.
I'm not sure how much progress I will have to show for Wednesday. I will be working on it steadily but we shall see how much different it looks by then.
Off for a well earned night's rest.
-Renee

Rewind

©2012, R.L. Delight, Illuminating Conversations, 6"x6" oil on panel

I have been working on the drawing for the musical series I am starting. It is the largest composition I have done yet. I ran into a few technical difficulties along the way. I don't have a drawing board large enough so I put a couple of drawing boards together on my easel and taped the overlapping seam. Over that, I pieced together a few sheets of paper, for the same reason. The composition is 22"x40". I started the drawing and got a few days into it, struggling the whole time. Putting the pencil down, I took a break to puzzle out the problem and suddenly realized I was fighting physics. My cobbled together set up was getting in the way of drawing accurately.
I consulted with my in-house builder, who I am conveniently married to, and he popped over to the hardware store and brought home a sheet of masonite. He very kindly cut a large piece for me to use for a drawing board. No seams, all one plane, that's the ticket! As a bonus, the extra masonite will be cut into panels for me to paint on.
 I went ahead and started the drawing over again. It is going a lot faster and smoother this time. I am also making a video of the work in progress which will be shown when the work is finished.
The weather has been lovely, not too warm and not freezing cold. I had planned to get out to do a bit of plein air painting but wanted to build a special prop first. The prop is built and will have its debut when the conditions are right. There will be pictures by and by.
A fairly short and simple post as there is not a lot to show and tell at this time. The past couple of posts I have shared a few art links I enjoy. I would love to add to my resources so if anyone has a few favorite art links, feel free to leave a comment or comment on my Facebook page (link on the right of blog).
-Renee

Beauty Anew

As many of you know, I play the cello and it is being featured, along with my husband's cornet, in my current painting. I am quite familiar with my cello, as I have had it for about 12 years, but drawing and painting it has made me see it in a new light. I have been working on the preliminary drawing and it has been quite challenging. I have always known that the cello is an exquisitely beautiful instrument, both in sound and looks. I am finding out that it is also exquisitely crafted, and exquisitely difficult to draw. Like the human body, it has curves and planes in unexpected places but they all fit together in such a way that I actually stood there in awe for a time. Fortunately, when I made the connection that this is not just an object but a complex creation in the same manner as the human body, I began to be able to make sense of it. A not-always-simple case of getting the intellectual mind out of the way.
So the work progresses. I have no idea how fast it will go and intend to allow it to take the time that it needs to. I want this piece to be just as exquisitely beautiful as the subject.

It has been working well to position and remove the instruments on a daily basis in the still life set up. After all, these are working instruments and we need to practice. In fact, we are off to play in a concert with friends and bandmates tonight somewhere down this wild coast we live on.
Have a great weekend!
-Renee