GRIZZLY PEAR

written snapshots

Category: Figure 8

  • Sway the Head and Shake the Tail

    On Thursday I tried drawing the boy who told me to draw the tricycle instead.

    And a Figure 8 to start a quiet Sunday morning (since I decided that work can wait till Monday).

    Outline of a tricycle from behind, drawn in red ink on a yellow steno pad.
    Line doodle sketches of the boy climbing around his chair. Red ink on a yellow steno pad with old pencil notes and sketches.
    Sketch from my Ba Dian Jin instructional book. The head is way oversized, maybe because we watched My Neighbors the Yamadas for the past couple of weekends. (The kids love it!)

  • Wise Owl Gazes Backwards

    I feel like I’ve got a decent handle on bodies when I’m paying attention. I might switch to focusing on heads.

    Red architecture scalies, a red outline of a man exercising, and black outlines from some tarot car studies.

    Threw in some more architectural scalies. Reminds me of that one day where I spent twelve hours practicing architectural lettering. Have it down for the rest of my life.

    Unfortunately it’s a dead art. Though I’ve used it on handwritten thank you notes after interviews to show I’m a real old school draftsman.

  • Swiss 1JJ, Page of Wands

    I copied the drawing while waiting for files to upload to the server

    I used the classic upside down technique…but ran out of room at the bottom of the notepad for the top of the head.

    A blue ink outline drawing of a mail figure standing with a long baton, wearing a skirt.

  • Separate Heaven and Earth

    Monday was crazy so first thing Tuesday is to catch up on yesterday’s figure. Maybe I’ll get a second round in this afternoon.

    (I threw in some architectural scalies for fun.)

    I’m reusing my notepad with sketches for the 6 of Swords….and this is now my desk pad so the rest of the white space will eventually get filled in (and green highlighted when completed).

    A messy page including black in outlines of swords, messy red architecural scalies, and a red ink outline of a man exercising.

  • Bad Figures

    At the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego I contemplated my recent decision to draw more (than nothing everyday). One gallery had paintings with several highly stylized figures. I committed the classic response to modern art.

    I could do that!

    Spoiler alert: I can’t.

    This idea pushed me to finally attack the white whale of drawing figures. I’m so bad, even my architectural scalies look awful. This is way out of my comfort zone but it’s time to attack the issue in a concentrated fashion.

    I’m calling this Figure 8’s . The series is to draw a human figure for +/- 8 minutes, for x8 days.

    At least for 08 days to go with the 8 brocades, maybe up to 78 (tarot deck) or 18, 28, 68, or 88 (for good luck).

    Yesterday, I started with image of a guy stretching upward. I didn’t use a reference and …. umm yeah … this makes my scalies look like palatable.

    Red outline drawing of a dude raising his arms over his head. No model, just out of the noggin.

    The drawing today was from the cover of my exercise book, the second callisthenic shooting an arrow. I’ll do exercises 3-8 from the book before I venture back out into my imagination.

    Red outline drawing of a man pointing his fingers out towards the left, shown with the photograph.

    The girl got a good laugh when she saw these drawings, she even got her brother upstairs to join in the fun. It may be good for them to see dad fail miserably…and hopefully get better by the end. Given how quickly she picks things up in school, I worry she has developed a fear of failure. So hopefully this will encourage her to take some risks and fail graciously a few times before the stakes get too high in life.