Golf Ballet

Ballpoint ink on 8.5x11 paper. I just realized that golf players are like ballet dancers who swing, twist, and turn in a calculated but odd way, adversed to the normal body movement. In drawing this figures I was getting a hard time of figuring out where their parts of body is swinging and turning to make sense of the gestures. It's a bit challenge. I don't play golf, but I learn to play it virtually through "Wii sport". It's fun 'coz it challenges your mind making sense of the distance and the strenght of the stroke, hurdles, and the wind involved. I get to learn golf terminologies like "bogey", "birdie", "fairway", and "handicap". Playing it in an actual course is another story, which I would most likely will have to pass it on.

Seasons Greetings!!!

Ballpoint ink on 9x12 paper. I say, Merry Christmas to the world! I wish you all peace, love and happiness. Let it be a celebration of life no matter who and where we are, or what we have. A million thanks to everyone for stopping by and giving time to check my blogspot; in one way or another, you have been an inspiration and motivation to keep me going. May we all keep on doing what we love doing and continue to find a purpose in life, and share it to the world. May we not cease to believe in ourselves and for what we can do, for no matter of how small and arduous our beginnings, in due time with resilience, it will all turn into something special, remember that. Love y'all!

Ballpoint on 9x12 paper.

A genuine pearl of the violin world

Graphite on 9x12 paper. Itzhak Perlman, a living legend, the epitome of violin virtuoso, happens to be a polio victim. Talk about what a man can do to compensate a physical incapacitation and become extraordinarily good. It has become a pattern that one has to be broken and can become something big and make a difference; people like Jesus Christ, Beethoven, Helen Keller, Stephen Hawking, and Stevie Wonder, to name a few. Mind can be a very powerful tool if one knows how to use it. Mr. Perlman originally played the theme of the movie, "Schindler's List", "Scent of a Woman" tango, and "Fiddler on the Roof", among many things. He garnered a lot of Grammies, recorded and sold a tons of CDs, appeared on tv shows, concerts and did master classes around the world. Aside from his mentor, Isaac Stern, I've never seen anybody who's as big stature as his in the classical world. That dude walking in crutches is simply a classy guy.

Meat Cutter

Graphite in 9x12 paper. Study of the head of a surgeon. Reminds me of the 70s tv series "Quincy Jones M.D.", but believe me, this is not him. I still have the tendency to rush my drawing when I intend not to. In art school they train students to draw a pose in 3, 5 ,10 minutes, but that's another story. I didn't even take the time to sharpen my dull pencils; just went by incessantly doodling like I couldn't wait to post it next. I would have yet to see myself taking strides and conscientiously drawing line by line, taking all considerations of making sense of it. Possible? Again, it depends on how one desire it so badly. I remember when I was so active in music, we were trained to go as slow as we can to be dead sure of each note is perfectly played, then work our way up to speed. Imagine a playing "molto adagio" on a "presto" tempo of the "Flight of the Bumble Bee". Dvorak would be blowing his top and screaming, "what the h---you doing to my sh--?!" (I'm just blabbing here, forget it.)

"Clintessential"

Graphite on 9x12 paper. France Belleville's drawing on Leroy Skalstad inspired me to draw Clint Eastwood as I try to emulate her superb style of drawing. Try clicking her name in my "Fav Links" column and you'll understand what I am talking about. As masterfully as she did on Skalstad drawing, it takes only a few strokes (or lines) to come up such a masterpiece. As compare to my version above, I ended up doing a lot of doodles with a lot of guessing on my strokes. I can't seem to come up with lines that are only essential. It's my first attempt, anyway, I can forgive myself with that. It takes practice. I reckon why France draws anything she sees, from people to dogs, reciepts, cars, pens, bags, fans, etcetera. She has trained her eyes to see what she wanted to draw.

Charcoal on newsprint. I tried experimenting using big chunk of charcoal sticks, instead of the pencil, on these figures. One thing I learn is that it's not an easy task. To do shading, one has to have a feel of what surface of the stick is going to touch the paper, a corner edge or a flat surface, and to shade it very lightly that it is barely touching the paper, as he or she, would be careful on brushes.

Do what you could-- practice.

Charcoal on 9x12 paper. It's been more than a year now that I have not been in art school and it's sad. It's just too expensive and I'm tied up with some other stuff in life that I cannot completely commit myself to it. However, I continue to draw and paint, and apply what I learned in school. I tried to post them everyday, good or bad; it's all raw, no pretense, what you see is pretty much where I am at my level of skill. It's still a long way....

Charcoal on 9x12 paper.

More on foreshortening

Charcoal on 9x12 paper.

Between jobs

Charcoal on 9x12 paper. I did these exercises for about 15-20 minutes each at the hospital where I work during downtime. In drawing figures I don't always have to start the head down to the toes, rather I start at whichever part of the body that strikes me most. For example, I started the first one on top with the left thigh raised up then went down to the feet, then worked my way up again. With the second one directly above, I began with the hip then down to the toes, then worked way up to the head.
It is always easy to start with "blocking" the whole drawing to guide your parameter, then break them down into small "envelopes". Be aware of the "negative spaces" and eyeball constantly the horizontal and vertical lenght of each part that will guide your proportions. You'll be surprise that you won't have the need for the eraser. Always start light then put more pressure on your pencil for the final drawing. In my experience, at first, drawing figures feels like so technical, but when I got my groove going, it paved to creating more of my expression more than anything else. I have been trying emulate styles of some of the professional artists that I like, hoping that I could come up with something interestingly good. Again, I realized that there's no dead end in the road to learning.

charcoal on 9x12 paper.

Back to Basics

Charcoal on newsprint. It's been a while since I last opened the book, The Atlas of Foreshortening, where I copied all of these figures, but now I'm back to testing and honing my skills again. I'm more concern of the play of gestures, proportions, and style of drawing. I find lighting very challenging as ever. As the old cliche goes, you don't use it, you lose it.