Corrupting Madison Avenue

Posted on December 27, 2010 by Guthlac

Reading further into the Drawing the Head and Figure book I was given at Christmas it is clear that it was designed for designers and artists working in a Madison avenue advertisement agency in the late 50’s to come up with some art work for the latest product. Think of Mad Men and you would be about right. Now a days we have Google and it’s almost infinite resource of photographs to help inspire the budding copy artist. Back then I am not so sure so you would need rules to help make sure your person looked like a person. In short this is a style book – you want a man and he has to have a chiselled WASP look. The children have to have a Norman Rockwell quality and the women demure and slightly rounded. There is even a section on how a women’s nipple will move as she moves her arm towards the ceiling.

Anyway, I have tried some of the simpler exercises and they are really quite fun. However, I have let my 21st century aesthetic intervene and the women has turned into some burnt out Hollywood star who has too much of life’s disappointments written large on her face. Nonetheless, it is really great to have every step laid out for you – you want brunette hair then your pencil strokes should be like this and so on. What a wonderful book.

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Prescriptive Drawing – the 1950’s way

Posted on December 26, 2010 by Guthlac

I am working my way through my figure drawing book – c1950. May how prescriptive it is – take for example drawing the neck and shoulder lines. Here we are shown 11 different angles/types and the anatomy of the women is discussed in some detail for each. Not once is the reader told to look and look and keep looking. Instead it is all about the angle of clavicles and there relationship to sterno mastoids or something like this.

Now this is actually very useful advice and I must admit to have actually learnt a great deal from this. However, and this is a big empire state building type of however, it really sucks the joy out of drawing. An art drawing of a woman should also try and capture her humanity and femininity far more than the how the skin lies over the deltoid muscles. As an exercise in drawing technique this is very useful. As an exercise in capturing the essence of a person it is next to useless. However, call me old fashioned, but I believe you do need to understand much of what this book is talking about. You can then junk it if you wish but at least you will have the information in the first place.

Oh how things have changed in the last 50 years.

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The iPad in 2011

Posted on December 26, 2010 by Guthlac

I am not the first person to say this but 2011 could well be the year of the iPad. When the product was first introduced there was still quite a bit of confusion as to how the product would work. 7 months on a lot of companies are starting to develop apps for the iPad. The latest I have downloaded is so that I can record programmer on my sky+ box. This is so incredibly ingenious that it makes you wonder how you never had this in your life before. Getting away from the giddy excitement the really important lesson to learn is that there is a conversion between the different technologies and especially the iPad. I now find I have mine sitting next to me as I watch a programme and when anything interesting comes up, such as ‘…where have I seen that actor/ress before?…’. I have my trusty iPad on hand to allow me to dive into IMDB or Wiki or google to try and answer the question. As the programme I’m watching can be paused then I don’t miss any action. No doubt as the year progresses even more things will start to merge. Makes for an interesting 12 months ahead.

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Drawing the head and figure

Posted on December 26, 2010 by Guthlac

I have been given a wonderful book for Christmas called ‘Drawing the head and figure’. It is a Haynes manual of how to do this. It breakdown the body into it’s individual proportions and then explains how to capture these in a drawing. It is a great text book in it’s own right but the real reason I like this book is that it was first published in 1963 – the illustrations are much older and have a 1950s feel to them. I spend half my time working on the exercise and the other half deconstructing the illustrations for their hidden message. If you followed this book to the letter then your drawings would turn out like Hollywood movie posters of the 1950s. Quite brilliant.

I have also decided to try and work on these exercises on the iPad. Over the past few weeks I have found myself neglecting the iPad for real world drawing and I would like to try and redress this.

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Sent from my iPad

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When things get away from you…oh and I have a cold

Posted on December 24, 2010 by Guthlac

Well it wouldn’t be Christmas with out getting a cold and as I write this this Christmas is stacking up as usual.  My wife is stiff suffering from flu like symptoms and I have started to get a cough and splutter.

So It has been back with the sketch book and doodling.  Something drawings worked and some didn’t.  That is life I suppose.  The only question which one is which.  I am not sure.  Anyway, if I do come down with a heavy cold then I may not up to writing for a few days.  If this is the case may I wish anyone who comes across this blog all the best for Christmas.
 

Simon Marchini LRPS

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Learning to work with the pen

Posted on December 23, 2010 by Guthlac
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The more I work with a pen the more confident I get with my ability to obtain something interesting.  It is the old refrain ‘..the more I practice the better I get and the better I get the more I practice…’  or something like that.   The inability to easily correct any mistakes when using a pen means that you have adopt different approaches.  This in turn leads to different creative opportunities.  The trick, I guess, is trying to work out what these opportunities are and weighing them against their disadvantages.  Much like life.
 

Simon Marchini LRPS

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Doodling and illness

Posted on December 23, 2010 by Guthlac

Well thanks to the British education system my wife is suffering from a bad cold.  My son came home the other day with a heavy cold no doubt contracted at his university.   Being young he spent a couple of days feeling sorry for himself and then bounced back.  However, for the people who live in the same house with him it is taking longer and having a effect.   Now I have had a flu jab and this might have protected me from the worst effects.  However, my wife is suffering.

Now here is one of those Mars and Venus questions.  Why are women so crap at illness?  We men are the true professionals.  When we have a cold we devote all our attention to it – none of this carrying regardless – we are ill so that is the only thing that matters – front and centre.  We demand to be cared for and nursed back from death’s door.  Women on the other hand have this totally baffling attitude that they must carry on.  They come up with arguments that they have got too many things to do to stop.  These are just incomprehensible to the professional male – when you are ill you are ill – period.  

So I have managed, just, to get my wife to sit down and just do nothing.  Almost impossible but some how I did manage it – perhaps she really is ill?   Anyway, I have had to run around and do things but mainly I have spent time doodling whilst making sure she rests – yes she require constant obs otherwise she would be about ‘doing things’ .  The doodles can be spilt into two.  The first group are based on characters and photographs I have found on the internet.   With these I have been experimenting with the restrictions that pen and ink place on the doodles.   You have to be precise with the mark you make and any mistake is very difficult to correct.   With this in mind I made the Buzz Light Year and Woody sketches (I’m sure the Disney Corp won’t mind but I guess I will find out shortly if they do).  Another interesting thing with these sketches is that the slightest mistake  and you change the whole character of the person – manic Buzz is a case in point.

The second group are based on people I have seen on TV whilst sitting with my wife.   I find myself people watching and missing whole sections of plot and find I have to pause the programme and then go back and watch it again.  However, this is a wonderful source of interesting people to draw or at least sketches and doodles on.
 

Simon Marchini LRPS

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Mark making technology

Posted on December 22, 2010 by Guthlac

Before Gwyneth there was woman. This is the first attempt to make a drawing using Letraset promakers. The only thing is I added oil pastels and came up with a whole new way, for me, to make a drawing. However, the key mark making technology in this drawing was the choice of using a pen for the initial outline rather than my more usual pencil. This meant that every Mark I made was permanent and so I had to ensure it was exactly where I wanted it to be. To be honest I was intimidated by this and the initial sketch wasn’t as flowing as I would have wanted. However, it does give the drawing a strange ‘Dan Dare’ look but does highlight the importance of mark making, the technology you use and how you, the artist, reacts to the opportunities and restrictions placed on you.

Still it does mean that she is a stern looking alien female and I think it won’t take you too long to realise who I used for the inspiration for this – missing nose anyone?

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Sent from my iPad

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The ears are sad…

Posted on December 21, 2010 by Guthlac

Having just reread my latest posting I have to say that relying on auto correct on the iPad throws up some wonderful sayings. The latest is ‘..the ears are sad…’. Now I’m not sure how ears can portray sadness in humans but clearly the drawing some how captures this! Perhaps I should read the stuff I post before I post it but where would the fun be in that?

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Gwyneth

Posted on December 21, 2010 by Guthlac

I am still surprised where inspiration comes from. I was watching that excellent movie sliding doors last night and suddenly was inspired to make a quick sketch of Gwyneth Paltrow. The sketch didn’t really look too much like her but that wasn’t the point. It was the inspiration that was important. As the the film progressed I worked on the sketch using Letraset pro markers to add a little depth and colour.

This morning I couldn’t get the sketch out of my head so I decided to create a large drawing from it. This time I used the pro makers mixed with oil pastels to produce Gwyneth. Now she is not. Likeness per si but rather what the actress might have looked like if she hadn’t lead such a privileged life. Actually that is not far as whilst the the drawing developed I moved further and further from the actress to someone completely different. My Gwyneth has the sad lost eyes of someone who has faced a hard life whilst at the same time retained her femininity and dignity. The ears are sad but they still are full of life.

So thank you Gwyneth for the inspiration I hope you like the drawing, if you ever see it.

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