Opening My Sketch Book

I recently decided to reopen my college sketchbook and start drawing again. Skipping past my old attempts at quick still-lifes and object drawings, I began to draw female figures with swooping contour lines and attention to the details of toes and such. Like writing, drawing for me is rewarding yet draining. You pour all you have out onto the paper, and after such a purging you feel empty and exhausted. But the glorious feeling of having created something glistens, overshadowing the burnt out emotion that lingers within. My style is a combination of light, sketchy drawings and highly detailed ones—putting two seemingly opposite approaches together on the page can be challenging while also yielding happy results. Today I was perusing the internet and I came across a drawing called “Two Women Sketch” by Erin Payne. The piece depicts two female figures in a quick sketch that utilizes both light and dark strokes of a conte crayon. The drawing is whimsical yet determined in composition. The figures strike their poses and hold them as statues would, but their bodies look as if they could be blown away by a slight breeze. Payne created a juxtaposition of hard and soft, stable and unstable, permanent and fleeting—these combinations are compelling to look upon because of their extreme differences, differences that Payne was able to capture in an eye-pleasing manner. Strong and fragile are two angles that I try to convey with my drawings like Erin Payne so successfully does in her piece “Two Women Sketch”.  I attempt what Payne has accomplished within the pages of my sketchbook. I understand the concept, but to deliver upon that concept is another step that I hope to achieve one day.

Article Submitted by Alexandra Dailey

To read more articles written by Alexandra, visit her blog at http://alexdailey.wordpress.com.

 

To view the piece refereced, click on the link attached.  http://www.erinpayneart.com/large-multi-view/single/91015-0-/Paper.html#.UJlVLMXLTzo