Mandolin band. Grisaille :Oil on canvas
Study from Michelino da Besozzo: Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine.Watercolor pencils, pastels and leafing paint.
Feeding time. Ink on prepared panel 11/03 2009
10 AM. Watercolor and gouache on prepared panel
11/1/09
Sheep in the broomsedge. Sumi-e ink , black gouache and charcoal on prepared board. 10/31/2009
Llewd. Black gouache and sgraffito on gessoed board. 10/30/2009
Poplars. 10/29/09
Really like these drawings, cooz.
Thanks, Jolene. I took a life drawing class a few years back. The instructor was educated in the PRC. He said that about the only way to develop the internal logic of a piece of figurative art is to produce multiple drawings or paintings daily for awhile, then it’ll click. Part of the time he was a student, they were required to paint four oil studies daily.
One a day is the best I can manage, and sometimes not even that.
Yeah, it’s one of those skills that’s as much about perception and motor memory as deliberate action – practice is about getting the skills engrained sufficiently that you don’t have to obsessively think about what you’re doing. When I’m in practice, my sketches are accurate, easy, quick – when I’m not, they stink.
In Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Outliers, which I have not read but have read about, he talks about the idea that acquiring a high-level of expertise requires 10,000 hours of practice–of whatever sort. I’m not sure what his evidence is, but that estimate comports w/ what I’ve heard from cognitive psychologists re 10 years of investment in a field being the foundation of expertise.
There’s a news article re Gladwell’s book at http://bit.ly/3IxU7P
That sounds about right. I used to be able to partially mimic a level of deep focus by having a couple of glasses of wine. I got tired of getting sloshed at the easel, though, and the line between modest inspiration and hamfisted inebriation is just too damn fine.