Chick Drawing 5

The dreaded cuff has now come into view!! I would have really liked to come onto the blog this morning and tell you that the cuff was nowhere near the challenge my mind had made it into... but that would be far from the truth. So many lines!! Honestly speaking, the graph was the sanity saver in this whole scenario. Normally the graph is used to be a loose form of line placement. For the cuff, I clung to it pretty tightly to show me where all those little lines needed to be placed. In the end, I had to do the 3 foot step back and make the piece cohesive with my eyes. It is pretty close right now but will probably get some alterations before it is called finished.

One thing learned during the progress of this drawing is that I must be building more confidence in my abilities as an artist. When I start a drawing, my normal method of building a project is to go object by object of my choosing. (Not very smart I know, but it is my brain I am dealing with! ;-)) In the Dani Exercise Drawing, I picked the most difficult object first...the ball. In this drawing, I knew that the cuff was the problem, and it was put in the final slot of the three main objects. (Natural avoidance!) I never would have taken a chance like that at the beginning of the year. I really didn't think about what I had done (thank heavens!) until I had reached the lower third of the cuff. I'd like to think this is some breakthrough...Time will tell!!

Back to the drawing, I did have to break out the 9b pencil. The shadows between the fingers were darkened, and it had a huge impact on the depth of the cuff. During the drawing of the cuff, I threw a piece of paper over the chick and hand. I was careful not to shift my hand without lifting, so not to smear the drawing underneath. The paper could have been turned during this process to avoid that, but I really didn't want to add to the challenge of the cuff. I will turn the paper when doing the background. With all the dark values on the paper, the chance of smearing the work is so much higher. So this is where I am at right now. Very relieved and ready to go on to the background.