Creative Endeavors: Libby Fife’s Studio Blog: Sketches and The High School Arts Show

LOC image-next painting Original LOC image for above sketch- sketch-note grid idea for next painting with original photo sketch-toned paper sketch-Crayola markers sketch-Prismacolor pencils-French Gray George Bellows-Wikipedia image The first two images are for my next painting. The original source photo is from the LOC and shows a boy on the bumper of a car during the very early 40′s. He is likely part of a migrant farm family in search of work. I will set his image against a large license plate-it’s a “concept” piece. The remainder of the images are all sketches done with Prismacolor pencils or crayola markers. My goal with all of these sketches is understanding of the human form. I won’t ever be a portraitist or a fashion illustrator. That doesn’t mean though that I don’t want to understand how people and clothing are built and how they function. The emphasis is on rendering those two things in various media with my own interpretation. It’s fascinating to me how one mark can alter something; how different mediums can produce different results and feelings. The sketching is really instructive. You can see in the first sketch that I have lots of little marks. I have tried to note how the fabric drapes from key tension points on the body. I’ll try and bring that out in the painting. I also have some facial features added in for reference. Hopefully those will guide me also during painting. Doing this sketch, I was able to do a little better because of the sketching I have been doing. I feel like I am learning. The last image is a painting by George Bellows. He was part of the realist school (AshCan School) during the first part of the twentieth century. Yesterday I was part of the team that helped to judge our local high school art show. I bought two paintings! The one painting may very well be a knock off of a painter from the above mentioned school of art and very reminiscent of that Bellows painting. I was so impressed with the artist’s handling of his watercolors-his fluid brush strokes underscoring the motion and fluidity of the human form-that I very much wanted to own the piece. The boxers look so pliable, for lack of a better term. I’ll show it when I get it. The other piece I bought depicts a nude woman’s back. Apart from some subjective things (a very pointy shoulder and man hands) it is a beautiful piece. The woman’s hair is done up in a bun of sorts and the artist’s rendering of the circular form of the bun is lovely and graceful. How do you describe a line or group of lines that looks effortless? Her paint strokes are very casual yet controlled. It will be a joy to own these two paintings. The upshot from what I saw yesterday is interesting also. There were a lot of middle-of-the-road pieces which seems about right. (I make a ton of these myself so why wouldn’t other people do that too?) There were several exceptional pieces though and only a few that didn’t hit the middle mark. I am guessing that many of the pieces were copied from an image. One ink drawing seems to have been copied directly from this Edward Weston photo. The other pieces were a mix of things from the imagination. These are children after all, some middle schoolers, who are still drawing from their imagination. There was a little discussion about copying too yesterday. Copying and tracing are sore subjects sometimes. All I can say is that the hand of the artist comes through no matter what. You can’t simply trace an image. Interestingly enough, there were several Georgia O’Keeffe inspired floral pieces. Some quite lovely. The whole experience was really instructive for me. I would sure love to talk with any of the art teachers just to know how things worked. OK, what? no painting this week? Well, I did complete one but I am less than enthused. I am having a hard time I think. Maybe I can write more about that a little later. Hope everyone has had a creative week. Thanks for reading and commenting. Libby