­Friday Cast Drawing - Session V

Vine charcoal on Canson paper, approx 18 x 24 inches

This is the fifth session on this drawing - you can see the 4th session here.

I worked a lot on the face - if you toggle back and forth between the two you can see the difference. I was unhappy with how "old" the drawing was looking, and I realized I had made an error which was elongating the face.

So I ended up redrawing the mouth significantly higher, as well as raising the bottom of the nose a bit. I also slimmed down the sides of her face and arched the eyebrows a bit more, and so now she is starting to look as youthful as the sculpture.

How much longer - so far this is a 20-hour drawing. I think I need to spend at least 3 more sessions, or 12 more hours.

Painting News
I have officially forgotten how to pant. At least, I've forgotten how to paint alla prima - single-session wet-on-wet paintings. I just keep making mud. I even switched to watercolor, hoping a change in medium would shake things up a bit, but no luck; nothing worth showing here is coming out of my brush these days. Maybe it's all these 20-hour drawings? My brain is just so slowed down and paying attention to details that I can't seem to capture anything quickly. I keep trying though. All these drawings I've been doing are just exercises to become a better painter, so hopefully the painting skills kick in again soon.

Art Shed News
The final day of construction on Le Shed was TODAY. In fact, the last worker stayed late and just left at 9pm tonight. I have the painter coming tomorrow (I negotiated and got a major break on the price I was complaining about last week). So the art studio should be done NEXT WEEK. Only several weeks behind schedule...