Drawing - Measuring

Drawing is measuring and make no mistake it can be learned by anyone why applies themselves with a bit of disciplined effort. To draw anything you must relate one shape in an image to the next and the next and so on. The best way to learn how to do this is just by practicing and checking your work with a critical eye.

If your shapes are in the right place, detail is unnecessary to convey a good idea of what is being rendered. Conversely if your drawing's proportions/measurements are off no amount of detailed rendering will save your image. 

Wendy O by M Francis McCarthy

Correct drawing is still a challenge for me after 47 years of practice. Being self taught, I have some bad habits that are deeply ingrained. I have developed ways of compensating though  One good one is to hold the drawing up to a light and look at it from behind. Another good idea I use all the time is to turn my drawing upside down and look at it critically that way.

I highly recommend blocking in your big shapes and double checking the measurements before you do any serious rendering. I'm really speaking from experience here as I've been guilty of not following this advise and sometimes end up wishing I'd measured twice and rendered once.

A great way to train your eye is to do lots of quick sketches directly with pen on paper. This gets you to focus because you know you cannot erase. 

I've mentioned developing a critical eye a few times in this post. This has got to be the most important part of drawing well. At each juncture of your drawing you should be measuring, correcting and critiquing your work. Not in a way that's harsh with yourself but in a way that's honest and pulls no punches. This is the best way to improve and get ever better.

Today I'm putting up a drawing from 1985 of the now dearly departed Wendy O Williams. Can't say I ever dug Wendy's music but she was definitely a sexy rock and roll icon.

My main recollection now of doing this drawing was that it was done quite large on a nice piece of illustration board. I remember drawing this in my first solo apartment. It was done with pencil, a lead holder as I recall. Those were great for getting a super fine point. 

Obligatory Disclaimer - This drawing was drawn strictly for fun and I show it here for review and portfolio purposes only.

Drawings 3

This image was illustrated by me for a company I worked for in the eighties and nineties I will call Jab Art Enterprises. I worked for a guy I'll call Jude. I started there in 1984 and worked for Jude till 1997. For a long while I thought I would never be able to leave that job. More on that in some other post, some another time.

Cypress Point by M Francis McCarthy

Jude marketed this drawing and others to places like Montgomery Wards and J. C. Penney as part of a "California"series. The ink drawings were photocopied and then hand water colored. The Series featured points of interest in California  

At Jab Art Enterprises we primarily did contract framing on a large scale. We also produced "graphics" for the hospitality industry. At the time I drew this we we're more into department stores. I'm not sure if any of them bought this. 

The painter in me was coming out for the first time back then. You can see it for example in the way I knocked out the highlights from the cypress tree with white paint. 

At that time I was taking painting lessons from Smitty, a customer of Jab Art Enterprises. Smitty taught oil painting to stressed out corporate types as a regular gig. He had a few companies that he would set up in after hours and their employees would come and learn how to paint. Smitty provided everything that was needed including frames that he purchased from Jab Art.

He practiced a form of the Bob Ross style, quick landscape painting that was easy to learn. For my part I always preferred to use actual landscape photos rather than copy the formula paintings from a book that Smitty provided as reference for his students.

I owe Smitty a lot as he not only taught me for free but he also provided the art materials and picked me up for class. A wonderful man I'll always remember with gratitude. He is one of the reasons I write this blog and share what I've learned about art freely.

Cheers, Smitty wherever you are now.

Old Drawings 2

Putting up a an old drawings today. For years all I did was draw stuff in pencil and pen and ink. As I've stated in the past I believe good drawing to be the one irreplaceable element of any decent representational painting.

In this era of extreme photo manipulation, drawing could seem passe or even unnecessary. Ultimately those who can draw will produce stronger designs, illustrations or paintings. While those who cannot will spend a lot of their time finding ways around their lack of skill in this area.

Robert Fripp by M Francis McCarthy

This is a pencil drawing of Robert Fripp, illustrated circa 1985.The drawing exhibits a hatching technique I had devised of alternating horizontal and vertical cross hatches or "jits" as I some times refer to them.

I think that style is super important to young artists but as you get older becomes much more an internalized part of how you draw. I definitely appropriated quite a lot of technique from my illustration heroes. People like Bernie Wrightson  Neal Adams and John Byrne influenced me tremendously. Not to mention the king of them all Frank Frazetta.

The photo reference for this was a nice image already. Music and other popular magazines were a favorite source of drawing reference for me. My philosophy about drawing people at the time was to draw every type of person. I would often go though issues of TV guide and draw the various differnt people pictured in an effort to improve my drawing.

Old Drawings

Recently I returned from a trip to my home town in California. While there I grabbed an old portfolio full of xeroxs of many of my old drawings. The portfolio was put together in the early 90's but these drawings are from circa 1988. In 1988 I was 23 years old and living in downtown San Jose, California.

This was drawn in pencil. The model put on a lot of weight in later years but then again so have I since 1988!

Pencil again here but a bit later in the year. I was fond of using lead holders at the time with leads from HB to 4B pretty soft range. I really never liked any of the super hard leads. This guy was illustrated on Illustration board about 7 inches wide.

Another pencil sketch. I always enjoyed drawing historical figures. I remember being quiet pleased with the expression as I captured it in the sketch.

Unfortunately these are all copies of photo copies. I have a very heavy suitcase full off original art still at my folks place. One day I hope to get it and scan the entire contents at high resolution. 

Meanwhile, it's fun to play with the images. These were all done in the days long before I was anywhere near a computer and the copiers I had access too, I really couldn't play with until around 1992 or so. 

I will be posting more old works up as we progress as it seems like a fun thing to do.