21 days – days 3, 4 & 5

I didn’t have time for a post on Saturday, but I did get to the museum for my Saturday Study. Does that count as a 21 days entry? I think so, and it’s nice to do a study that I don’t think sucks at the end. Also, apparently I’m now a regular. I don’t have a problem with that.


Sunday’s study was Jeffrey Catherine Jones’ Tarzan Rescues the Moon. I’ve got to slow down when I measure; some of the early lines were almost but not entirely completely off and that just screwed me on later measurements that depended on those landmarks. Some areas (like the head and hand), I completely half-arsed, drawing what I thought I could knew rather than what I saw, as if I’ve learned nothing from my DRSB read-through. More haste, less speed.

The colours are still too aggressive (on the plus side, I could have a stunning career as a contemporary Fauvist), but the values are getting closer, but I need to be bolder with them.


Today was a painting by Greg Manchess. I can’t find a title for it, but it does involve another polar bear, so there’s that. I was five minutes in when I realised that it was starting to go pear-shaped. Remembering what Harold Speed about how fruitless it is to try to rescue a drawing that’s gone wrong from the outset, I junked it and restarted the whole thing. I could have done with those lost minutes at the end, but I’m pleased with the result (despite all the purple where the blue should be, again; what’s going on with that?).

I chose Manchess because I thought his his blocky brushstrokes would be easier to emulate (yeah, really). I’m starting to get a handle on what I need to do to get the colours down fast (blob it on, don’t bother blending, keep moving), and I think I’ll be more comfortable stepping down the level of detail in the under-drawing tomorrow.