In the studio

Pictures are being made.

Let’s see what Sumi ink and pan pastels can do.

Select an enjoyable subject: Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker. 

Make two starts with ink.

Finish one distrustful; the other peaceful.

Their stories diverge.

And colored pencils, brayer, pastel ground, and ink — what can they do?

An art friend walked a couple of us through the method Chris Payne uses in his sketchbook.  I added twists to the materials.

Same enjoyable subject.

Again, two starts for me.  Too tame?  Too much hat?!

The sumi ink approach feels alive with movement and the variety of marks.  The colored pencils and brayer portrait feels quiet with its more unified marks. 

Can I add some movement using the colored pencils and brayer approach? 

Let’s press a crow into service once again. 

A bird in flight.

The result is somewhere between the two.

The colored pencils and brayer approach above matches the subject, especially with the bright colors.  Lighthearted.    

Let’s bring in another mood.

This one I call “Fat Lip” or “You should see the other guy.”

And on it goes. It’s a back-and-forth:  What does the story require?  What does the media allow?  It’s play that brings them together.

It also helps to have a giant magnetic whiteboard.   

In the studio, nobody is looking at me — so I can think.

Two ways to do that:  The first is by working small — with word stacks and thumbnail compositions.  The promising ones go onto the whiteboard.  The second is by working big — taking a nugget of an idea, drawing it out freely, searching for angles and connections, and letting it evolve.   

These get posted next to each other on the wall, and connections start to happen naturallly.

It’s the magnetic whiteboard that brings them together.