Debbi Friedman's Blog » Nature Still-life

Completed Stones drawing

Debbi — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 01:08:20 +0000

Here is a photograph of the latest drawing I’ve been working on – an array of stones. I really did get them to balance like that! My friend, the photographer Jan Reiss, dubbed me “Andrea Goldsworthy”. I love environmental art – organic matter arranged in nature and then photographed, or visited before it vanishes. The colors of the stones have been accentuated, but they only take on a more pronounced hue of the color they really are.

I’ve started another drawing on Canson Mi-Tientes, and am off to buy more art supplies tomorrow to start a new oil painting. I spent several days this past week attempting to stage and photograph ideas I have in my head. Does anyone else find that they get these glimpses in their imagination of what they want to create, only to find it so difficult to try and create the vision in real life? It’s almost like operating in a dream state, and it’s very frustrating. Maybe I’ll get better at it, but I did manage to accomplish some semblance of my ideas. . . .we’ll see where it takes me. Any tips or advice from anyone?

New Beach Stone Drawing

Debbi — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:43:15 +0000

Several posts ago I mentioned that I had started a large stone drawing, only to find that it was going to take forever to complete if I continued on the Canson Mi-tientes I had started on. I bought some Rtistx board and started over, ran out of needed colors of Derwent Inktense pencils for the color wash background, and started a small graphite piece while waiting for the shipment of pencils. Here’s a photo of this piece that I finished last week. It’s done with graphite pencils and light layers of Derwent Graphitints in some of the stones. I wanted it to have a bit of the feel of a hand-colored photograph. I’m well underway with the larger piece and an really having fun pulling it together. More on that one later!

A little zen drawing

Debbi — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 15:45:53 +0000

As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve been working on a little graphite drawing, and here it is. It’s a very simple and zen-like composition. A black stone used in hot stone therapy that was given to me by a masseuse, a small peacock feather, placed upside down atop the stone and some shadows are all that composes the drawing. It’s small – maybe about 7″ x 7″.

I’m eager to move onto the next drawing in my rock series, and plan to try and incorporate water in the drawing. Coincidentally, I’m just back from the 17th Annual Exhibition and Convention of the Colored Pencil Society of America, where I took a workshop with CPSA Artist Pat Averill on the power of water. . . entitled “Unleash the power of water in your drawings”. Below are two photographs from the workshop: one of friends Dee Overly (left) and Mari Kaye Moehl (right) working on one of the four projects we tackled that day, and the other of workshop instructor Pat Averill. I’m not sure that the workshop concepts will transfer to my drawing, but you never know! We worked on the distortion of images in reflected water, drawing moving water (ie – surf), drawing water moving over rocks, and looking at wet sand to dry sand within the context of a seascape.

Balancing Act Finale

Debbi — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 19:36:47 +0000

Here is the finished version of “Balancing Act”. I have actually grown to like the green paper and the way colors of the rocks look on it. It was, however, very difficult to achieve certain colors with the green as a background – and difficult to create as many subtle gradations as is possible on the tan or blue backgrounds. Any comments about this, or anything regarding the drawing, are most welcome!

Most of these drawings are approximately 9 x 12 (or 12 x 9) inches in size. I’m going to start a smaller drawing in graphite on white paper of a stone with another object, and then return to working on the colored papers.

Balancing Act

Debbi — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 19:24:24 +0000

Another week and a new rock drawing underway. Isn’t that green paper wild? It feels so to me. I’m not sure I entirely like it, and it’s difficult to control the colors I want for the rocks with the green base. But it’s fun to experiment with these things, and overall I’m enjoying and liking the drawing.

We’re going to Little Compton, Rhode Island for the weekend, and the beaches are covered with these rocks. That’s where I collect most of my rocks, and I plan to do some more collecting this weekend. I’m always looking for interesting shapes, colors and rocks with lines on them, rocks that are very flat, rocks with interesting flaws, rocks that are almost round. . .. .. pretty soon I’m going to have the whole beach in my studio!

Fault Line

Debbi — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 21:58:58 +0000

I’ve almost finished this drawing of rocks which I have entitled “Fault Line”. As is usually the case with my posts, there are areas that aren’t complete and need more development and tweaking – the two red rocks, the white rock and the broken granite rock.

I’ve already developed my next idea for this rock series and am eager to move along, so I hope to finish this drawing tomorrow.

Playing with rocks in my studio

Debbi — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:35:41 +0000

I’m finally getting back to work in my studio. My younger son is off to camp for three weeks, and I’m recuperating from a minor surgical procedure yesterday on my right leg. My mind finally feels freed up again. I don’t think I realized how preoccupied I was with the surgery as it loomed in front of me – I’m so happy to have it behind me. And since I can’t ice skate or exercise for at least one week, I have plenty of time to catch up on all sorts of things in my studio! I’ve already organized many details that I had let slide – completing a list of unframed and framed drawing sizes; deciding which competitions to enter for the remainder of 2009, those types of things.

Now I am playing with stones in my studio, and toying with the idea of doing a series of 10 drawings and trying to complete them this summer. Working on the Canson Mi-tientes goes a little faster than the Strathmore Paper I usually use, so maybe this is possible? I have all sorts of ideas about combining stones with other simple elements, much like the drawing I just completed – “Rocks and Egg in Vase”. It’s an entirely different thing to see if it works. But I like the idea and am going to try and run with it!

Happy Summer, and if you live in the Northeast, let’s hope the sun comes out soon.

Rocks in Vase

Debbi — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:26:30 +0000

Wow that was a long break, and believe me, I did not spend all of that time working on this drawing. In fact, I have had very little work time lately, and none at all this past week. This drawing is basically finished; and as always, I will probably go back and tweak some areas for a day or so. I like the way it came out, especially the light filtering through the glass vase, and the colors. It was also a lot of fun to switch back and forth between colored pencils and Derwent Graphitint pencils. I may try doing a drawing with the Graphitints exclusively at some point in the future.

I have another idea for a drawing of rocks that I will have to play around with and see if I can make it work. I saw such amazing rock cliffs and formations on my recent tour of the Desert Southwest, and I have a vision in my mind that may or may not work!

Experimenting with new medium – rocks in vase

Debbi — Mon, 25 May 2009 21:57:35 +0000

It has been interesting to use the Derwent Graphitint pencils in combination with regular colored pencils to draw these rocks. The soft tones of the Graphitints lend themselves very nicely to shading stones. At this point, I’m jumping all over the drawing to get an idea of what it will be like, and balancing out the values and space. Nothing is finished yet – the glass vase, stones and bird’s egg, and foreground all need a lot more work.

Experimenting with new materials. . .

Debbi — Thu, 14 May 2009 15:07:06 +0000

I’ve started a new drawing experimenting with Derwent Graphitint pencils. I was intrigued by them last winter when I received the Derwent commission to work with their Graphite Collection, thinking they would be interesting to use for a rock drawing. Stones have so many subtle colors in them and lots of grays, and these pencils are graphite with just a tint of color. You can also use them with water to intensify the color. However, since I’m working on Canson Mi-tientes paper I’m forgoing the water, as this paper is not really intended for wet applications. I decided to put the stones in a vase to “contain” them, and added one different element (a bird’s egg) for variety of interest. I like the juxtaposition of the transparent glass with the solid heaviness of the stones. I’m posting a photograph of the set-up, as this time I’m working strictly from life. Often I will set up a still-life right on my drafting table and draw what I see right in front of me.

Other times I will use several source photos and combine them, using certain elements and eliminating others. This was the case in the drawing of the Wellesley Public Library’s fish tank. Below are two of the photographs I resourced from, as well as the finished drawing. You can see that I eliminated most of the fish, and worked to create the composition I wanted – adding in more empty space and using the placement of fish and plants to lead your eye around.