Tuesday, July 15, 2008

"Wine Cork Trio" (revisited)

Oil on Board. Approx 4.5"x7" SOLD

I did this drawing back in December and felt it needed some reworking. I think it's much more dramatic and more accurate with the value structure. I am getting into the groove of some graphite work again. I have a few portraits in the works...and paintings too so stay tuned.

4 comments:

EFT Studios said...

Superb pencil work! I love seeing your paintings everyday...but this was a real treat! MORE!!!!

Susan Sawyer said...

Mike,
Nice drawing! And I'm also glad to see graphite drawings among the paintings. What's the paper?
Susan
(I'm a scientific illustrator, user of hot press papers and sometimes looking for a break from utter smoothness)

Michael Naples said...

Thanks for the comments. Susan: I use Strathmore 3 or 4-ply Bristol board for all my graphite work It's cold press which allows me to build up a nice even, smooth tone. To get the subtle dimension, I start with a block-in with a 4H. Then go directly too a 6B. Ding the 4H first allows me to be more direct and precise with the dark pencil. After that I go back to the 4H for some 'burnishing' if you will, to polish things up. I couldn't imaging using pencil on hot press. I used to do ink work on the hot press. I'd love to see some of your work.

Susan Sawyer said...

Thanks, Mike -- I haven't used that paper. I use a lot of Canson vellum finish 2-ply bristol, and Arches aquarelle hot press.

I'm working my way up to a blog. A lot of my work is graphite plant studies with a white background, and there are problems in scanning and photography that I haven't quite overcome. (photos get shadowy at the edges, and scans don't look that much like pencil. But I'll figure out something that's not too bad, and get it out there before summer's over.

The show last winter of Seurat's drawings (at MOMA in NYC) was really amazing -- he used the same laid-finish paper all his life, and made highly polished, luminous, subtle-simple charcoal drawings. Really gorgeous, and they made me appreciate a textured paper for drawing. I may get some of this Strathmore paper. Thanks for your comments on method! Always interesting to hear how other artists do things.