FRIDAY CHALLENGE #3 INK DRAWING ON PHONEBOOK PAGES

Here is the next challenge and you are going to have a great time with this one. I am combining several drawing exercises from the book into one. Using a discarded phone book (and you threw yours out!) is an idea used by FRANZ KLINE (AMERICAN ARATISTS 1910-1962) This is such a liberating surface because you really aren't worried about messing up an expensive piece of paper...and...look how many pages you have to work with! There is some bleeding from the previous drawing to the next, but it doesn't matter. Try as many different "tools" that will put ink on the page. I used a cheap Chinese brush (India ink will ruin a good brush) a bristle brush, a stick, an extra-wide Copic marker in blue, and a very large bamboo pen. I poured the ink into a shot glass so I could get different size drawing implements into the ink. When I was done, I poured the ink back into the bottle. I wanted to do gesture drawings but I don't have time to get to a life drawing class, so I use the sports section of the newspaper for great action shots and I also check out the library. They have a section of books for sale donated by friends of the library for a fundraising project. These books are usually only a dollar or two. I found a fantastic book on Michael Jordan for $1.50 Some of the photos were taken from directly overhead and had just the most amazing shapes. Very fun. Also there were some distorted camera angles. The one I love the most is the "raisin head" with huge butt and extra large hand. It was fun to draw. This gives me ideas how I can distort a figure even if the camera didn't. The next time I go to a life drawing session, I am taking a phone book! These are warm up exercises that really get you in the mood to paint. Make lots of them and send me several of your favorites. Hopefully I will have figured out how to make a slide show of them.