A weird drawing, Spring hope and 3rd Secret.
Late one night I wanted to try a brush pen to draw a mountain range. Until then I’d been using graphite pencil for my landscape drawing practice and been finding the “controlled scribble” technique for describing texture… well, repetitive and the fiddly, small movements made my hand ache. There had to be an easier, less painful way. I wanted to work quickly and spontaneously and not get bogged down in the detail so I drew from memory and imagination. This is the outcome…
Weird isn’t it?
There was something “wrong” about it.
It wasn’t until the next morning when I realised I had drawn the dark tones where there should have been light tones!
The good news was the texture of the brush marks were successful. I had used the side of the brush and moved it very quickly to skip across the paper. It was much easier, quicker and pain-free.
Then I had an idea. What if I photographed it and reversed it out? Would it make more visual sense?
It did!
A striking image of snow on mountains with darker tones in the foreground and lighter ones in the background.
I’m curious why my mind’s eye “saw” and produced the opposite tonal range to what I had been drawing in pencil for days previously and whether I could reproduce it. I’m not sure I could. At least, not in black ink on white paper. White ink on black paper would work and it certainly lends itself well to describing rugged rocks and mighty mountains.
Nature notes:
A snake’s head fritillary.
The bulbs were planted last year with a lot of hope and no expectation.
Half a dozen have grown and flowered, including two white ones, and they are delicately holding their own in the midst of vigorous wild geraniums.
What I’ve been watching:
Rick Beato’s YouTube channel. He’s a musician and educator and in the past has worked as a sound and studio engineer, mixer, record producer and songwriter and he knows his stuff. I’ve been watching his interviews with musicians from my favourite bands and I geek out hearing about the song writing process, the inspiration for lyrics and the bands’ career development. The interviews are long, in depth and very engaging.
What I’ve been listening to:
“I Choose Me” by 3rd Secret. I have one of Rick Beato’s interviews to thank for finding this. 3rd Secret are a grunge “supergroup” consisting of Jillian Raye vocals & lyrics, Jennifer Johnson vocals, Krist Novoselić bass, Bubba Dupree guitar and 1st lead, Kim Thayil guitar and 2nd lead and Matt Cameron drums.
From my sketchbook:
