My figure drawing time resumed on Monday after a month away. It felt great to be drawing again. I spread them out on the kitchen floor after dinner and the munchkin and I looked them over. She said this was the best one “because it looks like a person.” It didn’t look much like the person I was drawing, so it was nice to see it through the eyes of someone who couldn’t compare the two.
She also liked this one, which is the one I like best,
and this.
She wanted to know why I draw all in black, white, and gray, instead of in color the way she does. I told her the truth, which is that it’s hard enough for me to manage black and white and I’m not up for the challenge of color right now. She also asked why I draw people naked instead of in their clothes. I said because that way I can see a lot of the beautiful parts that clothes cover up. She looked unconvinced. I think for her, clothes are more interesting and probably more beautiful.
When I told Munchkin I had been working on the veins of hands and feet, she jumped up to point them all out on the drawings. I explained what I found difficult and interesting about them, leading to a question from M: “What does subtle mean?”
The other subtle thing I decided to tackle today is the highlight that runs right along some places, like the muscles of calf and thigh here. I have never paid it enough attention and it comes out looking streaky, obvious (not subtle!), or nonexistent. Monday I really tried to look at it and see what its edge looks like. It was so absorbing that in twenty minutes, I never really got to any other part of the drawing, not even the knee, which looks kind of flat as a result.
Sermons in Stones 
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January 11, 2012 at 11:25 pm
sorrygnat
bright munchkin!
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January 12, 2012 at 9:45 am
Amy Zucker Morgenstern
It’s so much fun now that she’s at the age for these long, interesting conversations.
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January 12, 2012 at 1:30 pm
Karen Skold
I love hearing what the munchkin thinks of your art. She asks great questions that an adult wouldn’t dare ask!
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January 13, 2012 at 7:30 pm
Amy Zucker Morgenstern
Or that we don’t even think about. Why do artists draw nudes? Why do they use charcoal? “They’re part of the classical tradition.” That doesn’t really answer the question, not to mention that the munchkin wouldn’t know what I meant.
This morning, having reflected, I told her I didn’t think I’d quite answered it right. I said, “The reason I draw people without their clothes on is because I think that people before they put their clothes on are one of the most beautiful things in the world, and I like to draw beautiful things, like leaves and flowers.”
She said, “But your drawings are so ugly.”
“Oh?”
“Because they’re all black and gray!”
De gustibus non disputandum est.
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August 26, 2014 at 11:03 pm
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I’m not that much of a online reader to
be honest but your siges really nice, keep it up!
I’ll go ahead and bookmark your website to come
back down the road. All the best
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