Creation, WIP, Hands
Today I finished blocking their forward hands. Really complicated, lining/triangulating all 28 knuckles. And a had to slightly move the hands general location twice.
When I finish blocking out the feet, I will then go over everything, using more precision in the contour lines.
This is the first time I get see what the overall image will look like. It wasn't possible to pose the models in this exact pose (that I held in my mind's eye), so with them I only saw fragments of it.
There are some very special composition things happening. His left hand (far distant) exactly mirrors her left hand (close foreground). By the trick of perspective, they are the same size, his is obviously in real life bigger but in depth it gets smaller, and her smaller hand being close in the foreground gets bigger. Happy synergy.
Another compositional element that blows me away is that their four calves share parrel axis lines. It is such a complex pose but by having a rhythm of forms turns something that would be chaotic into a dance.
Their hands' expressions are not into each other, they are creating the universe together, it is as if they are channeling their love, and the creation is coming out of their hands.
My technique is to build each of them from the inside out. Beautifully stated by Renaissance man, Leon Battista Alberti:
Before dressing a man we first draw him nude, then we enfold him in draperies. So in painting the nude we place first his bones and muscles which we then cover with flesh so that it is not difficult to understand where each muscle is beneath.
There are some faint suggestions, egg shapes for the heads and her ribcage. I use ball shapes of different sizes for the knees, ankles, and heels. The geometry helps me see the big forms, and it is easier to adjust proportions. If I go into realistic detail, and the proportion and abstract shape are wrong, then it is nightmare—the details take hours, so when it is wrong, I have to redo it all over again. Better, to hash out the proportions and abstract shape in the beginning, and as good as humanly possible, so that the detailing is just pleasurable.
I am still disappointed that his left foot will go over the edge. But taping some paper there will keep the drawing continuous, and drive home the fact that is this is really a study. : )
Michael, Idyllwild, June 20, 2022
Frame of References:
Alberti, Leon Battista. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Battista_Alberti
Alberti, Leon Battista. On Painting. [First appeared 1435-36] Translated with Introduction and Notes by John R. Spencer. New Haven: Yale University Press. 1970 [First printed 1956]. Book Two, pdf. http://www.noteaccess.com/Texts/Alberti/2.htm
Newberry, Michael. Hand Drawing Time-Lapse. https://newberryarchive.wordpress.com/2022/01/30/hand-drawing-time-lapse/
Newberry, Michael. Rhythm a Beautiful Way to Organize Chaos. https://newberryarchive.wordpress.com/2015/11/07/rhythm-a-beautiful-way-to-organize-chaos/
Newberry, Michael. Triangulation in Drawing. 9:25 min., 9,472 views. https://youtu.be/cdEHtxeO4aE