What is difficult about drawing a Guinea Pig? Showing up for my shortcomings.
I got a request for guinea pigs. It turns out that painting guinea pigs on cups was more difficult than I had thought.
I don't have a guinea pig so I looked at videos and photos of them on line. They look pretty darn cute, but amorphous. I even looked up how-to-draw-a-guinea-pig tutorials. How hard could it be? Still, when I started painting them, in the first go rounds, they just looked like demented sheep.
I confess there are things I just can't draw well - like horses or cars - partly because I just haven't done it much. But really getting all the details is not hard, it's getting them to all be in the right place that's difficult - and, not being able to draw something with facility is something that makes me uncomfortable. It raises doubts. Maybe I'm not good enough.
I read an article about Wilhelm de Kooning this week and apparently he was very comfortable with making mistakes - or even bad paintings. I thought about that for awhile. Of course he's not a figurative painter so not being able to quickly grasp the likeness of a rodent or a car is no big deal - but the issue here is dealing with one's shortcomings.
I suppose first you have to figure out that you have a shortcoming - and then just what it is. And that can be uncomfortable.
The truth is, yes, there is some quality to my work that I don't like. Sometimes it looks clumsy. Honestly, this is something that's been bugging me forever, but I've never really admitted it to even myself. But after saying so, it doesn't seem like such a bad thing.
I started to wonder if what I don't love in my work has something to do with the way I perceive space - I have a very poor sense of direction and I'm a bit dyslexic - I can't spell and I have no strong sense of left from right - but could the issue in the guinea pigs be that I have issues with proportion?
This might be a big realization. Yes, that is what bugs me.
I guess I'll give this some thought. Because it's also the thing that intrigues me the most - how we represent our experience with dimensional space on a picture plane - which on a cup is curved ... I think this idea will be continued because it's a big one.
None the less, after a number of tries - you can wash under-glaze off and start again, which I did a lot of - I think the little guys came out kind of cute, but - Some of the attributes of these creatures just plum alluded me.
I know it probably has to do with proportions - and I can work on that.
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Fruit, on the other hand is not so difficult to draw, however I set up silver dishes for the reflections, which are a challenge - but what I am really thinking about in these ink drawings is how the line works to expand and contract space - the entire space is confined - activated and also flattened - it's a space to work through. And one I am comfortable exploring.
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Here are two cut throat trout mugs with a source picture of one of my fish in hand. I find fish much easier to paint. But then I am pretty familiar with fish.
There are some on sale at Creekside Angling in Issaquah right now, and I can make more if there is some interest.
I have a fishing blog on my website if you are interested in that kind of thing. Fishing is pretty neat - and being on and in the river is fantastic.
link here - Although I have to admit I didn't blog as much about fishing this summer as I went fishing - too many other things to write about.
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