Sketchbook Skeleton

Skeleton from sketchbook

I rediscovered this sketch while searching for an empty page to work on.  I have many many books.  Some have been destroyed.  But most maintain the status of a treasured classic on my shelf.  These books represent, to me, the realm of possibility...ideas carried through to painting; ideas discarded; tender drawings whose success was totally unexpected.  Even pages with a line or two, brought to a premature ending due to the temperament of the model, or my own impatient mood.  Either way, I love them. 

What would you retrieve from your home in the face of disaster?  For me...my loving mate....and then my sketchbooks.

They represent a playfulness, a lightness of spirit that easily evaporate when met with the rigors of the leap to paint. 

This drawing was done from a live(?) model.....a skeleton housed in the public school art classroom where I teach on Thursday evenings.

Spooky is as spooky does.............

Skeleton   sketchbook drawing

Skeletons are intricate and complex.  Yet I am attracted to the drawing of them since I do so many paintings of the human figure.  It is helpful to understand what lies beneath the surface.  Although I am not a memorizer of bones or muscles, and never have been, I can only hope that the structure of the human form finds its way into my brain by osmosis.  Lucky for me, Judy Adkins, the art teacher whose wonderful classroom I borrow for my class, has one constantly hanging around.  Our assignment was "pot luck", as we used our view finders (standard rectangle) to scope out subjects for drawing.  We are working on composition and creating 4-5 major shapes in the work that fit together in an exciting combination.  Believe me, there is enough subject matter in this room for a lifetime of drawings!  We all worked quickly and quietly....the time passed so fast I couldn't believe it!  Although I could easily have spent 2-3 more hours refining all the shapes and honing details, I am pleased that this drawing  still retains the original energy that excited me from the first.  I will, in this case, let sleeping dogs lie.

Or would that be sleeping skeletons?