BLACK, WHITE & GREY, IN A PLACE KNOWN FOR COLOR

“DRAWING IS OF THE SPIRIT; COLOR IS OF THE SENSES”

Henri Matisse - French Fauvist Painter

“View from my Guatape’ Apartmento as the Afternoon Clouds Roll In” - Graphite on 9x12 300# paper

I grew up loving drawing. My father Robert Moody would go out drawing, and I would come with him when he was in town (either that, or fishing). He is a fantastic renderer, and I grew up seeing that and learned to appreciate it.

Also, the other scenic artists I worked with growing up, Dick Godwin, Paul Reising, Bill Christman, Tim Joswick, to name a few, all respected drawing above all else. It was the spine of an image. The foundation. If the drawing wasn’t good, then it was all downhill from there.

Maybe that is why I teach it today. I truly believe that if you don’t have good drawing skills, then you are working with half a deck as a visual artist.

“From the Cafe - Guatape’ “ Graphite on 8x5, 98# paper

I’ve shown drawings, and I’ve shown paintings, and I get so much more response from paintings. Maybe people see drawings as unfinished….less so with inks, but even then, color is what brings home the bacon.

So what I have been doing this trip is drawings, and then doing watercolor over them. I have shown the two-step process in other posts, and you can see that something is always lost and something always gained. It’s a lesson in non-attachment. But of course there is this digital record.

“From the Cafe - Guatape’ #2” Graphite on 8x5, 98# paper

Today I will soil my “View from my Guatape’ Apartmento as the Afternoon Clouds Roll In” drawing with watercolor. There is already so much drawing detail (almost too much) so I may not need to apply too much paint. But one never knows; I start a project and the adventure is seeing where it winds up. It is rarely what I fully anticipate.

Tomorrow I will show the result.