MsK & ToyPony Meet Crab-on-a-Halfshell
Yup, MsKitty’s still stuck at the beach. But, at least she has a buddy. MsKitty and ToyPony found crab-on-a-halfshell. All sorts of interesting things to see closeup on an otherwise flat beach.
My husband collected a tiny crab shell he found on the beach one day. It’s sun-bleached and sits in a half a clam shell, also from our beach.
As you might have gathered, I’m doing drawing research for a pending MsKitty series of paintings. With this drawing, I started from life then moved to my inner eye. I set up the still life and focused on angles, relationships, curves, volumes and “shadows”. I smudged and lifted. Then, I found a line and shape that excited me. With a little mental click, I transitioned to looking more at my paper than my still life. This is an automatic process that I like. It enables me to combine external reality with internal expression.
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Another great drawing! Although the crab is fully encased and acts as a separate entity to the overall design, you managed to pull it back in by creating the white triangle in the background that leads to it. Tough balancing act – made especially harder because of all the small details on the crab vs. the larger shapes in the rest of the drawing. I’ll be interested in seeing where this goes
Thank you Kathy! That “v” shape was a stroke of luck or sub-conscious insight this morning. The background had been toned in and I knew it wasn’t working. I started extending and linking lines until I saw this shape…and decided to try it!
Mental clicks and inner eye–somehow, I know what you mean.
Isn’t it funny how they work? It’s almost physical…!
Hi, Peggy. Time to catch up with blogging friends again after being away for my birthday. I went back and read forward from Thanksgiving. You have done so much good work. I really appreciate your sharing your thought and work processes with us. That’s so helpful to me as I continue to hone my skills. Ms. Kitty is certainly having a good time. I am fascinated by Kathy’s insight on the piece, and the way you arrived at the final design with intuition honed by many hours of doing art.
Hi Mary, Thank you for stopping by. I was thinking you’ve been busy, you lead such an active life down in the Bay area! I am fortunate to have interesting people stop by my blog and provide insight and encouragement. And, especially fun and interesting people like you!