KRЯRL DЯAWINGS: November 28, 2023

We drew at Sir Henry Morales' studio in Albuquerque:

In the style of Anthony Ryder

(though not nearly as good)

Bad Realistic Drawing

I've been trying to draw with the Anthony Ryder method, as I took a couple of workshops with him in Santa Fe, in 2019 and 2017. It seemed that the key to realistic drawing is working with a SHARP PENCIL and drawing lightly:

Anthony Ryder drawing with a sharp pencil

I have no patience for sharpening pencils, especially since they usually break in the pencil sharpener. So I draw with a lead holder, using a dull lead, which press down hard with and feel the resistance of the paper. This is probably critical to my more "tactile" drawing style.

However after I bought a Blackwing "Long Point Sharpener" from the gift shop at the new Vladem Museum in Santa Fe, so I thought I'd give sharp pencils another try. The Blackwing pencils also boast that they don't break in pencil sharpeners

Blackwing Long Point Sharpener

It's easier to get proportions with a sharp lead, especially if you hold the pencil from the side, and choke down towards the eraser. As Ellie pointed out, the Blackwing pencil doesn't need as much pressure to make a line, the delicate sharp point works just fine.

Moreover if you don't know what you are doing, and you have a sharp pencil -- if unsure, just sketch the line longer.

OTHER ARTISTS' DRAWINGS

I took photos of the drawings from some of the other artists that night, all drawing from the same long pose:

Henry Morales

(we were drawing in his studio)

Virgil Velasco

Ben Harrison

Bernini

The following AI generations were made in Leonardo.AI, using ALCHEMY and the model "KRRRL Long Drawings 07", with the prompt: "Sculpture of a woman sitting in the style of Bernini." Then the contrast was "normalized" (heightened) with XnView:

I altered my bad realistic drawing (the first drawing in this blog post) with AI:

Leonardo.AI