Saturday, February 19, 2011

Room for improvement

There's something to be said for the gratification I get from self-improvement. The longer I do music, the more subtle my evolution as an artist becomes: I sing a little better with each album, my composition becomes a little less childish, my production techniques grow more tasteful, but progress is mostly in small increments. It's not the same as when I first started playing in a band in 1995 - long nights at the bandspace grinding out a challenging passage for forty minutes and suddenly my fingers finding their zone, and that eureka when we get through the section without stumbling. Those breakthroughs are rare now - I'm more likely to experience them while playing the drums or the bass, or looping something.

But I'm getting really pumped on this nude drawing class because I get that feeling two or three times a session. I'm still struggling with proportions and weird angled limbs, but I'm making big strides in muscle tone and utilizing the full spectrum of a black-to-white gradient. And I'm finding the patience to finish the pieces a bit more than before. One of these days I'll have something worth putting my name on.


5 comments:

Christine said...

Having seen your very first drawing for this class, I can say without equivocation that these don't represent baby steps; you're taking some BFG steps here.

These are very, very good, Gavin...I wish my name were on them.

Silent_loudspeaker said...

These are great.... I've now got something to aim for when I start taking sketching classes...

I like the "footnote"...

Anonymous said...

I like these. You've made great strides and I hope to start reaching something like this when I start sketching.

I like the "Footnote"...

Jyll Ethier-Mullen said...

A man of many talents

Ashley Allen said...

...All my drawings look like a cast member of Doug. You creative man, you.