Missing Stool

Missing Stool
Charcoal on newsprint

I’m just now getting a chance to scan some drawings from a couple of weeks ago. I think her right foot was elevated on a stool that I didn’t have time to draw. Or maybe I just lost touch with visual reality and totally failed in the drawing apartment. That happens a lot, but for now I’ll go with the missing stool version.

Waiting for a Table

I don’t sketch as often as I should when I’m out and about. But on this particular night (years ago) we took an out-of-town guest to Harry’s Roadhouse for dinner. The place is very popular, both for food and Santa Fe atmosphere. Which also means lots of people go there and at peak hours and you might have to wait for a table, especially in the summertime. I had been encouraging our guest to draw, so I took a sketchpad and while we were waiting for a table I made a quick sketch of Robin in her table-waiting pose. Skip forward about 10 years and when I ran across a scan of the sketch on my iMac I decided it would make a good etching project that I could keep loose and experiment with in various stages. The version above went from sketch to soft ground etching, then to a small amount of dry point etching,  then to digital print. 

In the next step, below, I added more tone and digital texture to the background, and also lightened some areas of tone to create highlight areas.  

   

From the Back

Quick Sketch from the Back
Charcoal on newsprint

I’m always surprised how foreshortened poses can make such interesting shapes. I’m also surprised when a quick two-minute sketch of a foreshortened pose turns out to be half-way decent. I think I’ll add this one to the series of etchings that I’m working on.