Kevin

Patricia Joyce · 03-02-2004, 10:49 AM

[QUOTE=Lon Haverly]"I tend to overwork pieces, any suggestions?"

What is it that drives us to overwork a drawing? Is it a weak concept of our drawing goals? Is it a lack of acceptance of our own work? Is it some kind of compulsion?

Hi Lon,
Wow! it's great to hear from you. In fact I was just thinking about you this morning on my drive to work. Wondering how you have been with your television broadcast, and figuring I had not seen you on the forum because you have been so busy. I hope it is all going well for you. I would love to see some of your recent seven minute drawings.

Your words ring true (in quotes). I would not say that my goals are weak as I feel I am learning so much about form and light as it falls on form. My technique has not developed to a point where I feel I even have one, and I want to develop technique, too. I am drawing every day and taking life drawing and portrait drawing. But I do not have interraction with other portraitists other than here. When I was in Fla in Tony Ryder's workshop I did not want to draw with so many good artists and Tony there. I wanted to watch them work, understand how their techinique got their drawings to beautifully finished stages.

I have your book. And I love your drawings. I do believe that if I had the confidence to lay down lines as you do my drawings would improve. In my classes there are many short poses the longest only being 20 minutes. I think I will concentrate more on line, especially in the Thursday portrait class.

Seven minutes, twenty-five lines - how in the world did you get to that formula??! I want to see some of these drawings if you could post them, I would be ever grateful. In the meantime will go back to view your previously posted drawings.

Thanks you, Lon.

Lon Haverly · 03-02-2004, 01:09 PM

Well, 250 lines or so, I estimate. The point being, I have a very systematic method which limits me, and I jolly well know when the drawing is done.

(I have been busy, but not with the TV show, which is very slow going. I moved to a new location, a mall which used to be referred to as the jail bait mall. Well, it turns out that my business doubled!!!! And, I learned something about marketing to my community. I have been very busy.)

I have been contemplating the dilemma of overworking a drawing. I would rather stick to my format and dump the drawing, than overwork it. I like to leave the lines alone and learn to trust my lines. It boils down to the integrity of the drawing itself. It is hard to correct a drawing, especially graphite, without doing it damage. If you are in the early stages of layout, that is one thing. But if you have a network of lines and you try to erase a few of them, you destroy the network.

It is much easier to fall subject to overworking if you are a photo realist, as there is a bottomless pit of detail you indulge in. If you work this way, you cannot give the viewer any small detail to criticize. ANy small error will be rejected by the mind. If you draw like an impressionist you get the landmarks right but are looser in the interpretation of the masses. You allow the viewer to use his imagination and fill in the blanks. He forgives the lines and thus the likeness emerges without the busy work. It is entertaining to the mind. It is an illusion of a likeness.

I will post a drawing tonight {when I am on a PC which has some drawings) to illustrate my point.

Patricia Joyce · 03-02-2004, 02:22 PM

I look forward to seeing your posting, Lon. I walk by empty kiosks in my mall whenever I go there (it is right across the street from my apartment building) and I think of you! Sounds like you're in the right spot for your drawings, and I can imagine people standing in line for a $7 Lon Haverly!! What a deal!

Lon Haverly · 03-02-2004, 10:51 PM

My estimate was low, for what it is worth. Over 500 strokes. Here is a 7 minute $7 pencil sketch. Good, bad or ugly, this is what I do. I call it a "Pencil Sampler." It is a paid demonstration. It illustrates the idea that I am an impressionist, and that the only thing overworked in my studio is me. These are drawn on printer paper with a 4B lead. No erasing.

Patricia Joyce · 03-04-2004, 06:07 PM

My son, Kevin, whose portrait is posted here just emailed me from the Pacific Ocean (off the shores of El Salvador and Guatemala) from the Coast Guard Cutter Active with their newsletter. Seems my 22 yr old son has been a busy man as they rescued (some time in the past few weeks - security stuff disallowed me from knowing this earlier) a 40-foot boat adrift with 109 migrants, including a pregnant woman. The small boat had departed Ecuador nine days earlier with dreams of reaching the US. Five days into the voyage the vessel broke down and the food and water supplies were exhausted. The crew deserted the boat leaving the migrants adrift. They had been without food and water for three days when the Active arrived. The migrants were transferred to the Active and provided with food, water, blankets and critical medical attention, were watched over round the clock and delivered safely to another CG cutter.

No sooner had they finished with that rescue that they boarded a fishing vessel loaded with more than five tons of cocaine with a street value of over $98M. Two Go-Fast vessels were aprehended as they were disabled with .50 caliber sniper rifle fire. Kevin's crewmen detained six individuals and transferred the crewmembers and the evidence to another Coast Guard cutter.

Thankfully they are now heading up the Pacific Coast to the waters of the Pacific Northwest, to home in Port Angeles, WA. And in three weeks I will be out there for a visit. I'm sure Kevin will have great tales for me. He pilots's the Active and is an Officer on Deck in charge of 1/3 of the crew. Your Coast Guard hard at work and

A Proud Mama here!!