Tag Archives: Rock

Couple

2010/04/23

This is an idea that I worked up in a quick sketch recently, and it has stuck with me. This 18×24 inch drawing works it out more, and on a vertical. The first sketch was a horizontal. It suggests a number of things to me including Venus and Adonis. But it is perhaps any couple in love, seeking the quiet sanctuary of a wooded place beneath a ledge outcropping. There may be a hint of apprehension in the eyes of the pair. Could it be Orpheus and Eurydice? Is there a serpent on the right that she is just at this moment noticing? The drawing is still quite open to different conclusions.

Two charcoal studies

2008/03/06

Drawings, Figure, Landscapes

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Consider the two charcoal drawings below, both executed at Rogers High School in Newport on the 13th of February, 2008, as part of the RHS 2008 Arts Showcase.
The original motif was a drawing of two figures taken from gesture drawings I did the week before at the high school during dance rehearsals. I wanted to show the students how two quick gestural sketches could be worked into a drawing and used as an idea for further work. I created a landscape setting with a tree, had a dancer hanging from one arm onto a tree branch and another seated on the ground. I executed this drawing quickly, in about 15 minutes, (I worked on it more in my studio later on) and then moved on to do two more in succession. The single figure on rocks by the ocean, while it looks quite different from the first, is really related in structure. Both have a kind of L shape just to the left of center and a series of shapes or lines radiating the right. The lower left corner of each is treated differently, but if you look at the two figures which connect in an L shape and then compare to the single figure seated on rocks, also making an L shape, you start to see the related compositional structure.

Two Figures charcoal drawing by Peter Dickison, copyright 2008.

"Two Dancers and Tree", charcoal, 2008.

Figure and Rocks charcoal drawing by Peter Dickison, copyright 2008.

"Figure and Rocks", charcoal, 2008.

Two Seated on the Rocks

2008/01/21

Drawings, Figure, Landscapes

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Two Figures on Rocks drawing by Peter Dickison, copyright 2008.

"Two Figures on Rocks", charcoal, 2008.

The latest idea I am working on both in charcoal and in a painting has two figures seated on the rocks by the ocean, but they are now separated compared to before. I take advantage here of the horizontal expanse of space to push them apart. I have a penchant for creating vertical compositions; I always feel great excitement for this form and a bottom to top movement. I got to wondering what would result if I should turn this two figure idea sideways and use a long horizontally shaped format. Would it hold my interest as much, and what would I do with all the extra space on either side? In the end, I think the extra horizontal expanse does not work out in this sketch- the middle is not well executed.

Above is the very first rough sketch. It sticks to the masses and how they shift against each other. Also the disconnectedness of the two tastes of loneliness.