Posts By Alex Zonis
Let’s have a show of hands!
Studies in drawing and construction of hands from Drawing Dynamic Hands book by Burne Hogarth. (Click a thumbnail to see a large version.)
I think hands are so important in figure drawing. At times more important for the expression than faces. Yet when drawing a hand of a model I am always guessing, have no idea what’s on the other – invisible – side. This book teaches how construct a hand, in any position. I am thrilled to know, not guess or suppose, where to attach a hand to a forearm, how to position fingers, how to curve them. Amazing how everything has a logical geometric explanation to it – the fundamentals. Burne Hogarth is a genius.
I have more hands drawn by now, but am too lazy to do more scanning. I will draw more still, am not done by any means. These are basic forms, measures and construction blocks. Later in the book he is getting into stresses, actions, foreshortening, communications, gesture and behavior. Fascinating. I have my work cut out for me.
Graphite, sketchbook
People watching in Metropolis
Mephistopheles. Actually just a guy I know from my gym.
Reader
There is a lot of art activity on this front, but I am not sure any of the results are worth posting. I have two portraits in the works, one in graphite and one in watercolor. The graphite may be finished soon… ish… and may get to be posted then. The watercolor one is in early stages, and it is too soon to tell whether anything worthwhile will come out of this.
I have gone to a life-drawing session again and am still wondering if I should post my charcoal attempts. I don’t particularly like them although the model was absolutely great. I am also studying anatomy, specifically drawing/constructing hands working from Burne Hogarth’s book Drawing Dynamic Hands.
To keep up with the blog amidst all this activity here are two sketches from Metropolis café which is next to my gym. There’s wonderful people watching in Metropolis, and I indulge in it while trying to catch my breath after working out or waiting for my daughter.
Watercolor, graphite, sketchbook
Faceless and forgotten
Female form 1
Female form 2
Just a few days before the time Leslie created her Fabulous Faceless Figures I did my own. Independent of her. Great minds and all that… Same wavelength… I then proceeded to completely forget about them. Today I was packing my sketchbooks to go home and found them. One is Micron pen, the other mechanical pencil, both sketched from small statues my mother has on her sideboard. There seems to be something profound in the absence of face.
Yours truly …
Self-portrait
Here it is – the first one. My teacher says it is a good practice to do at least one a year. For a fast sketch the likeness is reasonable. I hope people who know me will recognize this image.
Graphite, sketchbook
Happiness
Happiness
What is happiness? No-no, I am not going to digress into a philosophical discussion here, this is a prerogative of my dear husband who can address this question properly in his blog Empathy in the Context of Philosophy and do it justice. (This of course is a shameless plug – check it out if you dare :D!)
Reality is simple: happiness is a terrific haircut! Not in Paris, not even in cosmopolitan and fashionable Tel Aviv, but here in backwater Netanya, not even in its French populated downtown, but in the sleeping district Daniel Ayache, the winner of multiple L’Oreal competitions, makes magic with his comb and scissors. Here’s the proof – my lovely daughter stepping out of his salon, laughing into the tropical sun with pure delight. That’s happiness! And amazingly happiness wasn’t even that expensive!
Milky Way, Netanya
Patron in a hat
Woman in red top
Businessman
Our favorite coffeeshop here in the sleepy town of Netanya is called cleverly The Milky Way, Shvil Ha-Halav in Hebrew. They serve beautiful cappuchino and enourmously sized salads. Now they are also famous for being the first cafe where I braved sketching patrons. The man in a hat is a regular, I noted him a while ago, but didn’t sketch because I didn’t have a good view until this one. The woman in red had interesting multiple chins as I looked at them in profile. Between eating and talking she kept repositioning them making my work more difficult. I generalized the best I could. The last guy had a very busy and no nonsense air about him, he chatted briskly with his companion, then got up and quickly left while I had my head down to my sketchbook for a moment, I didn’t even see him going. This is all I had time to do while he was sitting there.
Jerusalem watch
Jerusalem watch
In the city where trouble is always just a blink away military security is visibly present. Leaving Zion mountain in the Old City we ran into this group of security patrol. Boys and a girl with large automatic weapons were walking in the direction of King David’s Tomb. This is what normal life looks like here. I took some pictures. One day there will be peace. This day hasn’t come yet.
Local folklore
Sacred Book
Dancing Jew
Finally some sketches from Israel. It was hard to find an opportunity to upload and post sketches, but at last here are two. Just simple pencil studies of local folklore. Hopefully now that I got access to a computer, figured out how to scan images and downloaded GIMP to process them more sketches will come soon.
Hello and shalom to all my friends back home!
For being alive – in color
For being alive II
For being alive is now complete in watercolor. I am somewhat disappointed with the end result – I did not succeed in creating a sense of aliveness to the extent I imagined and planned. But I learned a lot in the process, so I am calling it a study. It is done in limited palette (pyrrol red, red oxide, ultramarine, cobalt blue, new gamboge and sepia). During a critique session in class I realized that my composition crop is working against the image, my background is not strong enough to bring forth my idea, and skin colors lost their variety of blues and violets somewhere in the process. On a positive side I am pleased with the 3D effect I was able to achieve, her expression and the lines of her body.
10″ x 14″ (25 x 36 cm) watercolor on paper