Anyway, enough whining… click through for our conversation: Blade21292: Woot! Man, that was a fast two weeks!

Blade21292: How’ve you been?

Jeff_Knecht: not as productive as I would have liked

Blade21292: You and me both, buddy. I had HUGE plans for this past week and this three day weekend. NADA!

Jeff_Knecht: been spending my time working on some digital photography and a little bit (ok, a lot) of programming

Blade21292: Now see, that’s creative to. For work or pleasure?

Jeff_Knecht: pleasure… it was a hobby that turned into a career, and then stayed a hobby too

Jeff_Knecht: the fact that I get paid to do what I love is a just a giant joke to me

Jeff_Knecht: I’d be doing it for free anyway

Blade21292: That’s how I felt when I was in sales. Meet someone new, take ‘em to lunch and maybe golf… checks are direct deposit.

Blade21292: What have you been programming?

Jeff_Knecht: just working on a reminder system for myself

Jeff_Knecht: I’m not happy with what any other program I’ve used will do for me, so why not make something customized to my own needs

Jeff_Knecht: plus I’ve been wanting to try out some ideas with respect to user interfaces… this is a decent vehicle for that

Jeff_Knecht: anyway, it’s a huge time-suck. 6 hours can just disappear

Blade21292: That’s right, my friend, it’s all about what works for you. I keep a hot glue gun handy at home and work just because I am constantly customizing something. Beyond HTML though, I’ve never really dipped into programming.

Blade21292: And yeah, I know all about the time suck

Jeff_Knecht: I just got done reading your post about mowing the lawn… good stuff

Blade21292: I have been in trouble all weekend for not doing the yard work and such and I really did just now finish mowing it.

Jeff_Knecht: it’s nice to have a hobby that helps justify procrastination

Blade21292: Thank you very much, btw.

Blade21292: If my hobby were model trains, I doubt I would get as much support from my ART TEACHER wife.

Jeff_Knecht: but mostly, I loved the gesture drawing of the mower… great feeling of movement in that little sketch

Blade21292: I love doing those quick little sketches like that. Like a chinese ink brush or zen drawing. I love the way they look and I love trying to do them

Blade21292: I’ve got a little giraffe that I did at the zoo today in that style

Jeff_Knecht: I saw one you posted a while back – a zebra and giraffe… wonderful little guys

Jeff_Knecht: They reminded me of the animal sketches picasso did, where he tried to capture the essence of the animal in as few lines as possible

Jeff_Knecht: you should do more. those are some of my favs that you’ve posted

Blade21292: Yeah, but picasso could really draw too. I have to get there before I can pass off the stylized work.

Blade21292: Just like the first time I heard the guys from Metallica on acoustic instruments, I was astounded when I saw the realism works of picasso and warhol etc.

Jeff_Knecht: Ha ha… you sound like me

Jeff_Knecht: If nothing else, when you hear/see an artist do something that you normally attribute to “classical” artists, it helps you really appreciate that their style is a choice and not just the only way they knew how to do it

Jeff_Knecht: Either way, they elicited a response in me…

Blade21292: The biggest advantage of those drawings are that you can capture a lot quickly. I desperately need to get faster at people and animals and this is a really fun way to do it. I use a brush pen that I learned about from Russ Stutler at http://sketching.cc

Blade21292: So, carbon pencils eh?

Jeff_Knecht: yeah… carbon pencils…

Jeff_Knecht: I was having a hard time getting darks that I was happy with. These babies are (almost) black as night

Blade21292: how do yo handle gray tones with ‘em?

Jeff_Knecht: but as far as the grays… I didn’t use the carbon pencils for most of the grays. only the dark stuff

Blade21292: Have you tried them for the midtones?

Jeff_Knecht: if I were to use them for midtones, I’d have to create a

Jeff_Knecht: “carbon farm” and then use a tortillon to pick up the color and move it in very carefully

Jeff_Knecht: carbon doesn’t really erase, so if you go too dark, you’re stuck

Blade21292: That’s the problem for me with brush and ink is getting midtones. Can you not pick it up with a kneaded eraser? I’ve never tried these, as you can probably tell.

Jeff_Knecht: no – the kneaded eraser is just about useless

Jeff_Knecht: The nice thing is that the carbon and the pencil blend pretty well together

Blade21292: At least with ink, you can water it down

Blade21292: I will have to try this!

Jeff_Knecht: six bucks for a 4-pack: B, 2B, 4B, 6B

Blade21292: You know, when I get to go to figure drawing group I have been using china markers. Same thing, if you’re wrong or want mid tones, well that’s just too bad.

Jeff_Knecht: That kind of drawing suits me pretty well – I rarely erase anyway (I attribute this to inertia — I just don’t want to stop, put down the pencil, pick up the eraser, clear the bad line, start again)

Jeff_Knecht: If I erase at all, it is usually at the beginning of a drawing, where I can just delete the whole thing and start again

Blade21292: I read that on your blog. That’s one of the reasons I decided to do it that way.

Blade21292: LOL delete it! It’s easy to tell where your mind has been.

Jeff_Knecht: something about flying without a net, though, gives me a little rush

Jeff_Knecht: lol. woops… when worlds collide, huh?

Blade21292: Happens all the time around here too.

Blade21292: So, do you have anything in particular you want to look at this week?

Blade21292: I’d go for the candle, but you’ve already critiqued it pretty well

Jeff_Knecht: there’s even less to choose from than last time. But I’m actually pretty happy with the charcoal sketch of the harbor (though, it’s probably a bit TOO gestural to do a decent critique) and the candle.

Jeff_Knecht: You?

Blade21292: no no, I’m looking at the harbor now and I think you’ve you got some good things going for you here.

Blade21292: I like the chapel and the bell

Blade21292: You have a really good thing going with the atmospheric perspective here. Simple suggestive lines in both the fore ground and background, bringing the eyes straight to the focus of the bridge and the tree in front. The composition is great. I think if you had more time before it started raining you might have taken a little better stab at the details surround the bridge. I believe that’s a docking area in the lower left that I would like to see more clearly. And a little more demonstration of the water beyond would have just brought this picture home for me.

Blade21292: I get the sense that it is not very large, probably less than 8″ square? For that, I think you have a rendering worthy of any illustration book.

For Blade’s critique of the candle, visit The Artistic Biker

Jeff_Knecht: I really liked that chapel as well. Laura’s critique was right on… It has a very illustrative look to it, like something you’d see in a book. The greens in the tree on the left feel a little incongruous to me — it appears to be lit from below (the darker and cooler green is on top, and where I would expect the shadow to be is lighter and warmer). I love how you used blue to tone down the tree behind the chapel. I agree with Laura that the bell tower does make you feel a little like you’ve got double vision — some stronger lines or a darker contrast between light and shadow might help that. A little more shadow in the door to the chapel might help set it back and give a little more depth. Overall, this is a wonderful composition and a style that is interesting to look at.

Blade21292: Yeah, those trees on the left of the chapel are actually a cypress tree behind a cottonwood. I was just discussing with my beautiful young bride this afternoon if she had any tips on how to make that distinction in watercolor. She tells me that’s why so many people find watercolor tough to work with but she has some books on the subject. I’ll be looking at them and posting about them on some Monday discovery.

For Jeff’s critique of the bell, visit The Artistic Biker

Jeff Knecht: what brought you back to drawing? I know you mentioned your wife suggested it; but that can only get you so far.

Jeff Knecht: were you doing other creative things, and switched to drawing?

Blade: I was planning other creative things and never following through. My mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Last year at this time, we were planning her funeral with her.

Blade: It turned out to not be pancreatic cancer, just a tumor and was completely operable.

Jeff Knecht: wow

Blade: But I took that as my wake up call that I should be doing something more enjoyable with my life than just planning for another day.

Blade: So in June of last year, I quit smoking. In August I began looking for creative places to hang out online. In December I began my weightloss program. And in January, I jumped back in to art with both feet and quite publicly.

Jeff Knecht: holy smokes

Jeff Knecht: that’s quite a year!

Blade: Yeah, big changes in Blade World for sure!

Blade: Well, you said earlier that you didn’t like your bike helmut. I like the colors and the composition. I can see you weren’t satisfied with it, but I think you were headed in the right direction before you quit.

Jeff Knecht: watercolors are just so unforgiving. at least with opaque paints, you can cover over your mistakes. with watercolor, you have to live with it

Blade: A lot of people have said that about watercolors and I find the exact opposite to be true. Because of their fluid nature, you can get away with so much more.

Jeff Knecht: hadn’t thought about it that way

Blade: Shall we post a few pics for critique, or run with what we have and do some actual critique next week?

Jeff Knecht: you have stuff other than what’s on your blog?

Jeff Knecht: (I don’t — everything I do gets posted)

Jeff Knecht: but sure, we can do a quick one

Blade: Not really, I have some stuff that I’m not willing to share and I have some stuff that is not finished. But for the most part, everything’s posted.

Blade: I’ve got the figure drawings of my lovely bride, but that’s not going online.

Jeff Knecht:

Blade: So which of your works are you most proud of this week?

Blade: and not necessarily done this week

Jeff Knecht: well, since I only did 3 things, that’s not a hard choice

Jeff Knecht: the top of my dryer is probably my favorite from the week, with the handheld basketball game coming in second

Jeff Knecht: though it’s a close one

Jeff Knecht: how about you? which one(s) should I take a look at?

Blade: See, and I did very little beyond the EDM. I like the Hierarchy of love, and the lightbulb

For Jeff’s critique of The Hierarchy of Love, click here!

Jeff Knecht: You nailed the shape of the glass part of the lightbulb. I would have liked to see a little more contrast on the metal part. Lights and darks on metal are extremely pronounced, and I think that would help set off the difference in materials.

Jeff Knecht: You did a real nice job with the weight of the line where the bulb meets the metal. I wonder if the shadow should be a little darker on the underside.

Jeff Knecht: With respect to the shading of the bulb, I like how you captured the highlights (this where I think a slight color adjustment on the scan would help me see that even better, as I’m sure it’s even more pronounced in real life). I wonder if varying the direction of the pencil line to better conform with the shape of the bulb would make it appear even rounder

Blade: On the hand held game, you were concerned about the color mix. I remember that game looking EXACTLY like that color scheme. Earlie 80′s faded plastic and grease from your hands look. It’s great! I really dig the way you’ve managed to define the edges without consciously drawing a line. Here you had no problems what-so-ever mixing shadows for form. The dark around the buttons really make them jump out at you. I know the thing is almost completely smooth plastic, but I would like to have seen a little more texture. Some reflection on the clear plastic cover of the viewing area, or some worn fingerprints on the buttons. It looks like you started this on the lower side of the viewing area trim. I think it would have added another layer of POP to the buttons as well.

Blade: This is exactly the kind of still life that I really love though, so of course I again like the composition and design.

Jeff Knecht: I see what you’re saying about the highlight on the screen. I need to spend more time looking at my subject and drawing what is really there, not just what I think i see

For Blade’s critique of the top of the dryer, click here!

Jeff Knecht: Well, cool. Thanks for the crit.

Blade: Now that wasn’t so hard was it?

Jeff Knecht: This was great! I really appreciate the feedback. So much of what I get on my blog is just “nice job”. This was much more helpful

Jeff Knecht: You’ve given me some good things to keep in mind for next time.

Jeff Knecht: I hope I have too — but it’s been so long since I’ve done a critique I’ve almost forgotten how

Blade: Oh yes! Constructive criticism is always appreciated!

Blade: You and I have so much in common it’s ridiculous.

Blade: all except for the running.

Jeff Knecht: you wait and see… I didn’t start running until after I lost 40 pounds

Jeff Knecht: (yet another thing we have in common)

Blade: Yesterday, at the zoo, I found myself running up the hills just to see if I could. And I did and wasn’t winded at the top.

Blade: I’m sure my running as recreation is one of the signs of the apocolypse

Jeff Knecht: yup – that’s how it starts. Next you’ll be going to the end of the block, then around the block, then down to the park, and before you know it, you’re registered to run a 5-K and you’ve spent money on shoes designated just for running.

Blade: One step at a time.

Jeff Knecht:

Blade: Shall we do this again in say, two weeks?

Jeff Knecht: checking the calendar…

Jeff Knecht: yep – that should work. but might need to be later in the day/evening

Blade: Is 8pm too late? That’s when Girl2 gets her bath.

Jeff Knecht: that’s perfect

Jeff Knecht: thanks so much for putting this together

Blade: No problem. I think because we are almost at the same place in our lives, this would make a great regular feature.

Jeff Knecht: Most excellent.

You can read more of the conversation over at The Artistic Biker.  Blade’s a very interesting guy, and he’s looking for more critique participants.  Pop on over to his blog and let him know if you’re interested.