jennyarntzen.art

  Sleeping Rescue - pencil, pen and ink, 8 1/2 x 11 on paper Eddy was asleep on the bed. Gripped by a moment of optimism and energy, I made a combined pencil drawing of blind contour and observed contour lines. My perception of proportion is almost dyslexic, so I need to work back and forth across the subject to pull in and out of the shapes to get something approximate of my observed subject. The pencil drawing sat for a few days while I waited to figure out what to do next. Yesterday I decided to try something with ink. I mixed in equal measure, black and raw umber ink. In five shot glasses I spooned one tablespoon of water for each. The first shot glass received one drop each of black and raw umber. The second shot glass received two drops, the third, three drops, to the fifth shot glass, which received five drops each of black and raw umber ink. To look at the row of shot glasses, I could not see the difference in the intensity of the colour in each glass. They all looked the s...

  Self portrait - pen and ink, pencil crayon, crayon on paper - 9" x 12" - blind contour - 2014 06 22 Over decades I have practiced self portraiture as a process to make meaning and to practice and explore drawing styles and technique. Blind contour has fascinated me from the beginning. First, it astounds me how accurately the contour lines convey a likeness. Second, the distortions of lines flying off in space add a psychological dimension to the portrait - funny, curious, revealing of something not easily articulated in any other way. During the 2014 series, I was determined to treat the drawing with serious shading and tone, no matter what the drawing from the blind contour exercise looked like.  The process of making the blind contour is an exercise of close looking at my own face, looking deeply into my own eyes, an objective study of my hair, my nose, my mouth and my chin. It is a process of diving into the indoctrination of a lifetime of dictates to be 'feminine...