{"id":4162,"date":"2025-05-08T14:25:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T18:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/?p=4162"},"modified":"2025-05-08T14:25:03","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T18:25:03","slug":"sketch-of-the-week-ygirls-aint-ok","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/2025\/05\/sketch-of-the-week-ygirls-aint-ok\/","title":{"rendered":"The girls ain&#8217;t all right\u2026 (Sketch of the Week for Week 18 of 2025)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>My son and I once again were of differing opinions. I thought the best sketch from last week was this one:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/IMG_3179-729x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"A pencil sketch of a woman sitting on the floor, defeated, head hung low and hair obscuring her face, hands planted on knees.\" class=\"wp-image-4163\" width=\"365\" height=\"512\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/IMG_3179-729x1024.jpeg 729w, https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/IMG_3179-214x300.jpeg 214w, https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/IMG_3179.jpeg 753w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 365px) 85vw, 365px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>He agreed that it was good technique overall, and he liked the gesture. But nonetheless, he thought this one was the best sketch of the week:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/IMG_3180.jpeg\" alt=\"A pencil sketch of a woman on the floor, reaching up toward the viewer as that viewer recedes up and away.\" class=\"wp-image-4164\" width=\"499\" height=\"492\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/IMG_3180.jpeg 997w, https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/IMG_3180-300x296.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/IMG_3180-768x757.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/IMG_3180-50x50.jpeg 50w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 499px) 85vw, 499px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I argued that nailing the foreshortening put this over the top, even if it is overall looser and more dashed off. No doubt, foreshortening <em>is<\/em> devilishly hard: You sort of have to turn off your brain entirely and just let your eye thoughtlessly control your hand to even get remotely close to getting it right. As such, even if the &#8220;technique,&#8221; broadly speaking, is better in the top sketch, it&#8217;s also true that the top sketch is very much an <strong>analytical<\/strong> exercise, one where I spent a lot of time layering up graphite in order to make this posture legible at a glance. As such, I didn&#8217;t just think about it; I vastly overthought about it, arguing with myself, breaking down what shapes were where and why.  Meanwhile, my &#8220;technique&#8221; was fundamentally stronger with the bottom sketch, in that it was drawn with almost no intellectual engagement or justification or analysis, just my eye guiding my hand, setting down what it saw. Simple recording, without analysis, is at the heart of the exercise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I dunno. I still feel &#8220;Defeat&#8221; is the better sketch\u2014or, at least, it captures the current moment better, and that&#8217;s what it&#8217;s all about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My son and I once again were of differing opinions. I thought the best sketch from last week was this one: He agreed that it was good technique overall, and he liked the gesture. But nonetheless, he thought this one was the best sketch of the week: I argued that nailing the foreshortening put this &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/2025\/05\/sketch-of-the-week-ygirls-aint-ok\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;The girls ain&#8217;t all right\u2026 (Sketch of the Week for Week 18 of 2025)&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_share_on_mastodon":"1"},"categories":[1021,1022],"tags":[113,1026,904,572,1025,1024,1105,717],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/a2mi.social\/@dave0\/114473612248011993","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4162"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4162"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4166,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4162\/revisions\/4166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}