I Reckon I’ve finally gotten to a version of Black Crow that I’m happy with. I’ve been working thru different versions on and off for the last three months. This song has proved harder to finish due, I think, to the pacing of the lyrics which have short lines and a very straight forward (boring) rhythm. I’m not 100% on it yet, a few more chord changes needed and maybe editing out a word or two. I messed around with the loop pedal abit during the week too. The original plan was too come up with some very rough instrumental hip-hop’ish tunes using just it, guitar and voice but I’m thinking now instead i’ll try do a remix of each of the folk’y tunes I’ve already written. That way I can alternate the set depending on requirements of the venue – plain guitar and voice for a quieter crowd or something more rhythmical for livelier (drunken) occasions.
Been getting frustrated with the daily half hour life drawing sessions I’ve been working at the last few months. I’m sticking to just indian ink pen at the moment so tis mostly crosshatched shading I use for getting dark/light values. I’ve found I tend to spend too long building up layers and particularly with regards figure drawing (very subtle skin shades) I’m never too sure which is the best way to go about portraying the various shapes and as a result I get lost and the drawing loses its contrast. This may sound pretty trivial and (cough) excessive but when you look at artists like Charles Dana Gibson you can see an amazing economy of line used for maximum expression. I might try sticking to just one technique for a week at a time; crosshatching, contour, stippling etc to see if it helps me get a better grasp on tone and texture.
