Drawing--Monotypes

Susan with Flowers, monotype, 16" x 20"

Susan with Feathers, monotype, 20" x 16"

My drawing needs improvement.
That seems to be a common cry among all artists, and one that I hear in my head lately. So I will spend the next few months working primarily on drawing, but I won't abandon painting and printmaking.
One of my teachers, Murray Dessner, gave me a list of five qualities to work on in my drawings. They are:

1. Size. Control the accuracy and scale of the drawings so that I can fit as many, or as few, items on the page as I want to.
2. Composition. Make the composition interesting; something that the eye travels and wanders through. I have to control the way the viewer looks at this piece.
3. Lines and marks. Definitely a weakness for me, my mark-making needs to become more varied and interesting.
4. Tonal range. Not every piece uses every scale in the tonal value range (from light to dark), but a good practice is to find every subtle nuance between light, middle, and dark.
5. Life. This was the one Murray had the hardest time describing. Each work of art needs to have an energy, momentum, and excitement that is unique to the artist and brings the work to life.

With these things in mind, I am setting out on my summer of drawing. I started today with bringing a model into the studio and making monotypes. These are made by rolling an even film of ink (or in this case oil paint) onto a plate (in this case plexiglass), and then drawing by wiping out the lights with brushes, cloth, pieces of paper, sponges, or anything else that will leave a mark. I then go back and brush more ink into some areas. Above are two monotypes from today.