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Dave Kobrenski in Artwork
May 2 2016 …
For the Malinké, dancing plays a very important role. Music exists for dancing; in fact the word for song, donkilo, is made up of the root words don (dance) and kilo (to call), so could be loosely translated to “come dance.” The music calls both young and old to participate in a joyful and healthy act of expression and joy. Here, a griotte woman shows her joy for the music at one of the many festivals that take place throughout the year.
The drawing below is 14x17” pencil and graphite powder on bristol board, and was a great opportunity to do a portrait study and attempt to capture the personality and joy of a woman dancing in a village in Guinea, West Africa. Below, I outline some thoughts and challenges I encountered along the way. I hope you enjoy and find this useful!
This artwork is included in my book Drawing on Culture: An Artist’s West Africa Travelogue, which is available to purchase here.
La Griotte II
14x17” pencil on bristol by Dave Kobrenski
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Step 1
Always my first step is to get a loose lay-in of the main shapes, focusing on how the subject fits on the page. Also, trying to capture in the simplest way possible the main lines that will help suggest energy and movement. This is arguably the most important stage, as errors here will plague you later. This is where lots of “quick sketch” practice is super helpful for honing your ability to capture basic forms quickly, loosely, and accurately.
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Step 2
Now that I’m happy with how the composition and main forms are coming along, I’m going ahead and drawing in the shapes and boundaries of the main areas of dark and light, really thinking about grouping things into two major groups: the shadow group and the light group. All other value considerations (e.g., values within the shadows and light) will come later.
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Step 3
Time to start defining my value range, starting loosely with everything that is in the shadow group and building up to my darkest darks. While doing this, I can think about how the light and shadows wrap around the plane changes of the face. Even though you see “features” emerging here (like eyes and mouth etc), it’s really about building up values and describing light and shadow. The features are just a result of that process.
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Step 4
In this step, I’ve started thinking about the background, and how it can be used to help create a focal point for the drawing. I’ve had some issues at this step, too, with some errors I made early on with the eyes, and it’s really bugging me! Here still, the eyes are out of proportion and it’s a little odd, so I’m going to have to suck it up and fix it before I move on…I’m fearing that in doing so this late in the game I could risk mucking up the drawing, but hey, it’s all for learning…!
Finished Drawing
This last stage was a lot of work, and I had some tense moments! Fixing the eyes was tricky so late in the game, but it paid off — it feels much better now, and the expression on her face is settling in nicely. Also, I had some challenges with deciding how much of the detail in the fabric I should render, and decided it was interesting enough to go for it in her headdress. My concern was that it would be too busy and distract from the focal point of the drawing, so I had to be careful with my value ranges here so it didn’t steal the show. Also, rendering her dress was a real challenge, because I felt that I really had to push the values quite dark so that it didn’t compete with the rest of the drawing. In the final hour of the drawing, I actually erased all the little fabric details I had started putting into the dress and started the dress over! Pretty dicey. But sometimes less detail is better: “say as much as you can with as little as you can” is a good mantra. In the end, I’m happier with how the garment aids in the overall movement and energy of the drawing without detracting from the rest of the drawing. Phew. Learned a lot! I hope you enjoy — DK
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La Griotte II
14x17” pencil on bristol by Dave Kobrenski.
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Drawing on Culture
An Artist’s West Africa Travelogue
An artistic journey of cultural discovery into the heart of West Africa.
“Dave Kobrenski is a gifted artist and musician, and a better anthropologist than many of the PhDs I know. Here is a fine text that depicts people as they are, illustrates their essence, and demonstrates the importance of appreciating, without appropriating, their lives and ways of being.”
— Katherine Donahue, Ph.D, Professor Emerita, Anthropology
About the Author
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