From my sketchbook....

bored one day and did these, a jewel box, a bottle of white out and a lamp:

Pencil on Paper

Light and Shadow

This week we focused on the study of light and shadow. Trying again to pull us away from the 'outline then fill it in' technique we instead color a page of newsprint entirely with charcoal then use our erasers to pick out the light areas, focusing on shapes, then using charcoal to deepen the shadows.

I loved this exercise. And in answer to one student's lament: 'i just want to complete one pose please', the prof had the model remain in one pose, with several breaks, for the duration of the class. I was able to complete 2 drawings in the time (3hrs). Again, the teacher pointed out my issues with proportion but, and i'm quite proud to say, was really pleased with my work (he held it up for others to see!! the equivalent to putting it on the fridge door lol).

Compressed charcoal on newsprint

Gesture Drawings!!! (warning, this is a long one)

Ok, I had heard this term but didn't really understand what it is. According to Wikipedia (and my prof) it's:

...the practice of drawing a series of poses taken by a model in a short amount of time, often as an exercise with which to begin a life drawing session. The model may hold a pose for a few seconds or several minutes. More generally, a gesture drawing may be any drawing which emphasizes action or movement.

The point, according to my prof, is to help us, relax and open up our drawing more. He feels (and I agree) that as a class we are too tight, too focused on details. That we are too locked into drawing the outline precisely then immediately filling in detail. So this class was all about gesture drawings.

I had a hard time with this. With understanding what he really wanted from us. We started with 1 minute poses and the classes nearly had a heart attack. We'd barely put pencil to paper when the model moved. So he lengthened the time to 2 minutes. Here are the results:

Compressed charcoal on newsprint

He had us work with the flat side of the charcoal as opposed to the point to help keep the drawings loose and, well, gestural. He then reduced the time back to 1minute:

I got tired of using the flat side of the charcoal so snuck in one using the point:

Next, he had us pick a carrot (yes the vegetable) poured us each a measure of ink and had us continue with 2 min poses using the carrot dipped in ink. Why? I guess to throw us off a bit more, stretch our thinking and eye and technique. It was interesting. Messy but fun:

The final exercise had us sketching as the model moved slowly from pose to pose. This was the hardest bit for me. I struggled to complete several drawings on a page quickly, a full sketch for each pose:

This isn't really what he wanted from us. He explained he was looking more for a Vitruvian Man type of image, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitruvian_Man Oh well, maybe next time.

Lucretia part deux

So, I've returned to Lucretia. I didn't work on her too much cuz really i haven't been in the mood. I extended her arm a bit (i've got a problem with proportions, I'm workin on it) and worked on the shadows under her uplifted arm a bit. I need to go back to this at a later date but for some reason I can't wrap my head around her just yet and don't wanna force it

Pencil on Paper

Field Trip..

So, our prof had a conference to go to so instead of heading to class he instructed us to head to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, find the room full of white sculptures, choose one and sketch it out. Ok. I had several problems with this assignment. 1. I 've never been to the Met 2. what room of sculptures, isn't this place pretty big? how am i gonna find them? 3. uh hello? sketching in public? in a room full of nosy people? are you crazy?

Well, I got over it and went. With the staff's help I found my way into the European sculptures room and copped a squat in front of the statue of Lucretia:

I tore my 18"x24" piece of paper in half cuz the larger size was just too unwieldy for me without an easel. And after several false starts, I forgot about the folks and got to work. Here's what I ended up with:

So, for the time I spent on this (only 1 hour) I'm pretty happy. I should have worked on it longer but honestly, my butt was hurting, I was hungry and I had an 1.5 hr train ride to get back to the kids so I broke out. What's wrong with it? I think the arm she's resting on is too short, her left breast is too far to the left, the neck is too thin and all that fabric just threw me for a loop. I'm going to continue working from the picture this week. I'll post the new and improved version later in the week..

Anyway, that's it for now.. I'll share some more stuff (old and new, well not so much old cuz alot of it was destroyed or lost over the years but I have a few things to show) in future posts. Until later m'dears MUAH!

Fingerpainting!!

So...I showed up to the next class armed with all requested supplies including a tube of black & white acrylic paint. Everyone's like, paint? I thought this was a drawing class. But whatever. As we set up he tells us what he's got planned. We're doing 4 - 10 min poses. First we're going to use our fingers to paint the torso of the model. The point is to feel the movement, planes and shape of the body. After the paint dries, we'll do each pose again with charcoal. On top of the paint. Interesting. Anyway we get started:

Pose #1 - acrylic & charcoal on brown paper

Ok, in the beginning, I didn't understand what he wanted from us. So this isn't really fulfilling the mission.

Sidenote: our model this week had major 'tude. I don't know why she chose to pose with her arms up. Of course she couldn't keep them up there for the whole 10 min. 2 min in her arms fall and we're all like HEY! and she gets mad like 'my arms hurt'. Not my problem chica. You're the dummy that chose to stick her arms in the air. smh. Anyway next pose:

Pose #2

Ok, I'm starting to get into it now. With some direction from the prof I think I'm doing much better. And I remember that I much prefer painting to drawing. I'm already planning to get back into painting in my, lol, 'spare time'.

Pose #3

Again, major 'tude from the model. When it came time to do the charcoal she couldn't remember how she posed and we're trying to guide her and she's like no that's not right and we're like woman! there are 20 different pictures proving you wrong now turn left...jeez! anyway, i like this one as well but here's my favorit:

Pose #4

I love this one! And I really like the idea of mixing media..will have to keep it up...

Getting back in the swing of things...

Ok.. so it's been a lil bit since I've picked up a brush or pencil to create anything non-utilitarian. About 10 years to be exact. Yes, I'm blaming my time away from the art world squarely on my kids shoulders. Not in a boo, hiss kind of way. Just in a they've kept me really busy kind of way. Nah mean? Anyway, now that they're older and developing their own interests, I find that my interest in drawing and painting has returned.

But all this time away has left me rusty, self-conscious and hesitant about my skills. So I decided to take a class. (I'm big on classes, books and any sort of organized lesson. For every and anything.) Anyway, I'm taking a Life Drawing class at FIT and loving it. In our first class we had an older woman pose nude for four 10 min poses. Here are my results:

Pose #1 - pencil on paper

Ok, I was very nervous and feeling all 'I really should not be here, I don't know what I'm doing' for this sketch. I didn't have any supplies other than my kids pencils and a sketchbook I bought a year or so ago. But a few minutes in I started to relax a bit.

The 10 min went quickly and I had a lot of trouble with proportion but I was in it and feeling good.

Pose #2 - pencil on paper

Ok, there are some issues with this one. I attempted to do her arm but was thrown by the angle. The teacher comes by and is like don't even try it..continue the with the rest of the body. When he made his second pass he looked at the legs and was like you need bigger paper...

Pose #3 - pencil on paper

Ugh, I have no words.. was still struggling...

Pose #4 - pencil on paper

I feel better about this one..

At that was the end of class. I felt really good by the end and happy to be there. Very excited about what the rest of the semester will bring.