Life drawing 12 May

After a quick warmup sketch I offered a few exercises to the group to try - these are a few of my sketches from the evening. The first is a series of 15 second gesture drawings, all same page. The next was my last sketch of the night, just couldn't catch that pose so quick sketches of some of the people there. The next one down was a 5-7 minute drawiing where you keep your eye on the model & don't look at the page at all AND not lift the charcoal from the page. I tried it twice, so one drawing on top of another. The next was 5-7 minutes not lifting charcoal from page but allowed to look at paper sometimes while drawing, looking at edges. The last sketch was using opposite hand from usual, 5-7 minutes.

Waiting

Waiting 1 10" x 30" acrylic on canvas

The colours are a little richer than here (using a grumpy PC on XP to edit the photos, then taking to an uncooperative laptop with Visa to upload to site).

Waiting 2 10 x 30" acrylic on canvas.

I have struggled with getting back to painting for a few months, which wasn't a totally bad thing. I finished a book over the the first three months of the year. But I needed to be painting and somehow needed a kick up the proverbial.

Inspiration is an elusive thing. It's easily lost or squashed. A couple of friends provided the kick and someone else close to me seemed to provide the inspiration and I started painting again a couple of months ago. I've hundreds of life drawings and had been thinking of taking some into paint, but felt I had to come up with clever metaphorical ideas, or symbols or backgrounds to create a worthwhile painting. The consequence of that was that I did nothing. Finally I realised I was holding myself back, putting a restriction where there didn't need to be one. And just picked up the paintbrush.

Really there is no replacement for just putting the time in, the hours. And just like with the book, that is what I did. Fulltime, no outside teaching, just every day and half the night in the studio.

Submission

Acrylic on canvas, 16 x 28" on canvas.

From a life drawing, mainly in Payne's Grey so slightly bluer than this image.

On of the paintings I created in the last two months. Recently I exhibited a lot of work, these and other works of a figurative nature. It was interesting to see what sold. The current economic situation means there is not a lot of disposable income out there so I wasn't expecting to sell anything. The mixed media drawings were the pieces that sold. I LOVE creating those. Painting is difficult. Its painful. Like giving birth I say. I never know when something is finished. And am never satisfied of course. But the mixed media drawings, they are a joy to create. I love the whole process of creating the bases on which to draw, and they're fun to draw onto, direct from life.

Life Drawing Wednesday 16 April 2008

These are the first drawings from last night's life drawing group. The class is for two hours in the evening. We're lucky enough to have the tutor provide easels, back boards, clips, and even paper and conte and charcoal to buy at cheap rates if we don't have our own.

There were a few short poses of a couple of minutes - those are the coloured pastel drawings on black building paper - then longer poses of between 10 and 15 minutes I think. I was quite rough with the soft pastel, blocking in shapes using the side of the pastel, then roughly drawing in some line on top.

There is one drawing on brown paper, in compressed black, sienna and white media. That was a difficult pose to capture. Actually there was no negative space between the left arm (as viewed on the screen) and her body, but I kind of wanted the pose more balanced. The foreshortened body was difficult. The collar bones were fantastic - I didn't get those finished.

Life drawing class 26 April 2008

I wasn't very happy with what I drew on this evening - but I'll post some anyway. I ran out of large white cartridge paper, and used a cheap Chinese watercolour paper that was quite textured. It would be interesting to take a charcoal drawing further with this paper and put watercolour washes on it. I was happiest with the conte on black building paper. This was a pose I'd requested because it was similar to the one I used for the painting Extracts from Trapped Self. In that painting the figure is twisted slightly to the left and forearm rests on the thigh. I wanted to draw it again, this time from another viewpoint.

I changed the photograph of the seated pose into a negative and like the way it turned out. Hopefully my drawings will be useful as a resource in my paintings and playing around with them in a photo programme can help me look at them in a different way.

Life Drawing

These are some of last night's drawings (though I hesitate to show some with their wrong proportions). I've used Gallery semi-hard pastels on black building paper, compressed charcoals and conte on white cartridge paper. We weren't able to use our usual room for last night's class and the replacement was a smaller room, long and narrow, so it wasn't so easy to move around and find a different viewpoint.

I think the longest drawing was 15 minutes. I felt like creating loose drawings last night, used the pastel/charcoal on its side quite often. It's difficult to stop with a drawing. Sometimes I get something I like then spoil it by continuing to draw on it. I'd done a very quick drawing using charcoal on its side of the seated pose. I then started to draw lines on it and at that moment I realised what was on the paper had captured something of the model and I should have left it alone.

Another thing I do when I'm not sure if I'm happy about the drawing, or feel I've got it out of proportion is to start adding tone with light, dark or midtone, making short, sharp or scribbly lines. Last night I worked the charcoal into the paper and thought that was starting to work.

Waihi Arts - Life Drawing Classes

We're lucky to have life drawing classes once again up and running, commencing March 12, with John Mulvay. The class ran for two terms last year with community education funding. Classes are held in Waihi and the local college can provide details to anyone interested in joining.

Anyone who reads this blog will know I appreciate the opportunity of being able to draw from life (see quote on my page here). There's something about having a class to attend each week that keeps me up with my drawing. Keeping notebooks and visual journals all over the place helps as well - in the car, in my bag, in the sitting room, by the computer... but those drawings are usually fairly quick compared to a couple of hours concentrated drawing with a model every week.

Drawing the human form teaches so much about proportion, volume and structure in an expressive subject that has been an enduring theme throughout the history of art.

By the end of a couple of terms I was starting to really use my drawings as a resource in paintings and beginning to work up some of the drawings I brought home from class. I'd like to continue to do that, creating more finished works from the drawings. The gesture drawings would have to be my favourite though, those very short (one minute) poses that can really capture so much.

I have several of my drawings on my flickr page that links from the slideshow at the top right corner of this blog. The photos above are drawings as they were from the class and later after working on them further. The drawing of two models was done originally in red compressed charcoal and later worked on with indian ink, white charcoal and compressed charcoal. The other drawing was originally in black and white compressed charcoal, and I worked further with both media and some red charcoal. Both are on brown paper.