Two models this week

We were lucky enough to have two models this week. These are ten minute sketches. We often get 20 minute poses but I tend to do two drawings quite often. I'm looking for some alternative drawing materials - today I bought two Conte pencils, one H and the other B, and will try for some more contrasting edges, hard edges and smudgy ones - I don't often smudge but have seen some interesting results in the class so am keen to try.

We had twin lambs born to our one and only sheep a few weeks ago and they're gorgeous. I took a little video of them with the camera and tried to upload it using blogger's new video feature but haven't succeeded as yet, so I've put up a picture of the lambs just born. We've also got two calves as well. My son has been bottle feeding them and today successfully got them to drink out of buckets. Spring seems to have arrived, trees sprouting leaves, daffodils springing up, lots of birds around - we even had two native wood pigeons fly in and hang out for a while. There is a hawk hunting that tends to upset birds nesting in the paddocks but it's beautiful to see it soaring over.

Waitete Sunset painting

is progressing little by little. This is where I'm up to.

The Scribbler

A fun way to waste time (thanks, Denise!). http://www.zefrank.com/scribbler/

Drawings

Here are a few life drawings from the last couple of weeks. The landscape type drawing was from a 20 minute pose with the model lying on her stomach with her head supported by her hands, it took about 10 minutes then I did a couple of 5 minute drawings in more realistic manner. Most of these are drawn with compressed charcoal. The male front/back torso is also compressed charcoals/conte and I've painted it with an acrylic glaze which sealed it and painted the negative space. The model in the quick charcoal sketch is not pregnant ... looks a bit that way!

Faces

I've done so much drawing in recent weeks and not a lot of painting. Though I have a few on the go they're not progressing, so I've gone off on a tangent. Usually I work on an idea or theme, plan, do a couple of little thumbnail sketches, and try to produce (reproduce) my planned image. But I get to a point where I'm stuck. A bit like writer's block. I wonder if there's a term for artist's block, maybe that's it. Anyway, Here's a photo of the tangent - a tiny bit of collage and continuing with paint. When I get some more canvases this size I might create a few - I'm not sure who/what she is at the moment. It's something to do with the writing on the wall in the collaged cheek and ear. It'll come to me soon.

This week's life drawing

A couple of quick 2 minute poses and the other poses were either 20 0r 30 minutes long. I'd have liked to draw her hands while the model was lying on her back but ran out of time and didn't get them finished.

Male model

Trying to think of a title for the subject line...other than life drawing...perhaps male model will result in more hits on my blog. Joke. These are from last night's drawing class. The coloured chalk pastel gesture drawing on black paper was drawn while he walked around. The drawing with the negative space coloured red came about because I was standing quite close behind the model and his body was obscured by the cane chair in which he was sitting. Hence the disjointed picture. Decided to draw what I could see ... in bits. The sienna conte with black background was a long pose...didn't get much done, did I? He held the pose with two breaks and the post altered slightly with that, which is why I started to block in the negative space to help me maintain the drawing. We started with short poses for the gesture, then have two or three longer poses of about 20 minutes. The model was fit and strong and very good at holding the difficult poses.

Started working on another new painting yesterday, about 100 x 60cm. Will be acrylic, and in my theme of mine and body.

Working on some of the life drawings

I have a lot of drawings piled up and decided to pull some out and work on them. I had intended to do that in abstract fashion, maybe cutting them up and putting them together in new compositions, but so far I've just worked on these two with conte, chalk pastel, some indian ink, and charcoal (both compressed and pencil). I've put up the originals as well. I'm not finished with them yet. The white chalk is making one of the models in the pair look rather too buxom!

I've posted one of the paintings I'm working on, more of an underpainting I suppose. Bit different from what I've been doing - this is working from a photograph I took of Waitete Bay, Coromandel, at sunset (I think I've posted one of those photographs earlier in my blog).

Haven't been idle

but haven't got much in the way of photos to upload at the moment. Here is a drawing from a drawing pad I keep in my bag - it's a quick drawing at Omokora looking across the bay where some yachts are moored (Bay of Plenty, NZ) done in a sepia pen on beige paper. The other is one of the drawings from our life drawing class that started up again this week. Red chalk pencil on white paper.

I've been painting - not ready to post pictures yet, and helping a friend transfer a drawing to a wall for a mural he will be painting. That is an exercise and a half! Trying to transfer from a grid to a wall...amazing how much difference a line an inch out of place can make. It's a good experience for me as I'm not the most patient of people when it comes to trying for accuracy.

Drawing in the dark

A couple of drawings from my journal which I took along to a music night. It's a little challenging drawing in low light, in my journal balanced on my knee. A good challenge though. I used an ordinary rollerball pen.

The Artist's Secret

The title of this ever ongoing mixed media WIP. It's such a long time since I posted anything in paint I just felt like uploading it. This was started ages ago, and I add a bit once in a while. I shall continue to attack it from time to time. The title comes from the text - from a page out of an antique book.

and more Life Drawing...

Our life drawing class was invited to spend Saturday drawing at the home of one of the members. We organised a couple of models and had a great day in a warm and spacious venue. I enjoyed the challenge of drawing two models together. These are just a few of the drawings - after I'd finished the pen drawing of the models on the sofa, I did a couple of quick abstract drawings.

Blunt pencil

drawings from my journal tonight. Was using an 8B, very soft, and not sharpened as often as it should have been . This is an A4 visual diary, so the drawings are small. It occurred to me that I can scan these drawings rather than photograph, which should be a more accurate representation.

Carry a sketchbook...

Today I came across this blog - if you draw, take a look - I particularly liked this entry:

http://sevencamels.blogspot.com/2007/03/carrying-sketchbook-part-one.html

Life drawing

Haven't posted anything from the last week or two. Here's a couple of very quick line drawings, same pose. As you can I couldn't leave the hand alone... The other drawing is from a model one or two friends might recognise.

Quick pen drawing

This is a quick pen sketch I did today. I like the composition so will do another one with more care for a finished work.

The many faces of a man

It's time I did some work on portraits I think! These are all the same model I'm embarrassed to say. The first one shows him rather heavier than he is. Because he was moving quite a lot while playing, he became a little bigger, then a little bit bigger still...I was turning him into a muscle man. The drawing where he is standing up (pencil, and I've adjusted the levels severely so it can be seen) is perhaps the closest likeness but still...I can get a good likeness if I draw very, very slowly with a pencil. There are three or four faces I've drawn like that onto my flickr page that I was happy with. The white paper is a wallpaper, an old lining paper, and I've used the matt side which has nice tooth. It is rather crumpled looking from packing in and out of the car, but it's interesting to draw on different types of paper.