Some drawings of musicians

Here are a few quick drawings from yesterday. Some musicians. I keep an A5 visual diary in my camera bag and used that more than the camera.

Art Therapy workshop

Why is it so difficult sometimes to just get into the studio and paint? It's so easy to let other stuff get in the way. I let other things get in the way as a way of procrastinating. I let too many things get in the way of my art. This or that has to be done before I can go in the studio... the phone rings... I can't find an idea... missing some material... excuses excuses.


Yesterday I attended a workshop run by an art therapist. This is the blurb:

'Processing Through Collage' will be presented by Janice Higgison. Janice is a very experienced tutor based in Tauranga. This practical workshop will use collage to create a timeline of life, tell a story, create a snapshot that reflects aspects of present life. or simply explore the process of selecting image and creating a new whole.

We created works that represented ourselves, and then how/what we want to be (goals...). The first work was to be 3D, the second could be flat or 3D. Was an interesting process and one that gave me some insight into how I might work some of my ideas into abstraction. Clearly I get bogged down in details because I like the small things. After we'd created our works we discussed them and this clarified not only the process but choices we'd made and standing back to look at my work I could see how those small details I'd put in, while important in the concept of the thing, did not need to be seen in the final idea presented. Hmm, I wonder if that makes sense. I'd made a 3D object full of little things but standing back to look there were three parts of the construction which stood out clearly and I could see how in my painting I can use this process to abstract key ideas and leave the details behind.

Long time no post

It's been weeks. I had the flu, then a few days respite, and then the flu again. Really laid low so haven't got any painting done, and I need to get on with it. I've missed the deadline for an art show because of this, and have a couple of commitments later in the year in which I want to participate so this has to change!

I did work up a few boards, priming and starting to apply paint but find I prefer canvas. It seems to "give" and be more accepting of what I want to do. There's a sense of working with the surface, whereas the board is unyielding and feels resistant.

Took my camera to a music club evening and took a lot of shots. The digital SLR has to be held up to the eye to focus, and I wasn't too keen to do that a lot - I was in a restaurant with lots of people around me, and I hadn't told the musicians I was taking photographs that night. A lot of the time I just sat the camera on the table and clicked away. Here are a couple that I've tinkered with on the computer, not fantastic but I don't post people's faces without their permission. It was a learning experience, photographing in low light (no tripod!).

Anything but the brush...well, almost

I've been playing around with paint in a visual diary (journal...) and using paint roughly, wiping back and through, applying it with alternative tools and few brushes. These are a couple of portraits I've done in the diary.

The blue painting is another exploration of using anything but the brush. I didn't intend to place a figure on the canvas, but it appeared, and I'm happy with it.

What will I do with all the drawings ...

This is one drawing from last night's life drawing group (compressed Pitt charcoal). I prefer shorter poses as it's all to easy to start overworking a drawing. My preference is for more gestural life drawing. Several in the group prefer longer poses so I need to think about a technique to use that will work for me for about 20 minutes. Usually after about 10 minutes I start ruining the drawing!

I've been thinking about how to use my drawings as a resource for painting. Still favouring textured painted surfaces, I'm thinking about how to create some figurative paintings, but I'm not aiming for realism. So this is the task for the next two or three months. Lately I've been working on small canvases not very happily, seems I like to work larger. Next step then is to plan some large paintings using my drawings as a resource...

I've booked into a short course with Bev Truloff at the beginning of December and looking forward to the inspiration.

This week's life drawing

Here are a few drawings from this week's class. The gesture drawings, though I noted them as 1 minute, were really 30-40 seconds. The other drawings are 10-20 minutes.

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.