Life drawing 30 June

I'm beginning further study in fine arts, particularly materiality, process and horizontality. This is going to be a real challenge, going back to a kind of beginning place again, and in a way slowing down the whole process of artmaking to look at the materials and what they can do and my process.

One of my favourite models at life drawing tonight, very disciplined and able to move through poses without direction, and hold them perfectly. He likes to devise challenging poses.. both for him to hold and us to draw, but for this session we had several 20 minute simple poses to work with so I used mixed media.

They're all large A2 size drawings, done on heavy grade cream paper. First with an old brush and thin acrylic paint I very roughly painted some lines, some are quite ugly in fact, but I tried not to worry about that! I blocked in some areas with watery acrylic. Then I worked over the paper with soft and medium pastels and compressed charcoal. I ran out of white so used light colours in highlighted areas. One of the pieces has some collage on it. The room we use is a drama room at a local high school and our lighting choices are limited.

The first sketch is the only warm up I did...running late I missed the others.

It would be best to gesso the paper first next time, and have it dry, in preparation. That adds a nice weight to the paper, and helps keep it flat.

Drawing in the dark

Again set up the model & our easels & turned the lights off. This time there was only 2 small candles lighting the model & it was quite difficult to draw just the lit areas ...These are a large pastel sketch on black sugar paper. After a while I moved & started another from the other side of the model.

Mixed media

Recently I was involved in a one day exhibition of working artists... most of us were working at the venue so that people could view our process. Many stopped to talk and ask questions, and I sold Red Nude and Dream (mixed media collage drawings).

These are a couple of works in progress I began while there, starting with the heavy printmaking paper, then adding various media, some of my own monoprint material, antique text, drawing.

Drawing with light only on the model

We put all the lights off, & had one light shining on the model. There was time for two drawings of about 10 minutes each. All these drawings are fairly large, A2 size paper, about 10 minutes each.

Drawings 12.6.10

Top pose, found it awkward to draw though I was picking the poses this evening. Pays to take a little time & walk around the model to choose a view. I then moved to start again, still wasn't happy, so drew parts of the figure.

The next pose was a quick drawing, a couple of minutes, using a piece of compressed charcoal on its side, closeup of the face & upper body. I often begin my sketches by blocking in the entire figure this way, then adding lines & then highlights & shadows if there is time.

Ruapehu - quick shot from road on way past at dusk

..some snapshots today

If you look VERY carefully you can see the South Island across the Cook Strait in the distance. Was a gorgeous day today, a contrast from yesterday though I love the wild weather too.


About 5pm.

a few more random photos taken today

More random photos

New sculpture near the airport in Wellington.


From Te Papa. The figure on the left is sculpture.


Breaker Bay

Random photos taken yesterday

Between Paeroa & Te Aroha.


A few minutes later closer to Te Aroha.

Tirau.

Lake Taupo.


Mt Ruapehu before the weather set in & it began pouring with rain.

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.

My painting featured in magazine article

I've just been told one of my paintings featured in an article in a new Auckland lifestyle magazine which came out last week. Click <<>> to read the full article.

The information I was given about Urban Living is that it's a "leisure and lifestyle publication focusing on colourful lifestyle events, products and services available to the upbeat communities residing along the flourishing and vibrant waterfront of Auckland. Capturing the essence and elegance of the waterfront with refreshingly positive and powerful content Urban Living is presented in a cheerfully vivacious style and will feature a broad spectrum of spirited articles on fashion, interior design, dining and travel through to the arts, entertainment, shopping and real estate."

Urban Living is created by the same people that produce www.btob.co.nz and www.ruralliving.co.nz

Charcoal 29.4.10

Drawing on heavy cream paper, compressed charcoals, from life model.

Red dress

Arrived near the end of the first pose - got a super-quick soft pastel sketch done.

The other red dress drawing is in both soft pastel and compressed charcoal.

The kimono drawing is willow charcoal with some collage thrown on during the pose, at the top is a photo John took of the drawing in progress, before I added the torn paper.

All approx 18 x 24 inches.