And then there was a Shepherd

Jim and Bella / graphite

Jim / graphite

"The heart is an instrument that rusts if it is not used. Without a heart, can one be an artist?" Edgar Degas

More Progress and a New Life Session!

I am taking my time on this big figurative piece. Generally, I am a fairly rapid painter preferring to complete a painting in one or two sessions. This one is demanding a slower approach and I still have a long way to go.

Happily, I found an on going life drawing studio at Nevada Fine Arts sponsored by the Reno Portrait Society! I am very excited and will attend as often as possible. The group meets mostly every Wednesday morning with a live model for portraiture in any medium desired. I went yesterday to check it out and found it was well attended with 7 or 8 other artists and a very interesting model. Roger, who works at the Reno Food Co-op posed for us but I have a suspicion that he is really Genghis Khan pretending in these modern times to be Roger! Any way, here are my two graphite sketches on newsprint. Each one is a little larger than life size - about 17 x 14.

Life and a Laugh!

Cyndi in Repose / graphite on smooth tan paper / 35 minutes

Today was the end of this current session of life drawing and I am so sad! There is something so magical about drawing the human form from life and I always wish it would never end. The poses today were excellent as our model was very intensely focused. I once again went for the view with extreme foreshortening and am happy how this sketch turned out. I think 30 or 35 minutes is enough for me to catch the essence of the pose without going into excruciating detail. This drawing is on smooth tan paper with a few white charcoal highlights here and there.

Cyndi / 20 minutes / ebony graphite on newsprint

We did two sitting poses and eliminated the  long standing pose today. I think the instructor had a fear of the model falling off the platform and wanted to reduce the risk of that happening again! In any case, each one was a great pose and I was happy.

Cyndi /  30 minutes / ebony graphite on newsprint

As a warm up, we did our usual five 1 minute poses - they are so quick, I am never sure what I am capturing with my Conte as I draw them!

Two 1 minute poses / Sienna Conte on newsprint

Three 1 minute poses / Sienna Conte on newsprint

And now that the life sessions are over for a while, I found myself wondering what I could do with these sketches. It seems a shame to just hide them away in their sketch books so I decided to try my hand at painting a few of them in oil and came up with this composition.  I am not sure what I will do with it but it was fun getting to this stage!

24x36 / oil on linen

I had a very funny conversation with my husband the other day and thought I would share it with you. Last week, after coming home from my drawing class, I told my husband about the incident with the model where he fainted and fell off the platform. I explained that he was nude and the instructor ran over with his robe to cover him and my husband exclaimed "You are drawing naked men!" When I told him yes, we draw nude men and women in life drawing class, he asked me "Can't you find a Farm Animal drawing class instead?" I laughed so hard - I had just assumed he knew what life drawing was - but apparently NOT!

Thursday Life Drawing and a New Painting Start

Ebony graphite on newsprint l4 x 17

Last week I had to attend to some unexpected family matters and was out of town for a while causing me to miss last Thursday's life session. Today is the next to the last class and I was overjoyed to be there. I missed some excitement last week when the model fainted during the sitting pose and fell off the platform! Apparently he was not hurt and even finished the session with the reclining pose! Today went smoothly with no model mishaps, thank goodness. This sitting pose was about 40 minutes and is my favorite of the session. I loved all of the many angles and sinuous curves, the foreshortening of the hand coming forward and the general complexity of the pose.

Ebony graphite on newsprint / 20 minutes

I felt like I was still warming up with this initial 20 minute standing pose. It is similar to one we did a few weeks ago with the model leaning on a pole.

Ebony graphite on newsprint / 30 minutes

I generally position my easel so I can have some fun with foreshortening on the reclining poses. This one was only 30 minutes as we ran out of time.


I also had a chance to begin a new equine painting since returninghome. Its rather large at 30 x 24. Here is the initial oil lay in:

And this is how far I have progressed so far:

As I may not get the opportunity to spent time in my studio tomorrow, I am hoping I can finish it this weekend.

And now I am off to have some fun in catching up with all the blogs I have been following and missed out on last week! I know there is lots of wonderful and inspiring work out there for me to view and comment on!

Back to the Drawing Board - New Life Sessions

1 minute warm up poses in sienna Conte crayon

 I forgot how nerve wracking the 1 minute poses are, and I felt soooo rusty and a little nervous with so many weeks between life drawing sessions. I tried just for the gesture - the emotional component of the pose - in these very quick sketches. It amazed me at how short 1 minute actually is!.

20 minute pose / graphite on newsprint / 24 x 18

 Gary was the model and it was his first time posing for figure drawing. He posed for the portrait workshop a few months back. He did a very nice job and held his pose well. If I thought the 1 minute poses went by quickly, this 20 minute pose went even faster!

45 minute pose / graphite on newsprint / 24 x 18

 This was an interesting pose to me - I was directly in front of the model as he was raised on a platform, sitting on a stool with his feet on another small stool (no time to draw the stools - lucky I had time to draw the fabric under him although he still seems to be floating in space!). In any case, in tying to take my drawing a step further, I tried exaggerating his forward hand and feet. Not sure if it worked or not.

45 minute pose / graphite on newsprint

I loved drawing this perspective - directly at the models head, seeing only a small portion of his face. I loved the shape of his legs and the glimpses of feet. It was a challenge and was a lot of fun to wrap up this first session.

Untitled / 16 x 20 / oil on linen

And today I began an equine painting - this is the first pass after about 2 hours of work.

Last Life Session

 It seems I always place the 40 minute supine pose at the top of my Thursday posts as it is generally the one I like best for some reason. It could be that I am feeling warmed up and more confident by the time we get to the third pose or that I love the reclining viewpoints the most. All drawings were done in ebony pencil on smooth blue paper provided by the instructor.

 

The model liked this effort as she felt I captured a good likeness of her, however, I found this one the most difficult as the landscape of backs always provide a challenge for me.

This standing pose was 20 minutes and I am most happy with the upper body and mid section. I didn't have time to pay much attention to the drape she was holding.

Fellow blogger and artist John Simlett got me thinking about Winston Churchill lately and  then I happened upon this quote from Sir Winston:
"The way to be happy is to find something that requires the kind of perfection that's impossible to achieve and spend the rest of your life trying to achieve it."

That about sums up this art endeavor for me quite succinctly and I hope you are all as happy on your artistic journey as I am on mine!

Life!

 

Alejandro was the model at life session this morning - very muscular and a lot of fun to draw.  I chose a position at the head for this prone foreshortened drawing.  Black ebony pencil and white charcoal on brown wrapping paper - about 18 x20 and 40 minutes.

The seated 40 minute pose was just as challenging! In any case, I am pleased with this mornings efforts. Unfortunately, I will miss next week's session as I will be out of town :(  My feeling is that these life sessions are invaluable in providing me with a real feeling for how flesh clings to the skeletal structure and accomodates itself with each unique position.  I have aways felt that there is no substitue for good drawing skills and life drawing is the best way to hone them.
Your comments and thoughts are always greatly appreciated!

Life Drawing - Thursday Morning

 

Cyndi was our wonderfully curvacious model in life drawing this morning. This was 40 miniutes on brown paper using black ebony pencil and white charcoal pencil for highlights.

 

About 40 minutes on newsprint. Something tells me I should invest in more expensive paper for these classes. The ripples in the paper are much more apparent in the photograph than they are when drawing.

This was the firt drawing - the warm up. About 20 minutes on newsprint. I don't have her weight distribution correctly in this and her upper hand went off the paper. Each drawing is about 18x24.

Art Workshop with Alison Harris

As most of my blogging friends know, I have been away from serious painting at my easel for several months and have been feeling very rusty. My problem is that I am having a very hard time feeling connected to the paint. It just doesn't feel comfortable coming off my brush. I have spent long hours doing study after study resulting in miles of wipe offs. So frustrating but I intend to push through this until I remember how to paint again. In an effort to jump start myself, I signed up for a Portrait/Figure Drawing/Painting Workshop with instructor Alison Harris at the NV Museum of Art. I am so grateful to have found this workshop. Its 3 hours on Friday afternoons and I am free to attend as I am now retired from my full time job! That is very good news indeed!

The first class consisted of drawing a medium gray scale cast of a well proportioned male head. The instructions were to draw the planes of the anatomical structure without any regard for light and shadow. The following 2 drawings are 2 of my efforts - each one was about 30 minutes.

The second Friday we had a wonderful (live) male model - Ron. He was very intense and held the poses well. He had remarkable facial anatomy - a long, thin face with prominent cheekbones, thin uppper lip, dark eyebreows with long well trimmed side burns, a pony tail and an earring. A lot going on! Each of these drawings was also about 30 minutes except the final one which was an hour.

Sorry for the poor quality of the photos. This workshop is only my second experience with life drawing and I just LOVE it. There is nothing like a live model, intense lighting and a kind but honest instructor. I know I am learning a lot and enjoying every minute. Thank you, Alison! Here is a link to her site - be warned there are drawings of nude models:
http://www.alisonharrispaintings.com/alisonharrispaintings.com/Home.html