Rosemarie - October 2012

So this is my direct supervisor in the community, Rosemarie.

This is the second portrait I did of her. The first was not my best work by a lot. This one has more of a likeness, though I'm a little unhappy with how heavy handed with the Burnt Sienna I was.

There is a cute story with this portrait. So after completing it I showed it to a a regular at the Wings Group, Scott.

Scott is on the autism spectrum and when I asked, "Who does this look like?"

He paused for a moment and said. "I don't know, but it almost looks like you, Mrs Rosemarie."

I reacted like I was happy that he recognized the picture, it was an affirmation of my talent as an Artist.

Without missing a beat Scott said strongly,"I said ALMOST."

My heart sank. ASD makes tough art Critics.

Forms in the Ink II

I like this print so much I decided to make a series of them. I had the prints completed a few weeks ago and now begin the process of working back into them to add the extra layers of details.

There are three points to this print series:

1. The original print had a mistake that created a neat effect. There was some water on the plate before the print was pressed. So all the prints have some water placed strategically on the plate before they were pressed.
2. There is the juxtaposition of the of watercolor and the Monotype.  The blended watercolor contrasts so nicely with the sharpness of the Monotype print.
3. I also want to keep the prints free of figurative shapes. I want to play with the edges of the print and create new shapes with the colored pencils.

This Print started with the red circle. It looks like an abstracted rose or swirling whirlpool. I then worked on the shape on the left. I like how the off white pencil plays with the ink.There is a nice flow to this print. This should be a fun series.

Odd Fellow Meeting - Cheylene

Looking through my drawings I noticed I have a lot of pictures from Odd Fellow Meetings that I have yet to post.

This painting is of Cheylene, a member of the other Harmony lodge, which is the other lodge on the island.

There are a lot of things I really like about this painting. I like how I rendered the hands. Drawing someone with their fingers folded like that is so difficult. I also really like how the legs came out. There is a nice core shadow on the right leg that is a nice mix of Burnt Sienna and Cadmium Red and really glows in this picture.

The whole painting  has a flat quality that I like. Almost like a print. I think these are highlighted if I crop the sketch down. There is a more polished, complete look to it.      

 

"To gaze is to think."

~ Muhammad Ali

Sketchbook - On the Bus - Red and Brown

Here are a pair of drawings done while riding the Honolulu city bus. I switched to red and a brown ink. I think they look a little better then red and black for these kind of sketches. It still allows for the variation in line and color, but is a little warmer because of the brown. 

Above is a woman playing a game on her cell phone. I like how I rendered the playboy bunny logo on her bag.

Above is a student at Kailua High School that catches the bus out to Kaneohe with us. It is a great whole figure sketch. I like the juxtaposition of his rendered figure and the contour lines that create his backpack.

"Love is the greatest refreshment in life." ~ Pablo Picasso

HMoA Drawing Class 10-22-12 - Kat

Monday Figure drawing at the Art Academy. Today's model was Kat. She was build like a runway model with a long slender torso that made the gesture drawings so much fun to draw. I did a couple of great drawings that night.

The drawing above is my favorite of the night. She took this pose and I was so happy. It was a great pose for her body and it had her head hidden, so there was none of the debate whether to do a good portrait or concentrate on the figure. It is a 20 minute pose with two gestures underneath.   

Above are three 2 minute gesture drawings with the two 5 minute poses on top. I really like the 5 minute pose on the left.  
 

Above is 2 gesture drawings and the 10 minute pose.  I actually managed to get a good portrait done in the ten minutes.

Above is my least favorite sketch of the night. It is three 2 minute poses with a 20 minute pose on top. It was the first of the long poses for the night. Kat took her hair down in the pose and it really threw me on this pose. It was a little rough to render with my oil pastels at the size I drew the figure. I do like parts of her torso in this drawing. 

This was the last 20 minute pose of the night. I think I will be doing a little more work on this drawing. Kat is posed with her robe draped on her. I like how much I was able to get done in the pose but would like to see what this will look like with an hour of work in it.

This life drawing class is on Monday at 7PM. It is located at the The Honolulu Museum of Art School, formerly the Academy Art Center at Linekona. There is a 10 dollar class fee.

"If only we could pull out our brain and use only our eyes."

~Pablo Picasso

Italy Sketchbook 7: Defeat of Hippolyta

So this is the last in the set of these sketchbook drawings from my study abroad trip to Italy.

The real lesson from these is there are so many great works of art people have not simply heard of.

This is from the Labors of Hercules by Giambologna. I only knew about them because my teacher Snowden Hodges did a series of huge drawings of them which are amazing.

I drew this statue three times total and really liked it. I did three close ups of different parts of it in the next few pictures. 

“And no one will listen to us until we listen to ourselves.”

  ~Marianne Williamson

Saint Icon - Marianne Cope

So this has been in the pipes for a while though I'm not quite done with it. I figured I'd share it considering the importance of today.

Today on October 21, 2012 Marianne Cope was canonized a saint. She is the patron saint of lepers, outcasts, those with HIV/AIDS, and those in Hawaii.
For the drawing itself I used a few file pictures and merged them together. I wanted to make her older as almost all of the images I've seen of her use the younger images of her.

I am unsure what to do in the background. For the icon of Father Damien I did a very traditional niche background to mimic what you would see in a Catholic Church. I like how it came out, although I think I can do better. I am unsure at the moment if I want to add a background to this.

"One must always draw, draw with the eyes, 

when one cannot draw with a pencil." 

~Balthus