HMoA Drawing Class 11-19-12

 
Monday was another drawing class at the Honolulu Art Academy. The model was new and this was her first time modeling. I didn't catch her name. I will try to catch it next class.

I didn't have that good of a night. Above was what I think was the best of the night. I do really like the left hand-- how the drawing behind it looks, and the tone underneath, creating that hand and arm. It is a really successful drawing.

Above is the first pose of the night. It is three gesture drawings and one 20 minute pose. I had a difficult time with this pose. Although I like the body in this pose, the face looks a little over worked.

This was the second 20 minute pose of the night. She took a reclining pose and I got low on the ground to draw this one. I think it is pretty good, though again, foreshortened poses like this are difficult to do in 20 minutes. 

This is three 2 minute gestures, two 5 minute gestures and the one ten minute pose. I do like the two figures that are visible although I disliked the third figure so much I drew over it. I may have to add a few more figures to this page at another class.

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.

"Artists get better by sharpening their skills or by acquiring new ones; 

they get better by learning to work, and by learning from their work."

 ~ David Bayles

2012 Koolau - Three Ridges

So this installment of the 2012 Koolau book comes from my drives home on Kamehameha Highway. As I'm driving home in the late afternoon, the sky is white with the perpetual cloud-cover of the Windward side of the island. There is a great view of three ridges of the Koolau Mountains, silhouetted against the hazy sky and against each other.  

I had to make a detour one afternoon and drew these ridges as the sun was setting.

The first ridge has the small tunnel of the H3 interstate going through it. I debated whether or not to include it. I decided against it because the painting looked so good without it.

In this painting, the clouds go a little thinner as the sun began to vanish. This painting lost a lot of the details captured in the first one. I still like the silhouettes.

"What is magic? In the deepest sense, magic is an experience. 

It's the experience of finding oneself alive within a world 

that is itself alive. It is the experience of contact and communication 

between oneself and something that is profoundly different 

from oneself: a swallow, a frog, a spider weaving its web."

 ~ David Abram

Man Studying on his Computer

I was at Starbucks last Sunday enjoying the air conditioning and the coffee. I decided to work on a watercolor. It was part procrastination, part liking the lighting in the Starbucks.

The watercolor came out very crisp and clean. I started with pencil and erased the guidelines instead of working with the watercolor pencils I normally do. I was able to do this method because the guy I was drawing remained relatively still. Nice of him to cooperate like that.

It does look pretty good.

"The most perfect technique is that which is not noticed at all." ~ Pablo Casals

Sketchbook - Work Meeting 11/15/2012

Last week I had a meeting for work. I took the opportunity to draw the other people at the meeting.

Above is my favorite one of this session and it is the one person I do not know. I like how I rendered her hair in this drawing. Her backpack also looks good. I am having fun using the varied thicknesses of pen. 

This is Noel. I have worked with her a few time before. She is a really nice woman. I made her head a little to big in this picture.

This is Matt. We have also worked together once or twice. This was the last of the sketches I did because the meeting was wrapping up, so I did not manage to get all the details I wanted into it. It is still a nice sketch.

"Take time learning new skills and principles...

 Knowledge acquired quickly, flies out the window. 

In art the tortoise wins."

 ~ Harley Brown

Kelly

This is a portrait of fellow Cammie, Kelly.  I drew this last year at the cabins.

I do like how this portrait is rendered. The red under his cheeks and in the hat looks great with the overlay on top of them. I also like the gray in the portrait.

"Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better."

~ Andre Gide

Student 4

So I am trying to finish up the half finished oil paintings in my house.

This is another of the paintings of students.

This painting took a lot longer then I would have wanted. His shirt took a lot of time to complete because of the stripes. I really like how I rendered the air tank next to him in this picture and the reflections in it.

"If you have anything really valuable to contribute to the world 

it will come through the expression of your own personality,

 that single spark of divinity that sets you off 

and makes you different from every other living creature." 

~ Bruce Barton

Student on a Chair

I was going through an old sketchbook and found this drawing in the back of it. It really jumped out at me for a number of reasons.

First, it was a simple sketch book which I remember purchasing because it was relatively cheap, less then 5 dollars. It has the Hungry Little Caterpillar on it. I then apparently went through the trouble of  toning pages in it. Then with all this prep work I drew in it with black ink; which seems really weird and a waste of all that work. 

I also was apparently in the mood to do a watercolor and only had this book. I also was working with the three color watercolor method, so that means I didn't buy my travel watercolor set yet.

It is a interesting snapshot of me as a painter last year.

I really like this drawing. It is of a student I worked with in the weeks between Thanksgiving and last December. I have done other pictures of him. It is an interesting pose too; it is amazing he held it so long that I could draw it. 

I really like the shape of the shadows on the wall. I also really like the use of the watercolor as an accent to the burnt sienna watercolor pencil. I may have to do a few more sketches like this.

"Among the several kinds of beauty, the eye takes most delight in colors."

~ Joseph Addison