UH Figure Drawing 03/24/13 - Dulcinea

So I knew I had plans with my Aunt on Monday, which cancelled my Monday night class, so to get my figure drawing fix I went to the University of Hawaii figure drawing class. The model was a girl named Dulcinea, she was 30 minutes late to the clsss, so they skipped the 2-fives and the 10-minute pose.

I had a pretty good day drawing. I'm happy with the pages from that morning. Though it was a rather overcast day in Hawaii. My plans to go to the Waterpark and spend time with friends that afternoon were dashed by the poor weather.  Oahu's recent gloomy weather has made photographing work rather difficult.

Above is my favorite of the morning.There is always a struggle with drawing in a timed environment between what you can get done in the time limit. The normal figure drawing plight is a war between a portrait and the body. In 20 minutes you could get a really good portrait or a really good drawing of a body.

I am starting to get good at estimating how much I can get done in 20 minutes. I usually will compromise size when there is a difficult pose. I was rather happy when the model took a pose facing away from me.  I knew I could do a large study of her back in the 20 minute time limit. I am liking how I used the yellow ocher.

This page above has been giving me problems. I had a terrible drawing on it from a few weeks ago. I do like the new figures, though I think I can do more on the page before I call this one quits. I really do not like to give up on things.

This was the last pose of the morning. I hit the time limit wall on this one. I wanted to do more, but alas could not. I do like the outline of the hands in this drawing. The line is doing good pulling the hands forward in the picture. I am probably going to use this page again. Maybe I will turn it upside down and do another similar pose on the page.

All in all I had a pretty good Sunday morning.

"Everything starts from a dot."

 ~ Wassily Kandinsky  

Aunty Georgia

I have been to trying to do more portraits recently. I have been actively trying to draw my friends and now have discovered an obvious oversight in my goal, my family. 

My Aunty Georgia was in town for a couple days, going to her doctor's appointments, then heading back home to Kona. We ate at Macaroni Grill and then went back to her hotel room to watch Here Comes the Boom on Pay-Per-View. We shared a really fun night.

During the night, I had her sit for a portrait. I am really happy with how it came out. It has a really nice likeness. I love everything about this drawing.

The color is very Aunty Georgia. Purple is indelibly linked in my mind to her, just like red is to my Mom. I love how I rendered her hands. It reminds me of the John Singer Sargent in the Art Academy at least in concept.

While it is hard to tell from the detail the most rendered areas of the painting are the flesh. The figures, hands, and faces are tightly rendered and painted with minute details. Everything else, the clothing and the chair, are painted with really quick brush strokes; I sort of played with that idea.

I had fun with the oil pastels. Using the limited colors to varied effect. The yellow ocher looks really good on the purple. I only used it on her hands but I think it looks really nice.  

"To love deeply in one direction makes us more loving in all others."

 ~ Anne-Sophie Swetchine

Zwick Studio 03/23/13 - Sergio Final

Sergio's pose at Zwick Studios is complete. My painting is done and I am surprised how much I managed to get done on Saturday. I am pretty happy with how complete I was able to get the pose. It looks much more finished then I previously thought it would. There is something to be said about Parkinson's Law "Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion."

"The painter has the Universe in his mind and hands." 

~ Leonardo da Vinci