Trip to Asheville - On the Airplane

2013-06-24 On the Airplane, Colored Pencil on Paper, 8"x 10" 

So I am taking a trip out to visit my mom in Asheville North Carolina. I took the direct flight from Honolulu to New York on Hawaiian Airlines. It was a nice flight.

I did have the opportunity to do a sketch of the people in the row next to me. I do like how the details of this drawing came out.

I hope to have a great visit to North Carolina and hope to get a lot of art done.

"Lord, make me see thy glory in every place." 

~ Michelangelo

Arriving in Asheville, North Carolina

HMoA Drawing Class 06/10/13 - Catelin

Catelin 6/10/13 Page One, Mixed Media on Paper, 18" x 24"

Monday drawing at the Honolulu Art Academy. I had a really good night. I managed to get a lot of really good pages done today. The model was Catelin. She is very pretty with an interesting face and deep, expressive eyes.

Above is the first set of drawings, the ten and the two fives.  I really like how this page looks. It may seem simple, but it is my favorite of the night, mostly due to the gestures on the right side of the page.

Catelin 6/10/13 Page Two, Mixed Media on Paper, 18" x 24"

This was the first of the 20-minute poses. I am really happy with how this came out despite some earlier frustration.  On an earlier drawing, I used actual blue pastel instead of just using the color of the page. So while working on this sketch, the blue pastel kept messing up the colors on how I was drawing her face, especially the highlight on her forehead.

The way I rendered her body looks good here, it is loose, but expressive, though I am little unhappy with how the hand came out. It resembles a claw, but it is on the side, unfocused.

Catelin 6/10/13 Page Three, Mixed Media on Paper, 18" x 24"

This was in the running for my favorite of the night. I really do like this set of drawings. Jared, the man who runs the drawing class, took a photo of this drawing for the class newsletter.

Catelin 6/10/13 Page Four, Mixed Media on Paper, 18" x 24"

This was the last pose of the night. I am rather unhappy with the drawing. Catelin was reclining in this pose and I decided to do a portrait. It looks a little off. It is especially frustrating because I am sure given enough time this would have worked. Alas, the problem of a 20-minute poses. 

“Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.” 

~ Dr. Seuss

Cortney and Justin's Wedding

Centerpiece Orchids, Ink on Paper, 11" x 14"

So last month was Justin and Cortney's Wedding. Courtney was a friend since childhood of myself and my younger sister especially. The Ceremony was at Kualoa Ranch and was a beautiful ceremony.

I liked the center pieces which was just a simple bouquet of orchids in a wine bottle. I had a good time doing this sketch of them.

Bride and Groom, Ink on Paper, 11" x 14"

Above is my picture of the couple. It is not the best likeness but I figure it was a good start at least.

"Romance is thinking about your significant other, 

when you are supposed to be thinking about something else."

Nicholas Sparks

Working on the sketch at the wedding.

On the Bus.

On the Bus, ink on paper, 8.5" x 11"

After a work meeting, I rode the city bus and used the opportunity to draw the man in front of me.  I am really happy with this sketch.

I do like how the washes add to the drawing.

Zwick Studio 06/08/13 - Elaine - Color 2

Elaine by the Water - Day 3, Oil on Canvas, 9"x14"

This painting of Elaine is progressing nicely. I added color and am rather happy with how the painting is progressing. I need to work on adding more to the background.

HMoA Figure Drawing 06/03/13 - Kat

This Monday was drawing at the Honolulu Art Academy. Kat was the model and as always she is a lot of fun to draw.

Above is my favorite of the night. There is a nice tightness to the drawing that I like. Kat had her legs up on a stool for this pose but I knew that I would not be able to finish the drawing if Ii included her legs. It was one of those pretty, but really difficult, poses to capture in 20 minutes.

I made the joke that because her eyes are open, the drawing looks like a Law and Order victim. I do like the purple cloth underneath her; it is making a nice contract between the yellow in her skin tone.

This is the 10 minute pose over an earlier drawing.  The page is not done, but this drawing is a nice addition to it.

This is one of the drawings I am on the fence about. It is a nice drawing, and an  interesting pose, but with no hands or faces, it is kind of simple. By simple,  I mean that I should have been able to do more with the drawing. It is not my favorite of the night.

This page needs some work. As I was drawing the face I got a real Picasso vibe from the way I handled the pastel.  The outline was looking like how he drew some of his ladies. I softened up the outline and think there may be something in this pose. Let me spend a few hours on it and see what I get.

"If you add something to a painting, never let it be for aesthetic reasons. 

Only let it be for reasons of expression." 

~ Asger Jorn

Ko'olau Mountains from Kaʻaʻawa

Ko'olau Mountains from Ka'a'awa, Ink on Paper, 11" x 14"

So at the request of a friend, I found myself in Kaʻaʻawa  He was photographing a wedding and needed some help. The weather was not agreeing with us, I had some down time, so I drew the Ko'olau Mountains.

On the windward side of Oahu, you can always draw the Ko'olau Mountains.

I used my fountain pens and am really happy with how the above drawing came out. The ridges of the Ko'olau Mountains are really a lot of fun to draw. It was also a challenge to try and render them with just the two colors in ink.

I really like how I rendered the palm trees and the one "fake" palm tree, otherwise known as a civil defense warning siren.

I even got a quick sketch of the wedding party...

Wedding Party, Ink on Paper, 11" x `14"

“Patience, grasshopper," said Maia. "Good things come to those who wait."

"I always thought that was 'Good things come to those who do the wave,'" said Simon. 

"No wonder I've been so confused all my life.” 

~ Cassandra Clare, City of Glass

Candy's Drawing Spectacular 05/26/13

Candy, one of the regulars of the drawing classes I attend, invited me to a drawing event she does a few time a year. She calls is a marathon drawing session, but in honor of her I will call it "Candy's Drawing Spectacular."

The session ran for 6 hours. There were 6 different models each posing for 50 minutes. The pose time varied from 2-10 minutes. The pace was exhilarating and the time flew by-- it was a great time. There also were no set pose order. Candy would set the times, depending on the model and the pose, and if anyone needed more time with a pose they could shout out for an extension.

Overall I was really happy with the day. The pose are short so it took me a while to get into the groove of the session. I am normally really bad at the short poses, at least with oil pastel. I may next time just use pen or charcoal for this session.

There are four drawing pages here from hour 2 to hour 5.   I didn't include page 1 from this session because I was really unhappy with it.

Above was my favorite of the session; this is hour 5, the last one I drew (I had to leave early to get to a wedding). The model was Honey who posed for a long painting session at Zwick Studio. I really started to like the later sessions. I was getting used to what I could draw in the pose times and getting better at building pages out of the various poses. All really helpful skills.

 

This is the first time I drew this model. His name is Keith and  he has the most unusual tattoo over his left eye. It is of a square with a concentric circle in it. I have heard from others that he used to be a regular model, but an injury had kept him from working recently. 

I do like this page. This is an example of me not realizing how quick the sessions were as I clumped the poses expecting to have to fit more poses in. I was having fun with outlines in this page. 

Above is Karli I have drawn her before at the University of Hawaii and the Honolulu Art Museum sessions. The pose on the bottom of the page was one of my favorites of the morning. Although I am unsure how much I like it now that I have had a second look at it.

Above is another model named Harold. This was the first time I drew him and was a little unready for what he did. He is an Leeward Community College Drama dance student making the transition to the University of Hawaii. His dramatic side showed when he took poses. He was really expressive with his face and his gestures. He was really great for this type of drawing session.

It was a challenge to try and capture his mood in the short time period. I think the page looks pretty good.

"Accept everything about yourself - I mean everything; 

you are you and that is the beginning and the end - 

no apologies, no regrets." 

~ Clark Moustakas

Odd Fellow Meeting 05/21/13

This Tombow ink drawing was done at an Odd Fellows meeting. I managed to get this done during the meeting time.

There is a really nice texture created by the lines I used in this piece. The rhythm of the crosshatching is very nice. I also drew a very nice expression on his face.

"Expression is the mystery of beauty." 

~ Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton

Zwick Studios - Burnt Umber

I was unable to go to Zwick Studio this week thanks to a previous engagement. However last week I did get pretty far into the Burnt umber of the painting. I am pretty happy with the pose and the figure.

I am thinking of doing more with the rest of the picture then what was presented in the still life. I need to do some research, but I was looking for legends about woman near bodies of water.

"Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize 

how close they were to success when they gave up."

~ Thomas Alva Edison