Students Drawings I

So at school I have some free time during lunch while the kids are eating so I have taken to doing quick sketches of them. Here are a collection of some of them. 

 Remember him

"All of life is a constant education."

 ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

HMoA Draawing Class 09/10/12 - Sergio

Another Monday, Another figure drawing class at the Honolulu Art Academy. Yesterday the model was one of the regular artists at the class, Sergio.

Above is my favorite of the night. It is a two-gesture drawings with a 20 minute sketch on top. The combination of the blue wash and burnt sienna pastel are always a winning combination. Another of the artists in the class commented, "It has a very painterly application of color."  I'm really happy with this drawing.
 

 This is 4 two-minute gesture drawings, 2 five-minute drawings and the 1 ten-minute pose. These are starting to look pretty good.

For his second pose, Sergio did a standing pose. I think I spent a little too much time on the face; the body looks a little unfinished.  

Last pose of the night was a reclining pose. I chose to focus solely on the torso for this pose.It came out OK, I guess. I am currently debating if it's worth the trouble to go and redefine some of the structures of this drawing or not.

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. 

"Art is a way of possessing destiny."

 ~ Marvin Gaye

Sketchbook - Red and Black

So I have been riding the Honolulu city bus a lot these past couple weeks for work. I have been working on a few sketches while on the bus.

I have been experimenting with this red ink in my fountain pen. At first, I thought it was far too light to be of any real use. I then had the great idea to go back in with black ink and the results are kind of neat.
I can really play with depth of field using the two color inks. With thick black lines, I can push certain things forward on the page.  By relying on the red ink, I can have things sink into the background. It reminds me of the technical drawings with red and blue pencils.

I really like the above drawing it was one of the first with the duel ink. The seat and the pole really push to the foreground in this.
  

 I like how much I played with the two color inks here. Its interesting to see the effects of the different color cross hatching.  

 

"Everyone is an explorer. 

How could you possibly live your life looking at a door and not open it?"

 ~ Robert D. Ballard

Odd Fellow Meeting - Tedmund

I had a meeting with the Odd Fellows of Hawaii, IOOF on the 4th. As always, I was drawing.

I did a pretty nice watercolor of one of the  members. I liked the pose I managed to capture. It got a little darker then I would have liked but it still looks great. 

"Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns 

in order to look at things in a different way."

~ Edward de Bono

Student - RP

This is a watercolor of one of the students I've worked with. He was a great case.

I like a lot of things about this painting. I like how I painted the flowers on his paper lei that he made. I like his hand. I like the shadows on his shirt and belly.

Little Mountain Book 7-18

This weekend I went camping at Ho'omaluhia Botanical Gardens. I had a good time, but as promised I had some time to do a few watercolors. I was on a roll and did 13 this weekend.  I should probably break this into 3 posts, but let's see if this will work.

Above was done Saturday morning. It is a view of Nuuanu Pali. There are still clouds caught on the mountain peak. I enjoy the detail in this one. It is a large amount of actual space to fit on such a tiny page.

OK, here is a zoom in and to the right of the last one. This is a view of the prominent rock cliff of the Pali with misty mountains in the background. I like how I rendered the mountain with the cloud on it.

 Here is another land locked view of the cliff folds of the Koolaus. I think it is a little less successful then the one in my previous trips 

This is the last one from Saturday morning. I think I managed to capture the feeling of really strong morning light hitting the mountains in this one. I am really happy with the rhythm I created in the folds of the mountains.
 

We went for a light walk around the park and I stopped at a Park bench during a break and did this one.  Looking at these paintings, after the fact, I can see the difference in the light from morning to the afternoon. I painted the shadows more crisply.  I also avoided yellow in the high lights, relying instead on the greens to cover tone changes.

It is kind of interesting to look at the changes in the next few, considering I only painted them a few hours after the ones from the morning. 

I ended up for most of the afternoon on a overlook that had a great 360 view of Kaneohe. This is Olomana and is to the left of the views of the Pali I did (The first two paintings of this post.)  Olomana  has a very neat look to it.

I particularly like the way I rendered the trees in the foreground. I was struggling with them for a bit but I like how they look here.
 

Another view of Nuuanu Pali. I really must have been drawn to them. as I did so many views of them. I think I really wanted to show the contrast of the two ridges with atmospheric perspective separating them. The mountains looks so crisp.   

I then shifted my view on the overlook to Kaneohe/Kailua instead of the Koolau Mountains. I like these two peaks. I think they are glorified hills, but I still like the way I painted them.

This was the last of the pictures I painted of the Koolau Saturday afternoon.It was also my last picture from that overlook. I really like how crisp everything looks.
  

This morning I woke up and painted three more pictures. It was rainy and there were clouds all over the Koolaus.I did this first painting from the same location as the first picture. I really like the blue/gray tone I was able to get in these.

This is of the Koolau ridge line as the clouds danced over them. I am really happy with how this came out.

I was worried it would not work. In watercolor, the white is the white of the page so it can be difficult to make white shapes look good because it represents not putting paint some where. It is one of those weird things with watercolor that so many little things can screw up.

This was the last of the paintings I did on this camping trip. I really wanted to capture the mist covered feel of the Nuuanu Pali. I like how this came out.

Little Mountain Book 1-6

So I really have been wanting to try my hands at some landscapes. I decided to warm up a little to this prospect with some starter sketches.I purchased a nice little watercolor book and headed up to Ho'omaluhia for a few hours on Sunday.

With my fountain pen loaded with ink and a bunch of watercolors, I ventured to paint the beautiful landscape of Windward Oahu. Virtually the backyard where I live.

Above isthe first landscape of the day. I really like how the red ink mixed with the watercolors making an earthy rust color as it mixed with the green and purple as it mixed with blue.

I look at the group of six and I enjoy the progression. They are getting less and less figurative and more and more abstract. This was a fun time for me.

 We have two views of the ridge line.I think I need to put more blue in future views.

 This is looking to the smaller tunnel of H-3 interstate from Ho'omaluhia.

 I tried to to do a view that was just the mountains and trees without the sky or the mountain ridge line. It is interesting to see it blown up to the size of a screen as the original is much smaller. I really like this one. 

On this last one I really wanted to get the purple mountains in the distance. I like some of the water bleeding in this one. I am unsure if this is looking quite the way I'd like.

I am going camping out at Hoomaluhia this weekend so I should have ample time to do a few more sketches. We can see what I produce this weekend.

"We sit together, the mountain and me, until only the mountain remains." ~ Li Po

HMoA Drawing Class 08/28/12

 

I again participated in the drawing class at the Honolulu Art Academy.  Above is my favorite drawing of the night. It has a great feel to it. It is three, 2 min gesture drawings with a 20 minute drawing on top.

I  like how I rendered the face and the body. The picture still has a very loose feel. I also love how I managed to capture most of the pose. The incomplete parts work well with the more completed areas. 

 

The above work is three 2-minute gesture drawings with the two 5-minute poses on top. I do like this set of them. I especially like the figure on the right. I think it is so strong. 

This sketch has a great look to it. I may take it to Kinko's and try to blow it up on the architecture copier. 

I was kind of streaky that night. I did three great drawing then two awful drawings I didn't even bother to photograph. I like this one and am debating if I should go back into this one a little more.

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. 

“The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life.”

~ William Faulkner

Saint Icon - Damien of Molokai

So being raised a Catholic, I have an appreciation for the saints. I have great aloha in my heart for the traditions, ceremony, and formality involved in how my Church honors our saints.

I want to do a series of saint icons for saints that have special significance to people I know and love.  I started this project a while ago, but finally put the finishing touches on this first one.  And it's a great one to begin with.

Damien of Molokai (Links to Wikipedia and Daily Celebrations) is important to many people in Hawaii. He is the name sake of my uncle's Alma Mater.

Damien is one of 15 American Saints and most notably he did most of his missionary work in Hawaii with the Kalaupapa lepers on the island of Molokai. He continues to be an inspiration to those in the service of the sick and those who are outcasts.

To create this piece, I started with a red oxide ink wash. I then did the drawing in red ink then in black ink. I am pretty happy with the effect. The hand pose is a nod to the Spanish Renaissance artist El Greco who really liked that hand layout.

I like the alcove in the background, though I am unsure if the drawing is really complete yet.   

I have a whole bunch of pages prepped for this project. Let's see how many of these I can do.

"Art is everywhere you look for it,

hail the twinkling stars for they are God's careless splatters."

~El Greco

Watercolor at Starbucks

Had some time and I did a watercolor of someone sitting at Starbucks.

There are some things I really like about this painting. I like the lower right corner of the page. I think I rendered the legs and the foot very well. I also like the cord of the computer.

All in all a nice sketch.

 

"Art is the desire of a man to express himself,
to record the reactions of his personality
to the world he lives in. "
~ Amy Lowell