LCC Sun Drawing 09/15/13 - Carli

LCC Sun Drawing 09/15/13 - Carli 01, Mixed Media on Toned Paper,18"x24"

I went out to the Figure Drawing class at LCC this past Sunday. It has been a while since I was there, and I did have a good morning.

These are the longer poses and I was a little mixed about how I felt about them. Above is my favorite of the morning. It was over a drawing of Sergio from another session. 

LCC Sun Drawing 09/15/13 - Carli 02, Mixed Media on Toned Paper,18"x24"

I really am torn over this drawing. I do not like it. However everyone I talk to loves it, so maybe others see what I do not see here. It is incomplete so perhaps after some additional work it could be a strong drawing. I will have to put more time into it.
 

LCC Sun Drawing 09/15/13 - Carli 03, Mixed Media on Toned Paper,18"x24"

I really dislike reclining poses from the side. Generally, I think they are uninteresting, so after I completed this drawing I was a little unhappy with it. However, it's really growing on me. I do like how this drawing came out. I really like the way I rendered the face, even though it doesn't look that much like Carli.

"If you take my sayings and explode them in the air, they remain only sayings. But if you fit them together in their correct places, you will have the whole story."  

~Pablo Picasso

LCC Sun Darwing 09/15/13 - Carli - Short Poses

Carli Short Pose 03, Ink on Paper, 9"x12"

So it's been a while since I went to the LCC drawing class. School had started, so there were a few other people at the class.

The model was Carli; I have not drawn her since the event Kandi held. 

Above is my favorite of these. It is the 10-minute drawing. I am really getting the hang of these drawings. There is a neat mood to this sketch. I am really liking the effect of the multiple color pens.
  

 

Carli Short Pose 01 , Ink on Paper, 9"x12"

This is one of the 5 minute poses. I do like this one, too.

Below are the gestures from that morning. I do like how most of these came out.

Carli Gesture 01, Ink on Paper, 9"x12"

"The eye altering, alters all."
~ William Blake

Carli Gesture 02, Ink on Paper, 9"x12"

Carli Gesture 03, Ink on Paper, 9"x12"

Carli Gesture 04, Ink on Paper, 9"x12"

Carli Gesture 05, Ink on Paper, 9"x12"

Carli Gesture 05, Ink on Paper, 9"x12"

"No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would  

cease to be an artist."

 ~ Oscar Wilde

HMoA 09/09/13 - Honey - Long Poses

Honey 09/09/13 - Page 03, Mixed Media on Paper, 18"x24"

I was having a kind of off night that Monday. I was really a little unhappy with some of my earlier drawings and knew I needed to put some extra time to complete them. After a couple extra hours, the resulting pages were very nice.

I think the one above is my favorite of the night. The contrast between the blue and the burnt umber is really nice on this page. I also like how the blue tone is coming through in the shadows and dark areas of the picture, creating a really nice effect.

I also had a great time with my paint scrapper on this picture. Some of the really nice crisp outlines were  created by me taking a plastic paint scrapper to the page and carving off sections of the oil pastel. I really love how durable this paper is.

Honey 09/09/13 - Page 02, Mixed Media on Paper, 18"x24"

This is a recycled page. I did like the earlier drawing, but knew I could do better.  I do love this page now.

I needed to tweak some of the proportions in this pose. The foreshortening of her legs and arms proved to be very challenging. There is a lot to like about this page now.

There is a neat mood to the drawing.

Honey 09/09/13 - Page 01, Mixed Media on Paper, 18"x24"

Above was the first long pose of the night. I am a little unhappy with it, mainly how incomplete it looks. There was some poor page planning on this one.

"Art is not about thinking something up. It is the opposite - getting something down." 
~ Julia Cameron

HMoA Figure Drawing 09/09/13 - Honey - Short Poses and Gestures

Honey 09/09/13 - 10 Minute Pose, Ink on Paper, 9"x12"

Monday was drawing over at the Honolulu Museum of Art. The model was Honey, and while I have drawn and painted her before, this is the first time I drew her at this class. She has a pale complexion that proves challenging at times.

I have here the short poses and the gesture drawings for the class. I need to put some more work into the longer poses before I publish them here.

Above is the 10-minute pose. I again was having fun with Tombow pens. This picture has a great feel to it. I am starting to get a good handle on utilizing the multiple colors in a short pose.

I used an old sketch book for these poses and am a little unhappy with the paper quality. The paper was doing really odd things when wet. It might just be because of the age of the paper. There are some of these pages I am a little disappointed with.

Honey 09/09/13 - 5 Minute Pose, Ink on Paper, 9"x 12".

I do like this short pose. Honey's pale complexion was challenging to render. I should have probably used a light pen for the mid light areas of her skin instead of just the white of the page.

Below are the gestures 2-minute poses. Honey did a number of really challenging poses that night. She was leaning against the wall and had some great poses with her arms. I really needed to focus on the shadow on the wall to define the figure. It was a learning day, although I will be ready for next time.

Honey 09/09/13 - Gesture 01, Ink on Paper, 9"x12"

Honey 09/09/13 - Gesture 02, Ink on Paper, 9"x12"

Honey 09/09/13 - Gesture 03, Ink on Paper, 9"x12"

Art After Dark 08/30/13 - Kat

Art After Dark Kat 1, Ink on Paper, 9"x12".

So the Monday drawing class I attend was invited out to draw at Art After Dark. The model was Kat. I have been really loving my Tombow Pens. In this last group of sketches, I again used them for the gestures and the short poses.

Above is one of my favorites of the night. It was one of the 5-minute poses. I think I have created a fine balance between gesture and details in this one. Doesn't she look like she is able to walk right off the page?

I have been playing with various colors of Tombow pen to create forms on the page. I am finding it variously successful.

Art After Dark Kat 2, Ink on Paper, 9"x12".

This was the second of the 5 minute poses and I do like how this one came out, too. She was mostly in shadow because of where on the stage she was standing. My goal was to define the form with the black and create a strong dark light contrast. I thought it would work well as the shadows on the figure were almost monolithic. 

Art After Dark Kat 3, Ink on Paper, 9"x12".

This is the 10-minute pose. I don't know what it is about this pose but she looks like a figure that is part of an architectural embellishment. It's probably the way I have her perched.

If you go check the link out you can see the Vespa she was sitting on. Jared, the man who runs the drawing class, it was his Vespa, and he was so happy with the number of compliments it received throughout the night.

Below are the 3-minute gesture drawings from that session. Kat was rocking a cute dress and it actually made the work so much more difficult.  I made the stunning discovery that high heel are really hard to draw. If you make a slight error they look completely off.

When adding the washes I had the decision of to wash her skin or her dress. I think I made the correct choice in most of these.

Art After Dark - Kat - Gesture 01, Ink on Paper, 9"x12"

Art After Dark - Kat - Gesture 02, Ink on Paper, 9"x12"

Art After Dark - Kat - Gesture 03, Ink on Paper, 9"x12"

Art After Dark - Kat - Gesture 04, Ink on Paper, 9"x12"

This was my least favorite of the gestures until I added the wash. Now it is one of my favorites.

Art After Dark - Kat - Gesture 05, Ink on Paper, 9"x12"

Art After Dark - Kat - Gesture 06, Ink on Paper, 9"x12"

Art After Dark - Kat - Gesture 07, Ink on Paper, 9"x12"

Art After Dark - Kat - Gesture 08, Ink on Paper, 9"x12"

Art After Dark - Kat - Gesture 09, Ink on Paper, 9"x12"

HMoA Drawing Class 08/26/13 - Sergio

Sergio: 5 minute pose 02, Ink on Paper, 9"x12".

This week Sergio was the model. I have really wanted to work more with the Tombow pens. I have really liked the effect I have been able to get with them. I really like how much work I am able to get done within the short poses.

Above is one of my favorite drawings of the night. It was the second of the 5 minute poses. I was really impressed with this sketch. There is a neat feeling with the shapes I was able to capture. I am liking the way I have used the three colors to create the various forms of the figure. It is creating a nice mood to the piece.

Sergio: 5 minute pose 1 , Ink on Paper, 9"x12".

This was the first of the first of the 5 minute sketches. Again I am having a lot of fun seeing what I can get done in these sketches.

Below I have the gesture drawings from that day. I do like some of them very much. 

Sergio: Gesture 01, Ink on Paper, 9"x12".

Sergio: Gesture 02, Ink on Paper, 9"x12".

This is one of my favorites of the night. I am really surprised how much I was able to get done in the two minute time period. Crouched figures are always a little difficult because of the length of the torso and the legs and getting that proportion right.

Sergio: Gesture 03, Ink on Paper, 9"x12".

Sergio: Gesture 04, Ink on Paper, 9"x12".

Sergio: Gesture 05, Ink on Paper, 9"x12".

This is another of my favorite gesture drawings of the night.  I did manage to get a lot done and the figure looks surprisingly complete. I think the pose in this case added to it as my view of it was pretty simple.

Sergio: Gesture 06, Ink on Paper, 9"x12".

Sergio: Gesture 07, Ink on Paper, 9"x12".

"Be yourself. The world worships the original." 
~ Ingrid Bergman

Vampire the Masquerade Portraits - Davin

"Davin", 2'x3', Ink and Wash on Paper, 08/10/13. 

So I have been taking to drawing at the local Vampire the Masquerade game that I regularly attend. The player above is Caldon "Riki" and is playing a scared/burned Nosferatu.

There are a lot of things about this drawing that I like. I like the way I started to play with the ink lines, creating the 'drippy' edges in places. I also like the line quality, especially in his over-shirt.

I started having fun in his undershirt and making the gasping maws across it. The pattern looks ravenous like they are burrowing out of him. If I continue to do drawings at the game in pen, I will have to do similar things.

"Evil is always possible. And goodness is eternally difficult." 

— Anne Rice

HMoA Figure Drawing 08/19/13 - Blithe - Short Poses and Gestures

Blithe 8/19/13 - Pose 2, Ink on Paper, 9"x12".

Its another Monday drawing over at the Honolulu Museum of Art. The model today was Blithe, the ballet dancer. She is one of the favorites of the class.

I have been using watercolor for the long poses and Tombow pens for the shorter poses. I have been really liking the results.

Above is one of my favorites of the night. The way she was standing in the light the shadows were very dark and uniformed on one side of her body. I tried to capture this with the black ink and wash. I really like how this picture looks. It has a crisp clean watercolor look.

Blithe 8/19/13 - Pose 3, Ink on Paper, 9"x12".

Above is the 10 minute pose.  I managed to get a lot of detail into the picture.  I do like how I rendered her pointed toes.

Below are the gesture drawings from the night.

Asheville Trip - Canton Trainyard with factory behind.

Canton Train Yard, Watercolor on Paper, 11"x14"

So throughout my time in Asheville I kept saying to my mother, "Can we go to a train yard?"

There were lots of trains going by in Asheville but the consistent motion made it difficult to draw. So Mom thought a bit and drove about half an hour to Canton, North Carolina, where there is a huge paper factory and lots of trains and tracks.

We sat and I worked on this watercolor until it began to rain.

"Trains, like time and tide, stop for no one."
~ Jules Verne

Asheville Trip - Blue Ridge Parkway

Blue Ridge Parkway, Watercolor, 8' x 11"

This is the second painting I did for my Aunt Dana to raise money for the Mustard Seed Mustard Seed Charity. 

This was a great and beautiful day. A truly glorious day in North Carolina. The sky was clear and the sun was beaming. The original plan was to do yard work that day, but Steven, my step dad, looked at me and said, "We have to go hiking."

We drove up the Blue Ridge Parkway. We went up with Kolo and she was in heaven. It was a little crowded on the trail and everyone had their dog.

I sat down for an hour and painted this landscape. The ridges of the mountains were impressive, very different from Hawaiian mountains.

I like how this painting came out. The different depths of the ridges were inspiring and difficult to capture. 

"I never saw an ugly thing in my life: 
for let the form of an object be what it may - light, shade, 
and perspective will always make it beautiful." 

~ John Constable

Watercolors left for my mom