Honolulu Museum of Art Figure Drawing 6/08/2015 - Sergio - Long Poses

Sergio 06/08/15 - Pose 2, 9"x12", Watercolor

These are the long poses from this Monday's figure drawing class at the Honolulu Art Museum School. Each of these are the 20 minute poses from the session.

Above is my favorite of the night. True to form it was the second pose of the night. I have been finding the second drawing/painting of the night is my favorite. It is becoming a very common trend.

I like extreme foreshortening in reclining poses. I actually usually move to the floor like with this drawing. I like how most everything reads except the left leg, it bugs me a little. I do like the other leg and foot.

Sergio 06/08/15 - Pose 1, 9"x12", Watercolor

This was the first pose of the night. I think there are some elements that are really working, but there are some elements that are really not working.

Sergio 06/08/15 - Pose 3, 9"x12", Watercolor

This was the third pose of the night. I do not thing is came out that good. I may reuse this page.

The Honolulu Museum of Art Figure Drawing class is every Monday at 7 PM. It is located at 1111 Victoria Street. There is a $10 class fee.

Honolulu Museum of Art Figure Drawing 6/08/2015 - Sergio - Short Poses

Sergio 6/08/15 Short 03 , 9"x12", Ink on Paper.

These are from the Monday drawing class at the Honolulu Museum of Art

I just bought some new watercolor brushes and was really desperate to try them out. So I was using Burnt Umber and Cobalt Blue watercolor for these. I like these two colors because they create a nice range of warms and cool tones and they cancel each other out very nicely to create a chromatic gray.

I really like these three short poses. So much so its that I wanted to make a separate post for them on the blog.

Above is the 10 minute pose. It was a pretty straight forward watercolor technique. I did a quick contour line drawing of the figure then added the watercolors starting from light then working to the darks.

The left hand is a little big. But other then that I really like this painting.

Sergio 6/08/15 Short 01 , 9"x12", Ink on Paper.

For the two 5 minute poses I drew a contour line drawing and then added the watercolor on another day. These actually came out very nicely. I may have to try this technique in the future as I am really satisfied with these two paintings.

This painting shows a lot of what I like about using the burnt umber and the Cobalt blue. The warm of the figures shoulder and face contrast nicely against the cool of the cobalt blue shadows. The chromatic gray that is created when the mix really makes for interesting shadowed tones.

Sergio 6/08/15 Short 02 , 9"x12", Ink on Paper.

This is the second of the 2 minute poses. I think i spent too much time getting the ears just right in the drawing phase. The watercolor looks great.

The Honolulu Museum of Art Figure Drawing class is every Monday at 7 PM. It is located at 1111 Victoria Street. There is a $10 class fee.

Honolulu Museum of Art Figure Drawing 6/08/2015 - Sergio - Gestures

Sergio 06/08/15 Gesture 08, 9"x12", Ink on Paper.

Monday was figure drawing at the Honolulu Museum of Art; I had a really good night.

I came to the session a little late. It's graduation season, and parking around the Art Academy was terrible. So I was walking into the class about 7:15. Apparently others also had this problem and when I walked in they were only starting the first of the gestures. 

I was kind of in a panic to start. So I started with what I am really great with, the Tombow pens. However by gesture four I realized this wasn't really going to help with what I had planned for the rest of the night. I just went to Fishers Hawaii earlier that day and bought new watercolor bushes that I really wanted to try. So I switched to a thin pen to mimic the contour line drawing I would have to be doing for the rest of the night. 

I really like the above gesture, number 8. It was an unusual pose, but I managed to capture a lot in the brief amount of time. The way the figure is splayed across the page is very dynamic. I also love the balance of the shaded areas on the page. I also find the differently weighted lines and their interactions very interesting. 

Sergio 06/08/15 Gesture 01, 9"x12", Ink on Paper.

I was using the gray Tombow then adding the black and the water afterwards. The effect created by this is really a lot of fun.

Sergio 06/08/15 Gesture 02, 9"x12", Ink on Paper.

This is a great pose and great gesture. The difference in tone creates a difference in the weight in the two legs. The darker back leg pushes deeper in the composition and the lighter leg pulls forward.

Sergio 06/08/15 Gesture 03, 9"x12", Ink on Paper.

This gesture has a Keith Haring feel to it. It could be the pose but it also could mean I over did the outline,

Sergio 06/08/15 Gesture 04, 9"x12", Ink on Paper.

This pose is hilarious. Looking at this gesture makes me laugh just remembering it.

Sergio 06/08/15 Gesture 05, 9"x12", Ink on Paper.

It was here I switched to the thinner pen. I focused on the figure's contour outlines and then with any remaining time I tried to block in the major shadow ares. This is to try and imitate the process I would have to zip through in the later poses.  Afterwards, like a day later, I added the crosshatching to the shade regions.

Above Number 5 is very dynamic. This is a great gesture.

Sergio 06/08/15 Gesture 06, 9"x12", Ink on Paper.

I like this gesture too. His arms are a little odd in this one but it's working in my opinion.

Sergio 06/08/15 Gesture 07, 9"x12", Ink on Paper.

I do not like this one at all.

Sergio 06/08/15 Gesture 09 , 9"x12", Ink on Paper.

For the last one I used the black Tombow and water to fill in the shadows. It creates a nice effect but I actually prefer the crosshatching.

The Honolulu Museum of Art Figure Drawing class is every Monday at 7 PM. It is located at 1111 Victoria Street. There is a $10 class fee.

"See, when I paint, it is an experience that, at its best, is transcending reality. When it is working, you completely go into another place, you're tapping into things that are totally universal, completely beyond your ego and your own self." ~ Keith Haring

Honolulu Museum of Art Figure Drawing 4/27/2015 - Sergio - Short Poses

Sergio - 4/27/15 - Gesture 02, 9"x 12", Ink on Paper

So the model was Sergio and as always he was fun to draw and paint. I was really on this this night and am happy with almost all of the drawings today.

That night I had forgot my bag of Tombow pens. It was a rather sad discovery, but I did have a Pilot G2 10 millimeter, my favorite writing pen. The fact I have a favorite pen is sign of my mother's genetic expression. It's been a while since I have drawn with these pens. Normally I would draw with a thinner pen, but we make do.
   

Afterwards I went back into the gestures and added Sharpie to the drawings. I am very happy with the results. Above is one of my favorite drawings of the night.

A lot of elements are working in this gesture. The pose is very dynamic. The alternating lines and overall pattern of the ink lines is working very well.

Below are the rest of the gestures from the night. I am really satisfied with them.

Sergio - 4/27/15 - Gesture 01, 9"x 12", Ink on Paper.

Sergio - 4/27/15 - Gesture 03, 9"x 12", Ink on Paper

Sergio - 4/27/15 - Gesture 04, 9"x 12", Ink on Paper

Sergio - 4/27/15 - Gesture 05, 9"x 12", Ink on Paper

Sergio - 4/27/15 - Gesture 06, 9"x 12", Ink on Paper

Sergio - 4/27/15 - Gesture 07, 9"x 12", Ink on Paper

Sergio - 4/27/15 - Gesture 08, 9"x 12", Ink on Paper

There is a very neat feel to this one. I am a little unhappy with the hand. The darkness and the frantic lines of the gesture are working very well.

Sergio - 4/27/15 - Gesture 09, 9"x 12", Ink on Paper

Normally when I don't have 10 gesture drawings it means something went wrong. I was late or one of the drawings was just terrible. However, Today's class was a "Field Promotion" day, the normal people who run the class were out sick so it left me in charge of the class. I miscounted the number of gesture drawings I had already done and thus we were one short. 

Sergio - 4/27/15 - Short 01, 9"x 12", Ink on Paper

Short poses went pretty well. I need to watch myself when I'm doing my cross hatching especially in these shorter poses. These two five minute drawings show a problem I need to catch: I need to alternate my Hatch marks. The pattern created by them all going one direction is distracting. Above we see a drawing where I alternated the hatching.

The figure seems to have a greater volume to it and the different hatch directions help define the figure.  

Sergio - 4/27/15 - Short 02, 9"x 12", Ink on Paper

This drawing shows what happens when I fail to alternate the hatch direction. One of many problems with this drawing.

Sergio - 4/27/15 - Short 03, 9"x 12", Ink on Paper

This was the 10 minute drawing. I like it. The head is a little off.

The Honolulu Museum of Art Figure Drawing class is every Monday at 7 PM. It is located at 1111 Victoria Street. There is a $10 class fee.

Honolulu Museum of Art Figure Drawing 3/30/2015 - Shilo - Long Poses

Shilo - 3/30/15 - Pose 2, 9"x 12", Acrylic on Paper.

Another week at the Honolulu Art Academy. The model was Shilo. I had a pretty great night.

Above is my favorite of the three paintings I did.  It was the second pose of the night.

I focused a lot of effort on the background. My normal solution to the background issue is a simple wall behind model or a nearly uniform color field but I have been finding them more and more dull . The semicircular shape in the background of color is my attempt at altering that a little.  My goal in the future is to  try and abstract the natural forms behind the model into color fields. I have been enjoying the results. 

I am finding these acrylic studies very time consuming. The refinement the paint allows has me spending the week working on these during my off periods however I am loving the results.

I am finding it troublesome to work on older studies from classes past. I feel that I forget what I found dynamic about the pose and I hate the final results. I am also learning that not every one of these studies can work. Sometimes 25 minutes is just not enough time to capture what is needed. 

Shilo - 3/30/15 - Pose 1, 9"x 12", Acrylic on Paper.

This was pose 2. I do love how I rendered this back. Its getting to what I really like about these acrylic studies. Quick and expressive brushstrokes while still rendering the form accurately. I know it's the accurate rendering that often suffers as a do these quick poses.

The Honolulu Museum of Art Figure Drawing class is every Monday at 7 PM. It is located at 1111 Victoria Street. There is a $10 class fee.

"Art isn’t every­thing. It’s just about every­thing."

~ Gertrude Stein

Honolulu Museum of Art Figure Drawing - March 23, 2015 - Tina - Long Poses

Tina - 3/23/15 - Pose 2, 9"x12", Acrylic on Paper.

It has been a while since Tina was a model at the Honolulu Museum of Art Figure Drawing class. Its been more then a year.

This was a great pose and I love this painting. There is a great balance between the expressive brushstrokes and how well rendered it is.

Her hair is much lighter then how I rendered it here. However there is a great effect to the darker hair. It is doing a great job separating the figures torso from her other arm.

I am getting much better at utilizing the three colors and getting a pretty wide range of colors from them. limiting my palette to three colors and seeing how far i could push the colors hase been a great learning opportunity. I am fascinated by the differences in the flesh tones. How ocher the yellow in her legs look and how pink the highlights on her chest look.     

The Honolulu Museum of Art Figure Drawing class is every Monday at 7PM. It is located at 1111 Victoria Street. There is a $10 class fee. 

Honolulu Museum of Art Figure Drawing March 9,2015 - Tom

Tom 03-09-15 Page 1, Acrylic and Ink on Paper, 9”x 12”

I was working with my three color acrylic paintings (Cad Yellow, Cad Red and Cobalt Blue). There were a couple of odd moments from this drawing session. The most notable is what I thought was rather devastating turned out to be very interesting. I forgot my drawing paper this class and had only my mixed media paper. I adapted quickly as  have done similar to these with my oil pastel drawings.

Overall these drawings look like complete pages and were easier to "complete" but I don't like them as much as my fully painted pages. 

I really like how these pages came out. I do miss my gesture pages with the ink and wash. I may do a combo of the two types of gesture drawing in future sessions.

Tom is always entertaining to draw. He usually takes very theatrical poses playing to his strengths; however this night he was taking very difficult poses. He was balancing precariously on top of furniture and really pushing his (and the classes' for that matter) comfort zone. 

In the above pose he was balanced on a collection of furniture. I like how all the poses are reading in this page. The bleed through on the earlier poses and the incomplete ares of the painting make for very interesting shapes. I think this is the most successful page of the night.

I think the longer poses make for better background drawings. I really like how the sharpie line work reads from under the washed paint.

Tom 03-09-15 Page 2, Acrylic and Ink on Paper, 9”x 12”

Marc Brown's comment for this pose was "what gear are you in Tom?" as he basically created a balance beam and perched himself on top of it.

I really like my use of gray in the arms. It's reading as a cold shadow space.

Tom 03-09-15 Page 3, Acrylic and Ink on Paper, 9”x 12”

This collection of gestures was my favorite and worked really well as a page. The dark spaces and shadows are creating some neat patterns.

This does run into a problem with this particular system. I was really attached to the gesture drawing page and did not want to obscure it with a large painting. I should have probably made the figure larger and turned the page. I was treating the drawings as delicate and then painting around it and that lead to a less effective page.

Overall good night. There were a lot of insights gained. 

The Honolulu Museum of Art Figure Drawing class is every Monday at 7PM. It is located at 1111 Victoria Street. There is a $10 class fee. 

“Come on. I don't have any problem violating my own insights in practice.” 
~ Slavoj Žižek

HMoA Figure Drawing 06/09/14 - Honey - Long Poses

Honey - 06/09/14 - Pose 3, 10" x 13.5", Acrylic on Cardboard.

Here are the long poses from last Monday when Honey was the model. It was pretty crowded that night,  so I remember moving to the floor for the last two poses.

Above is my favorite from the night. She was mostly in shadow. She posed right at the edge of the model stand.

I love how much nuance I was able to capture in this painting. The changes in light and shadow on her back and arm look really great. I also like the contrast in the areas that are outlined and the areas of the shadow that rely more on the edge to edge modeling. 

Again, I probably should fix up the horizon line.

Honey - 06/09/14 - Pose 1, 10" x 13.5," Acrylic on Cardboard.

I find myself bothered by little bits of the paintings and that clouds my judgment on the piece. I am really bothered by her face and hand in this painting. Looking back on the painting a few days after the session, I can see it is not that distracting or malformed. However, it just irks me.

It irks me so much that I almost miss the things that are working in the painting. I love her leg and thigh as well as the arm and shoulder. Her flexed leg is so solid and sculptural I really looks great.

If I focus on what works, it encourages me to keep working. 

Honey - 06/09/14 - Pose 2, 10" x 13.5", Acrylic on Cardboard.

Above was the second pose of the night. I remember having to move to the floor for this painting as the night was crowded enough that I couldn't see the model from the second row.  I almost just did a painting of her feet but then thought twice about it. I do really like how I rendered her legs in this one.   

I need to color the space between her legs and make the drawing horse dark purple.

This life drawing class occurs on Mondays at 7PM. It is located at the The Honolulu Museum of Art School, formerly the Academy Art Center at Linekona. There is a $10 class fee.

“Artists exist to show us the world. So do windows.” 

~ Jarod Kintz

HMoA Figure Drawing 06/02/14 - Quantae - Long Poses

Quantae- 06/02/14 - Pose 2, Acrylic on Cardboard,  10"x 13.5".

Quantae is always fun to draw, or paint in this circumstance. I am really happy with these three paintings, two of them I think are amazing.

I am starting to really get a handle on what I am able to capture in a 20 minute pose. The greatest strength of these painting is their spontaneity.  It has been a challenge to refine details at my studio while maintaining this strength. Sometimes it feels like trying to contain quicksilver, mercury, when you think you have it, the magic of the brushstroke can be destroyed.

I had managed to get most of the figure in this pose. It was a rather straight forward pose. I moved to the ground of the studio in order to paint this. There is a slight foreshortening going on that is making Quantae look like a giant.

I tend to like large fields of paint filled by dynamic brushwork in a picture. I did that in the white wall and shadow behind the figure. I could maybe work some other colors into the shadow.

Overall,  I am really happy with this painting.

Quantae- 06/02/14 - Pose 1, Acrylic on Cardboard,  10"x 13.5".

This was the first pose of the night. I think I overworked it. I probably could spend a few hours and destroy the overworked areas and recreated it, but the joy of these paintings is next week I will have a new set to play around with.

There is a problem with the areas I retouched and the original work. 

There is a lot of problems with the cushions he is leaning on. They are rendered a little sloppy and are confusing.

I do like how I rendered his face.

Quantae- 06/02/14 - Pose 3, Acrylic on Cardboard,  10"xd13.5".

This was the last pose of the night. It really is looking great. There is a nice balance between the work I was able to capture in the pose and the work I was able to refine in the studio afterwards.

The figure was basically complete in the 20 minute pose. I may have just darkened some of the outlines after adding the background.

I like how I rendered the sheet he was lying on. It looks almost like a cut out while the detail brush lines are very strong. I also like how I used the different colors of paint on it, it creates a nice effect. That is definitely something I will have to do again.

Overall, great night.

This life drawing class occurs on Mondays at 7PM. It is located at the The Honolulu Museum of Art School, formerly the Academy Art Center at Linekona. There is a $10 class fee.

"Rembrandt painted portraits, The Karate Kid painted fences, 

and I paint my toenails. But I’m not a snob, 

I still consider those other two guys to be artists."

~ Jarod Kintz

HMoA Figure Drawing 06/02/14 - Quantae - Short Poses

Quantae 06/02/14 - Short 2, 5"x 9",  Acrylic on Cardboard.

Quantae was the model this Monday over at the Honolulu Academy of Art.  It was a crowded day with almost 40 people in that tiny class room.

Today I tried something different with the 10 minute pose. I have been using my Tombow pens and working on paper for the short poses, but I have discovered a good use for the half sheets of cardboard in the box Robert let me use.  I am going to paint with them and try to block in as much of the figure as I can in 10 minutes. It has been a great warm up for the longer drawings. 

Above is the first one of these 10 minute paintings. I am really liking what I was able to get done in the time frame.  The figure is defined well and there is a great play in the background and the foreground.I really liking the area around his head, the purple shadows, and the yellow highlights look great against the gray/purple arms.

Pretty good for 10 minutes, but I know I can do better.

Below are the gesture Drawings from that evening here too. I had a pretty good night.

Quantae 06/02/14 - Gesture 1, 9"x 12",  Ink on Paper.

 

Quantae 06/02/14 - Gesture 2, 9"x 12",  Ink on Paper. 

Quantae's day job as an actor is showing through in some of these. I call this one "Naked Prowler." 

Quantae 06/02/14 - Gesture 3, 9"x 12",  Ink on Paper.

Quantae 06/02/14 - Gesture 4, 9"x 12",  Ink on Paper.

Quantae 06/02/14 - Gesture 5, 9"x 12",  Ink on Paper.

Quantae 06/02/14 - Gesture 6, 9"x 12",  Ink on Paper.

Quantae 06/02/14 - Gesture 7, 9"x 12",  Ink on Paper

I like how this one came out. The wash flattens nicely to make a simple shape but the shape is nuanced enough to define the form nicely.

Quantae 06/02/14 - Gesture 8, 9"x 12",  Ink on Paper

Quantae 06/02/14 - Short 01, 9"x 12",  Ink on Paper

Above is one of the 5 minute poses. He was posing with the staff and I managed to get the figure pretty defined in that time frame. This is a pretty straight forward pose but it looks good.

Tomorrow, the long poses, I am really happy with them.

This life drawing class occurs on Mondays at 7PM. It is located at the The Honolulu Museum of Art School, formerly the Academy Art Center at Linekona. There is a $10 class fee.

HMoA Figure Drawing 5/26/14 - Shilo - Long Poses

Shilo 5/26/14 - Pose 2,  10"x12",  Acrylic on cardboard

The model today at the Honolulu Museum of Art was Shilo. As always she took some very dramatic poses.
I am finally getting the mixture of paint colors for these studies. I am using a Naples Yellow and
Dioxazine Purple. I was avoiding the Dioxazine Purple because it is a transparent pigment. I really like this mix of color and will probably play with this combination until I finish the respective tubes.

I am getting the hang painting these long poses.  These two are really successful. Above is my favorite of the night. This was a really rough pose for Shilo to hold because of the tension in the left leg. I was debating about including the cane but felt it added to the composition.

I like how much depth I am able to get from these two colors. I love how much variation there is between the white mixed with the yellow and the White mixed with the  purple. There is a great movement in the painting.

I should probably fix up the horizon line.

Shilo 5/26/14 - Pose 1,  10"x12",  Acrylic on cardboard

This was the first pose of the night. There is a nice spontaneity to this painting. There is very little black and white in this so almost all the variation in ton is coming from the mixtures of purple and yellow. The half tones are really nice in this.


This life drawing class occurs on Mondays at 7PM. It is located at the The Honolulu Museum of Art School, formerly the Academy Art Center at Linekona. There is a $10 class fee.