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

The 56 to Kaneohe

I had to ride the city bus to an after-school program with a student. I did manage to get a pretty good sketch done. Again, I am  having a lot of fun trying the fill up the entire page with subject matter. The black is looking pretty good in some places and not so good in others.

"One of the greatest gifts you can give to anyone is the gift of attention." 

~ Jim Rohn

IOOF - Mike

This Thursday was an Odd Fellows meeting. The meeting was rather short, so I only managed to do one and a  half drawings that night. Tonight I drew Mike. I didn't really know the man before this drawing although now I know his name.

HMoA Figure Drawing - 03/19/2013 - Quantae

Monday was figure drawing at the Honolulu Museum of Art.  The model was Quantae; I had a pretty good night.

Above is one of my favorites of the night. This page was the same page I used the last time Sergio modeled. I added the 10 minute pose in the center to the page. The colors of the previous poses, leaking through, create a very dynamic page.

I may use some thinner to create tones on the sides of the page. So the blue color is a little more integrated into the page.

This was the second pose of the night. I really tried to focus on the reclining pose to the top half of Quantae's body. There was a dramatic shadow cast by his shoulder onto his face that I was trying to capture.  The way the shadow cloaked the detail of the face was a lot of fun to draw.

I really like the strong reflected light on the shadow of the arm. 

This was the other page I really liked from that night.I love the way I used the oil pastels in this page. The colors from the earlier drawings are bleeding through nicely. The highlights are looking nice and dramatic. There is a lot of movement in the page but I still managed to describe a lot of the form.

This was the last pose of the night. He took a similar pose last time he modeled. My drawing looks similar. It's nice to see the two and the progress I made in the last seven months.

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 class fee.

"Van Gogh: $12 million. Rembrandt: $13 million. 

Vermeer: $30 million. Gauguin: $39 million. 

You wouldn't guess it from these rock-star price tags, 

but all these artists died in poverty."

 ~ Joseph Hart

UH Figure Drawing - 03/17/13 - Capri

I was feeling antsy this Sunday and decided to go to the University of Hawaii figure drawing workshop.The model was a girl named Capri. She had a beautiful set of tattoos on her back and chest. Alas, they were too ornate for a 20 minute drawing to capture.

Above is my favorite sketch of the morning. I probably will have to put a little more work into it. The picture is reading well. I think I can punch the highlights up a little more.

Above is the first set of poses. I will take thinner to some of the places and see what I can do with the page. It's starting to have a really nice character to it.

This pose came out nicely. I do like how I rendered the foot and the body. I was standing at an easel that morning, so I like how I captured the perspective of looking down at the model on the floor.

This was the last pose of the morning and again I like it, but not in love with it. I drew the model well and I like some of the things about the page, but it just seems a little empty. Perhaps I'm just really liking the pages with multiple poses on them.

"Love is something eternal; the aspect may change, but not the essence."

 ~ Vincent Van Gogh

Zwick Studio - 03/18/13 - Sergio - Starting Color.

So last week I had a work meeting and couldn't make it out to the Zwick studio for the painting session. I had begun a canvas with burnt umber the week previous (Regrettably, I cannot find the photos of the day). So after a two week break, this weekend I began putting color into the painting.

At the studio that day, I thought the flesh tone was a little too yellow, but it photographed really nicely in the sunlight.  So I may have to keep it. 

I am having fun with this painting. As I'm painting I keep thinking of Caravaggio because of the pose's prominent shoulder. I chuckle to myself and imagine putting in a giant grape headdress; the idea fades quickly. 

I think i will try and push the Baroque feel to this painting. Push the Chiaroscuro and make the figure a little more defined.

I have a little room to define the anatomy a little more. The chest and the arm resting on the pedestal could use a little punching up. I could also make the shadows in the body darker.

I have three more hours with this painting next week.

Zwick Studio is located at 1041 Maunakea St. Honolulu, HI, 96817. His open studio is on Saturdays from 10am to 1pm. There is a $15 class Fee.  www.williamzwickart.com

"Love is the perfect sum

Of all delight." 

~ Tobias Hume

HMoA Figure Drawing - 03/11/13 - Kat

So again another drawing night at the Art Academy. I didn't have a very good night. I was really unhappy with how my drawings were coming out that night.

Above is the best of the night, which isn't my favorite. I really dislike reclining poses. I think the forearm is a little small or not reading correctly because of the foreshortening. 

Above is a drawing I just wish we had an hour with. There was a lot going on in the pose and I had a rough time trying to get it down in the time frame. It was a pretty pose,  just a little rough for a 20 minute pose.

Peeling back the Layers - Day One and Day Two

Tina 03/04/2013

Kat 02/11/2013

So I have been debating doing this post for a while and am going to try and share my work method with you.

I'd like to explain and show what happens when I reuse pages and what I consider a final piece. They are kind of neat to look over and see what made the cut and what I scraped.

Above was the most recent of these pages. The left image was a page on February 11th. The image on the right was from March 4th. I really like the page on the right. I used thinner and removed most of the face on the central figure, that created the dark ashy tone on the upper part of the page.

I love how the earlier figures bleed into the final figures. I love the leg of the main figure; the different layers of the page are all visible and make it so interesting to look at.

Tina 02/18/2013

Karli 02/04/2013

The page on the left is of Karli on February 4th.  The page on the right is of Tina from the 18th of February.

The main figure image on the left, I was actually rather happy with on the night of sketching. I managed to do a lot of work for a ten minute pose. It also had a Gauguin feel.  In the end I didn't like the color and there were problems with the way I drew some of the details. I really didn't like the face.

I took thinner to the main figure and it created the rich dark tone in the center of the drawing. The tone is doing a great job setting off the burnt sienna color in the central image.

I am really happy with these pages and how they look. I will have to do more like them.

"Every creator painfully experiences the chasm 

between his inner vision and its ultimate expression." 

~ Isaac Bashevis Singer