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

Asheville Trip - Bent Creek

Bent Creek -Asheville, Watercolor, 11"x14"

My mom's good friend, Aunty Dana, wanted a painting for a charity auction for the Mustard Seed that does a whole bunch of really cool charity work around the world.

So in an effort to help her out I did a few paintings to give to her for her cause.

This one was a Sunday afternoon trip to Bent Creek in Asheville. That place was a hub of activity with continuous kayaks and canoes launching into the French Broad River. We even saw a white truck hit and run another car.

It took awhile to paint this watercolor, but we had a great seat under the tall trees. The river is really beautiful. I had a lot of fun setting up this drawing and it came out pretty great. 

"Art is as important to the access of knowledge as any text ever written." 

~ Laura Kruger

Quiet Bent Creek Moment

Kayla on her Cell Phone - Final

Kayla on her Phone, Oil Pastel on Paper, 18" x 24"

So here is the completed drawing of my sister reading on her cell phone. I really like how the background makes the figure spring forward. I also like the shadows under the chair.

"Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties." 

~ Erich Fromm

Asheville Trip - West End Bakery

View from the West End Bakery, Ink on Paper, 8"x10"

It was a hot afternoon and I was relaxing while drinking a iced tea at the West End Bakery in Asheville. The sun was hot and the iced tea was great.

Across the street there was construction going on in the service station and I had a good time sketching the cement truck that was parked there.

I wished I put some of the workers in the sketch. 

Asheville Trip - The Gourmet Chip

Asheville Trip - The Gourmet Chip, Ink on Paper, 8"x 10"

After a mid morning of window shopping in downtown Asheville, we, Mom, Kayla and I, went to eat at the Mellow Mushroom Pizza Parlor. While we ate some delicious Buffalo Blue Cheese pizza on the front porch, I drew this sketch of the adjacent street, Broadway.

The building I drew was The Gourmet Chip a potato chip restaurant. There was a very neat lamp planter in front of the place.

I had fun with the shapes in the building and I think I did the tree well. It was fun to lighten the details near the border of the page. 

Waiting for pizza...

Ko`olau from Kailua

 Ko`olau from Kailua, Acrylic mural, 110" x 40"

This trip to Asheville has been many things: a vacation, an opportunity to see and spend time with my sister and mom, but I also got to work on some long overdue projects. My mom has always wanted me to do a mural for her at her home in Asheville.  I took this trip as the opportunity to do it.

This mural is of the Ko`olau Mountains in front of my grandparents' home; the view is coming from Kailua on  H3. I make this drive every day from work. When we were planning the mural, mom said that she always remembers catching her breath when she sees the Ko`olau Mountains from this vantage point. She said, "To me it whispers, 'almost home.'"

Because it wraps around two walls, I used an effect to merge the two sides for these two blog entry photos. But you get the idea. I really am happy with the way this came out.

"The painting has a life of its own."

~ Jackson Pollock

Ko`olau from Kailua, Acrylic Mural, 40" x 110"

Photographing both panels for blog...

Kayla on her Phone

Kayla on Her Phone, Oil Pastels on Paper, 18' x 24"

Let me start by saying two things-- I am really happy with this drawing and I know it needs a bit more work.

So I have been trying to draw portraits of my family members.  Late last night I got my younger sister to sit for me. Her one rule was that I had to let her read a book while posing. She choose to use the Kindle application on her phone. I think it makes for an interesting portrait.

As I was blocking out the drawing, I was just going to make it bigger and include less of the chair,  but as I blocked it out I really liked how the chair and the shadows beneath her looked. It really is ironic that that's exactly where I need to put more time into, the bottom of the page.

My sister adopted the cross legged pose that my mother uses when she writes or works on the computer. As mom often says, "There's no getting around genetics."

I am really happy with this one.

"Art teaches nothing, except the significance of life."

~ Henry Miller

With Kayla

Asheville Trip - Mural for My Mother - Preliminary sketch

Koolau Mural - Preliminary sketch, Colored pencils on paper, 4"x 11"

So one of my major projects to do here while visiting Asheville is a mural in my mother's house. She loves the Ko'olau Mountains so I decided to paint them for her.

I spent a few hours planning and beginning to block out the space.

I want to try and play with abstracting the shapes of the mountains and having fun with the colors and shapes. I think it will look great on the wall.

This final mural is going to be on two walls and measure 40"x 110" or 3'4" x 9'2". I am really happy with the space and this is going to be a lot of fun to do. 

I am really excited to see what I can get done.

"Love is an endless mystery, 

because there is no reasonable cause that could explain it." 

~ Rabindranath Tagore

Working Mural with Mom