Rhea - Open Studio, July 22

I am coming to like the umber sticks much better than the sanguine with this process as you can use the white to tone down areas and do a little blending without getting that sickly pink color that you get with the sanguine and white.

For my skill level at this point, it is working better.

Rhea was beautiful, and had very high set ears and thin lips. I looked and measured and squinted multiple times and by golly that is where her ear was. It gave her a very classical old world look and was a lot of fun to draw.

So I have been at this life drawing stuff for about 20 weeks now, and I thought it might be good to give a sort of progress report and reflect a bit on this focused time drawing from life.

As I have written about before, I had spent more than 100 hours drawing from life through the years, but had never really achieved any proficiency. The first drawing below is where I started from - certainly not an auspicious beginning...

While I still have a LONG way to go, in just 20 weeks I feel like I have seen pretty dramatic improvement. My comfort level drawing from life has gone way up. I see huge improvement in my ability to get a likeness. It has greatly helped my ability to perceive and represent value as it is expressed in color from a live form across a distance. It has improved my compositional skills, understanding of edge control, head anatomy, etc.

In short, I am really pleased at how quickly I have seen improvement!

Last night our model flaked out, and Lanette, our host agreed to model. The second picture is Lanette and I think represents a lot of what I have learned in these 20 weeks.

I still have a vast distance to go, but I have rarely done ANYTHING in my life that has been so interesting, engaging, and so rewarding!

Michael, the progress is quite evident. good for you. do tell us the umber sticks the # and brand you are using.

Michael, this last one is my favorite, really nice!! You've inspired me. I'm going to keep a sketchbook for life drawings as well.

Christy

Christy! YAY! I hope you do start a sketchbook for life work! It is a really rewarding thing to do. :)

Mischa: These are the Cretacolor 05.6mm Sepia Leads on Canson paper.

Our model was Chantell again last night. This is the third time I have drawn her, and I really struggle with a likeness for her - even though she has very distinctive features.

Complete likeness not withstanding, I am feeling as if I am close to another step forward - even if it is a small one. When you start drawing from life, a lot of the time you don't know what you don't know...ya know? You have no tools, no language to even proceed forward and it is a hard road.

These days I am learning so much on anatomy and proportion and translating the form that I have much more to think about when I am drawing - i.e., I finally feel as if I have a toolset and a vocabulary to use when I am puzzling these out.

The step still eludes me, but I feel I am close.

Hazel modeled for us last night. :)

Micheal, it is great to see how you are sticking to the open studio sessions. Good for you! :thumbsup:

How many hours did you spend on the last one?

Hello Enzie, thanks for your encouragement! Always helps. :)

All of these are about 2.5 to 3 hours.

We had Nicole again last night, a lovely and talented African American lady - beautiful bone structure and a lovely long neck. I am trying out a method of feature placement based on how Daniel Greene approaches it - basically placing all of the horizontal lines of placement first and then working out from the middle to get vertical lines of placement.

I still need more practice at this, but I am pleased with this week's effort. :)

Hi Michael - she is lovely, nice job! It's fun to see your progress here, thank you for doing this. I admire your persistance and guts.

Here's my tip based on what I see repeatedly in these portraits: keep lining up those carunculas (inner eye corners) every time she sits down after a break. (You often draw an eye corner too close to the nose bridge, so this might help you.) Pick a nostril-related spot or a mouth area to keep that vertical lineup with the caruncula stable, and keep dropping down a plumb point every time she gets back up there. You might want to keep a little sketch off to the side of your paper, just to remind yourself where she used to be, if she is a wiggly sitter.

You make me want to get out my pencils, too!

Hey Linda, thanks for the tip! I do struggle with that without doubt. I struggle on! :)

I sure do struggle too, Michael.

(Wish I could remember who showed me how to line those up after every model break... .)

So I have not had any drawings to post in a couple of weeks. A lot is going down in my life right now, and the studio where I draw is looking for the artists to take over the responsibility for the OS.

So things are in flux, but I will try to get back to posting drawings as soon as it works its way through. :)

Michael,
I am so impressed of your spirit and eagerness, and when I came over an old Confucius (551 - 479 BC) text today, I immediately thought of you.

He said:
"Hear it and you will forget,
see it and you will remember,
do it and you will understand."

This is so true and works for all of us, I believe.

Hello Allan and thanks for that quote! :)

Things are still a bit up in the air at our open studio, but I did go this week and did this drawing in about an hour and a half. Interesting girl with a very colorful and funky mohawk.

It has been a while, but I have still been drawing! The students have now taken over the Open Studio and we are doing pretty well keeping it going. :)

Here are two of the better ones I have done in the past weeks. Hazel and Rose.

I am new here but I wanted to say that I am very impressed with the gradual but wonderful progress you are making with your drawings. You are motivating me to find a place where I can find models to draw on a regular basis. I look forward to your future additions here.

Mimi

Michael it's nice to see the progress you are making and I especially I love how you are hanging in there! :thumbsup:

Michael,

It is really inspiring to see your development over time and your determination.

Thank you much for your comments. :) I will keep it up because if -I- can do it, so can anyone on this forum...trust me. Art is hard for me.

Jeanette - our model last night was rock solid, and while I have been trying to get more full on views rather than profiles (full on is more challenging for me), I got there late and ended up with this position.

I am pleased with this - it is a pretty faithful representation of her. :)

Back to frontal views as I really feel I need work on them! This is Holly from our session last night. She had an interesting lip ring and wide spaced features and a dimpled chin which I found attractive and really fun to draw. I am finding a bit more facility in nailing the likeness and feature placement in these past two weeks. Not sure if it is an aberration, or if something finally clicked in my brain. This is giving me more time to try to focus on the ascetics of the drawing to try to make it more attractive as a piece. :)

Great drawings, Michael! I especially like Jeanette. You really nailed the proportions, and somehow went beyond the physical characteristics in describing her.

Thanks Alex! Yea, I seem to be getting the hang of something here...like I said, not willing to say it is not just a fluke quite yet! Time will tell! :)

Micheal, I like how your noses are turning out. A little observation about the eyes if you don't mind. The upper lashes tend to cast a shadow on the eyeball and the white of the eye is usually not really white, but a grayer value. Give it a shot and see if you like that effect.

I admire how you are hanging in there. I signed up to open studio and have not made it once. Absolutely no time and with a Christmas commission in the works, it doesn't look like it will be any time before the holidays are over.

Maybe this will be the New Years resolution for 2009! ;)

Thanks for the comments Enzie. :) I am finding that when I photograph these works I get a bit of reflectivity off the whites in the drawings. This has the effect of making them appear slightly overstated in the photo. Your point is well taken though and I will look to it on my future works to ensure that I get the values right. :)

Well, things may be in flux again for our little life drawing group. I am trying to set up a space in the back of my shop in an area that the landlord is interested in renting, but has never done anything with. It has poor lights, no heat or cooling....but where there is will there is a way!

Here is Rose from last night. Last session for the holidays. I have drawn her before. This was fun as her hair is very shiny and she had it done up in a little oriental style and her eyes done up the same way. Much fun to draw!

Michael,

I have been watching your sketchbook for some time now with a great deal of fascination. Your skills have progressed light years since you started this post. You have become quite a good draftsmen and that will have a dramatic impact on your paintings. One only has to look at your first few sketches and compare them to the last three to see how far you have progressed. Bravo! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Michael,

I like the way you have indicated the planes of her face with different values. And I'm intrigued by the way you've used cross-hatching to show the contours of her upper chest. In fact I'd love to see you take that farther and get even more expressive with your shading by varying the direction, pressure and spacing of your strokes.

Happy New Year everyone! :)

Well it turns out that we will not lose our space for weekly open studio after all, so YAYs!

This is Dave from last night. Older gent with an interesting face - longer mouthbox and features that did not conform to the 1/3rd commonality. Interesting guy too. I was a bit out of practice after the holidays, but managed a good likeness. I got a bit hamhanded on the value transitions though. Easy to see today, looked great last night! :P

Trips to Virginia to see parents, and a busy working schedule in my shop have kept me from class for a few weeks, but last night I got there and managed to eek out this piece. This is Teresa.

Kept it simple with just fingers to blend. Pretty happy with it. It is faithful to her likeness and I like the value interplay.

So I have still been drawing, but things in life have been hectic and beyond busy at my shop, so not much posted...or really worth posting!

But this is Tarena from our session last night. She came armed with a "neck corset" that was just beyond fun to draw. ;)

I liked this last one very much. I can see a lot of progress in your work, specially about the way you are drawing eyes.

Happy drawing.

Hi Michael,
You are improving for every drawing and I admire your spirit, the details are delicate, but don't forget the big shapes!!
You seem's to haste into drawing the features before getting the basic shape of the head right.
I have fiddled with your drawing in PhotoShop to illustrate how her left eye is partly hidden in a 3/4 profile.

Hello Allan and thanks so much for your interest in my drawings and helpful critique! :)

So the model did have quite wide spaced features - her face was heart shaped and she had almost Disney sized eyes.

I think your assessment is good that the far eye is a bit too far out, but it was not quite as far in as you put it...regardless your point is valid and appreciated.

I need more practice! :)

Yvette, from our session last night. Fairly pleased with this one.

I seem to be doomed to draw Holly only from the front. :) She is a rock solid model who has modeled at Scottsdale. She is much fun to draw because of her many piercings and wide set features.

Enjoy!

Hi Michael,

Looks like it was fun. You are getting better and better.

Hello Julie! Yes, it was fun and a challenge. They had a single medium light almost directly above her and a few other lights around the room creating a mixed lighting message - and thus it became quite challenging.

Thanks for your comments! :)